Sunday 14th July 2019 –Broome to Beagle Bay

My alarm went off at 04:00 and at 04:30 we were carefully negotiating our way through the maze of boats and moorings until we reached the safety of the north cardinal marker and the open ocean where we rounded up and raised the main.

Moments later I noticed some lights very close and it was MV. Fonster also making their way out of the anchorage and heading north to Beagle Bay. I waved him past as I messed about rolling out the jib and trimming sails in the dark.

It was an eighty-mile passage to Beagle Bay, so we needed a fast run and it was going to take all day to get there before night fall.

It wasn’t long before the wind rose to 20 knots and we were flying along doing 13 knots for the first couple of hours where we passed Fonster and gained a several mile lead.

After a few hours the wind crept up to 30 knots and sea state became very rough and I had to round up and put a third reef in the main. We were still well balanced and slicing through the big seas at a good speed, but by now Fonster had overtaken us and was slowly creeping ahead.

The strong wind and rough sea made for a fast but uncomfortable ride for the first fifty miles and then suddenly the wind started to decrease and I had to remove the reefs in the main several times.

Eventually the wind died and we had to motor for the last thirty miles. Along the way, the topping lift broke where it had been chafing on the main sail baton end boxes for the past two thousand miles when I had been motor sailing with the main sail up with the topping lift tight to stop the boom flopping back and forth.

Luckily, I grabbed it before the inner core let go and I was able to tie another bowline just above the break and keep using it. There is another chafe mark right up high and if that one lets go, I’m stuffed as I don’t think I have a rope to replace it with or a long cord to thread through the mast if it was to drop back down. Fingers crossed it lasts until we get to Darwin.

Lesson learned, when the wind drops, drop the main.

Along the way we passed the Coral Explorer, a large Kimberly cruise ship that coincidentally we were watching on TV last night. We also saw three whales very close to the boat and a large turtle.

Whilst going through the Lacepede Channel we passed several shoals and I threw out a lure hoping to catch dinner. I never got a sniff for the first couple of shoals, but out in the middle of nowhere the reel started screaming.

I cut the engine and grabbed the rod and it was obvious this beast of a fish was a monster. The first run was massive and I could do nothing but hold on. I managed to gain some line but it went for another couple of long runs before I was able to start reeling it in.

It took about fifteen minutes before I finally had him along side after he circled the boat several times. It was a massive Spanish mackerel and I managed to gaff him on the back step and cut his throat without too much fuss. After he bled out and removing the lure, I tossed him in the dingy and we continued on our way.

Later on, I climbed into the dingy and slabbed off the fillets.  It weighed sixteen kilo’s and is the biggest mackerel I have caught in a very long time. At least the mess was contained within the dingy and after a few buckets of water, it was mostly cleaned up. 

We have to be very careful from now on as we are now well and truly into crocodile territory.

We pulled into the huge sheltered Beagle bay just on dark and dropped the pick one hundred meters from Fonster. For dinner we ate fresh mackerel, both cooked and sashimi with soy source and it was delicious.

I was so tired I was in bed at nine o’clock after two beers and sound asleep.

Track Sirocco’s progress

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Sirocco