At 07:00 we reluctantly departed Honeymoon Bay in glassy
calm conditions and headed for Jim’s Bay. It was a fast passage on engine only.
At 09:00 I spoke to Dave on MV Fonster who was headed for
the hunter River and we pasted on some information to him about picking up a
passenger at the Kalumburu airport and later Bruce from Lizard joined the
conversation and we said we will meet them tonight at Jim’s Bay.
Around 10:00 we passed Cape Talbot doing 8.6 knots with the
current and Just before Cape Londonderry we get a call from Luke on Lizard
saying that they had just been boarded by several fisheries officers who
confiscated two mackerel fillets and fined them $200.00.
It was their dinner for tonight, a couple of pieces of
mackerel and because it wasn’t a minimum of 30cm long, it was considered
illegal. This kind of bullshit does my head in, especially out here, 1000 miles
from nowhere, wasting tax payers money on a $1,000,000 boat and paying wagers
for five people to confiscate 2 fillets of fish!!
I know they are just doing their job, but there are a lot of
things we could be doing better in this country and this is one of them.
The law states the fish can only be processed for “immediate
consumption” and there is no consideration for a cruising yacht where you catch
fish each day to survive.
Thank f@&k I didn’t take the turtle and dugong that
Cresta offered us yesterday as half an hour later this large unidentified
vessel without AIS cruised directly in my path and without any radio contact
launched a high-speed tender with four black clad officers who sped towards us.
Once again, there was no greetings or instructions over the
radio so I kept going. Eventually they came alongside and said that they wished
to board my vessel, and I said no problem as long as you take your boots off first.
Several officers boarded Sirocco and they told us they were
filming us and they wanted to inspect our fridge and freezer and to see our
fishing licenses. They asked a lot of questions and so did we like where are
you headed, where are you based, do you guys have fishing licenses etc.
They were friendly enough, but the whole heavy-handed
military approach was just ridiculous towards law abiding tax payers and we let
them know that, as did Bruce.
We didn’t have any fish onboard and there was nothing for
them to see. Just imagine if there was a lump of turtle and a big greasy dugong
flipper in the fridge, I would have been hog tied at gun point and locked up
for thirty years.
After dad’s army departed, we heard boats all down the coast
tipping off other boats (on the radio) that the Gestapo were coming and there
must have been fish fillets being tossed and floating all the way down to
Broome.
Shortly after fisheries departed, the wind sprang up and as
we rounded Cape Londonderry around 12:00, a huge sea stood up against a 20-knot
wind. We were doing 7.5 knots through two-meter waves. It was like a washing
machine and we battled through it all the way to Jim’s Bay, arriving at 14:00.
Lizard was there and Bruce was still fuming and had gone out
fishing to try and catch tonight’s dinner again, so I jump in the dinghy and
went out to tell him to don’t worry about fishing as we met these nice guy’s a
little while back who gave us a feed of fish for nothing and he can have half
if he wants. Nice fresh mackerel. He took it well.
There was a very colourful Warrum catamaran anchored nearby
and we invited them (Tarci & Dian on MonkeyMe and Bruce and Luke over to
Sirocco for hot scones. We all had a good chat for a couple of hours and then
Tarci invited us all to come over to MonkeyMe for a camp fire on deck.
Now, this was going to be good.
Later I had a nice hot shower and a bite to eat before
heading over to MonkeyMe.
MonkeyMe was a hand built Warrum design catamaran all lashed
together with rope. It looked like something out of a Contiki expedition and
had a pot belly fire burning on the foredeck.
This boat was like something out of a cartoon or Gilligan’s
Island. You pull a rope and a swim platform lowered down to the water or a
spice rack appeared out of the floor. The toilet was a hole in the poop deck with
a saltwater bum gun. There was a hydroponics setup and all sorts of other gizmos.
Tarci had built MonkeyMe in Brisbane and had sailed her all
around Australia including Tasmania and across the bight. His friend Dian was
American who had joined Tarci for a bit of adventure on a short Kimberly cruise
from Darwin.
They were great people (really interesting) and we chatted
to them and roasted marshmallows over the camp fire and chatted until late in
the evening before heading back to Sirocco.
Track Sirocco’s progress
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