We got to have a sleep in today as high tide was around 09:15 when we would attempt to cross the bar into the Berkeley River. Claudia made bacon rolls for breakfast. I checked and double checked my way points for entering the river and setup OpenCPN on my laptop that still had the track I made through the bar four years ago which was really handy.
We had no dramas crossing the bar, but quite a few of the way points were off a bit and needed correcting, but mostly I just followed my old track on OpenCPN. Once in the river we gently cruised up to the turn off to Casuarina Falls.
The channel depth into the falls got down to 2m at times, but mostly there was 4m of more. I dropped the pick and backed down to the falls and later after I had dropped the dinghy, I ran a line out to an eye bolt screwed into the cliff at the base of the falls and then winched the stern of Sirocco to within 10m of the falls.
This place is a truly magnificent anchorage, and it was very relaxing listening to the sound of the water cascading down the rocks. I talked to Jono in Perth on the radio again and caught up with all the latest gossip.
Later in the day once all setup, I went fishing and came back with a nice size estuary cod. After cleaning the fish, I decided to fly the drone as the rock walls in the gorge were now a beautiful deep red colour and perfect for photography.
I setup the drone and took off from the solar panels and flew all around Sirocco getting magnificent video and great still shots. I was becoming a master and was planning each video in my head before flying the pass. I could see large water holes full of beautiful clear water above the falls that were beckoning us for a swim.
I decided to go for a very high shot late in the flight and all was going well till the low battery alarm went off. I pressed the return home button, and waited for the drone to come back and land by itself, but it was so high up and far away I couldn’t see it.
I started to panic and tried to fly it back, but I couldn’t see where it was. Finally, I could see it and I drove it back as fast as I could, but I think I was fighting against the auto return function as the controls felt a little unresponsive. I was going flat out back to the boat as well as rapidly reducing the altitude.
I thought I was doing really well and when it started to get close to the boat, (with the low battery alarm sounding) I hit reverse to stop and it seem to just want to keep going and to my horror I watched it smack into the gorge wall and drop into the water, and that was it, no more drone and all that beautiful footage lost.
Oh well, shit happens. Time for a beer. Later I had a lovely cool shower under the waterfall. Claudia reluctantly climbed up with me but refused to have a shower under the waterfall. Back on the boat we had noodles for dinner and the sand flies and bugs were quite savage, so after a while we moved inside and closed the door and all the windows. I opened a bottle of wine, and it was a lovely cool night and I had to close all the windows as I woke up shivering, strange for this time of year.
Track Sirocco’s progress
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