Monday 9th October 2023 – Berkeley River - Casuarina Falls

This morning we slept in until 09:00 and had breakfast next to the waterfall. We were both very tired and our bodies needed a good rest. I typed up my blog notes and updated my logbook over a couple of coffee's while Claudia relaxed.

I had spicy battered cod fillets for lunch that were delicious. I then decided to take a look and see what was wrong with the navigation system. It was working 90% fine, but the auto pilot was not getting position data and it looked like the GPS wasn’t working.

I noticed this issue when I painted the boat and after messing around with the seatalk cables some things started working again, but not everything. I'm wondering if the boat has suffered a lightning strike again? The GPS turned out to be fine, but I found a blown seatalk fuse inside the autopilot.

Unfortunately replacing the fuse made no difference. The Seatalk bus seems to be transmitting but not receiving. I wasted half the day on this without fixing the problem, so I packed everything up and we went for a walk to the top of the waterfall to take photos.

There is a track up the steep scree slope to the top of the gorge, then a nice easy 30 minute walk around the top of the cliff to the dry river bed. There was just enough water flowing to have a cool shower under the waterfall below.

After admiring the spectacular view and taking a heap of photos, we then walked up stream to three large, beautiful ponds and we went for a swim in two of them. The water was clean and cool, and we stayed in the water for hours relaxing and feeding all the native fish.

Later that night the midgies got really bad, so we locked ourselves in the saloon again and had beef rendang for dinner and I had some of last night’s wine.

Track Sirocco’s progress

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

Sunday 8th October 2023 – Berkeley River - Casuarina Falls

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

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

Saturday 7th October 2023 – King George River to the Berkeley River

We got up early this morning and crossed the bar at 07:14 without any dramas, leaving the King George River for a 46 mile passage to Riverly Island, where we would anchor overnight before entering the Berkeley River the following day.

As we were leaving the King George River, we saw a small yacht called shark face. I spoke to them on the radio, and they were anchoring for the night before heading back towards Perth.

The passage started off uneventful with a nice 15 knot breeze and we were moving quite well, but it slowly increased in strength and by midday we had 25 knots right on the noise and rough seas for the rest of the way.

The watertight seal in the port saloon window was squeaking and leaking and every time a large wave came over the bow lots of water came in and damaged things on the shelf behind the window and flooded my nav station draw. While this was going on, the dinghy came loose or flooded, and the screws ripped out of the mounting plates on both davits, and I had to tie them up to prevent any more damage.

As we approached our anchorage for the night at Riverly Island, the starboard engine over heated and had to be shut down, then shortly after this we ran aground in the shallows at low tide, then the port engine over heated. There was nothing I could do but drop the anchor for the night and I would move the boat to the centre of the channel later when the tide comes in.

All the way points I was given were slightly off and ran along the shallow edge of the channel, so I edited them to prevent me from running aground on the way out.

We spent a few hours getting all the water out, and throwing things that were damaged and drying things. What a huge mess and what a shit day. This would have to be the worst day on the boat in 17 years.

After cleaning up, I then had to change the water pump belt on the starboard engine and tighten up the water pump belt on the port engine. I was now covered in grease and my body aching.

What a shit day. Claudia cooked beef rendang for dinner and we saw a large turtle swimming near the boat and spotted a boat going past us. We started floating again when the tide came in and I moved us 10m or so to the middle of the channel and dropped the pick again. We went to bed about 11pm. I was exhausted and my body was very sore.

Let’s hope tomorrows a better day.

Track Sirocco’s progress

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

Friday 6th October 2023 – King George River – Twin Falls

We got up at 06:30 when the sun came up and Claudia made us both a bacon roll. After my coffee. I got the drone out and flew it off Sirocco. I got some amazing footage and was feeling confident flying it now and I managed to land safely back on the solar panels.

Claudia was making a chocolate cake while I was playing around with the radio, and I noticed Perth was booming through on 10m. I had a chat with a bloke in Perth and then had a long chat to my college from work "Jono", who was at home in Perth. It was good to hear some another voices.

later at 12:30 we said goodbye to the twin falls, and I moved the boat downstream to look at some other parts of this magnificent river. It was very windy all day keeping the heat down and the fly’s away. I cooked the fish I caught yesterday for lunch, and it was delicious.

After lunch I went for a long ride in the dinghy to explore some areas of the river I haven’t been to before. I was devastated when caught a huge barra and after a long battle, the line broke right next to the dinghy.

After dinner, I decided to take a shower outside on the back step. Just as I was about to rinse the conditioner out of my hair the bloody water ran out. I had to use a bottle of ice-cold water from the fridge to rinse off and then go and setup the generator so I could start the water-maker.

After getting the water-maker online, I got some gerry cans out and filled up the main fuel tank and also the dinghy fuel tank. It was 1pm when I finally had both water tanks full (700 litres), pickled the water maker and packed away the generator.

Track Sirocco’s progress

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