Yardie Creek to Mauds Landing – After a good days travel (50nm) we arrived into Coral Bay behind the enormous reef and searched for a spot to anchor out of the swell in the southern end of the bay, finally we put the anchor down, flopper stoppers out and then settled down, had a drink and waited for the most recent forecast(via internet) and as our luck would have it, it was going to blow Thursday so we made the call to up anchor and go through the night 120nm to Carnarvon, and a peaceful nights sleep.
In the early hours of the morning we passed close to Point Cuvier to look at the huge salt loading facility, we could see their lights from 10nm back. The salt is brought by train from the nearby saltpan and loaded via a huge wharf onto ships for export.
Another 16nm south the Blow Holes in front of the lighthouse at Beagle Hill made a spectacular sight. This was also our turning point to head SE into Carnarvon. The seas had flattened out and were very glassy calm!! Highly unusual!!
The channel markers into Carnarvon Boat Harbour started a few miles out. As we passed through the channel and into the Fishing Boat Harbour we passed a large fleet of fishing and prawn trawlers from Nor West Seafoods and proceeded to the Baileys Fuel Wharf.
We tied to the wharf and quickly became the centre of attention with cars pulling up, several asking questions. One local couple were intrigued and we starting getting the info on the local shopping when they offered to take me there, to which I quickly accepted. Once at Woolies I provisioned up again for the next 4 weeks while we make the passage down through the Abrolhus Islands and then onto Fremantle. Both our lovely locals and the Taxi Driver that delivered me back, thought it would be good to take me around the water so I could enjoy a water view!! As if we need to see more water!!
Alan washed and cleaned the numerous tons of salt and red dust off the boat, as well as answering the curious locals’ questions.
We fueled up with 2100.61 L of Diesel, a very easy self serve process.
DO NOT think about going there for any longer than 5 minutes or they will slug you with a bill that is larger than the most luxurious marina in the country would charge!!! AND do not supply any services!!!! No power, facilities, not even somewhere that you could stay uninterrupted!! We had to move through the night for others wanting fuel!!!
In the wee small hours we left Carnarvon for Herald Bight, north of Monkey Mia.
The whales put on more displays, the bay was very choppy with a SW & SE swell and easterly wind wave. The bay was calm as!! The SW wind came in at 4.30pm. 25-30knts.
We left Herald Bight early for the passage that took us close to North Peron Point to avoid the sand shoals as the SE’ er was blowing the waves were rolling up our stern until we turned the corner. Then in flat calm water we had a beautiful days travel, nice calm seas. We lost the whales company today, and met a ship departing the Denham Channel and then we headed down the South Passage where we anchored in Shelter Bay in 6.5m water and put out one flopper stopper. Later that evening it blew up 30-35knts from the SE. We pulled up 20m of chain, repositioned and put back down another 20 giving a total of 90m of chain out.
The wind didn’t give up, so we made the call to stay here another day and leave tomorrow. It was washing and baking day, 5 loads, a double batch of Marys’ Biscuits and 2 dozen little cup cakes with various toppings. For dinner a cooked a roast lamb dinner for 4, this gives us a spare for the next few days. By mid afternoon we had a few other boats anchored near us, all waiting to leave tomorrow.
Sunday had a more favorable weather report and we left the bay along with the other boats and encountered very confused seas, quite a shake up,until we got further off the coast where the seas dropped and flattened out somewhat.
On this part of the coast there isn’t any day hop anchorages and it was 150nm (26hrs) before we arrived in the Abrolhus Islands. We went into Turtle Bay on the northern point of East Wallabi Island but the bay is very prone to swell, so we moved 3.5nm south to Wann Islet.
Here we are STILL!! Enjoying some rest, fishing and generally smelling the roses. . . or coral!!
We caught 2 Bald Chin Groper, one 4kg, one 3kg and a large squid. Enough for a few dinners!
Get a load of his teeth!!
Loads of coral!
