WIIN Are we sailors or power boaters ??

Our plan was simple, SAIL (using wind power) to Darwin then onto who knows where. Sitting here in Fascine channel Carnarvon, we have now covered 790 nautical miles about 140 hours of sailing or in our case motor sail around 50% because of no wind and we can not even say it was on the nose as most of the time it has been under 3 kn from astern. Eloise has even tried their MPS with mixed results.

We departed Fremantle at 6:30AM on Friday 14^th March in ideal conditions of 15 to 18 knots from the East, averaging 6 knots, the adventure had started - this lasted for 1.5 hours. By the time we were level with City beach the wind had started to die and by Hillarys we had less than 3 knots, so on went Tex (we have a Perkins diesel engine) and so began the daily ritual of sailing for ½ the time and motor sailing for the other. We waited at Turtle bay on East Wallabi for a good weather window, heading off in 15 to 20 ENE and averaging 6 knots for the first 4 hours of a planned 36 hour trip, this sailing life was living up to everything we expected. From our hourly logs I can see at 13:00 the wind was 5kn from the East and speed 1.3kn and we had started Tex while we waited for the sea breeze to kick in, it never came and at 15:00 the next day we were at anchor at Denham after 21 hour of motoring, the sea state was 1.5 metre swell and glassy calm, was this a for warning on what was to come!.

We have had a fantastic 3 weeks exploring Shark bay with visits over the school holidays from Gary, Lisa, Jake, Anastasia and Imigen (ex Alderbaron Bay now looking for the new Biscayne Bay), my family Peter, Teresa, Mason and Chelsea and Parents Wendy and Ted. If you ever get to Denham you must visit Ocean Park, it is one of the most informative and interesting tourist attractions we have visited, the tanks and pools only have marine species found in Shark bay.

After they had all departed back to work and school, we tried to sail to Boat Haven Loop around 23 nm South East of Denham past Useless Loop but found the chart and cruising guide depths to be out of date as we were meant to find 3 metre deep channels. Most of these were silted up to around 1.5 at mid tide, so after touching the ground several times, called it quits and headed for Sunday bay at he southern end of Dirk Hartog island. 2 days here doing what cruising is all about nothing with a bit of fishing thrown in, we upped anchor and headed off to Mead Island 8 mile away. Yes it was another motor, not even bothering with sails these days as the wind has deserted us yet again, the sea is so smooth it's like a sheet of glass, the only waves or should I say ripples are made by the mighty Westward II. Mead island and surrounding bays are worth the visit with a mob of turtles (10 to 15) herding fish to shore , shovel nose rays cruising the shallows chasing crabs up onto the beach, the obligatory dolphins swimming around and the occasional dugong just keep out of distance so you only get a glimpse.

We awoke the next morning to the most awesome sun rise and headed for Turtle bay at the northern end of Dirk Hartog, but we never made it, around mid morning on another windless day on another glassy sea, I hooked a tuna, and then hooked my wife while trying to subdue the mighty warrior of the deep. Selena ended up with a set of triple hooks in the ball of her right foot while the other set of hooks were still attached to the tuna, which posed a problem as neither of us could move. I was holding the warrior of the deep, who was trying to return to the deep and not at all happy about being pinned to the deck, Selena showing true digger spirit was holding a 9 inch rappala lure, looking at me saying what do we do now!. Some how we got the tuna off the other set of hooks, dispatched him for later consumption, cut the hook off the lure, called Denham sea rescue, who sent a boat out (we were 24 nm away) to take Selena to the medical centre, where they cut the offending hooks out, while I motored (again) in.

Thinking that our troubles were over we settled in for a quiet couple of days, but King Neptune had other ideas as I had been pleading for some wind to go sailing, so he sent us a weeks worth in 2 hours just before dusk the next day. It started with a sudden gust, then another stronger one and just to test our anchoring skills another this time reaching 42 knots at which time our reliable Delta anchor started to move, so in driving rain at dusk with the wind above 30 knots, we had to re-anchor.

On leaving Denham we headed for Cape Peron 34 nm away, the red sand dune cliffs and smooth turquoise water made for another beautiful anchorage. We had a pair of dugongs swim past the yacht while schools of tuna chased bait fish every where around us, we had a go at casting a few lures around but got no takers. I kayaked ashore for a look around and got some great photos. The next day saw us off to Carnarvon where we are currently anchored in the Fascine channel opposite the Carnarvon Yacht Club (CYC).

We attended the CYC's Shipwrecked Pirates on the Fascine dinner and presentation night for the Fremantle to Carnarvon yacht race, and caught up with a few people we knew from Fremantle Sailing Club.

Friday night at CYC is club night and we joined the crews of Eloise, Sunseeker and Sprit of Isis for a meal and drinks and tall story telling session.

We hired a car on Saturday to explore Carnarvon and the surrounding area. All the plantation tours were closed, all the fruit and veg stands only had bananas and pumpkins, and the rain the week before had closed some of the roads so we couldn't visit some attractions. We visited the heritage district at the mile long jetty and spent the afternoon re-provisioning and filling fuel drums, while we had some transport.

Vire Nord arrived late Sunday afternoon, so it was sundowners on the beach to catch up with Mike and Charmain and swop high seas tails.

We are planning to spend a couple more days here before heading north to Gnarraloo bay, Maud's Landing (Coral bay) and destinations north.