Speeding up the Coral Coast 

We seem to be making a habit of early departures!   Another 5 am departure saw us leaving Broadhurst Bight on the Peron Peninsula on 18 May for a sail past Dorre and Bernier Islands, and Carnarvon, to Coral Bay.  

We were nervous about getting to Coral Bay during daylight hours, but need not have worried -  we covered the 163 nautical mile trip in very good time, arriving at 9.30 am the following morning.    Anchoring at Maud's Landing, just north of Coral Bay, we quickly planned our diving and snorkelling schedule to make the most of the amazing Ningaloo Reef. 

Mauds Landing was beautiful - thankfully the marina development planned back in the early 2000s was rejected by the then Premier Geoff Gallop. 

Before we departed Perth, S2ee and I invested in a little dive compressor so we can fill our own tanks on board - it is a little beauty and we fired it up to do several dives on the inner reef, from The Guppy.  Lots of coral, sharks, turtles and fish.  The coral was in amazing condition - I only saw one little patch of bleaching, and almost no damage from anchoring etc.  

We also snorkelled and swam as much as possible, and one afternoon trecked over sand dunes to the Coral Bay township for some fresh supplies.    We also had a number of cuppas and good conversation with  some lovely fellow sailors, Nic and Colin, who we met in Denham.  

We were confined to Mad Fish for a couple of days through some decent rain and squalls, after one of which I found this little fellow sitting on the back gate, looking rather bedraggled. He stayed for quite some time, seemingly having a rest from the stong winds and rain. 

On the evening of the lunar eclipse, I sat in the saloon doing my on-line indonesia class, while watching the full moon rise over the dunes until the full eclipse made it a very dark night.

At last my fishing rod is starting to pay serious dividends!  One day, we motored north to Stanley Pool to escape some onshore winds and rolly seas, spending the night on a large sand back.   On route and returning to Coral Bay,  quite a few schooling mackerel seemed to be very happy to jump on to the end of my rod.  What I haven't yet mastered is the art of catching a fish without making a bloody mess on the back deck.  S2ee is very happy to eat delicious fish dinners, but has refused to assist in any way with the filleting or cleaning up the mess - although my filleting skills are a bit botch, particularly when the boat is bouncing around at sea, we have now got lots of fish fillets in the freezer, and have enjoyed a number of fish wraps and fish curry dinners. 

While anchored at Stanley Pool we had a manta ray and a tiger shark swim past the boat, but the sand around us was pretty much bare except for tens of thousands of star fish - it was a bit eerie, especially when they all went on the march as sunset approached. 

Dave, if you are reading this, you will note I am proudly wearing your gifted t-shirt from when you cleaned your Parli office some 4 years ago ☺

After almost two weeks at Coral Bay, we had a good weather window for a sail north, stopping at Tantabiddi for 2 nights before our final leg around the North West Cape to Exmouth. 

We day-sailed to Tantabiddi - again a very early morning departure, but despite some very fast sailing, we arrived just on dark.  At one stage, lulled into comfort by some lighter winds, we unfurled our large foresail but the wind picked up again very quickly and was soon gusting to 28 knots.  We were sailing a consistent 12 knots, which is fast for our boat, and at one point 14.5 knots surfing down a wave.  Deciding it was getting a bit edgy, we started to furl the sail, reaching our all time record speed of 14.9 knots in the process - that was scary!

Our short-lived speed record was not enough to get us to Tantabiddi in daylight hours - it was pretty much dark as we motored in to the anchorage, looking desperately to ensure we did not hit the many whaleshark watching charter vessels moored there.   It took us quite some time to find what I hope was a DBCA mooring buoy, and secure ourselves for the night. 

Finally, on 2 June, just short of 6 weeks since we departed Perth, we sailed from Tantabiddi around North West Cape and down Exmouth Gulf to Exmouth.  We felt a real sense of achievement having finished our sail up the west coast - pretty proud of ourselves being new to the sailing lifestyle to have made it this far, without mishap. 

We are now safely tucked up in the Exmouth Marina - we have hired a car and I have already dived the Navy Pier - there will be shark and seasnake videos in the next blog.  Stay tuned! 

Akhirnya, sebuah halo yang besar untuk teman-teman saya dari Indonesia dan kelas percakapan bahasa Indonesia.   Terima kasih untuk pesanmu dan maaf saya tidak bisa bergabung kelas setiap minggu.  Koneksi internet lebih baik di Indonesia dari pada daerah Australia!   Semoga kita bisa segera bercakap. 

Love to all

Naomi and S2ee