Aqua Adrift!

Mind Your Head!

Denham is your typical sleepy fishing village with a mixture of the old beach shacks and some new, somewhat out of place McMansions. The main street has the usual touristy stuff but nothing that looks permanent. Sunday saw us brave the conditions and take the dinghys into the wonky wooden jetty chasing a cappuccino. Finding a local cafe, open on a Sunday we ventured inside to be greeted by the waitress, an elderly but bustling woman, who insisted on announcing exactly what she was doing to all and sundry. She told us to wait! Eventually we got to place an order and relaxed at the table enduring the curious glances of the locals as we were all clad in our colourful wet weather gear.

The Obligatory Group Grope outside the Discovery Centre at Denham.

The cappuccino and cake were remarkably good and fortified us enough to explore the local IGA and service station to replace essential supplies. Alas, no bread, no real milk at the IGA but the servo was remarkably well stocked with boating gear and took at least an hour to explore the various rooms full of goodies. It was a joy to behold a brand new boat hook! In Denham of all places! Margie grabbed it and wouldn't let it go.

After all this shopping we decided to indulge ourselves in another coffee and headed back to the cafe only to find it was closed. (2pm). While Nick, Robyn and Margie went to explore and find another source of caffeine, I waited standing guard over the dinghy and our shopping. Karen and Mike loaded up their goodies and headed back to Aqua Vitae only to find that she was not there. I'm sure there was some panic in the overloaded dinghy as they started to chase the errant craft, trying to reach her before she foundered on the reef. She had slipped her anchor and gone walkabout. The good news is that Karen and Mike were able to board her and motor back to the anchor site. Panic over!

Mike and Karen head back to Aqua Vitae blissfully unaware of the impending panic!

The sea bed at Denham comprises ribbon weed and sand. The weed makes anchoring difficult; it seems that the anchor just picks up great clods of the weed and very little holding. After we got back to Moonshadow, we also were startled by the insistent anchor alarm and a quick glance at the chartplotter confirmed we too were dragging in the rolly and windy conditions. Moonshadow went side on to the anchor as it was rolling across the weeds. It was dark by now and finding a clear patch to drop the pick in the blackness was difficult. We had about eight attempts before we got a hold, each time we raised the anchor we had to clear a huge clump of weed from the pick. We chose to sleep in the cockpit just to be sure that we were ready for any more alarms. Fortunately, we made it through an uncomfortable night without dragging again.

Monday was a miserable continuation of the weather and rough conditions anchored about a mile offshore Denham and so it was decided that we would head for Monkey Mia early Tuesday morning.