We have had a lovely holiday in Monkey Mia and have neglected keeping the blog up to date. A few incidents are worth noting in hindsight though, not least of all, the separation of the three amigos. Time flies when you're having fun and both Divided Sky and Aqua Vitae reached the point of no return. They decided that in order to get home to Fremantle it was time for them to up anchor and head South.
We have enjoyed the company of Mike, Karen, Nick and Robyn immensely. It was so comforting sailing in company with these good friends as both Margie and I are relative novices at this. Sometimes we wonder if we would have left Fremantle when we did if it wasn't for the commitment that we had made to join them for the cruise north. Having done so, the experience of our compadres was invaluable and certainly gave us the courage to cast off on this endeavor. We were reassured that for the first part of our cruise at least, we wouldn't be alone.
At the ungodly hour of 3am, we woke to the insistent chiming of the alarm clock and got up to farewell Divided Sky and Aqua Vitae. We could see activity on board their yachts as they made preparations for departure. We lit up Moonshadow like some kind of Christmas Tree with deck, anchor, navigation and steaming lights as the deadline for raising their anchors approached. We heard Mike and Karen's anchor chain being hauled and their engine rumbling, and waited for Nick and Robyn's to fire up. And waited. And waited a bit more. It was getting cold out here.
The crackle of the VHF radio drew us back to the cockpit in time to hear Nick calling to Mike that he had engine trouble and couldn't get it to start. Not a cracker. Not a brass razoo. Nothing. We would have to delay departure while he went to investigate the fault in the engine room. Mike asked if he wanted him to come over and help find out what the problem was and Nick said,
"Wait a minute, I'll let you know."
We decided to make a coffee as that always seems to help in these situations and we sat and waited some more warming our hands in defiance of the cold morning, clasped around the steaming mugs of caffeine.
All was quiet for five or so minutes until suddenly Nick's engine roared into life. Hooray, Margie and I wondered what the problem had been, glad that it was fixed but a little sad that it meant our friends were actually going to be leaving. Just then, Nick came back on the VHF with a strange tone in his voice and declared that the problem was fixed and courageously admitting that this is what is known as pilot error. Instead of pushing the engine start button he had been pushing the engine stop button. Nick wrote on his blog later that in mitigation, it was dark, early and he wasn't wearing his glasses! Ah... the Trifecta!
Raising the revs and the anchors, both yachts executed a sail past Moonshadow still lit up like Times Square, and we very sadly waved a fond farewell to our good friends and companions as they headed north and slowly disappeared into the dark of the night. Margie and I looked at each other with the silent acknowledgment that we were finally on our own and from here on in we were flying solo.
The sense of loss was palpable for a few days but we had things to do and we tried to busy ourselves with the list of jobs that needed to be attended to on Moonshadow.
We had ordered some new sheets for the genoa from Yacht Grot in Fremantle as ours were really grotty. We were excited when the parcel arrived but soon discovered that they had sent us 15 metre sheets when we had ordered 20 metres, and they just wouldn't reach the winch. A quick call to Yacht Grot elicited an apology and the promise of express delivery of new sheets of the correct length.
We were a bit concerned that we had no transport to shore with the dinghy deflated and in need of repair and we were relying on Bill and Tineke to run us in and out. We had also heard that an inflatable dinghy was probably not the the best choice when we were exploring the Kimberleys. We thought that we would borrow the car and go to Denham on the off chance of finding a used tinny to replace Toby. We went to the local hardware store looking for a new outboard fuel tank as ours was leaking from around the fuel gauge. A new one was going to cost us over $140 so we thought we might try to repair the one we've got with a tube of Araldite or similar. We then went to the local garage come chandlery to see if he had anything cheaper. He couldn't help as he had none in stock but recommended we go and see 'Damian', just up the street. Apparently Damian deals with second hand marine bits. We also casually mentioned that we were looking for a second hand tinny. He showed us one that he had out the back, but he wanted $800 and seemed way overpriced and over our non-existant budget so we gave it a miss.
We decided to go and look for Damian, chasing the fuel tank. We found that he had several to choose from and one in excellent condition, clean and almost new, almost identical to the one we wanted to fix. When asked if he knew of any second hand tinny's, he led us around to the back of his yard and showed us a 10ft tinny in very good nick! He asked us to make an offer and we finally agreed on $250, including the fuel tank! A bargain!
We scooted back to the camp at Monkey Mia and Bill attached his boat trailer and back we went to pick it up. All went well except Bill's jockey wheel on the trailer suffered terminal damage on the way there. Fortunately, Damian was able to find Bill a replacement! What a Gem.
We cleaned out the tinny making sure it had no leaks and carted it off down to the beach where Bill towed us out to Moonshadow. Finally we were mobile again. What a relief. We mounted the outboard from Toby which fitted perfectly and proudly went for a scoot around. We soon learnt that a flat bottomed tinny is way more unstable than a RIB and would take some adjusting to get used to it.
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| The new (second-hand) tinny! |
The new sheets also arrived from YachtGrot and on a very calm day we unfurled the genoa and secured them with bowlines so we are, as they say, 'Ship shape and Bristol fashion', and ready to head off from Monkey Mia to Carnarvon on the next leg of our adventure.
Bill and Tineke were packing up their van and heading back to Perth as their holiday had come to an end.
It was time to go. We have really enjoyed our extended stay at Monkey Mia and at 3am on the 4th June we hoisted the anchor and bid farewell in the dark. A really gentle sail saw us arrive in Carnarvon at 2.30 and we made a bee line for the refueling jetty. Margie steered Moonshadow perfectly to nuzzle the jetty where we secured her and had time to completely fill the water and diesel tanks.
Enquiries at the Department of Transport office revealed that we could stay on the jetty overnight for the princely sum of $139 (cough, splutter) or we could tie ourselves to a pole stuck in the mud for $39! We settled for the pole, tied up, and settled in for a good nights sleep.
Life is good!
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