Tigress Too Cruising News: We have arrived in Carnarvon

We eventually left Steep Point after 10 days, 5 of which we sat waiting out a strong wind warning. Our sail through to Denham was quite pleasant and we managed to catch our first fish of the trip, a nice School Mackerel which was well over the legal size limit. Its a long time since we have had fresh Mackerel and it remains one of my favourite fish. Its easy to catch, has no scales to deal with and cooks beautifully in a variety of ways.

3.5kgs of Mackerel Fillets and Cutlets

Arriving at Denham we were anchored well offshore as it is quite shallow there and so the dinghy ride to and from shore was always a wet one. We made use of the caravan park to do our washing and have a long hot shower as opposed to a short one onboard.

It was not long before we got tired of the wet journeys ashore and soon left Denham behind. Sailing to Canarvon with an overnight stop at Cape Peron was very pleasant. We passed a few yachts returning from Bali and heading south home to Fremantle.

We arrived Caranarvon 7 June. Our last visit to Canarvon was 14 years ago, I was not too keen on the place then and after a few days here I still feel the same way. On arrival here we were not made to feel very welcome by the DOT (Dept of Transport) people and felt that they would rather yachtíes went elsewhere. Unfortunately the Fascine entry is quite silted up and not negotiable safely with out some local knowledge. Also once in the Fascine the choice of where to go is very limited to moorings that are only available for 72 hours or the very small yacht club marina which is full with local boats. We are tied up in the small boat Harbour at $268.00 per week. The yacht club charge $35 per week per person to use the showers in a demountable by the marina and 2 very old domestic washing machines. All I can say is I´m glad we have a hot shower onboard, and as we are on a jetty with water it can be a long one too! Plus a big bucket to do the washing in.

Washing Day

We are making use of our time here to get our exhaust welded and do some other maintenance. Somewhere along the way the exhaust developed a crack and for a while there we wondered why the boat was filling with fumes every time we turned the motor on. Jerry did a temporary repair which held until we got here. It’s handy having a marine engineer onboard! The exhaust is with Colin Schippe and we were to pick that up 2 days ago but unfortunately a fisherman has gone missing whilst fishing near the blow holes and as Colin is part of sea search and rescue he has spent the last 2 days looking for this person. Our exhaust will have to wait, not too long hopefully. We also have some leaks on deck which are rally annoying especially as no matter how much we hose the deck down it doesn't leak but as soon as we cop a wave over the deck hey presto in it comes. A broken deck light to replace, a few rust spots to repair and the list goes on….there is always something to fix on a boat no matter how well its looked after.

So we guess we will be here for a couple of weeks doing jobs, restocking and having a bit of a relax while tied up safely in a pen. Its good to sleep through the night and not find ourselves waking every few hours to check on the anchor and to step ashore onto the jetty rather that a long dinghy ride in a choppy anchorage.

Our friends Jo and Maryann are here with their caravan so we have caught up with them and being true yachtíes made use of their car to do some vital victualling...... at the bottle shop! Don´t worry its market day tomorrow so we shall stock up on fresh fruit and vegies just to make sure we are getting all our vitamins and minerals.

We also have the use of a ute from an ex FSC member ‘H’ and so Basanti & TToo will be using that to get fuel and gas and maybe do a bit of sightseeing. One good thing about Carnarvon is there are always ex FSC people around willing to lend a hand or a ute and it makes life a lot easier.
In the meantime it is now raining and judging by the thick black clouds it´s set in for the day so outsider jobs are cancelled, maybe its a day of catching up on a bit of reading. Its a tough life!