Plantation Visit

We had a great afternoon out in Carnarvon yesterday. A few days ago we had morning tea on Basanti  and met  a local couple Deane & Sue Wiggins who run Hi Way Plantation and grow capsicums. They in turn kindly invited us to afternoon tea out at their plantation to see how capsicums are grown commercially.

Deane picked us up and on the way gave us a tour of the growing area here in Carnarvon. It’s not just bananas you know, they grow all sorts up here including red globe grapes, which apparently do very well in this climate. A lot of the plantations are growing undercover of shade cloth. Vast football pitch size shade houses stretch for miles along the highway.

Arriving at Hi Way Plantation we were greeted by the resident (pretending to be) guard dogs, whose names escape me, and after the obligatory bark they came over for a pat and a cuddle. They have a very healthy diet munching on capsicums as we walked around the plantation. Quite weird to see a dog eating a capsicum!

 

Deane took as for a tour of the plantation and told us all there is to know about how to grow a good capsicum.  My lips are obviously sealed on this snippet of information as I can’t give away trade secrets! I can tell you though that Deane and Sue were the first growers here to grow under shade cloth and it has been a great success for them. Wiggins capsicums are well sought after at market.

 

 

After a lovely afternoon tea of freshly baked scones, jam & cream (thank you Sue) we were then taken to the family vegie patch and told to help ourselves. For us yachties this was just paradise. We picked capsicum (of course), chillies, grapefruit, oranges, lemons, lemonades, avocado, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, eggplant, beetroot, rosemary, parsley, kaffir lime leaves, curry leaves...but no bananas! So much fresh food, we were in heaven.

 

Back to the boat to unload and then the job of dipping the citrus & some of the veg  in a Milton solution ( to kill off any bacteria and therefore aid with longer storage time), wrapping some in newspaper and stowing. We couldn’t possible fit all into our tiny fridge so a lot of effort is put into storing the fresh veg to make it last as long as possible. Of course the biggest plus here was that it was all freshly picked.

 

It was a great afternoon out and thanks to Sue and Deane for their hospitality. It really opened our eyes to vegie growing and the effort that goes into it on a commercial scale.

Now..... on another note, we came across this little train of caterpillars while out walking the along the Gascoyne River bed the other day. There were 98 of them in total, all marching along one behind each other like little soldiers. Almost joined together but not quite. They were absolutely fascinating. They were obviously on a mission but where to and why they were in this line, who knows? I thought  our friend Glen the at  maroowildliferefuge.blogspot.com in Manjimup might have the answer J

Or maybe someone else, we'd love to hear from you!!

 

Change of Plans

Charts arriving for new route
and some spares!
 

Just incase you were wondering our original plan was to sail from Carnarvon to Cocos Keeling Island then onto Sumatra & Malaysia. We have had a long hard think about this route which involves 10 days at sea to Cocos then another 6 onto Sumatra. The weather has not yet settled into a winter trade wind pattern and we are continually getting low pressure systems off the coast up here which results in strong northerly winds and lots of rain. Broome has had its wettest start to winter on record. We also feel that we are not yet ready for a long ocean trip especially in unsettled weather and thought we would wait a few more weeks before heading out to sea in the hope that the weather will be more settled into  a trade wind pattern.
So we have decided to sail onto Dampier taking our time through the many islands in the Dampier Archipelago. Our Cruising permit for Indonesia doesn´t start until mid August so we have plenty of time to just enjoy the sailing and take our time. We will then clear out from Dampier and sail to Bali, a shorter 6 day sail. From there we will make our way through the islands to Kalimantan to visit the Orangutans and then round Singapore and into the southern tip of Malaysia at Johor Baru. We then intend on cruising up the west coast of Malaysia to Langkawi for Christmas as originally planned.
It is sad to miss out on Cocos, but one day we may make the trip there when we feel the time is right. The best thing about our cruising this time is we have no time constraints and therefore we can change our mind to suit us and we do not have to take on any journey we are not sure about. We just have to be prepared to be patient and wait for the right weather. Which at long last we are.....
And if I could insert a smiley here I would!!

NB I spend what seems like hours trying to add photos in certain ways only to find that sometimes when I publish the post it has re arranged itself, so apologies if it seems out of order. Also my Spanish laptop with Spanish keyboard doesn't make things any easier!

Out and About in Carnarvon

Inbetween jobs we decided to do a bit of sightseeing around Carnarvon. Our fist trip was to the growers market held on Saturday mornings during the tourist season. We were up early and on the road (walking) by 7.30am. Jerry & Phil were very enthusiastic about this shopping trip, I think that had something to do with the thought of an egg & bacon burger and a cup of real coffee while the girls shopped. The markets were a great opportunity to stock up on fresh fruit & veg picked early that morning & some locally made pickles & chutneys.





















Its a very pleasant walk out to one mile jetty and the old shearing shed museum and well worth the effort. We took the walktrail across the old town bridge along the disused railway track out to Heritage Precinct and the start of the One Mile Jetty. The jetty was built in 1897 and used by State Ships to bring passengers & supplies from Perth and for the export of sheep & wool from the region. We explored the Railway Station Museum, had fun climbing all over the old trucks and machinery and walked to the top of the water tower which boasts a magnificent 360 deg view.

We waited and waited for a tram to come along

In the end we decided to walk

Phil found an old car and took us for a ride

Jerry was missing work so put a few hours in on the hammer

Jean had fun playing on the old train

 Weight was used to hold house down during cyclone

One Mile jetty

Another day we shook off the dust from the fold up bikes and had a pleasant cycle out to the OTC Dish that dominates the skyline when approaching Carnarvon from sea. The OTC station was opened in 1966 and was used as a tracking station for the first landing of man on the moon. It also helped to track Halley´s comet in 1969 and it was from this dish that Australia received it´s first satellite TV broadcast. The Space & Technology Museum is new since our last visit and was opened last year by Buzz Aldrin.

Checking out the space capsule

OTC Dish



Buzz posed for a picture with us!
 

We have also taken time to sample a few of the local eateries in town, perhaps a little too often but always an important agenda item when we reach land! The yacht club is open on Friday nights for cheap drinks and great meals as “yachtie” affordable prices. The Carnarvon Hotel also does great meals but it is much cheaper to EAT in the front bar than to sit in the restaurant, as we found out after our meal.

Celebrating Maryannes birthday

Tinkering with the motor

We have completed our list of jobs for Carnarvon, (there is another list for the next time we stop). As I said before there is always something to do on a boat.

The repaired exhaust {for the mechanically minded}
 

We had planned on leaving here last weekend but the forecast for the next few days is northerly winds, gale warning tomorrow!. So we shall sit tight for a couple of days more. After all there is no rush when cruising!

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!

Another Pub Lunch



Jerrys first haircut by new hairdresser. I´ll post a close up in a couple of weeks when its had time to grow!!

 

Things that go BUMP in the night

We have been waiting at Steep Point for 5 days now sitting out a strong wind warning for E/SE winds blowing 25-30knots and stirring up quite a fetch across the bay into the anchorage making it quite uncomfortable at times. We tend to sit with the tide rather than the wind causing us to roll and pitch about a bit. We also draggad anchor which is always fun! Hopefully we will be able to go over to Denham tomorrow, hooray! The fisherman say that this weather isn´t normally like this. How many times have I heard that? there is no ´normal´ weather now, anywhere

Needless to say because of the weather we have not been sleeping through the night, conscious that we might drag anchor again and also it´s a bit uncomfy in our bunk up forward.

Yesterday we decided to use the anchor watch on our AIS (Automatic Identification System) We have plenty of power from both the solar panels and wind generator so why not. At least we could relax a little knowing we would get a warning if we drag anchor. So last night we both went to bed a little more relaxed looking forward to a good nights sleep but it was not to be.

We were not long in bed when we both woke with a start as we heard a bump on the hull and an unusual ¨tug¨on the anchor chain. We both leapt out of bed and into the cockpit to see what was gong on and in the pitch black of night we could only here what we thought was the noise of a whale blowing and thrashing around - in 3m of water, surely not? A quick check of the water round us with the spot light and …´there she blows ´all 30 ft of her just 10 feet off the stern and dangerously close to little Tigger , our dinghy. I quickly pulled Tigger alongside out of harms way and we both watched in awe as this whale rolled and thrashed around so close to our stern. Fortunately for us but not so for the whale it was heading towards the beach.

We had heard earlier that day on VHF radio that a whale was in South Passage but we thought they said it was dead and being eaten by Tiger Sharks as it headed west out the passage to sea.. This was obviously the same one but badly injured or sick. We expected to see her beached when we checked this morning but there is no sign of her anywhere.

Now you may think that 5 days of sitting out a strong wind warning and a litte too much sea air has made us hallucínate so just to prove we did see a whale I took a few photos. They are not the best, it was very dark, but you can just see it.



The whale that Bumped us

No we were not hallucinating

This is our first and no doubt in won´t be our last bump in the night, lets hope they all turn out as well as this one did, for us anyway.
Posting this blog from Denham Monday 3 June.


Communication and Excercise go hand in hand...

The problem with trying to post a regular blog is that more often than not we don´t have any internet. This is why today we find ourselves sitting on top of a hill waving our computer around in the hope of picking up a signal! We could of course spend more money on more electronics and have email onboard but as we are still learning how to use what basics we have got then for now a walk to the hill is fine. Besides we need the excercise!!

Talking of which yesterday the Basanti crew and ourselves thought we would take a stroll to the Steep Point Lighthouse. Its not far says Jerry, 6 miles said Phil {as the crow flies he later tells us}. We took water, biscuits and coffee for morning tea and Basanti wisely took lunch. I would like to say it was a pleasant walk but lets just say I’ve had better. 4 hrs of walking on very sandy 4wd tracks which seem to go uphill more than down only to get to the end to see the most boring lighthouse ever. It stood all of 30ft high a very plain rectangle metal box. Occassionally a 4wd would pass us full of eager fishermen heading to the TOP of the Zuydtorp Cliffs to balloon fish. You could see the look of amazement as they thought what the blazes are you doing out here walking . As we explained we are off the yachts anchored in the bay below and need the excercise. ‘Ah, I suppose you get cabin fever’ one man remarked! Little do they know that they are driving because they only have 2 weeks holiday to see everything, we are walking because we are on permenant holiday! Besides we dont have a 4wd onboard.

There are many fishing camps on the beach, full of eager blokes up here on a 2 week holiday. Engel Fridges line the back of the dining room tent full of beer which as they drink their way through they replace it with fish to take home to the wife. At night the deep fryers go on powered by the big gen sets parked in the dunes and frez li caught fish and chips are meal of the day. They tell us that there are plenty of fish to catch just throw a line in. We have, but all we catch is undersize snapper that while they are a good ‘pan size’ we feel too guilty and back they go to swim another day. Besides we still have food onboard so we can be picky. Back to the camps, these guys have everything they need and I swear it must take them weeks to pack up all the gear. One camp has towed a spa…yes you read that correctly, up here on the back of a trailer. At first sight we thought it was a bait tank but on asking they pump up sea water into it and at the end of a hard days fishing sit back and relax with a beer in the spa while they watch the sun go down. Hows that for comfy camping!!

DEC have control of the camps sites which are fully booked all year. They are meticulously clean as everything you bring in must be taken out. Fires can only be lit in a container, which you have to bring along with you as well as all firewood which is carried in and back out if not all used. Fisheries patrol the bay and there is quite a thick booklet explaining rules and regulations regarding fish size, bag limit and the do’s and don’ts of fishing in this magnificient marine park. It makes it quite difficult to just go out and catch a fish for tea but at the same time its all very good for the sustainability of our marine life.

We were hoping to move onto Dirk Hartog Island across the bay for a couple of nights and then over to Denham, but a strong southerly has kicked up so we shall stay here in the lee of the mainland until it abates or swings round to the east a little and we can have a comfortable anchorage elsewhere.

Well hopefully when I press send the signal will be in just the right spot and post this to our blog. If not then it can wait until we get to Denham.



One of the many sting rays in the anchorage

Dolphins Feeding



Anchorage at Shlter Bay, Steep Point. Taken from top of hill where we check phone signal.



 

The walk to lighthouse

This is it...Steep Point Lighthouse

The big night sail......

For me, (Jean), anticipation of our next leg from Jurien Bay to Steep Point had been building for a while and tieing my stomach in knots. It meant 2 nights at sea & I don´t mind admitting that I have not been fond of night sailing in the past . That and a fear of snagging one of the many craypots that seem to litter the coast during cray season was not making me feel too easy about this next trip. The first day was forcast for E/NE 10/15 knots turning S/E then E. The swell had died down a little from our previous leg & all was well onboard. The wind died in the afternoon and for a while we motorsailed but then the Easterly kicked in and by 10pm we had 3 reefs in the main and the headsail also reefed, the swell was up again and we had quite an uncomfortable night. The only bonus was that we had a moon to light the way and so far the night horrors seem to have left me. We discoverer a few leaks on deck which we didn’t know about and will have to see if we can find them, not easy as we had such a mish mash of sea water over the deck we can’t tell where the water would have entered. The next day the sun was shining and we could feel the warmth of the sun as we headed north. Second night out we were both finding it hard to stay awake, it takes a few days to get into the swing of night sailing and proper watches. The swells seemed bigger and were coming up our stern making the boat roll. We found it best to take the mainsail down and sail with just 2 small headsails out. Dawn came just as we entered Steep Point, the southern end of Shark Bay. Once through the entrance we were in beautiful calm, clear blue water, white sandy beaches and warm sun shine. As we dropped the anchor we watched it find its way to the sandy bottom. Both had a big smile on our faces happy that we had got what we think is the worst part of our journey over with. We celébrated with a big cooked breakfast, tidied up a little and then had a much needed sleep for a few hours. We had sailed 277 nautical miles in 47.75 hours, an average of 5.7 knots and 5 hours faster than our same trip in ‘97. Time to relax and enjoy Shark Bay and prepare ourselves for the big sail to Cocos Keeling Island sometime towards the end of June.