Back in Perth
On our return to Perth, we had been trying to find somewhere to pen Singularity for a week or so in order to allow us to catch up with family. Our initial attempts with Hillarys were unsuccessful, with no space available due to jetty upgrades and so it was that we made contact with the team at Port Coogee marina, just south of Fremantle.
Port Coogee is a fairly new marina and had recently had some new additional pens built, of which they were keeping some aside for casual users like us. Have to say that they were friendly and super enthusiastic about us coming to stay for seven days. Once all the usual paperwork was completed, we were ready to go. But first, we had a week at Longreach just to de-compress a bit from our run down from Geraldton and to tidy things up around the boat.
Rottnest in November is pretty cool - we were sharing Longreach with only a few other boats during the week - quite different to the 100 or so we would be sharing with over Christmas/New Year, so we were appreciating the quietness without the craziness of the crowds. The water was a little cool, but we were back into the swimming and soon back on our bikes, which we had left at our friend Paul’s house. Needless to say, they needed a good wash and a workout with the WD40 can, but were soon on the road and parked back at Longreach as our number 1 mode of transport to and from the settlement.
Our sailing buddy, Kirst, was on RnR and keen to catch up, so she ferried over with a plan to sail back to Port Coogee with us on November 9th. We had some hang-time and a few drinks and then next morning it was time to head back to the big smoke and the 15nm across to Port Coogee. We hadn’t sailed in here before. There was a shipping channel, ships at anchor, plus quite a few other considerations, so we made sure we had done a bit of homework before we left. Our good friend, Mick Wear, lives in Port Coogee and keeps his boat there so he passed on a few tips and landmarks to help guide us in.
The weather was a bit unsettled and, after an uneventful passage, we arrived at Port Coogee, dropping the mainsail just outside the entrance to the marina. We motored in and timed our arrival to coincide with a small, but strong downpour of rain. Mick and one of the marina crew had come down to greet us and help get us alongside - and got a quick drenching for their noble gesture!! Singularity was soon secure and, as we were leaving her for seven days, it was a case of tidying up, cleaning out the fridge and putting on the shore power.
Having not seen his parents since we departed in April, Pete decided he would stay with them and Nicky headed up to Duncraig to catch up with her folks. The next seven days was the usual run around of catch ups, chores, shopping, boat jobs, more catch ups, escape back to the boat to hide out and then, before we knew it, it was time to head back to Rottnest.