Back in the ‘wild’ Mid West
We were keenly watching the weather forecasting maps, as the seasons were changing, bringing in the Westerlies, as opposed to our summer southerly pattern. A blow was forecast with strong west, northwest winds followed with a two day window suitable to get to Dongara.
The usual dilemma – not fantastic conditions, but if we didn’t go then it was going to be another week – and conditions were going to be pretty much the same. Decision made! We awoke before dawn on the Tuesday after Easter and confirmed that it looked ok. After a quick fuel top up (for backup, of course :)) we headed out of Port Coogee.
To be honest, we were a bit rusty and not at the top of our game when we departed. It’s funny, but this tends to happen after you have been away from the boat for a few weeks and then once you have knocked off that first passage, you are back to being in tune with everything. Nicky’s week of illness which was still taking its toll, didn’t help. I guess one of us had to get COVID eventually.
Conditions were pretty sloppy and borderline uncomfortable on the passage to Dongara. Winds were predominantly from the west – so on the beam, and whilst we had four of five good hours of sailing once we cleared Rottnest, the wind soon became quite fickle. We had a sloppy sea, due to the blow the preceding days and then combined with a westerly that was flipping and flopping between WSW and WNW made for somewhat of a frustrating passage. No champagne sailing here, my friends.
As a result, we ended up burning a bit of diesel to make progress on our passage. The night was relatively calm and we passed by Jurien Bay at about 3am in the morning. A successful dance around the craypots and then our usual dawn run-in with a crayboat – this time off Leeman – don’t think they even saw us even though they passed across our bow about 100metres in front of us! A few nervous moments and a quick course alteration – then back to the mundane…. that’s sailing for you!
The sun was out and conditions blue and smooth as we made our way in on the leads to Port Denison. We knew it wouldn’t last with a blow forecast Thursday afternoon into Friday. We secured on a mooring – our usual mooring (Paul’s) had an Italian gentleman on it and we didn’t have the heart to kick him off. Over the course of the next few days, we spent time getting to know, Dario, who was solo sailing the west coast in anticipation of heading west and sailing across the Indian Ocean to Africa. An interesting and charismatic character who loves a robust philosophical discussion. I hope we meet again.
Post passage, we had a quiet afternoon with some food and a nap and a well-earned nights sleep on Singularity. Thursday we were up and ,after a short dinghy ride into the service jetty, we walked into Dongara. It’s about three km’s to town and a pleasant walk – straight to Poppies for a coffee!
A couple of chores and a wander through the shops – including the Op shop (our favourite shopping ) before we made our way back to the marina. We took the walk down the Irwin River on the way home – a really nice walk along the riverbank before hitting the coast and south to the marina.
With the boat all secured, it was just waiting and watching as the skies got blacker and the wind started to whip up. Welcome back to the Mid West with sustained 35knots of westerly, then south westerly and then southerly!! A long night – always a bit unnerving being on an unfamiliar mooring and with a large rock wall only 100 metres behind you. We had the anchor alarm set pretty tight and a couple of times it went off as we swung and so it was a leap out of bed - heart racing – quick assessment – phew, we are still secure – back to bed!!
Come the morning and it was still blowing – up and down anywhere between 15 and 25 knots form the south – bit like a Dongara summer sea breeze only colder!
The weather changes quickly by tomorrow (Saturday), but with a large swell and a likely unsettled ocean, we will sit it out and head to the Pelseart Group on Sunday morning. A chance for another wander into town, check out the markets and the skate comp at the skate bowl before prepping for a dawn departure Sunday. Bring on the Abrolhos!!