Heading South again…
As predicted, it was a little ugly getting out of the marina and getting our sails up, but it definitely wasn’t the worst we had dealt with. Aquabat, a 40 foot mono, had left earlier, and Eden and ourselves had waited a little longer before departing hoping that some of the stronger wind gusts would abate.
It was a lumpy old run down to the Cape with the usual tide vs wind scenario confusing the seas and contributing to a less than comfortable passage. We were glad to finally head west and run with the tide, to then get clear and run down the 20 or so miles to Tantabiddi. The wind of course had by now started to fade, so it was sail change time again; down with the main and jib and up with Shrek for a downwind spinnaker run.
Before long, we were tucked up just to the north of the channel inside the reef at Tantabiddi, with a plan to take a light northerly south to Yardie Creek in the morning. It was a light wind night and uneventful, other than the passing parade of whale watching boats and fisherman making their way in and out of the channel.
We headed off early the next morning and, with a respectable easterly blowing, we were experiencing some awesome sailing conditions. Tantabiddi is such a wildlife hotspot and never ceases to amaze us with a gathering of whales, turtles, dolphins, fish and masses of sea birds all in the one concentrated area. This morning was no exception and, as the sun rose over the Cape Range, we were greeted with the site of hundreds of sea birds swooping low down across the ocean looking for fish. Hard to capture on film, but a really wonderful little period with the ocean so alive!
Things were progressing nicely and we were tracking down the coast with about 10 – 12 knots of apparent wind. The wind was starting to get up a bit, so we decided we would bring the screecher in, as once we get over 15 knots it is too big a sail to have out. Fortunately, our timing was right on, as within 15 minutes the wind jumped and was gusting 25 knots plus. We ended up putting two reefs in the mainsail, reducing our sail area and therefore stress on the rig, but were still holding 8+ knots.
We had planned to go into Yardie Creek, but we hit the entrance doing 8+ knots with 15 knots of northerly still behind us, so decided we would just keep going and run with the wind. At this time of year, any opportunity to make miles south need to be taken, so now our hope was that the wind would maintain its strength for another three or four hours, which would push us close to Coral Bay.
Alas, by the time we got to Norwegian Bay, the wind was gone but we decided to carry on with Shrek regardless. We were in the process of getting Shrek organised on the deck when we spotted a yacht coming the other way. Soon there was a call on the marine VHF and it was our mates Scott and Lara on Wayfarer, who were heading up the coast. We had a quick catch up over the radio and then we both continued on our respective journeys.
At this point, we were just off the reef that fringes the lagoon between Norwegian Bay and Point Cloates, surely one of the most beautiful lagoons on the coast. We remember our time spent there last year with Nic and Julia and reminisced about fun times had in the crystal, clear waters. As we sailed past, looking at the water colour inside the lagoon, we both looked at each other and made the call to turn around and go back the 5 miles to the entrance into Norwegian Bay and head into the anchorage at the Ningaloo Station shearing shed. What were we thinking? There’s no way we should bypass this place, especially as we had only been in once before.
Eden was behind us, but, due to our litttle detour, were now in front of us heading into the lagoon. We picked our way into the bay and then down and across to the anchorage. It can get quite shallow and sandy, so a good lookout and some manoeuvring around is required.
Before long, we were settled in the lagoon and over on Eden having a quick debrief of the days sail over a beer.
The next few days were spent exploring the lagoon, both on foot and in the water. We had a few days of strong southerlies, so it wasn’t the greatest of conditions, but that wasn’t going to stop Nicky who was determined to get in some snorkelling out around the outer reef and wreck. Exploring inside the reef (above and below the water) is very doable, even in fairly strong winds. It’s just a case of donning the wetty in preparation for a wet and bumpy ride out to the edge. Usually, the reef provides a little protection from the wind and chop, particularly if you explore along its fringes. Once you’re in the water and swimming with the fish below, you don’t even notice that it’s windy; way too many other cool distractions to keep you occupied and entertained.
We managed a couple of dives, enjoying the big schools of spangled emperor who live in this sanctuary zone and like to come right up and say hi. Hard to believe they can get so big!
An opportunity to revisit the old shearing shed couldn’t be missed. It was interesting to see that it was in a similar condition to when we’d seen it last year. The passage of time, and the constant battering of sun and wind hasn’t yet contributed to the downfall of this little piece of WA history.
We’ve become real history nerds since embarking on our cruising journey and love to learn as much as we can about the places we visit. If you’re a keen reader of shipwreck/survival stories, we can highly recommend ‘The Wreck of the Barque Stefano Off the North West Cape of Australia in 1875’ by Gustave Rathe. The author is the grandson of one of only two shipwreck survivors from the Stefano which came to grief along the Ningaloo coast in 1876. A classic piece of West Australian history that, up until recently, we knew nothing about!
A weather window to get us south to Coral Bay was looming. With Eden, we planned to leave the following morning and pick our way south through the lagoon past Point Cloates. Lots of shallow spots, and with Eden drawing a little less than us, they were in front and we were following in their wake. We gently nudged over some very shallow sandbanks and slowly were able to pick our way out of the lagoon and into Boat Passage, a body of relatively shallow water that sits inside the outer reef, but allows passage through.
The wind wasn’t really cooperating, so we had one engine running to try and maintain some speed before the wind really kicked in later in the day. Some amazing scenery along this stretch, particularly as you get into Stanley Pool where the water colours are simply mind blowing – again hard to capture on film, but noted as a place we would love to spend the night in the right conditions.
There are also a lot of whales on this inner passage. It seems the mothers bring their calves in to this area for a bit of a rest and we had some close encounters with a few.
We finally arrived at Coral Bay, with a plan to motor down the channel to the south end and head to Point Anderson, which is about 5 or so nautical miles south. We weaved our way along the marked channel, with coral on either side, until we came to the anchorage area at Monck Head, from where we turned south down towards Five Finger Reef.
At Five Finger Reef, we passed within a few hundred metres of the shore, much to the amusement of the gathered four-wheel drives, and then picked our way to Point Anderson.
Anchors down and into the beach for a walk and explore after a long day on the water. It was only 6 miles from here south to our anchorage at Warroora – we planned to keep running down the inside, but we needed to make sure tide and swell were going to be working in our favour.
A new day dawned and, whilst waiting for the tide to fill in, we tried to catch some squid. No success, so we decided to head south in Bob to check the route inside to Warroora. As we were motoring along, we must have nearly run over a squid as suddenly there was black ink being splurted everywhere. We stopped and tried to catch the culprit – but no luck again. Although empty of its supply of its current batch of black ink, it lived to see another day.
The trickiest spot of the inside route was near Turtle Rock as there is an opening in the reef opposite here and the swell comes straight through. Combined with a low tide it can be quite treacherous with breaking waves etc, so after a good look we had a plan of where we should traverse through safely.