Cruising Life in the Pelsaert Group
With the promise of some glorious sunny and wind free days, we made a beeline from the Easter group back over to the Pelsaerts as we were keen to show Jemma what the Abrolhos could offer when it wasn’t blowing, gusting and blowing some more.
We made our way back across the Zeewijk Channel with sail up and also running one motor in order to quickly clear the channel. There was a significant wind swell coming from the sustained easterlies and we were now open to the ocean swell coming the other direction, so the sea was a little confused, but not too bad. Pete, in true fashion, had a lure out and about halfway across something hit it hard and peeled off a lot of line very quickly. Jemma saw something launch itself in the air in the distance, but as soon as some pressure was put on, it broke the line and that was that…. mako shark? sailfish? I guess we will never know, but it did inspire Pete to strip off the old 6kg line and replace it with some heavier duty braid.
Soon we were in the lee of the Pelsaert Group and making our way down into the lagoon and towards Wreck Point. Upon arrival, all of the moorings were occupied so we took anchor on a sand patch out from the old guano jetty. Quite comfortable and good ground to anchor in with close proximity to the beach at Pelsaert Island.
The next four days were a lot of fun, spending time free diving, spear fishing, catching crays and exploring Pelsaert Island by foot. Both Jemma and Nicky speared their first Baldchin groper and we were able to feast on both fish and crays, with a few in the freezer for later. One of the highlights was Mother’s Day, with some fun freediving and Nicky looping her first cray - and it was a beauty!. Nothing like finishing your day with BBQ’d crayfish!
We had been itching for a surf and with the family’s biggest frother on board, we headed in, armed with binoculars to the narrowest part of the island, from where we could look south to the eastern side of Wreck Point where a right hander lay in wait. It looked good, so it was back to the boat, sort out the logistics (boards, sun cream, wax, water bottles, snacks, shoes ……) and then load the dinghy. Like a lot of the surf in the Abrolhos, it is a bit of a mission to make it happen, especially from a sailboat - where you don’t have the option of a large dinghy to get you around. So, the mission consisted of a 1.5nm dinghy ride with three people and three surfboards, plus dive gear for afterwards, anchor the dinghy just offshore and unload all the boards etc. We then walk about 800 metres across very unforgiving, old coral and through undulating salt scrub to get to the break. When they were guano farming here back in the day they had a tramway to transport it back to the jetty, so there is an old raised area of ground that is relatively clear, but just made up of sharp old coral. Picking our way through this we arrive at the marker point for the surf break, which is an old piece of wood stuck in some coral to provide a reference point. No sandy beach on this side of the island, that’s for sure.
We snag some fun waves before it turns a bit fickle and we cop a few bombs on the head. We can see the potential for this place to really be a lot of fun in the right conditions, but now the fun part of getting back in arrives. The tide is still about mid, so whilst there is some sweep pushing us down the point, there is enough water to pretty much get you all the way to the edge of the Island. That was the easy bit - whilst it was only 100 metres back to where we started (and our shoes) it was the longest 100 metres ever, in bare feet trying to tenderly walk along loose coral. In true gentleman style, Pete made it back first and returned to rescue Nic and Jem, armed with their shoes to ease the pain!
The day was capped off with a quick dinghy mission for Pete and Jem, resulting in two baldies and one cray - dinner sorted!!
We were able to get in some good walks on the Island and explored to the north this time, where there is definitely less human traffic and some interesting geography with small mangrove surrounded lakes dotting the landscape. Great to stretch the legs and never get tired of looking at the variety of washed up coral and flotsam and jetsam. Don’t get us started about the number of plastic water bottles scattered amongst it!
Our time at Pelsaert was coming to an end… after ten days it was time to return Jem to the mainland and a forecast front determined that it was back to Geraldton to get some shore chores done - including voting. It was a pretty windless passage home for the first half and Pete managed to wrangle home a nice tuna on the troll, which broke things up a little.
Back in Geraldton, it was chores time.. laundry, post office, voting, food and drink re-stock and the constant - looking at the weather. We bade farewell to Jemma - a really enjoyable couple of weeks - plenty of quality time (no escape from Mum and Dad when you are on a yacht) and a great chance to really reconnect. It would be remiss of us to neglect letting you all know that she also ‘schooled’ us at Scrabble. Love you Jems!!
Despite our intent, we still didn’t really have a good clear weather window to get the 140nm to Steep Point and Shark Bay so we decided to head back to the Abrolhos. This time we were going to the Wallabi Group in search of all things Batavia….