Serrurier and Thevenard Islands

All the good work scrubbing and cleaning the outside of Singularity was undone in about the first five minutes of our passage to Serrurier Island. A stiff south easterly – aka 20+ knots - had rolled in and we wanted this to get to our destination, but first we had to clear the marina, get our sails up and then turn and run with the wind.

The short, sharp chop outside the marina covered us in salt water and as we were trying to hold position into wind to raise the sails we were taking them over the front…. Glad we cleaned those windows. That’s sailing for you!

Heading into new territory was a really refreshing feeling. As much as we have loved our season two, much of it was revisiting old ground and so new cruising grounds brought a mix of anticipation and some caution, for we were now entering the latitudes where tide movements start to dictate your movements and so this would be some new learning for us.

We had about 36 miles to get to Serrurier and although it was windy early, we knew that it would soon drop away, so we had plans to get Shrek up and into action at some point. There were a few whales along the way, but to be honest it was still quite rough and choppy and although we were kind of going with it, they were difficult to spot, bar the occasional breech.

Soon, the time came and up went Shrek, which enabled us to enjoy a nice downwind sail, making it to Serrurier just before 4pm. After dousing Shrek and putting him away, we motored that last couple of miles into the anchorage, which was on the western side of the island. In the excitement, we forgot to bring the lure in that we were trolling and subsequently chopped it off when we were anchoring…doh!

Chasing Eden were already in the anchorage, having left a few days before and it wasn’t long before we were settled in and in the dinghy for a quick round of hellos.

We had a magic three days here…  such a great spot with a beautiful beach, nice coral and good fishing, diving and squidding. The beach is used by turtles in the nesting season, so once you venture further back off the water’s edge there is all sorts of evidence of their nesting season, with large holes everywhere and also quite a few intact skeletons of those that didn’t make it back to the water. Studying an intact turtle skeleton is quite cool and very interesting and we had quite a few to look at. We also located a small dolphin that had washed ashore and was partly decomposed, again making for an interesting view of his skeletal system.

Facing west, this side of Serrurier also gets some interesting flotsam and jetsam and we were continually finding old fishing lures that had been washed ashore (ours wasn’t one of them :( ). A good chance to upcycle them and put them back to work!

With Ray and Jackie from Solitaire, we joined Beau, Casey & Huxley from Chasing Eden (along with friends they had on board) on the beach for some lobster that they were cooking up on the open fire late in the afternoon. Great people, good conversation and a magic location!!

We had a few dives in some different locations with a good array of coral and bommies, as well as a mix of fish. Success was had on the southern side with a nice coral trout, followed up by Nicky nabbing our first painted cray, or the Tropical rock lobster as it is officially known. This guy was sitting under some plate coral and was a nice easy snare for Nicky, which made her day.

On day 3, we decided to check out the western beach and this ended up in us pretty much circumnavigating the island. Not as interesting on the western beach, plenty of evidence of turtle activity, but the sand was a bit softer and a bit trickier to navigate (#calvesofsteel). We saw a lot of Ospreys up towards the northern tip and it was refreshing not to find the sort of marine debris that we had witnessed in the Abrolhos, where the fishing industry is much more prevalent.  

After a long trek, we made it back to the dinghy and, after a swim, we headed back to the boat. We were keen to get some squid, so after lunch we headed out to find some ground. We had been fishing for a good half hour with no result and were starting to doubt some of the stories we had heard when suddenly it was on! Squidmaster Pete hooked a monster who had half a dozen mates, so within a few minutes we had ink everywhere and six or seven decent squid in the bucket.

Back to the beach to process and clean up. Fresh squid for dinner, some in the freezer, and plenty of bait for later on. Good work!

Chasing Eden had returned to Exmouth to drop their friends off before rejoining us, so, with light winds forecast, we decided to head to Thevenard Island for a few nights. Leaving Serrurier and heading north east you are now entering oil and gas territory, with oil wells, rigs and other infrastructure all over the place. This also meant exclusion zones, so careful nav planning was required.

You don’t have to travel far from the Exmouth Gulf to hit the gas fields and heavy industry with a massive gas plant and port located on the coast directly south of Thevenard Island. Our track would see us pass between a bunch of gas wells before we were able to turn north and come around into Thevenard Island.

Thevenard Island was a ‘holiday’ spot before oil and gas came along and shacks were first established there in the late 60’s. It changed hands once, back in the 70’s and that owner has maintained it since. It is part of the Mackerel Islands and includes self-contained accommodation options, a small shop and communal area.

https://mackerelislands.com.au/visitor-info/our-story

WAPET established some infrastructure on the island in the early 80’s, but is now owned by Chevron who are currently decommissioning the site, and are in the final stages of removal and rehabilitation of that part of the island. The site has been cleaned and replanted and they were days away from dismantling the jetty when we were there. Next step is to remove the three gas wells – Saladin A, B and C which are located literally a few hundred metres off the island. Good to see big industry cleaning up after themselves.

On our way to Thevenard, we were doing our research and noted that they had ‘Dinner under the Stars’ on Tuesdays and Fridays, so Nicky was quickly on the phone as it was Tuesday!! After a few calls, it was determined that they could fit us in (Solitaire and Singularity) and Safron, who was the ‘Guest Coordinator,’ recommended we give her call when we arrived and she would show us around.    

After anchoring adjacent to the main jetty and to a large section of coral bommies, we headed ashore where Safron had walked down to meet us. She was super friendly and gave us a bit of a talk about the history of the Island before inviting us up to the shop area. The shop is only open between 4.30 and 5.30pm, but she opened up for us, allowing us to buy some drinks for the evening meal and also treat ourselves to an ice cream. We found some interesting photos, maps and info on the walls of the shop, giving some great background into the history around Thevenard. It was lovely to meet Safron and it was nice that she took the time to come and greet us, give us lots of info and tips, even though we weren’t actually staying in their accom.

It was a perfectly glassy afternoon and we went for a dive around the coral bommies located just off our stern. Some cool coral and we also ventured to the jetty for a look, as it was being closed off in two days and removed. We sighted some big schools of fish, but nothing too exciting.

Dinner was from 6pm so we refreshed and headed into the beach for the short walk up to the dining area. The resort is mainly staffed by backpackers, so we met an interesting array of friendly staff as we had some dinner and drinks. About twenty or so people were there and we enjoyed a buffet style meal with a choice of chicken, mackeral and spag bol, accompanied with some salads and hedgehog slice for desert. Given our opportunity, we seized on the chicken and spag bol, leaving the mackeral for the islanders!!

A great little setting tucked away with a couple of long tables sitting on sand under a string of party lights. They run a projector with heaps of photos and footage of the underwater delights around the island in the background, all very casual and a treat for us to stumble upon. Perfect timing!

There was some excitement when we discovered the adjacent games room with a ping pong table, so an after dinner match was quickly organised with Pete the 2-1 victor. Nicky was gracious in defeat reminding us both that she remains queen of scrabble!!

Chasing Eden arrived next day and we planned to head to Barrow Island on a south easterly wind the following morning, with a short run into the Montes the day after.

Thevenard is quite exposed to the south and east and that night it turned it on with 20+ knots, causing us a little bit of grief with a mild anchor drag and putting us a little too close to the reef than we would like. We ended up sitting up from about 2.30am just keeping an eye on things, knowing that we were getting up at 4.30am anyway for an early departure.   

Soon, it was that time and we hoisted the sail and then carefully threaded our way out of the anchorage, behind Solitaire and Chesing Eden. Pitch black with some fringing reef, a large mooring just offshore and the need to clear the gas platforms before we could set our course to Barrow Island.

Of course, after enduring twenty plus knots on anchor we were now getting less than 10knots!! What the hell??

We had to navigate to the north of Saladin A gas platform, but also stay south of a port marker on Sultan Reef. In the midst of all of that, we had a white flashing light that we weren’t sure of its location – whether it was a mooring light or something else. In the dark, when you are bumping along in the conditions, it can be tricky to work it all out. Turned out it was the light on Airlie Island, about 9nm away, but it looked much closer.

The wind was light, but we decided we would wait until the sun came up before we hoisted Shrek. For two reasons; one because often the wind picks up when the sun comes up, especially anything from the east; and two because hoisting Shrek in the dark is not smart or safe!!

We waited for a few hours and then decided it was time. Mistakenly, we thought he would be ok with the mainsail up as well, but it took about a minute to see that that wouldn’t work, with the mainsail blocking the wind enough to make Shrek go silly!

So down he came, then turn into wind, drop the mainsail and then turn back downwind and hoist Shrek. He finally came to the party and over the next five or so hours we had a great run, often hitting speeds of 8 knots plus.

After a few hours, we sighted Barrow Island and we also started to come back into contact with the whales. At the south western tip of Barrow Island there was a distinct change in the water and suddenly it was alive with turtles, dolphins, jellyfish, whales and fish activity. There was stuff going on everywhere you looked and in the midst of all of this the wind angle got too much for Shrek and we had to act quickly to bring him down for fear of him tearing as he puffed in and out.

We had planned to go to Flacourt Bay on the west side of Barrow, not a great anchorage but ok for a night. A review of the forecast had revealed a strong southerly in the morning, and, in order for us to have the right tide to enter the Montebellos, we would need to leave Flacourt in the dark, by 5am. Coupled with a strong southerly, it wasn’t inviting.

We were keen to press on and go straight into the Montes, but we were a few miles ahead of everyone and there was some concern about running out of daylight etc. Sticking to our guns, we continued north for the final run to the entrance into the Montes. We were motoring at this point and estimated our arrival at Brooke Island to be around 5pm, still giving us an hour of daylight up our sleeve.

Aided by a strong current, we were soon at the entry point into Hermite Island and we were all eyes as we entered, with surf on both sides of the channel.

Welcome to the Montebellos!