update

happily toiling away south of the Gulf of Carpentaria saving for my next yacht and looking forward to the adventures that will bring.

Landlubber stuff

After that disaster Andy gave me a lift to the overland roadhouse then Mark to Carnarvon (where Elaine enticed me with stew, beautiful stew, hmm maybe Peta cooked it), Susan to Petermarer Ck, Andre to Pardoo and Sam to Roebuck. Ben 'n Karen to Willare, Steve and Ruth to the Derby t/off and Matt to Fitzroy. Where I met devastatingly beautiful Sam at the shire office, bliss. Bryan from Kununurra to Darwin (where he won a jackpot whilst waiting for my daughter to pick me up from the pub!!) All great people, only needed a shipwreck to meet them. Thank you.
It took a tad under 5 days to hitch the 3500kms.

The voyage ends.

shipwrecked... Deserted isolated beach, yacht abandoned, breaking up on a reef, on its hull & taking water, near Zuytdorp Cliffs (pronounced Zurtoff) between Steep Point & Kalbarri. Closest highway about 150kms east, Carnarvon 250kms north of that, Darwin 3200kms further north......

Swam ashore with my grab bag as the sun rose.

Paul at Steep Point sent me an update snap of the wreck on the beach, thanks mate.

When you consider the rubbish people watch on TV this story should be worth a movie.

the Western Australia cruising guide reckons "respite" can be taken at False Entrance, in view of the 100nm of coastal cliffs that come after that bay, dropping the pick and having a kip seemed like a good idea. Weather got progressively worse (0100) that night, realized later my anchor lines had snapped, the sound of something hitting rock was enough to encourage me to grab my grab bag and climb overboard. i could feel rock beneath me and swam/crawled ashore through the surf at first light 0615.

weather: several yachts had been waiting in the immediately previous safe port 'Denham' & further north 'Carnarvon' for up to a month for a good weather break to tackle this notorious piece of isolated coast heading south. the prevailing southerly wind was forecast to turn west and average 15-25knots for a 2 day window. i met friends in the immediately previous safe 'Shelter Bay' who had been waiting a week, the day i arrived there. they (a couple) left that night, i left the next morning. they later told me it was the roughest weather they had encountered in their circumnavigation.
steeppoint.com.au for a better idea of this part of the coast.

things that prevented my possible death:
my inflatable tender was secured to the yacht with two bow lines, they both broke and i later found it on the beach. had they not broke i would have got in the thing when the waves started breaking over the yacht at 0100 and ridden it ashore, i probably would have drowned doing that.
i was wearing a full survival suit which protected me whilst in the water and crossing the reef.
the grab bag FLOATED; it only contained 2flares, handheld vhf, phone, wallet, specs, muesli bar, 700ml water and medical supplies (incurable disease/physical disability etc).

I KEPT MY COOL, my home of 5 years was being destroyed about me, I couldnt change what was happening.

a 20l water container floated off the deck, partially filled, and ashore.

epirb? activating it didnt achieve anything, sea rescue was too late to save the yacht and the weather was too rough for them to take me off the beach. as sea rescue left to return to Denham, I met Andy, a touring fisherman who was good enough to take me back to his camp site for hot coffee & sanity.

insurance? didnt have it, always expected to die with the yacht.

future prevention? best advice head 5nm+ west to sea after Steep Point and keep going until conditions facilitate mooring at Port Gregory or further south, solo sailors heed this warning.

This notorious piece of the coast (+-100nm N S) has claimed at least 200lives in its recorded history.

Denham

no free water, no safe anchorage else it seems to be a pleasant happy community. anchor dragged the first night and its blowing 30 kn this evening....

Nth quoin bluff sth

spectacular view with the white sand dunes looking alpine. Wildflowers everywhere.

Dirk hartog island

quoin bluff sth, protected from forecast 30kn wind,2m deep, dugong, blue sky but chilly. Plenty to explore and the email works, might stop here!

Shark bay

low swell, calm but pleasant sitting in the sun. Heading south west toward dirk hartog island and denham. Plenty of new friends in carnarvon. Nice spot.

Ningaloo Reef

Ningaloo Reef, well everyone has their own piece of the planet which they tag 'god's country', here's a bit few get to see. Late one afternoon looking for a place to drop the pick I looked to starboard and saw a whale playing with its calf and tacked away from them. The parent was in the process of doing the acrobatic skydive lesson for the calf and splashed down not too far from me. A few seconds later it emerged from the ocean mouth agape aiming straight for me, filling the cockpit with ocean. Bit scary...

Earlier three whales abreast were coming straight for me (dinkum this is a seriously wide load, lots of white water), I tacked to port, they didnt change course, the closer of the three narrowly missed the stern, went under the rubber ducky and also filled the cockpit with ocean.

That aside its a rare experience being amongst so many creatures watching them play with their newly born and listening to them sing under the yacht whilst moored of a night. In the past few weeks I've seen hundreds of whales, I'm glad I havent seen any japanese tourists.

I arrived in Carnarvon Saturday 8th.

Saturday

brilliant 37nm scream across exmouth gulf to drop the pick outside the yacht club as the sun set.

Thursday

heading toward ashburton island then serrurier island. Eta exmouth tuesday. Onslow reminds me a lot of cooktown.

Wednesday

twixt north island and onslow. Whales chatting away beneath me.

Saturday

no wind, drifting towards mardie island, onslow is days away, exmouth at least a week.

yadirF

going backwards along fortescue road, near the river. Pleasant day nice to see hills. Seabreeze might bring some wind.

Thursday

cape preston. Great sail past regnard islands. All good.