22nd Feb 2024
Rockingham to Two Rocks.
Well the boat hasn't moved off the mooring for almost two years so it's back to Two Rocks marina for a haul out, bottom paint and an attempt at the repair or replace list.
New crew V-Man wears a suitably communist coloured windcheater whilst waving to a Submarine that steamed past us. You'll have to zoom.
Always wave and act friendly when they have guns.
The haul out was planned to take 10 days. Then the painter who was looking after my bottom injured his back and took two weeks off. (The bottom of the boat(groan)) I was committed to other stuff so couldn't do it myself. In the end I gave him a back support and a cup of cement.
Splash back was due on the 4th April and then the boat-lift broke down...
A planned 10 days ended up over 50 days.
As the boat has been ignored for 2 years, I really wanted to do some trials and see what else needed doing before we headed off... It looks like it's going to be fixing things along the way. Just like normal then...
7th May 2024
Two Rocks marina...
Better late than never. Everyone on the dock came down to watch the first boat go back in for a month. I think they might have been making sure that I was gone and would no longer be interrupting their work.
8th May 2024
Two Rocks to Green Islands.
Too easy...
The BOF is back baby!
Now you know why he's called The V-Man..
9th to 10th May 2024
Green Islands
Hunkered down for some strong winds.
We went for a snorkel to visit the seals on the Island.
Checking out if the stove still works..Making scones
V-Man marking his first pair of glasses lost overboard.
Mandatory sunset pic
Trying to take night time pictures on a boat is almost impossible. This is important to explain for a later photo. Exposure time and boat movement means that everything comes out fuzzy. Here's the best I could do of the night sky on an absolutely picture perfect night sky. 
You just had to be there.
11th May 2024
Green Islands to Port Denison.
Passage Planing is a craft that is practiced everyday on a boat. In my case I sometimes think I'm still sticking felt shapes on cardboard as I can't be trusted with the scissors. This was one of those days...
You always have a plan and an alternative plan and an alternative, alternative plan and.... You get the idea.
Plan A:
Let's motor from Green Islands leaving at 2am and see if the wind picks up as predicted. If that happens we could be in the Abrolhos by lunchtime on the 13th May.
This plan was going well. Even a bonus when the Corona Event (Borealis) started at 4am. V-Man came out of the cabin and remarked that the sun was coming up early. A quick check confirmed that it was also coming up from the South! You've probably seen numerous photos that people have posted online but they all pale into insignificance compared to what we saw out in the clean ocean sky on moonless night. Once in a lifetime opportunity...
I will post the photo I took from my phone but as I said before...
you just had to be there
As the sun came up the temperature warning for the starboard motor goes off. So we went to...
Plan B.
I idled it down and the alarm went off. Now the motor is under the double bed. To get full access to the motor this has to happen...
A quick check that nothing is leaking and it is still running cool if I keep the revs down. Is it something wrapped around the intake? The only way to check this is to dive under the boat. As we were just going past Jurien Bay I would pull in there and anchor near the jetty. Just in case I needed anything from the hardware shop and by then it will be light enough to see under the water without a torch.
After a dive and finding nothing blocking the intake we come up with...
Plan C
We'll keep the overheating motor off and just use it for anchoring and we can still at least get to Geraldton tonight so that we properly fix it. It'll be late when we get there but I've got a good track to use to get in during the night time. Should be no problem...
The motor that overheated also overheated the hot water system. This caused the relief valve to open and sprayed hot water over the connections for the Autopilot causing that to stop working. It also emptied out our fresh water tanks.
It also blew the fresh water pump.
One problem leads to a cascade of other problems. This is why aircraft fall out of the sky... an accumulation of little problems. It happens on boats too.
After reattaching the auto pilot, saving what water we could salvage from the tanks and cleaning the bilges we limped on. About sunset I noticed that the port feul tank guage hadnt moved scince leaving. It was showing over half but was there any fuel in it? The starboard tank was showing close to empty...
Plan D
Headed in to Port Dennison to tie up to the service dock to refuel in the morning.
We arived 20 hours after leaving. A very "interesting" day.
Cruising is not all about sitting on at anchor sipping cocktails. Some days you deserve a drink or three.
12th May 2024
Port Dennison to Geraldton.
No wind until we are due in Geralton so a perfect opportunity to troll a lure.
Man with a fish... 1200mm Spanish Mackeral. From now on I will call him Juan.
Spent a couple of hours butchering and freezing cutlets. That Machete comes in handy.
We have about 20 kg of fish on board now so we will have to get rid of half of it or we will be over the boat limit at the Abrollus Islands.
Here come some fish recipes.
Safely tied up at the Geraldton Marina.
13th to 17th May 2024
Lots of organizing parts and and cooking fish. Thanks to V-Man's friend Roley for driving us around and putting on a really huge feast with a real BBQ.
BBQ with a view
And a night view.
Roley joins us for an onboard feed. (Bits of marinated Juan of course)
V-Man starts to get inventive and has kicked me out of the kitchen.
A clean heat exchanger.
$90 for Four O rings. Thanks Volvo!
18th May 2024.
Geraldton to the Pelsart island group. I have finally made it to the Abrolhos! Not without some dramas from the diesel gods. Great sail in the morning with the wind from the northeast. 6 to 7 Knots after stopping to rescue the bean bag. We are getting better at our man overboard retrieval.
The diesel bug resurfaced when we ran the port motor after the wind died off in the afternoon. I love changing fuel filters in sloppy swell.(Not)
Ended up modifying and hooking up the polishing filter to the starboard motor. Should do the same for both engines.
There's not much in the way of fishing here. It's a huge shallow bay.
Time to move on...
20th May 2024
Pelsart to Middle Islands.
Middle Island is where the soldiers from the Batavia wreck first headed to get away from the mutineers.
What a desolate place
Now a sea eagle nest.
There it is...
21st May 2024
Middle to Morley island.
Across the channel to The Easter Group. Good to be heading North again.
We are moored about 50m from a coral outcrop. I'll call it the The Galleria!(Morley Island. Get it?)
So close even I donned the snorkeling gear, armed with the camera I followed around the hunter gatherer...
A few stills. The first time using the underwater camera...
Just too small for dinner!
Morley Island snaps...
22nd May 2024
Morley Island to Turtle Bay
We had a look at the moorings at White Island and thought that they looked a bit too open so just headed on to The Wallaby group.
Most of the other moorings were taken but there were six free ones in Turtle Bay.
A walk to the top of the hill.
The tuna became sashimi.
23rd and 24th May 2024
Overnight passage from Turtle Bay to Shelter Bay(Entrance to Shark Bay)
24 hours of motoring to get here before the wind picks up on Sunday. Really uneventful trip.. which is a good thing. Joined by a pod of dolphins in 70meters of water in the middle of nowhere...
Went for a snorkel in a small bay on Dirk Hartog Island opposite Shelter Bay.
Visibility was a bit hit and miss but V-Man manage to catch us dinner.
26th May 2024
Shelter Bay to Denham.
Have ordered some spare fuel filters which should be here shortly. We will fill the tanks before hopefully setting off on the next half to Exmouth by Wednesday. On a mooring so I'll finish with the mandatory sunset picture.
