Another Day at Bremer Bay, WA

After a reasonably long nap, we were up and about, but not anxious to launch the dinghy or go to shore. It seemed like too much work. Instead, David spent some time working on the galley stove. The gimbal pin had not sheared off as we'd feared, but rather the hefty machine screw that holds the pin in place had come loose. He had to remove the stove and dismantle the side of it to be able to replace the screw, which he did. It's swinging and swaying once again just as it should. The loose screw was actually “missing in action”. We've yet to find it, but midst the 50 pounds of screws, washers and nuts David has stowed aboard, there was a replacement. I'm sure we'll find the missing screw when we're barefoot one night.  

We'd only planned to spend the night here before heading out, but the forecasts didn't quite agree. In fact, five different forecasts provided five different scenarios. The BOM (Australia's Bureau of Meterology) was calling for NE to SE, clocking to SW, then backing NE to NW … not good for sailing west and definitely not good for finding an anchorage that could accommodate all those possible wind directions. Predict Wind was calling for NW winds; another source called for NE winds, while BuoyWeather forecast S/SE … all for the same area in the same timeframe. Obviously, no one really knew what was going to happen with the low that was moving east. If they couldn't agree, the heck with them.

Though the anchorage had a bit of a roll when we arrived, it was certainly tolerable. Not so, however, as the night progressed. Light north winds had us parallel to the shore and broadside to the swell. We rocked and rolled the whole, long night through, murmuring harsh words every now and then as something slid or crashed and required us to get up. The anchor alarm sounded about every two hours, adding to the misery. We weren't dragging, just moving around on our leash as the wind directions changed. We survived despite my whinging.

The wind direction changed to SW and we've been “good as” ever since, quite comfortable and able to nap to our heart's content without too much wave action to disturb our rest.

And here we are another day later, still in Bremer Bay and still we have not launched the dinghy to go ashore. There are things going on ashore … a caravan park, a general store, folks coming to and from the beach and vehicles driving along the beach. I'm sure we could participate in all the activity, but honestly, we're just too lazy.

Oh, no, that's not it. A better excuse? David just slapped another patch on the dinghy bottom and it has to cure for at least 24 hours before being immersed in salt water again. Yeah, that's our story and we're sticking to it.