Sceale to Streaky... a fine, fine day

 

Another beautiful sunrise in Sceale Bay, but I won't bore you with the details. A small pod of dolphins, six to eight of them, gave us a royal send-off. Beautiful sunrises … dolphins … there must be more to life … but honestly, who cares?

A short run today, ~40 nm from Sceale to Streaky Bay. David's fishing lines were out early. 15 knots of SE winds had us broad reaching once again. We sailed well offshore watching huge rollers pound the reefs and coastline. This is a good surfing area, but not for sailboats. Even two miles away, we could hear the thunderous surf as it crashed ashore. A haze of mist surrounded the little indented bays along the coast, a residual spray from the combers that died there.

Today was an “I don't really care if I get there” sort of day. Though the winds were light, the following seas kept us moving along fast enough to insure we'd be anchored in Streaky Bay by dark. Just being out here, sailing along on a brilliantly sunny day was such a joy. No hurry … no worries … everyt'ing irie, mon! It was warm in the morning sun. We shed our layers of clothing piece by piece. Saying goodbye to our heavy foul weather jackets was particularly satisfying.

As we turned the corner into Streaky Bay, the winds disappeared and the engine came alive. We wended our way along the circuitous channel to the anchorage at Blanche Port avoiding well-marked shoals, rocks and reefs.

We passed Pigface Island to port, much to my delight, and I wondered if perhaps the name came from the native flower. We still haven't figured out the “Streaky” in Streaky Bay, but we'll ask when we get ashore.

We thought we might have arrived in Eden … very close to heaven. The water is aquamarine blue, clear to the bottom and duckpond calm. The town spreads out nicely along the foreshore with a long jetty extending out that seems to be popular with local fishermen. The breeze keeps the wind gen spinning and it's pleasantly cool. Everything we've heard about Streaky Bay has been positive. Other cruisers have loved it here. We're anxious to go ashore and explore. The four must do's are fuel, water, laundry and food. The engine needs some attention and then there's sightseeing to be done. That's three days and then we're looking for a weather window to cross the Bight.

We anchored just off the jetty, near two catamarans and a monohull and we were wondering who else was visiting Streaky. It didn't take long for a dinghy to stop by. All three anchored boats are traveling together, it seems, and had just come from Perth … across the Great Australian Bight. Maree and Brian on “Urchin” came aboard for a quick, friendly chat. They're heading east … we're heading west. Sounds like lots of stories and information to share in the near future. “Morning tea” is set at 1030 tomorrow on their cat. You're invited. We thought we'd bring brownies.