New Friends in Port Lincoln

 

Port Lincoln is a very friendly town, but we had the added benefit of having friends in Adelaide who had friends in Port Lincoln who didn't mind playing host to a couple of American yachties. Jo and Philip were friends before we even met them. We had a couple of parts we needed to order, but no address to which to send them. They had no problem accepting and holding onto the parcels until we arrived and thus their friendly hospitality began before Nine of Cups ever entered Boston Bay.

We rang Jo when we arrived and had an invitation to lunch before we could say “we're from Nine of Cups”. She was expecting us. Philip was sailing his boat, Lady Oz, down from Port Broughton during the same time and arrived later in the evening, anchoring not far away. It was also the finish of the Adelaide to Port Lincoln race, so it was a busy time in the bay as boats crossed the finish line.

We planned to meet our new friends at 1pm for lunch which gave us time to do three loads of laundry at the local laundromat and still have time to stop by the Port Lincoln Yacht Club which had generously invited us to the festivities following the yacht race.

The day was glorious … warm and sunny … and the local Farmer's Market was in full swing. People sat at tables enjoying Venus Bay prawns, local wines, fresh produce and other local delights.

Jo and Philip picked us up at the jetty and whisked us away to Jo's family home overlooking Boston Bay. We could see the entire harbor and Nine of Cups from their dining room. Lunch was lovely and the conversation was easy as we got to know each other. There is probably no better compliment to us nor better experience than to be invited into someone's home.

They invited us for a drive around the area and how could we refuse? Jo's knowledge of the history and geography of Port Lincoln and environs is wonderful and added so much to our appreciation of the area. We drove over to the Lincoln Cove Marina, a yacht marina, as well as the home of the largest commercial fishing fleet in the southern hemisphere.

A drive to the top of the Winter Hill Lookout netted us even more spectacular views of Boston Bay, Boston Island and beyond.

We continued on past Sleaford Mere, a brackish lake named by Matthew Flinders, onto a gravel road which took us to land's end at Sleaford Bay for outstanding views of the Southern Ocean, a taste of where we would be sailing in just a few days.

Wandering around Port Lincoln

One of our favorite things to do in a new port is to wander around … sometimes aimlessly. It's a good way to figure out the lay of the land and to spot unique aspects of the town that we might not usually see. For instance, if we hadn't been wandering around in Port Lincoln, we might not have seen the Flinders Theatre … built in 1929 … and still operating as a movie theater or the Flinder's Arch on Tasman Terrace. Matthew Flinders visited Port Lincoln around this time of year in 1802 and actually named it and the bays around here  

The Port Lincoln downtown area is not very large, so getting lost was not a serious concern. We beached the dinghy at the friendly Port Lincoln Yacht Club then walked up Tasman Terrace along the shore of Boston Bay. Nine of Cups was looking pretty fine anchored in the bay and we couldn't resist taking a few pix.

We spotted a life-sized bronze statue of a horse along the foreshore which, of course, piqued our interest. Tony Santic, the owner of Makybe Diva, a three-time Melbourne Cup winner, is a Croatian fisherman from Port Lincoln and the town commissioned the bronze in honor of what the brochures call his “supermare”.

We noted that the town jetty seemed a popular place for local fishermen to throw out a line. There was also a protected swim area since the area is known for its great white shark population.

There was no dearth of opportunities to cage dive with great white sharks, swim with tunas, swim with sea lions and swim with dolphins. We had no inclination to do this. Hmm …. get into a cage, flash some bait and wait for great white sharks to come visiting AND pay $500AUD/pp for the pleasure. We find other ways to get our adrenaline rushes.

We chose to walk up Adelaide Street for no particular reason other than it connected with Liverpool Street which seemed to be the home of all the supermarkets in town. A tree along the street was teeming with squawking birds and as luck would have it, they were ring-necked parrots aka the Port Lincoln parrot, a new bird to tick off our list. I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a good pic, but I nicked one from Wiki to introduce you to this handsome bird.

There are three good sized supermarkets here, all along Liverpool Street, each offering mostly the same stuff, but all offering just a few things different. Woolworths (aka Wooly's here and nothing to do with the old Woolworth's 5 & 10, if you're old enough to remember that) had a free Vegemite poster with each Vegemite purchase. Wow! Unfortunately, we had sufficient supply of Vegemite on board from our last tasting, so we missed out on the freebie. They also offered Kanga-Bangas … we hesitated on this one, but eventually decided to give it a pass as well.

All in all, we have found Port Lincoln to be a pleasant little town with all the amenities we could ask for, a great anchorage and friendly people. Tomorrow, we meet some new friends for lunch and we're looking forward to it.

Anchorage in West Cape, Yorke Peninsula

 

Up before daylight again. We heard the patter of raindrops on the hatch above us. The wind and sea calmed during the night and we slept well. It was cold as I put the kettle on for morning tea and dragged out our weathers/foulies (foul weather jacket and bibs). With so many 40+C days (100+F) days in Adelaide, I'd packed away our heavy socks, gloves and watch caps, but I dug them out this morning.

We were anchor up just after 0600, mainsail luffing, and motoring out of Emu Bay in calm waters with nearly no wind. Once out of the lee of the bay, the wind picked up to a reasonable SW 12-15 and we were sailing west, main and jib full, into the Investigator Straits. The rain cleared, the sun came up and we ate our oatmeal relishing the day.

It was an on again/off again kind of day with the wind: sometimes no wind, then a little wind, just the right amount of wind and way too much wind interspersed with rain squalls. Sometimes wonderful; sometimes uncomfortable. We sailed past Althorpe Island with its stately lighthouse and wondered about the volunteer caretakers that might be living there. Cape Spencer Light on the mainland was too far away to appreciate.

We found the passage between Althorpe and the mainland, a natural channel between several shoal patches just off the mainland and some rugged offshore reefs and rocks which signaled their positions with huge breaking waves. With Kangaroo Island no longer providing protection from the Southern Ocean's southwest swells, the rollers increased in size and the ride became more bumpy. As if to mark the entry into Southern Ocean waters, white, graceful mollymawks and muttonbirds made their welcome entrance, ocean birds we hadn't seen in quite awhile.

We could distinguish West Cape jutting out in the distance, its solitary metallic lighthouse gleaming in the late day sun. We ran a slalom course trying to avoid the mass of craypot floats that were laid out in our path. Though it might have provided dinner, dragging a craypot behind us would have definitely hindered our speed. Sailing in Maine came to mind immediately.

We hauled in the jib, doused the main and made our tumultuous entrance into the West Cape anchorage. Well-protected from the south and east, we were hoping the waters behind the Cape would be free of the southwest swell that prevailed. The entrance, however, is through some rather large rollers, reminding us of entering some South Pacific atolls we've visited.

West Cape is more of a local fisherman's refuge, no facilities, but a reasonable overnight layover in the right winds. The high, golden sandstone walls are heavily eroded from time and weather and there are thousands of tiny caves and crevices which seemed to attract the local swallow population. Sure enough, once we plowed through the rough entrance, the water calmed to near still.

We dropped the hook in 14' of good holding sand, set it well and gave a sigh of fatigue as we tidied lines and prepared for tomorrow morning's repeat performance. We grabbed a drink and sat in the cockpit appreciating our surroundings. It's amazing how tired you can get from not doing much at sea. Tomorrow … on to Port Lincoln.