Making Plans...Keeping to Schedules

 

Most people think that living on a boat and sailing around the world is a pretty carefree life. Oh sure, there are the maintenance issues, but for the most part, we can come and go as we please. It's really not so. Our passages are most times governed by weather and the season. Currently, our plans include crossing the Great Australian Bight (GAB). It needs to be timed to catch the east winds that will take us across and now's the season for the easterlies.

As much as we'd like to dawdle longer at Kangaroo Island (KI), we need to get a move-on. We put together a schedule which will allow us to stop at a few ports along the way, but we're reluctant to deviate much from the plan. The 600 nm passage across the GAB is not trivial. It's an open Southern Ocean passage with no place to stop in between. This span of the Western Australia southern coast offers no ports and few safe havens. Sailing during a good weather window is crucial. The window extends through March, but if we miss the window, it evaporates quickly into predominant westerlies until next austral Spring.

So, our itinerary after KI? Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsular for a week, Streaky Bay for a few days, perhaps Ceduna on the east end of the GAB, and then a crossing at first opportunity. We're hoping to be across to the Recherche Archipelago and Esperance by mid-late March.

Then we start planning all over again for the trip around Cape Leeuwin, one of the Great Southern Capes, and the passage up Australia's west coast and eventually across the Indian Ocean. We're looking at a great year ahead of us!

Arrival at Kangaroo Island

 

Kangaroo Island (known simply as KI by the locals) is Australia's third-largest island after Tasmania and Melville Island. It's only about 70 nm from Port Adelaide, but we split it into two days with an overnight anchorage in a tiny little inlet beside the golden hills at Myponga … gotta get our sea legs back. The night in Myponga anchorage was calm and pleasant, despite the the rain that continued to fall. A grey, wet morning greeted us and though we were anxious to move on, we had to convince ourselves to get up and get going.

The 12-15 knot SE winds that were forecast never materialized and we motor sailed most of the way with light winds and a complaining jib. The few dolphins we saw were working and had no time for playing with us. We watched some sea birds arguing vehemently over a fish. We hugged the coastline, watching the blades of the wind turbines on Salt Creek Hill spin, wishing we had a bit more of the wind they were taking advantage of. Visibility was poor and as we crossed the strait between KI and the mainland, we could still barely see our destination. Fog, mist and a hazy outline of what could potentially be an island lay before us.

We chose the more protected northern coast and anchored in Eastern Cove just outside of American River. The entrance to American River is narrow and shallow with a strong current based on the tide state. Local knowledge (Carol at KI Radio) advised waiting till the top of the high tide to enter. There were, however, no moorings for our size boat available inside and the anchorage was reputedly grassy with poor holding. We opted to stay in calm Eastern Cove where the holding in sand was good. That meant a longer dinghy ride to town, but it was preferable to dragging at anchor in a strong current.

The timing was not ideal because of the fridge compressor delay. The biggest event on the island is the Kangaroo Island Cup. We do enjoy horse racing, and we knew the event was soon, but lost track of the fact it was happening on this particular weekend. That accounted for no moorings available in American River, lots of tourists (as if we're not), no rental cars available for hire on our inquiry and limited tour availability. Our choices: 1) delay the visit another week, 2) see less, but at least see some of the island or 3) skip KI altogether. Having snagged a KI travel guide from the Visitor's Info in Adelaide, we made up our minds to see what we could see in the time available.

It was the British explorer, Matthew Flinders, who named the island “Kanguroo” in 1802 after the grey kangaroos he and his crew found here and feasted upon when they arrived. American River is neither American nor is it a river. It was named after American sealers who arrived in 1803 and camped along side what they thought was a river, though it's actually an inlet from the sea. Today it's a small fishing village midst native bushland. There are more Tammar wallabies in the area than people (~250), we're told. We're hoping to explore tomorrow and find out for ourselves.

As for our Valentine's Day celebration ... a fine chicken dinner (no fish, no crabs), champers, a movie (Love Actually) and a shared chocolate bar for dessert. Life is good.

And They're Off...

 

We were awake on and off all night, anxious to start the day and a new passage. We still had a few chores to do before we left like topping off the water tanks and making the last trash disposal run. We readied for departure, cast off the dock lines and slipped out of the berth into the millpond calm marina channel. Richard and Adrienne popped their heads out and shouted goodbye. Dolphins accompanied us down the channel … a sailor's good luck sign.

It was overcast and grey, cool with intermittent showers which drenched us at times. There was no dampening our spirits though. Before I knew it, we were out of the cut and into the Gulf of St. Vincent. I was stowing fenders and coiling up lines.

David found the bottle of rum and we paid homage to Neptune, thanking him for his past protection of ship and crew and asking him to continue to oversee us on this new passage from Adelaide to Perth. We were smiling at each other like kids in a candy store. David looked relaxed and pleased to be at the helm again. Nine of Cups is back at sea.