Crew life on the Abrolhos

VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Mon 20 Jul 2015 23:30
The VS crew spent a week in the Wallabi Group, partially by design and partly waiting for weather to go north (a common experience on the WA coast in winter, it turns out). And life must go on, no matter how arduous it gets.
Here is Ali, setting out on her inflatable SUP (stand-up paddleboard, for non-initiates), braving the sharks:


We’re a bit far north for Great Whites now as they prefer cooler water, but Tiger sharks and Bronze Whalers are about, and there is a sealion colony here to provide regular food. But we reckon we’re safe - almost all attacks involve either people spearfishing, or else surfers doing their best to fool sharks (which have very poor eyesight) into believing that they are a sealion.
Here is the northern tip of East Wallabi with almost all of what passes for civilisation in these parts:


There is a shelter (on the right) here to provide respite from the scorching summer heat, and a toilet (on the left) - provided for the few day trippers who fly out here by charter aircraft to do the snorkel trail on the coral reef just off the beach. In the distance you can just see a small figure sitting down on the hill. 
Here he is in close-up:


This is the office. The hill at 15m is just high enough to enable cellphone reception, which means The Internet! So this is your correspondent holding the phone-to-wifi puck in one hand (to keep it out of the sand) while operating the iPad with the other. Simples!

And Jenny, seizing the chance during some nice weather to polish parts of the rig not normally reached (note the use of a toothbrush - a proper job is required when polishing stainless on VS):