The Eyre Peninsular drops astern as the swells of the southern ocean

roll in.  We then rolled off 96 miles in the next 12 hours!  Our first night.

 

 

 

 "We set sail from Bristol May 4, 1699 ......... (and) in our
   passage from thence to the East Indies we were driven by
   a violent storm to the north west of Van Diemen's Land.
   By an observation we found ourselves in latitude of
   30 degrees 2 minutes south."

                             Jonathon Swift - Gulliver's Travels

So is Swift's description of the site of Lilliput. In reality where the Bight becomes the Nullarbor plain.

 

Our landfall coincided with my 60th birthday and as we dropped the hook in the weird surroundings of Keyhole Cove, Middle Island we celebrated in style.  Annette had actually been feeling rather seasick as we came in across the Continental shelf  but she soon perked up and produced a lovely cold lunch of smoked salmon and trout plus avocado salad which was washed down with a good bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.  Keyhole Cove has steep sides that have over the centuries been worn into a collection of caves.  Here a band of pirates apparently lived in the 19th century.  Today it is impossible to climb the sides of the cove so with the brisk northerly wind that had caused us to come into this anchorage dying we motored round to the more commonly used anchorage off the northern beaches.  Here after some trouble we got the anchor in through the weed and a magic evening followed.  The sun set slowly over Flinder's mountain highlighting the pink granite. The white sand of the beach sparkled and Annette produced an excellent supper.  Two happy tired sailors slept well and calls of nature during the night showed us a million stars and a gentle breeze from off the shore.   Perfection.  The Bight was behind us and the islands and coves of this archipelago were in front of us.

 

 

Middle Island Beach with Flinder's mountain in the distance

 

 

Next morning we went ashore and found the pink lake that the island is famous for.  We also walked a short way into the giant bush and out onto the rock on the way to Flinders.

 

Giant scrub bush

 

An old rainwater catchment presumably used by the whalers who

used to use the island as a resting spot.

 

Annette by the brackish waters of the Pink Lake

 

 

During the next few days we experienced both phenomena that this coast is known for.  Firstly difficulty in getting an anchor to go through the grass that covers most of the sea bed and then to dig into the very hard sand crust underneath the grass.  Locals tend to use and old fashioned Admiralty pattern anchor on which they file the flukes down and the points to a very sharp state.  We did not have such a beast. Secondly we found ourselves sailing along with an brisk offshore breeze that felt like being in a draughty oven to three minutes later a  quite cool breeze out of the south  This produced, apart from some rapid sail resetting, a fantastic series of mirages as the cold air worked its way under the hot.

 

The Delta anchor after one anchorage

 

In reality these are low lying islands some ten miles away.  I have a whole set of such photos

showing some very strange affects of the cold/hot air mix.

 

 

I am writing this tied up to the public dock in Esperance.  Another fairly sleepy small town based round a port through which is exported some 4 million tonnes of grain a year and shortly will be the scene of the export of many tonnes of semi refined nickel ore. This is going to be taken out in containers for two reasons.  One it is very valuable but secondly the ships on which it leaves are due to sail through the Great Barrier Reef on the way to Townsville and final refining.  Should a disaster happen the ore is much less likely to cause irreparable pollution if sealed in containers.

 

The reason that I know all this is that we met the chief of the port facilities in the Yacht Club and he and his charming wife very kindly had us to a dinner party on their farm last night.

 

So as you can see our cruise down round the south coast of Australia is being one of varied experiences but the warmth of the people we have met and the magnificent and fascinating scenery have made us very glad that we chose to come this way.  I will write a final episode from Fremantle where we hope to lay up Nordlys and come home for some months.

 

Happy times to all readers

David and Annette