The Unexpected

Over to a new anchor spot for the night at North East Percy Island and off early the next morning.

The waves hitting Mingo

Listened to the weather by Thirsty Sound Coast guard and all pretty good with winds of 10-15, blowing up to 15-20 with gusts up to 25 in late morning.  We were out of North East Percy by 0700 hours and headed towards Curlew Island, which is amongst the Guard fish Island group.    The wind did seem a bit blowy but with a 2-hour trip a head we decided to carry on, as the waves and swell were not to bad, well they were not too bad for the first 30 minutes.  Then it began to swell up a bit and we were now motoring in amongst a good three-meter lot of waves, which were not giving peace.  As we are motoring along at a good 42km per hour, we are up on the waves and do come down with a bit of a jolt and a fair bit of wash coming over the front of Mingo and on the odd occasion spraying up into our faces on the fly bridge.  The swell was bad, but not like we had leaving Port Clinton. 

Another 30 minutes into the trip and Christie see’s this black flash from the corner of her eye, only to notice that our motorized push bike that we had securely cable tied with about 6 ties on the side of the boat, behind the short railing had now fallen overboard – “RIP Motorized push bike”.   The few bumpy rides we had been having since we last used the bike must have been wearing away the ties and the yes the bike is now lying as a bike wreck at the bottom of the ocean.  The bike sank straight away, so there was no chance to turn around and get it and also with the seas being so choppy, don’t think we would have seen it or risked it.   That was a very short-lived bike, at least we got a couple of rides of it, damn it.

Inside after a rough ride!!

We can now see Curlew Island in the distance and with about an hour to go we will be happy to motor in to the north west corner of the island to get out of this wind.  All of a sudden we hear this mighty clanging sound and see that the anchor has started falling on its own accord.  Jeez, this is definitely not what you want to happen when you are out at sea in 3 odd meter waves.  We tried switching off the chain motor on it but the clutch on it had loosened with all the banging from us wave hopping.  The anchor just went down and down and down into a depth of 20 meters, (our chain is only 30 meters) and the anchor grabbed the bottom, pulling us to a sudden halt.  We couldn’t do anything, the anchor would not come up again because of the clutch, we were rocking violently side to side.  There are a couple of dangers with this happening first being that the anchor could have hit so fast and hard that it could have snapped the front of the boat right off or it could have flung back at us and smashed a huge hole in the front.  We were lucky that neither of these things happened. 

Andrew is now kneeling on the bow trying to tightened the clutch up, all still in 3-4 meter waves, sending swirling in each direction as the anchor is down.  He is holding on for dear life so not to fall over board while trying to tighten it.  In the mean time, Christie is at the wheel trying to keep the boat facing the waves and not side waves to them, whilst also keeping her finger on the anchor switch, its still not coming up.  Andrew gives the clutch another turn and it finally tightens and the anchor slowing drags back up.  Phew, until Andrew is walking back around the side of the boat and slips.  He is OK but it’s a bit of a shock for us both, he was so close to falling in.  All now going well we motor into Curlew, once again on slight tender hooks, another not so pleasant trip.  We haven’t had too many but when we have then they seem to be real punishments.  

Curlew is supposed to be a really lovely island, but the weather is overcast and still windy, so the water not clear and the beach was not overly sandy.  Just think we have been spoilt now with the really nice islands.

We go to open the hatch in the cabin to let in some fresh air when we get to Curlew and find that the bed is soaking wet.  A big OOPS because we forgot to lock the hatch down before we left The Percys and as the waves were crashing over the bow the cabin has got soaked.   Now we really do have a water bed!!!  Sheets come off and hung out, Hatch now wide open and fingers crossed sun starts shining in so we can have a dry nights sleep……..

There were two other boats anchored at Curlew, one once again being Verve with Kerry and Toni, so we motored over to them in the tinny to say hi, then we headed to the beach to a little creek and decided to drop a crab pot to try our luck and also have a fish.   A little while later another couple Mark and Lisa and their dog Burley walked up, so we had a bit of a chat and  walk along the beach with them.    Mark and Lisa are on a 38-foot, motorboat called Camelot.

The swell in the bay here is pretty bad, everyone’s boats are rocking and it looks as though we are all going to have a tough night.

Kerry and Toni invite us over for dinner at around 1800 hours, so we accept and enjoy a lovely evening on their boat with a delicious curry for dinner.  Was very nice and the company great, we had a few laughs and chatted the early evening away.  It’s great being able to meet new people whilst doing this trip and we have met some great couples. 

Christie was up most of the night with the swell, of course Andrew being such a heavy sleeper, slept through it all.  When we spoke to the others the following morning they also were up a fair bit of the night as their boats were also rocking.  That morning Andrew put the rear anchor out and this stabilised us a lot for the following day and night.

Mark and Andrew pulling in bait net

Spanish Mackeral

Fish caught in the bait net.

Christie made a few curry puffs for lunch and a cake for afternoon tea, then Mark came over in his tinny in the morning and asked if we wanted to have a go at his net fishing.  So later that morning we headed over to the beach with Mark and Lisa.  Christie and Lisa chatted and watched on the beach whilst Mark pulled the 12 meter long net with weights in the bottom with his tinny and Andrew held the other end and they tried to make an arc with the net as it dragged along the bottom and pulled it back into shore.  We couldn’t believe it, the net was full of about 100 Garfish and a good size Spanish mackerel.  We were all so excited, pulled the Garfish out and but them in buckets then the boys gave it another go.  Second time round Andrew and Mark pulled in another 130 or so Garfish.  It was brilliant to watch.  These fish are quite small with the average size of just over a foot long and have a bluey colour.  They are good to use as bait fish but also have a sweet taste to eat, although have little bones.  After such a good catch, we decided that dinner tonight will be a fire on the beach with fish.

Andrew preparing the Garfish

"The Catch"

Andrew cooking the catch

Andrew, Chris, Toni, Mark and lisa

Kerry, Toni, Mark, Chris and Lisa on Curlew Island

So early evening Andrew, Christie, Kerry, Toni, Mark and Lisa head over to the beach in our separate tinnies and Mark kindly lights the fire.  We then sit around the fire for most of the evening with a few wines and beers and cook the mackerel and Gar.  The mackerel was absolutely delicious, wrapped in foil with butter and lemon and cooked on the fire.  The Gar we put on a hot plate and bbq’d them.  We had another great evening and really enjoyed everyone’s company; a lot of laughs were had.

Before heading to bed, we headed over to Mark and Lisa’s boat, and they kindly showed us around Camelot.  Wow, what a great motorboat, the 8-foot difference from inside their boat to Mingo makes such a difference in space. It really had so much more room to move.  We are feeling slightly jealous and now wondering what we will be buying next.

To bed late that night and up early the following morning we listen to VMR Mackay weather and decide that the 10-15 knot winds should be OK to travel in.  Toni and Kerry also decide to leave this morning so they follow us out around the rocks.  We motor off in the distance at a speed of 27 knots whilst they set up sail at 8 knots.