Leg 1 - On the way

Someone has to do all the work.

Finally we threw off the ropes and headed to sea.  We left Mandurah at 5 am and set a course for Bunbury. Six hours of sailing and three hours of motoring later we arrived. On passage we saw many dolphins, drank heaps of tea and ate Mum's corned beef. Life just does not get better than this. It was all a bit of a blur as the hectic preparation finally took it's toll. We are wrecked, no not the boat - just us, we are wrecked. We plan to sleep and cuddle a lot; renew the bonds of friendship and increase our human water levels.


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At 0500 Sat 16th Nov we handed our mooring lines to the crew of Urchin and of Spinifex, then we were whistled off enthusiastically by B1. WEEEEEOOOO! WEEEEOOOO! Phew!

Can't believe we F I N A L L Y  did it!

The cast of Deliverance who occasionally occupied the houseboat in the adjacent pen must have got a shock at that hour. WEEEEEOOOO! WEEEEOOOO! WEEEEEOOOO! WEEEEOOOO! We certainly won't miss the sound of the sacks of ice and clanking of cases of beer that heralded their arrival every couple of weeks as they settled in to constructively utilise their leisure time every FIFO swing. It was always the overture to 48 hours of loud music, hacking coughing, guffawing laughter and animated eloquence "F" style!   F*&@ being the noun, verb, adjective and pronoun of choice... until inevitably they all passed out. Always just a matter of time really and luckily for us, they passed out by 10:30 pm on Friday night so we could get a bit of rest before setting off!

The day was quite benign with a gentle easterly ready to push us down the coast while we were heady with delight and amazement that we had got to this point. Thank you Neptune, we did need that! I was highly emotional for half the day while the Bloke, in King Julien character (AKA Madagascar), sang "You gotta Move It! Move It" to cheer me up.

The inevitable wind shift on the way to Bunbury was not for the usual block buster SW'ly sea breeze but for no wind at all so the Iron Donkey got us there in the end. We decided that the current although still sucking us along at 2-3 knots, was going to make the day too long.

A day of Firsts to follow the day of lasts! First cray pots (avoided), first dolphins, first flying fish, first Cape  (even if it was just Cape Bouvard); first fishing boat anchored on our pre-planned autopilot GoTo Waypoint (how do they always know we are coming!); first Seal which greeted us at the leads into Bunbury Harbour! A Diamond day to begin an adventure.

We are hoping that Urchin will 'Move it- Move it' too and get here ASAP. They are a part of this plan too.