Zofia - Sailing Adventures: Leg 17 - Streaky Bay to Sceale Bay

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Leg 17 - Streaky Bay to Sceale Bay

Streaky Bay was without doubt a perfect stopping point for our Bight crossing. We've had easy access to water on the jetty, fuel (choice of 3 garages but we liked Killa's the best), post office, 2 supermarkets (IGA and Foodland), a pharmacy, newsagency, butcher, bakery (yes, the Bloke did test the sausage rolls), banks, a Mitre 10 hardware, 3-4 hairdressers and even a lovely florist/ gift shop. There is also a Hospital. We visited the Streaky Bay Pub of course but our favorite place for eating was the Mocean waterfront restaurant/cafe with Margii and Hardy serving the best scones as well as exciting modern cuisine.

"Squawk! Come on, stop hogging all the space!" - the South Australian bird emblems pose for us on the edge of the caged ocean swimming pool. Oddly, some young folks pulled up behind us for a chat on the day we were flying the SA and WA ensigns. They wanted to know what "all that was about" as they pointed at the flags. They didn't recognise their own bird emblem and the swan on the WA ensign had them completely phased. What can you say?

Laundry was done at both the caravan park and the Shell garage 24hr launderette. The caravan park only charged $3.00 per wash and offered hot water washes while the Shell only had cold water and the wash cost $4.00. The caravan park had lots of drying lines with the usual deranged washing line Nazi's while the Shell only had dryers. However, the caravan park was a dinghy trip across to the other side of the jetty beyond the primary school and a long, long wade to the shore. Even though it cost more, I found the Shell launderette a less exhausting and time consuming option.

Not only did the town have all these facilities, the townsfolk were lovely and some friendships made. It is very pretty and sheltered from the brutality of The Bight but it is more of an estuarine setting than an ocean one. Very easy to get attached to the dock. Very seductive.

The Bloke hauled Maree up Urchin's mast for a birds eye view

We certainly didn't feel recovered within our first week, in fact, we didn't even go ashore for a couple of days after arriving. We were all in such a state of shock. Agreeing to stay 2 weeks was a 'no brainer' but the 3rd week crept up while waiting for deliveries. Easy Tiger had multiple items arriving and handily for them, their spare parts didn't all arrive on a single day and their repairs were achieved at the pace with which things arrived. For us, the delay was the arrival of updated Navionics electronic charts. Despite meticulous planning the Bloke had bought the electronic charts for Eastern Australia only for the iPad- our backup navigation. While the Raymarine chart plotter did have maps beyond the West Australian borders they didn't have the detail (depths for instance). The others needed their maps updated so an order was dispatched to a well known Chandler for 3 copies which we hoped would result in a saving on both price and postage. I think we managed all of 2% discount on the purchase, got scalped on the postage and then had to wait a L O N G time while they collected 3 of the items from their outlets across the country! The Bloke was in melt down long before the attempted installation which in the first instance necessitated an upgrade to our internet plan with a 12 hour wait while it was implemented. Next the ordeal of downloading the files - breaking a pin in the chip reader in the process and then having to endure the online interface (which is excruciatingly poorly written) resulting in an orchard of fruity language.

Once the maps were up-to-date all we needed to do was look for the appropriate weather. Saturday and Sunday looked good. We chose Saturday, the cats Sunday.