Zofia - Sailing Adventures: Leg 23 - Port Lincoln to Port Vincent

We made a few excursions since arriving at a Port Lincoln but we are not counting them as steps in our journey. The Sir Joseph Banks Group, Tumby Bay and Memory Cove were just side trips. A trip to Port Vincent however counts as the 'real deal'.

I found myself being fired out of a cannon again. 0800 is not an early start in the scheme of things but while I was down below putting on my sea boots I was shocked to hear B1's bosun's whistle and then noticed Urchin's profile starting to slide past the porthole! What the heck! The Bloke was watching me with great amusement knowing this would startle me, and he was right.

We loved Port Lincoln so much we decided to take a part if it with us. We brought Miles with us, well as far as Port Vincent anyway. With his gear already stowed, the Bloke and Miles started loosening the mooring lines and finding everything completely still, it made sense to them to just push off. So, no more hugs for me from our traveling family of Urchin and Easy Tiger; we were off in the blink of an eye. It was as much as I could manage to get these snaps.

Miles with some lines already coiled

A smile n'waive from B1 and Maree

Notice our suddenly vacant pen!

A smile n'waive from Leanne and a salute from Steve

Men with the pilchards.

Empris Lady, who we'd watched pass by us morning and evening going out to feed the fishies in its fish pens, found our speed too slow and pulled out to pass.

We began the morning with a guided tour of the bay, the fish pens near to Boston Island are not tuna pens but king fish pens. Now we know. There is an albino kangaroo that lives near Point Donnington. Miles' grandfather used to tend the light house there. A lone emu inhabits one of the islands (Lewis, Little, Taylor... not sure?) Nobody knows how it got to be there or why it's alone, but in any case it's gone mad and exhibits extreme behaviour. Who has visited it to find this out we wonder? Lots of local stories such as the one about a fishing boat running aground straight up and onto a sandy beach while on autopilot and miraculously missing 2 rocky headlands etc .. were told adding even more colour to an area into which we'd already stitched some of our own memories. Wonderful stuff.

A rainbow settles over the Donnington Lighthouse

With some cloud and showers about in the tail end of the cold front, we nosed our way out of Spencer Gulf to the east of Thistle Island enjoying flashes of rainbows here and there that sometimes made the horizon look to be on fire. The swell picked up and put us on a good heal as we all inhaled the breeze, relieved that we'd once again defied the gravitational pull of the wharf and gone to sea. 16 knots of wind from our starboard quarter set us on our way. Gradually as we left the shelter of the Gulf there was enough swell to have me gnawing on my ginger snap biscuits to quell mal de mare!

Last glimpse of Port Lincoln. Sweet, sweet memories!

Evidence of the industry focused on catching & tending the fish in readiness for harvest.

Is one of those boats the Empris Lady or the Lady M?

Miles at the helm surveying the waters he knows so well.

It was a pleasure to witness his extremely apparent enjoyment

Our mission was to get past Cape Spencer before nightfall. Given that the winter solstice was barely a week behind us, we were very much on the clock with a short day and miles to cover, so we motor sailed if wind alone would no deliver us 5 knots speed over ground. Miles, like the racer he is, made sure that the sails were trimmed like never before, ensuring that we slipped through the obstacle course between Cape Spencer, Althorpe Island and the "haystacks" (Haystack Is and Seal Island) before dusk.

We had logged on with Garry at Tumby Bay VMR (VHF 81) before we left and were to contact him when we got to Cape Spencer. We tried to make contact just before, when we were passing West Cape but too late because reception was already unavailable in the conditions. We were probably called on the Gary's evening Sched but it was too scratchy so we called Carol at American River, Kangaroo Island (VHF 21 and 80), to find that Garry had already forwarded our details and we were "expected"! Carol checked up on us at 2000 just before she was turning in and we were about 20nm west of Troubridge Pt. She radio'd again at 0700 the next morning. The VMR's are brilliant!

Last view of Thistle Island.

We would have liked to have visited Whalers Cove or had a close view of its tall cliffs.

Miles said the cliffs were used for target practice during WWII and bits and pieces of ordinance are still found!

To be on the safe side, we elected a path outside of the Sultana Passage. We'd seen it from the air en route to Perth in April and it reinforced the notion that 'Aye - Them there be dangerous shoals" even if we did have a virtual local on board. Miles is a veteran of many Adelaide to Linclon races. In any case, we didn't see the benefit of arriving at Port Vincent any earlier than first light and ended up not only taking a wide sweep past Edithburgh but also slowing the motor down to barely a tick while we rushed up the Gulf of St Vincent with barely a breath of breeze on the morning tide!

The dawn sky in the direction of Adelaide.

Notice the clouds pushed up against the land. The thin wispy mid-level stuff that caught my attention must have been a part of the heavy fog Adelaide experienced that morning.