Our day out and TV interview

Attractive Princess Royal Sailing Club

We had a busy last week at Princess Royal Sailing Club. It started with another water leak. We heard a bang (always disconcerting when you’re on a boat) and a sound like an engine running nearby. No boats were nearby. We realised it was the domestic water pump and one water tank had emptied into the bilges. Another pipe had popped off close to the water pump. Jeremy fixed it and we filled the tank from the nearby tap. Just an inconvenience when you are tied up in a marina, but a major incident out at sea with no water maker.

Castle Rock Sky Walk

The next day was our granddaughter Ellie’s birthday. We sent her a video message and spoke to her on a video call later.

Jason and Pauline asked us if we’d like to join them on a drive to Castle Rock about 45 minutes away from Albany. Restrictions had been lifted, so it was okay for us to go. We had a great day, walking to the top of Castle Rock with a challenging set of handholds followed by a ladder that led to a skywalk on the top. The views were amazing across the land and out as far as the Southern Ocean.

We had lunch sitting at a table outside a bakery in Denmark, maintaining social distance. The steak and mushroom pie I had was delicious and equalled any I’d had in the pie capital of the UK, Wigan.

Viewpoint Ocean Beach

After lunch we drove to a viewpoint over Ocean Beach, where the surf was breaking and a handful of people walked on the white sand. Once upon a time the river met the sea here, but now it stops in Wilson Inlet, which is a large lake.

All this was thirsty work, so we stopped at Wilson’s Brewery pub for refreshment. Only 20 people are allowed inside at once and food must be eaten with the alcohol. We were delighted to find only 9 people inside and soon we were tucking into large portions of nachos and loaded fries, washed down with beers named Lost Sailor or Golden Seahorse.

It started to rain as Pauline drove us back to Princess Royal Sailing Club. It didn’t matter. We’d had a great day out. Thank you Jason and Pauline.

First meal out in 2 months at the White Star Hotel

Jason’s sister works for the local TV company and she asked us, via Jason, if we would be happy to be interviewed for a slot on GWN7. We agreed and a reporter/cameraman called Stephen contacted us by phone to make the arrangements. At 0800 the following morning Stephen arrived and set up his tripod and camera in Sal Darago’s saloon. Most readers of this blog have already been sent a link to the two minute clip that resulted from an hour of being interviewed. You can find the clip by looking for GWN7 news for 22^nd May named “Stranded”.

Dolphins tried to pinch the show crossing the bay

Our unexpected gifts from PRSC Commodore

Later the same day Susette, the Commodore at the Sailing Club, came by to wish us well on our future voyages and to give us some gifts. The boomerang means we can always go back and we will always treasure the club pennant. Thank you, Susette, Duncan and everyone at PRSC. We enjoyed staying at the club and meeting so many members. Everyone was friendly and welcoming. We shall miss you.

Not looking good for sailing

It was with mixed feelings that we returned our gate key and motored out of our pen the next day. Almost immediately, a weather warning was issued. The tail end of a tropical storm was going to meet a Southern Ocean cold front and cause a deep low pressure area that would wreak havoc on most of the coast of Western Australia, and inland in the southern region. After a night in Albany Waterfront Marina for shopping, showers and laundry, we headed to Oyster Harbour to hunker down in readiness for the storm.

Luckily we found the perfect sheltered spot

Not so sheltered now!

The wind blew hard and the rain pelted down. There was a fair bit of storm damage on the west coast and many power outages, but we were fine on our mooring. We were cold and Jeremy was glad he’d bought a thermal jacket when we were in Albany.

How to avoid being cold

We’re still waiting for my parcel from the UK. It has been in Melbourne for two weeks now. When the storm had passed, we went ashore near the Lower King River and broke a dinghy oar in the shallows. We found the local grocery store and filling station about 400m from the river. There’s a bottle shop and a cooking gas filling station there as well.

Dry ski run?

I’ve become a Zoom user and was able to join my church is Suffolk, England for virtual services. It was lovely to see friends from home.

Happy birthday to sister in law, Eileen.

We found this main road bridge made of matchsticks.

Tomorrow, Phase Three starts and almost all the internal borders in WA will be open again. We can now travel to Shark Bay, where it is warmer, once my parcel arrives and the weather calms down. But for now there’s another strong wind warning out. Anyone would think it was winter.

Lockdown lift up

Steep Green Island Road

Phase 1 of the lifting of coronavirus restrictions is coming to and end. Phase 2 starts on Monday. Cases of Covid-19 have continued to be low in Western Australia with only two new cases in two weeks. Yesterday, the last person in hospital due to Covid-19 was discharged. More shops will open from Monday along with libraries, churches, pubs serving food and cafes, as long as numbers are no more than 20 and social distancing is maintained. Some internal borders will be open. WA has been divided into four chunks. We have to stay in the southern part but we can travel as far as Freemantle/Perth. All this is good news.

Sunrise from our pen

So how have we spent Phase 1? The golf club office re-opened and we were told “there are no public hiking paths on the golf course”. Even though we had permission, we felt we should keep a low profile, so we have mainly walked on the public footpaths that are just outside the perimeter of the golf course. Most days we go for walks of at least 10,000 steps and have found several off road short cuts and have even walked some of the national Bibbulmun Trail that stretches from Albany to Perth.

Rob's birthday lunch

We’ve had a fair amount of paperwork to attend to. Our Australian Medicare was coming to an end as we were expecting to be in the UK at the end of April. Re-enrolment meant completing a 13 page form and providing evidence of visas and passports. The office that usually processes this was unable to do so, due to staff working from home, so we had to do it online. We applied for a refund for our flights to San Francisco, which were booked for the end of May. We might hear in 21 days if we’ve been approved for a refund! Then there was the travel and health insurance, which is multi trip, but our current trip runs out at the end of May. We have an extension of 21 days before we have to take out a new, Covid excluded policy.

Out and about again

Socially, we’ve been busy. After 6 weeks of no socialising, we had two engagements on the same day. Fortunately, we were able to bring one of them forward and met Geoff and Lorna for sundowners in the BBQ area of Princess Royal Sailing Club. Geoff sailed from Albany to Cyprus via the Suez Canal in the 1990’s. It was fascinating to hear of his adventures and compare them with ours.

Bad weather approaching

The next day we met British couple, Barbara and Rob, for a walk and picnic lunch. It was Rob’s birthday so we had bubbles, candles and chocolate cake as well as sandwiches and snacks. Barbara and Rob then moved into a cottage on a station about an hour’s drive inland, which had been offered to them by friends of sailors they met in New Zealand. They delayed their departure by a few days as we had the first of the damaging winter storms, which occur only two or three times a year.

Sampling the local beer

While they sheltered aboard their boat ashore, we were advised by locals to get out of our pen at the sailing club and go as far north as possible. We’d heard about the north westerly gales, which blast across Princess Royal Bay, so we left and motored north to Oyster Harbour. We found the northern DoT mooring, tied to it and waited in calm, sunny weather. There was a coastal warning for storm force winds and they arrived at teatime, along with thunder, lightning and heavy rain. Geoff phoned us to make sure we were all right and so did Jason. We were fine. There was no swell and only a short reach for the wind waves, so it was a good place to be. Lots of people asked after us when we returned to the sailing club, so it was like a homecoming.

Sunset and Sal Darago

When the weather improved, Jason invited us to his house for a BBQ. We looked at each other's charts and discussed the benefits of sailing north to Shark Bay, where it is much warmer. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait for Phase 3 before that can happen. Meanwhile, we’re waiting for my medication to arrive from the UK. It’s been 3 weeks in the post already, but we’re all used to delays in these unprecedented times, so no worries. When the meds arrive, we’ll decide whether to sail as far as Freemantle. Now that we can move about locally, we’ve decided to leave the sailing club on Friday and return to our nomadic lifestyle. Just recently Jeremy has written a report for Noonsite. You can read it here:

https://www.noonsite.com/report/australia-wa-albany-covid19-field-report/

Torndirrup National Park

Thank you to everyone who remembered my birthday and sent greetings. I had a great day. It was hot and sunny. Jeremy prepared a roast chicken lunch which we washed down with white wine. He also prepared smoked salmon for supper and, yes, we had cake and candles!

Birthday lunch in the cockpit