Shark Bay

Three Bay Island

Shark Bay is a World Heritage Site “valued internationally for its rich and abundant marine life and spectacular scenery where the desert meets the sea.”(Shark Bay Marine Reserves Visitor Guide) Roughly, it covers an area 80 miles long and 50 miles wide. There are a number of marine protected areas, 320 species of fish and more than 80 coral species. Seagrass meadows are extensive supporting 10,000 dugongs. Turtles, sea snakes, dolphins and sharks inhabit the many bays, inlets and islands.

Northern bay, Three Bay Island

Alongside the maritime reserves there are national parks, campsites, 4 wheel drive tracks, holiday resorts and many boating and fishing opportunities. We have been here for 16 days and we’ve barely scratched the surface of this unique place.

We started in the south at Geritsen Cove and motorsailed up Blind Strait with Dirk Hartog Island to port. We were heading for Denham, the main town in Shark Bay. We spotted catamaran Barbarossa with Frank and Marianne on board, last seen in Geraldton. We contacted them on VHF. Then we had to concentrate. There are many shallow areas that most keel boats must avoid and there is only about half a metre of tidal range. To save an hour on our trip to Denham, we went across the well- marked Bellefin Flats with a least depth of 2.1m and made it safely to the moorings off the town. As it was neap tides, we were able to pick up a mooring which we learned belonged to a local man who was happy to have us use it in exchange for a bottle of red wine.

After a few days, we moved to a deeper, outer mooring near a Bavaria yacht called Sandale. We met the owner, Andrew Maffett, who was Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2015. As we spoke to him from our dinghy, the strop on his mooring broke free and he was drifting. Quickly, he started his engine and we helped him reattach to the mooring buoy. Later that evening, we had sundowners on board Sandale and swapped sailing stories. Andrew gave us lots of information about anchorages in Shark Bay and further north in WA.

Don't stand on the edge!

After provisioning for a week, we set off the next day and anchored overnight at Ant Island. The next day we tried to enter a protected anchorage called Boat Haven Loop. We met Barbarossa on her way out. Frank called us on VHF and gave us information about the channel into Boat Haven. It was not as charted. In spite of having this information and the mid morning sun behind us to light up the shallows, we lost the channel and found ourselves in shallow water and aground at one point. 
 

Sandy Coves

After an hour or more, we gave up, turned away and headed for a less protected anchorage about 25 miles south called East Landing. In the distance, on the beach, we saw the wreck of a WW2 lifeboat from the German ship, Kormoran (the ship that had sunk HMAS Sydney II with the loss of all hands.) We were now in Henri Freycinet Harbour.

Arid scrubland at Sandy Coves

Fortunately, it was a calm night so we slept well. The next day, we set off for Three Bay Island, anchored and went ashore in the dinghy to explore. Mostly, the rock was too fragile to trust and the scrub was of the prickly sort, so our walk was short from the east beach to the north beach.

Gregories, Peron Peninsula

A weather front came through giving us rain for a whole day. We filled our tanks and water bottles. Fresh wind came with the front and started to blow from W to SW to S. The short waves became uncomfortable so we weighed anchor after lunch and headed to Salutation Island. We changed our destination for Sandy Coves as neither of us wanted to attempt a narrow entrance into a new anchorage with a fresh to strong wind blowing. Sandy Coves gave us more protection from the wind.

The jetty at Denham

Ashore, there were miles of beach to explore with no signs of other humans other than footprints. We were on mainland Australia, but it was a remote place with access to some of it by four wheel drive vehicles over sandy tracks. We could send text messages by hauling my mobile phone up the mast on a halyard. This was how we contacted Wende at ACRM.

Jeremy, Barbara and Rob

We headed back to Denham on 19^th July and tied up in the evening to one of the outer mooring buoys. Two days later we met up with British sailing couple, Barbara and Rob from Zoonie. They were returning from a road trip and camping in Denham.We had lunch together and met up again the next day for coffee and cake. It was great to catch up on their news. They are keen to launch their yacht and set off across the Indian Ocean. Always, the same question crops up. Is it safe and sensible to leave Western Australia? Cocos Keeling and Reunion have opened up but South Africa is struggling with huge numbers of Covid infections and deaths.

Teggs anchorage, Carnarvon

After provisioning for a week and doing our laundry, we left Denham for Carnarvon, stopping for two nights at Gregories on the north west side of Cape Peron. We walked in the Francois Peron National Park using the beach and 4WD tracks to circle from our dinghy to Gregories’ Campsite, Bottle Bay Campsite and back to our dinghy.

Another crowded beach

We left Gregories on Saturday 25^th July and sailed 45 miles north to Carnarvon. We are anchored at Teggs about 2-3 miles from the town. We are waiting for letters from Albany and Geraldton and two parcels from the UK, which have been sent to Carnarvon Post Office.