We left the Pelsaert group and had hoped to dive the Coral ledges on our way out. Unfortunately, despite our early start - as we got within 10minutes of the mooring, we saw another bigger boat just about to pick it up. There’s no easy anchorage there, so we decided we’d head straight to the Easter group.Our plan was to head to Leo island, and see if we could get onto the sand ledge there close to the island. However as we arrived at the narrow passage, it went very cloudy which made it im

We moved anchorage to a spot behind Murray Island, which took some wriggling around bommies to get into (and was thus pretty peaceful and deserted. We explored some of the reef towards the northern edge of the group but didn’t find much interesting.As the weather improved, we decided to go and look at Gun Island. This was used by the survivors of the wreck of the Zeewyk in 1727 for 10 months before they built a ship to sail to Batavia (Jakarta). Later it was mined for guano, which has left a s

Waiting on Weather.... we’ve had 20-30knot winds for the last day or two, which has meant we’ve been doing more boat jobs and cooking than spending time in the water. We did manage to fit in a cream tea (with proper clotted cream from Tasmania). We also had a fridge turn itself into a freezer which has been more of an issue...The weather looks to be easing off over the next few days and then we’ll get a period of nice calm weather for diving! We’ll use that time to move to the Easter gro

We arrived into the Pelsaert Group an hour after daylight and sailed, then motored down into the lagoon to tuck in behind Pelsaert Island itself. There were a few moorings free, so we took one. It is very comfortable in NE to S winds here, but a bit more fetch for anything from the west. There are lots of boats here. Way more than in Stark bay at Rottnest. A few look like they’re out from Geraldton for the weekend (last weekend of the school holidays too) - so maybe it’ll calm down a bit on

Largely uneventful trip so far. The wind picks up during the night, then eases during the day. Yesterday it got as far as slightly ahead of the beam and went very light, but filled back in slowly.Much fun was had just as dusk approached. The rod suddenly started paying out line, and we realised we had hooked up on one of the hand lines too. Nina landed a nice yellowfin on the hand line, whilst I worked on the rod. We lost that fish though, and then realised we had a 3rd hook up on the other hand

We moved from Thomson bay to Stark Bay, which has quite the entrance. Twists around rocks almost 270degs, and then through a very narrow channel (in which some numpty has dropped crab pots). The bay is full of moorings, leaving very little space to anchor and we resorted to a stern anchor to limit our swinging room.As you can see, the reef is rather close! From here, we walked to the lighthouse in the centre of the island, and to the gun battery where we did a tour of the tunnels. Turns out the

OK, enough of the breweries, lets get back to the plan. We provisioned hard in Fremantle as its the last stop on the west coast for lots of things that we may need. Oil (engine, outboard, hydraulic, gearbox, olive and sunflower), flour (high protein white, wholemeal, rye, rice), chocolate, beer brewing kits, ginger and champagne yeast (for the ginger beer, naturally) and much much more! Its been quite an effort.I serviced the engines, the outboard, went up the mast, all the usual stuff. We sat o

We made the right call to wait it out. Seroja hammered into Geraldton, passing straight over the Abrohlos islands as a Cat 2. The late season cyclones have a tendency to be crazy-Ivans and this one was for sure. Very unusual to have one come so far south and be so active. Probably helped by TC Odette and the Fujiwhara effect....So we’re still hanging out at Freemantle Sailing club. We’ve provisioned as much as we can (and we’ve probably still missed bits!). A few more jobs to go but we hop

We had a pleasant enough time in Mandurah, hung off the courtesy moorings outside the river. We could have gone into the river but a slight anchor issue meant I wasn’t comfortable anchoring until we’d had a good look at it. The moorings outside were very comfortable and it wasn’t too long a dinghy ride into town. There are some pens in the river where you can moor for 4hrs at a time too.We had a good explore and did indeed find a brewery but it was shut on the days we were there. Fremantle

Having enjoyed Busselton, this morning saw us leaving the anchorage after an incredibly calm night. We were all up early and saw the moon setting over the jetty.Our early start meant we arrived in Bunbury in the morning. Dodging the dredger on the way in, we dropped the hook, and the dinghy and had a bit of lunch. The day was shaping up to be a seriously hot one! We dinghied into the little lake area behind the front and tied up. The Visitors Centre was just across the road. Their suggestions we

Busselton is a very pleasant little town, and we’ve enjoyed our time anchored off the beach here. Easy to dinghy ashore, and lots of tourist stuff ashore - including 2 breweries which of course we had to visit!Lunch at Shelter Brewery was very nice, and the beer at Rocky Ridge was also good (but I didn’t rate the ginger beer). Busselton is better known for its 1.8km wooden pier- the longest in the Southern Hemisphere. Southend pier is longer though, so takes the overall crown. Its a pleasant

We had a nice, albeit hot, walk around to Cape Naturaliste and went up the lighthouse. Its not as tall as the one at Cape Leeuwin as its built on a much taller plateau, but it was interesting anyway.On our way back, we stopped at Bunkers Beach House where Nina used to work. We were very well looked after and had a stunning meal. Highly recommendedIts a stunning beach, and we had a pleasant time anchored in the bay.This morning we picked up the anchor and headed over to the HMAS Swan for a dive.

An uneventful trip along the coast saw us around Cape Naturaliste and into Bunkers Bay. The clouds had cleared, the sun came out and it was warm and pleasant.Cape Naturaliste - you can just see the top of the lighthouse.We knew there were some moorings in here for the hotel and cafe, but we weren’t sure of them - so anchored in 4m of water over sand. Holding is very good, and we saw dolphins passing by the boat hunting in the bay before we’d finished anchoring. We had a quick swim - the wate

After a great time in Augusta and touring around the Margaret River region, the weather eased and we were ready to go. So were the fishing fleet! At 5am this morning, they were engines on and out of the marina. Us laggards followed them an hour later.Good advice from Dennis, who was our contact at the marina, provided us with the inside route around Cape Leeuwin, saving us a 6nm trip around the southern tip of the reefs. Instead, we cut the corner tightly and had great views of the lighthouse

One last trip out today in the car, mostly to reposition it back to Nina’s place so it would be safe until her return. That meant a 5km walk from there back to the bus stop and a bus ride to Augusta.We actually had the whole bus to ourselves. I do wonder if they’d have run if there were no bookings - but it made it a very comfortable and quick trip.From Augusta back to the boat was another 5km walk, and once onboard we finished off a few jobs so tomorrow we are ready to head around Cape Leeu

It was a rather spectacular sunrise over the marina this morning.After a breakfast of home-made crumpets, we headed out for yet more tourist stuff. We headed to a lookout where we were supposed to able to see 2 oceans and 2 rivers, but it wasn’t that exciting. After, we headed over to the rather cow made Cowaramup, via a chocolate shop naturally.Cowaramup wasn’t always cow mad - but after the Cow Parade art festival came to the Margret River area, they took on the idea and from International

Yesterday afternoon we headed out to see Jewel Cave, which was very impressive.The tour guide was very informative, and entertaining - and despite doing a lot of stairs in the morning at the lighthouse, we managed fine in the caves too.After the caves we tasted some wine, and then headed back to the boat for the evening. Unfortunately a large fishing boat had moored directly behind us and ran the pump for his ‘wet tanks’ all the time which made it quite noisy. Then, just after 3am he starte

Today we got the bikes out and made the short cycle down to Cape Leeuwin to see the famous lighthouse where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. People told us about the big hill, but it wasn’t that bad - certainly far easier than the ride down to the Natural Bridge at Albany. I didn’t need to give Laura the battery bike, and didn’t even use the battery myself.We arrived just in time for a tour of the lighthouse itself, which was very good for a lighthouse nerd like me!An informative

A relatively smooth overnight run saw us motorsailing then motoring in dying wind towards Augusta. We spoke to the Harbour Master of the little Department of Transport marina to check our berth and if they had diesel (conflicting reports - but they do!). As the afternoon breeze kicked in we did get a chance to get some sailing in though.They don’t get many boats through here - on a normal year around 40 visitors, but this year its been far less. As is often the case with the road less travelle

We took the opportunity to get a couple of dives in on HMAS Perth whilst we were in Albany. It seems to be a somewhat neglected dive site as the town moorings are gone - the only maintained mooring is done so by the local dive shop who were happy for us to use it.Once on site, and into lots of neoprene (as the water is a chilly 20 deg C here!), we first did a quick check on the mooring which was down at 30m. All looked ok, so we came back up and had a quick scout for the wreck. Fortunately, t