Time to continue north… After a last cray mission (we got 3), we packed away and dropped the mooring in Turtle Bay. The wind was behind, but seemed like a bit much for the spinnaker, so we stuck with the screecher. It was a pretty reasonable run overnight - initially making good speeds, need us to change down to the genoa. However, the wind speeds fell away and we slowed to a midday arrival into south passage. We heard from another cruising catamaran on the VHF - one that we’d seen in the Abrolhos and also in Albany (though we hadn’t really met them then).

The Zuytdorp cliffs along this stretch of coast are incredible to see, and the photos just cant do them justice - as all you see is a thin smear of rock between sea and sky. So you’ll have to look them up :) However, the sheer scale of them is immense.

As we closed on the bar, we could see big rollers breaking over the shallows near Monkey Rock, but a bit further in and the way we should go was obvious. By this point we were motoring into the wind, crossed the bar and headed to Shelter Bay where we dropped the hook in acres of sand. As it dropped, we saw 5 large tiger sharks swim past. Umm…..

After a smooth night, the next morning brought a very convenient tide, which we jumped on and had a cracking tide-assisted sail almost all the way to Denham. Wiggling around shallows, gybing the gennaker to be wing-and-wing, then back in reasonable breeze but flat seas was great fun.

Once a Denham and after a spot of lunch, we had a run ashore to see what was what. Its very much a small town well off the beaten track.

The provisioning was ok, if expensive - but the butchers was good. We won’t starve :)

The sad news is that Laura left the boat in Denham, after 8.5 months onboard. Its been quite the trip since Townsville - up as far as Cairns, down to the bottom of Tasmania, and across the bight before turning north again. In her time onboard, we did the eastern most, southern most and western most points of mainland Australia. Her suggestions for the coral spawning resulted in our extended stay in the bunker group, and seeing not only the coral spawning, but turtles galore and turtle egg laying, which I’d not seen before. Thanks for all the fun times and all the help.