SAILING ADVENTURES OF OLIVIA 2025 AND BEYOND
New Blog Olivia III 2025
This is the
beginning of a new chapter in our yachting journey. This year our aim is to
sail Olivia III back to the East Coast via the northern route, West Coast,
Kimberley, Northern Territory, The Gulf and down the East Coast to Townsville
where Olivia will hopefully be settled in to the Breakwater Marina for her
summer holiday. Once we reach Lizard Island we will have completed a
circumnavigation of the entire mainland coast of Australia.
Olivia III
has been moored at the Mandurah Yacht Club Marina for two years with us using
her as a holiday ‘house’ as well as taking us on numerous trips to Rottnest
Island for weekends and holidays, which enabled us to catch up with Greg and
Karin and their families. Watching the grandies enjoying a life away from
screens was a delight.
In The Beginning
The last
year has seen us preparing Olivia for this trip and Peter has worked hard to
complete a long list of maintenance issues. He stripped the bottom back to gel
coat and repainted it, had the hull polished, (not to be recommended when the
previous owner had it coated with a ceramic protective finish), rigging was
replaced and a completely new Garmin auto pilot installed. That is not all!!
The alternator was replaced, a new dinghy and various safety equipment
purchased. We also purchased charts we did not have, mainly Shark Bay to Darwin.
Both of us feel better with the paper charts as well as electronic. It seems to
us a good ‘insurance policy’. While we were at the chart and map shop, in
Fremantle, we spotted a book titled ‘The Anchorage Guide Cairns to Darwin’ by Matthew
Templeton and Murray Cook which looked very useful. Also, a new copy of the Fremantle
Yacht Club’ Western Australian Cruising Guide’ 5th edition published
in 2023 we deemed a necessity.
The auto
pilot caused us the most angst as we tried to replace the parts that appeared
to be not working. In the end the whole system was renewed and now it is
working well thanks to Brett at Fremantle Marine Electronics who did a great
job for us.
ALBANY TO GERALDTON 22-4-25 TO 9-5-25
The journey
to Mandurah without our car involved a trip to Perth by bus, then train from
East Perth Station to Mandurah Station and finally a short trip by bus into the
centre of town. It took 8 hours. A 2km walk dragging bags etc, finally had us at
the Mandurah Yacht Club and Olivia.
We spent 2
weeks there sorting out the auto helm, visiting friends, and stocking up on necessities
such as food, fuel, water and last minute maintenance. Thanks to Audrey, Roger
and Carole and Mark from Serenity, for providing us with friendship, meals and
transport. We had a night in Perth with our daughter, Karin and husband Paul
and grandies, for a last minute catch up.
Greg (our son) took us to Fremantle for a final visit to the Chart and Map
Shop.
On the 4th
May we set sail at 9am for a night at Rottnest Island, a six hour trip. The sea
was lumpy and the breeze strong from the west. We thought Thompson Bay would be
relatively calm, but it was quite rolly, bordering on uncomfortable. On arrival
Peter checked the engine and auto pilot. Firstly there was silence, then
swearing! What was wrong? The bolt connecting the ram and the quadrant on the
rudder had dropped out. Peter spent the next hour trying to find the nut somewhere
in the oily bilge. The bolt was easy. The nut is still in there somewhere.
Luckily, he has an extensive tool kit and he fixed it with a combination of a nylex
nut and locktight. Fingers crossed. It has worked since then and stayed in
place. While we were in Geraldton, Brett (Fremantle Electronics) sent us a new longer
bolt with extra nuts as a spare. Hopefully that won’t be needed.
At 7.30am
we pulled up the anchor and started the 206nm journey to Geraldton. By evening
we were off Lancelin, with good winds and on Tuesday morning had 80nm to go.
Through out the morning the wind built and by lunchtime there was strong south
winds off Dongara.
We arrived
off Point Moore at 6pm just as the sun was going down and the seas by now were
lumpy and about 2.5m. The light goes quickly once the sun goes down and we
entered the shipping channel in the dark. Geraldton Port has changed quite a
lot since we lived there and the port is a busy one. Of couse (Murphy’s Law!!!)
a ship departed Geraldton just as we were in the main part of the shipping
channel. Two tugs and a huge mineral ship rumbled past as we cowered in a deep
area just outside of the channel. The anchorage in front of the Geraldton Yacht
Club is good, calm and secure holding, in line with the little rock wall where
the seals bask. Bliss – a good nights sleep. In the morning we counted six
other boats in this anchorage.
A Sociable Time In Geraldton
Peter had
booked us a pen in the Geraldton Marina for 3 nights, 7th-9th
May. Pulled up our anchor at 7.30am and made our way over to the marina. Another
yacht was in our berth. It turned out that they were on a rally to Indonesia
and had broken a steering cable and couldn’t move, so we got them to help us
into an empty pen. Peter rang Dept of Transport and they allocated us another
pen. This one apparently had another boat arriving later in the day. It never
did!!! Anyway this pen was better being closer in and had much less bird poo on
the walkway.
We had a
great time in Geraldton, catching up with old friends we have known from our 18
years living there. Mike, Judy and John, Bev and John and Greg’s mother and
father-in-law, Linda and Bob gave us the best time.
We sorted
ourselves out on Wednesday and went to Mikes for hot showers, as the marina
only had cold ones, due to maintenance. Just our Luck! Judy and John came to
check out Olivia in the afternoon. On Thursday Bob and Linda asked us for lunch
at Skeeta’s Restaurant and it was great to catch up with them at such a
beautiful venue. At 4pm Bev and John
invited us for “Happy Hour” drinks and nibbles and a look at their new house.
It is lovely and I am inspired to think about a place with less garden than we
have now in Albany. Finally we had dinner at Mike's and he made us yummy
vegetable soup – his speciality. For main course he made a seafood mornay with
Geraldton crayfish and prawns. Yum!
Friday was
another busy day and Judy had arranged for us to attend a Mother’s Day morning
tea at Walkaway. It is a huge fundraiser and there must have been about 100
women there. Country women are good cooks and morning tea was delicious. They
had a raffle table with about 20 prize packs to be drawn. The prizes were
really good ones so everyone held their breath as the tickets were drawn out of
the barrel. Judy and I were both drawn out for a prize. How lucky was that!!
I met the
Gero girls, mainly teaching friends from Allendale School, where I worked when
we lived here, for afternoon tea at Skeetas. Thoroughly enjoyed catching up
with everyone. Finally, we met Bev and John and Judy and John for an evening
meal at the Geraldton Yacht Club. It was perfect out on the upper deck as the evening
was superb. Thank you to you all for making our short stay in Geraldton
memorable. I will never forget it.
Geraldton To Steep Point 10-05-25 to13-05-25
Departed
Geraldton for Steep Point at 5am. There were 11 ships anchored off as we left. We
had good winds S/SE all day and easy sailing until adjacent to Kalbarri as
night fell. The wind built overnight and became strong for most of the night
averaging 25kns and peaking at 30kn still S/SE. The swell and seas built and I
thought it was a good idea not to look behind too much. Peter only had the main
up with one reef. As the wind was straight from behind the main kept
threatening to jibe and at one stage did. These things always happen at night
and of course it was my watch. Peter leapt out from a deep sleep and after checking
there was no damage, we changed course a little. After that the wind dropped
slowly and by the time we arrived at
Steep Point at 11am it was almost calm.
By chance
we arrived at the Outer Bar just as the
wind dropped out and it was only 1hour to high tide. The scenery is amazing, towering
cliffs, huge blowholes and spray as the
swells crash into the solid limestone walls. At 12pm we anchored in the Eastern
end of Shelter Bay on the western side of Kell’s Rock. There are many campers
along the beach, some with sophisticated camping set ups. ATM there are four
large boats in the bay and numerous run abouts. Everyone is fishing.
We are
anchored 0.2nm from the shore in 4m of water. Overnight the wind pipes up and
becomes a strong southerly. It seems to begin to drop after midnight and drops
to breezy in the early morning. By about 9am it is calm. We go ashore and
explore the beach. At about 1.30/2pm the wind begins to build up again from the
SE to a strong southerly by nightfall. That has been the pattern over the 3
days we have been here.
Tomorrow we
are going to try Denham, 26nm away. Peter took the dinghy over to a charter
boat this morning to enquire about anchorages on the eastern side of Dirk
Hartog Island and Turtle Bay at the northern end. Their advice was, “Stay here
or go to Denham. There is a pub there”. Apparently
the anchorage is good in this weather and the pub obviously helps. It seems there is a few more days of
this strong southerly wind as a blocking high is sitting in the Bight.
Breaking New Ground 13th -18th May
Denham
We pulled the anchor and left Shelter Bay at 7am and motored north east towards Blind Passage. We are now in new territory. Looking back at the landscape the hills looked like discarded, crumpled, grey velvet that has been thrown on the ground. There has been no rain here for a long time. Crossed the Inner Bar, which is well marked with channel markers and turned NE towards Denham. We had thought that it would be OK to tow the dingy as the wind was light and forecast to stay that way, however it was looking decidedly windy as we motored towards the top of Bellefin Peninsula.
Here we are reminded of Lesson Number Two: Do not be tempted to tow the dinghy no matter how calm the weather or forecast is. We anchored behind the peninsula and brought the dinghy and its motor on board. I'm glad we did as every day we were at Denham the wind piped up for a couple of hours in the morning. Having been away from long distance sailing for a few years we obviously needed a gentle reminder about some of our own rules. Rule Number One: Plan to get into harbours or anchorages in daylight. This was reinforced on our arrival into Geraldton in the dark and encountering a ship leaving the harbour. We often leave in the wee hours, not long after midnight, to enable us to arrive in daylight.
Denham is a lovely little town clinging to the western side of the Peron Peninsula. The anchorage doesn't look as though it would be very protected, but the shape of the open bay and shallow, sandy, weed banks seem to be enough to provide respite from the S to NE winds. There are permanent moorings there belonging to the fishermen and tour operators so I'm guessing its OK in other winds as well. We spent the two mornings there doing yacht jobs as the fresh breeze meant we would get very wet dinghying the 0.7nm to the shore. The anchorage is shallow, so we were out the back as we need over 2.5m under the keel at low tide to be comfortable. After lunch the wind died and we went ashore to explore.
The council has put a big effort into beautifying the foreshore with lawns and trees. There is a very good playground for children as a centrepiece next to the small, open harbour. We enjoyed walking around exploring and the constant breeze kept the flies and other insects at bay.
Carnarvon
We planned on departing Denham at 2am in order to arrive at Carnarvon in daylight as per rule number 1. Both of us slept soundly from 8pm until midnight, when we found ourselves wide awake so we decided to leave then. The 71nm to Carnarvon took us 13 hours and we arrived just outside the channel markers into the Facine and Fishing Boat Harbour at about 2pm. While we were approaching the channel we were surrounded by creatures which turned out to be dugongs. There were dozens of them swimming all around us. They are so funny, putting up their tails and heads out of the water looking at us They are very sociable and swam close to watch us, with their curious heads popping up close together as though for mutual support. They really are a bit like a herd of inquisitive cows.
As we approached the channel markers a trawler came out and began a series of manouvers behind us which Peter thought might be swinging his compass. We motored towards the channel markers which were a bit confusing from the distance as they are close together and some of them are marking the entrance into the Facine. It's difficult to tell which ones were ours to follow until you got quite close. Whilst Peter and I were working out where to go the trawler snuck up behind us and was obviously wanting to overtake us. He did that safely where there was room and that happened to be good for us as we followed his path into the Fishing Boat Harbour.
We had contacted the Dept of Transport for our marina berth and had our allocated pen and marina plan with us. When you enter a new harbour it can be confusing, having not seen it before, especially when the plan doesn't look quite the same as reality. Add to that the wind, having strengthened a little, as we approached Carnarvon and there being no finger name as in 'A' and no apparent berth numbers we ended up in the wrong berth. We were on the right finger, but two along from our allocated berth. Well... the DOT man didn't like it. Said we had to move to our proper spot. Considering that the marina is less than half full, the wind, no ropes on our current spot, no visible numbers I thought we had a right to stay where we were. There was some tense discussion and in the end I said we will pay for the bigger berth because we were not moving. We'll see how that goes as no fee has come out of our account yet. While we were arguing with the DOT man a lady came out and she was much more ammenable to our situation and she told us to stay where we were as no-one had booked the pen. Thank goodness sense can rule.
Carnarvon council has also spent a lot of money beautifying the foreshore and main street and it looks great. It is a 3km walk from the harbour to the centre of town for shopping.
We have met a lovely couple, Leanne and Frank, in a 38' Leopard Catamaran, called Ceylon, docked in the marina near us. They are the only other live-a-boards here. There are many large trawlers in here and various other work boats. Leanne and Frank have given us lots of tips and advice as they have sailed this coast for many years. They are getting ready for a trip to the Kimberley and will leave the day after us. The weather looks good for us to leave tomorrow for a 45nm trip to Cape Cuvier. Hopefully we will catch up with Leanne and Frank in a bay somewhere in the not too distant future.
Ceylon foreground, Olivia background
Carnarvon to Dampier 19th - 27th May 2025
Just before we left Carnarvon we visited the lovely little cafe just up the road from the marina. As we sat enjoying our coffee an old guy started to set up a telescope in the corner near us. He explained that he was setting up for a daytime observation of the sun. The telescope was worth $50 000. There was also an aboriginal lady there and she got talking and tried to drum up interest in observing the night sky tours that she was doing with stories of constellations etc, from an aboriginal perspective as well as some scientific background. It was all very interesting and the view of the sun amazing. You could see the curling flares coming of the surface of the sun and also the Black Spot.
We left Carnarvon early and were in two minds whether to stop behind Cape Cuvier or not. We had a good view of the yellow and cream stripey cliffs and the facility there along with the huge piles of salt up on the cliff top. Olivia and both of us were having a pleasant sail so we decided to do an overnighter. Unfortunately during the night the wind grew stronger and stronger and for a couple of hours we were going like an express train. We only had the headsail up with most rolled in leaving only a tiny triangle of sail out. Even so, at one stage I saw the log go over 9knots. Olivia starts to feel a little unstable going at that speed down the face of a wall of water. Not my favourite pastime. This seems to happen most nights so we decided from then on to try and stop for the night.
During the second day out we decided to overnight at Norwegian Bay. Again it was windy, but the anchorage was protected by reef to seaward. Had a good nights sleep in a windy, but calm anchorage.
Our final night out we anchored at Tantabiddi on the western side of North West Cape. This is a similar anchorage to Norwegian Bay, protected by extensive reef to the south, north and west. The channel in is marked by channel markers so is an easy one to navigate. To the south there are many permanent local moorings with boats attached. Nearby is a launching ramp and we were interested watching as various boats came and went. This bay had plenty of action in the water, turtles, dolphins and the splashes of large fish. I wonder what was chasing them?
We had managed to get a pen for two nights in the Exmouth marina. Our intention being to do some laundry, top up with fuel, water and get a few fresh stores. When we looked at the weather forecast we noticed that in three days time some nasty weather was on the way. Peter rang the marina manager and found out we only had our two days and the marina was totally booked out. Not good. We also noticed that several of the yachts were preparing to leave and make a run for Dampier while we still had a weather window. We joined them.
We had one of our best sails this trip for that first morning. From then on it was absolutely still and we motor sailed the whole way. This time the overnighter was stunning - still, interesting and full of things to look at. In every direction there was the glow of oil/gas platforms, ports, such as Onslow complete with a city worth of lights and lit up anchored ships waiting to go in to load. My watch started at 1am just off Cape Peston. Lights everywhere! I was interested to see how many satellites were speeding across the sky. There were planes and early in the morning a crescent moon and Venus popped up and began their celestial conversation. They seemed so close to each other.
Olivia is anchored in Hampton Harbour at Dampier, down near the causeway. Again there is a huge amount of shipping activity here. The harbour is surrounded by hills covered with great clumps of rich brown ironstone boulders and spinifex , and occasionally a patch of bright red Sturts Desert Pea.
Looks like we will be here for another five days as the forecast is more of the same, strong easterlies. One guess where we are going - EAST!!
