Day 9 Westbound for Fremantle

On the road again!  (Written on March 05, 2013)

Yahoo, as we travel towards Port Lincoln for one more crew change, the night is beautifully calm.  Venus is so bright that it appears to be a vessel with a white masthead light and red port light twinkling like crazy, as if bobbing on the ocean.  As I search for it on both RADARS, I realise that another crazy yellow thing rising from the horizon on our starboard side, is our magnificent moon.  Indeed the sky is rotating, as it does and thus the twinkler is a star not a vessel.  Dale reassures me, as I do know, many a sailor has been confused by a rising star or moon!

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Fashionable townhouses and homes edge the canal past en route to the Port Lincoln Marina.
Photo credit M.Jenner

We zip into the marina to make a taxi and flight connection for Daffy at 8 am and then sit back with a coffee to contemplate our next move.  We agree that the weather is too nice to spend the day alongside, so Dale and I give Sam a list and some instructions for supplies, a bag of mulla and kindly send him on the ship’s foldie “bike” into town.  We will be another 8 days until Freo, if we get 4 or 5 bags of coz lettuce and 3 bags of tomatoes, I figure we can make it.  Dale decides on fish (since we haven’t caught any!) so he requests a trip to a fish shop for snapper and salmon.  After a while, I wonder if Sam is ok and sure enough at about 20 to 10 he arrives, with stories of being pulled over by the local police and charged $150 for not wearing a helmet…  eeekk…

We are off again!

Photo credit M.Jenner

Fishing vessels ply to/fro across Boston Bay.
Photo credit M.Jenner

At 1039 we leave the floating jetty of the Port Lincoln Marina for the last time, heading for Fremantle!  We are underway again!  Yahoo!  It is glassy calm and has been all morning.  When we docked at 0745 not a ripple could be seen on the sea!  Fortunately, Daffy made his taxi/flight connection and we were off again after making sure Inday, Sacha, Carrie and Sam have returned from short shore excursions.  “Do we have everyone?”

Fishing boats come and go across Boston Bay as we travel on the eastern side of Taylor Island.  Thus far we have been to/from Port Lincoln four times, taking a slightly different route each time, just to mix it up and enjoy the local scenery.  First off, just a few minutes out from the marina we have a pod of two bottlenose dolphins Tursiops aduncus, a mum and juvenile bow-riding.  The young one rolls continually, showing its’ white belly upwards.  We are excited for the next part of our journey and this departure committee really makes us happy!  Video and photos are taken by Inday, Sacha and I and big smiles abound!  We’re still in range so Inday posts the video from her i-phone from the bow!  The wonders of technology never cease to amaze me!  Next, as we travel towards Taylor Island, from the fly-bridge or the top-deck on the UHF radio, Sacha calls in a pod of 5-6 bottlenose dolphins about 0.7 nm away.  From the Portuguese Bridge I see one animal “in-coming”, so Skipper and I head for the bow, not that Skip needs any encouragement!   This single individual continually barrel-rolled beneath our bow wash, with 5 and 6 turns, some one way then the other and then surfacing to breathe with their distinctive “puh-wuh” just below us.  The intriguing part was seeing the white of the animals’ eye.   Both eyes were wide open and totally aware of its’ surroundings.  Playing on the bow-wave, you have to be at the top of your game.

Photo credit M.Jenner

Glassy calm water reflects the clouds above this bottlenose dolphin barrel-rolling our bow wave.
Photo credit M.Jenner

This dude, all marked and scratched up with teeth rake marks from other dolphins over its’ body (indicating it is most likely a male), constantly looked up and around during this amazing bow-dance.  Skipper was barking incessantly, as he does, and with the dolphin undeterred I click on with my D-300.  The water is crystal clear and calm, there are no ripples at all… and there is only 5 metres between us.  Leaning back from my folded position over the gun-whale for about twenty minutes, I am speechless and drained from this intense encounter- this feels so surreal.

 

 

Photo credit M.Jenner

Gorgeous clouds adorn the sky above Grindal Island, west of Thistle Island.
Photo credit M.Jenner

As we head around Cape Catastrophe, so named for the tragedy two centuries ago, birds splash and bait balls boil, surely we can fool a fish onto our line… the rocks are granite boulders, some with deep clefts as though an ancient axe from Gulliver was cast down hard.  Waves surge onto the waters’ edge platforms leaving lacy white streams flowing down the grey rock faces.  Large surging waves crash over Curta Rocks, a low-lying rock platform covered in kelp, just offshore of the cape and our Captain is content with his near name-sake!  Curt keeps calling dolphin pods, he has them in his sights today… 2 pods of bottlenose begin the encounters, then a pod of mixed species, bottlenose and common dolphins and then the remainder of the 14 pods are bouncy common dolphins!  He has them here, over there and more coming in!  We have 329 dolphins in 17 pods within two hours, what a great start!  What a hot spot for dolphins! Having rounded West Point at the south of Eyre Peninsula its mid afternoon as we enter the Great Australian Bight.  Passing Liguanea Island, we are directly south of Cape Carnot which is the western part of Eyre Peninsula.  A cliffy area which arches to the NW ends at Point Avoid – and so we shall…

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A juvenile Australasian Gannet cruises by giving us the once over!
Photo credit M.Jenner

Between 1600 and 1800 I am back on the fly-bridge observing, but sadly we are out of dolphin country now.  The odd Australasian gannet swings by and also our friends, three albatross pass close by the bow.  Our track takes us westward into the warm sunshine.  Yea!  We have only had a handful of really warm days this summer, today feels gorgeous and thoroughly summery!

Dark ships and vessels appear to float and bob across our horizon.  The warm air causing an inversion layer is making marvellous mirages and playing with our vision.  The islands to our starboard are adjusted beautifully and appear as huge tankers and even cray-boats…  I am thankful  for these impressive images.  The sea calms my soul and a lovely long, lazy swell is a nice reminder of the open ocean to our portside.

Dale with his newly acquired fish. How did he get it again?. Photo credit M.Jenner

Dale with his newly acquired fish. How did he catch it?
Photo credit I.Ford

Dale and Resty prepare a yummy treat of bbq baked snapper and hilariously, for a few hours Inday thought Dale had caught at the stern of Whale Song, rather than Sam buying it at a Port Lincoln fish shop!  Indeed Sam didn’t catch it! The tasty fish is eaten with bright green broccilli and steamed rice drizzled with soya/chillie and ginger sauce.  Inday and I go through photo captions for the website uploads and I write today’s piece.  Life is very good and we are all content, especially with the nice weather and a full belly of fish!

From the eastern side of the Bight,

Mich

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