Hopping Down the South West Coast

We spent the month of December slowly hopping down the south west coast of Western Australia. It was a strange time for us. We were both feeling a bit out of sorts. It had become clear that we weren’t going to be able to go back to Melbourne for Christmas with our families. Well, we could go to Victoria but there was no guarantee that we’d get back into Western Australia and we decided not to risk it. We felt frustrated and disappointed, helpless and angry. If I’m being perfectly honest, we were feeling a bit lonely too.

Our saving grace was that there were plenty of stops along this little stretch of coast that we could day hop between, with sheltered and secure anchorages for the yacht and cute little towns to explore ashore. The winds were no longer oppressively strong, and apart from when trying to round Cape Naturaliste for the final southern stretch, they didn’t hold us up too much.

We also made the decision to put the boat in a marina, hire a car and drive across to Esperance to share Christmas with my Uncle, Aunty and cousins. We cheered up no end knowing that we would soon be having some company.

Rottnest Island

Just twelve miles off the coast from Fremantle, Rottnest Island or Rotto, as the locals call it, seems to be the preferred cruising ground for just about everyone with a boat in Perth or Fremantle. I’d been several times before, catching the ferry over, but accessing the island from our own boat gave a completely different perspective to the experience.

An island of just 19 square kilometres, Rotto boasts 63 beaches and 20 bays, all with incredibly white sand beaches and clear blue water. It is very very beautiful indeed. Ashore, there is a small village with shops, bikes for hire and of course the chance to spot a quokka, what the island is most famous for.

Most boats seemed to be on moorings, either privately owned or hired, but at $70 a night for the cheapest, we decided to drop our anchor. The moorings were also jam packed into the bays, meaning that the boats were pretty much all on top of each other. It didn’t feel very relaxing or private. We dropped anchor in the small but secluded Parrakeet Bay. Or so we thought.

After leaving Cool Change all alone in the little bay while we went for a walk on the island, we returned a few hours later to discover over 15 boats crammed into the anchorage. It was chaos. Many were large charter boats full of partygoers celebrating end of year functions and Christmas parties. Music blared, people shouted and our idyllic little bay was no longer quite so relaxing.

One charter boat anchored uncomfortably close and kept swinging perilously near to us. The staff on the charter boat didn’t appear to be concerned but we were, and Matt took some photos just in case. It was quite nerve wracking. When they finally left, I breathed a huge sigh of relief and could relax.

Luckily, all the boats returned to the mainland in the evenings, leaving us to enjoy the beauty of the bay. In hindsight, we probably hadn’t timed our visit too well. A mid week stay may have been less busy, rather than the first weekend in December!

Still, we enjoyed our stay and spent a day touring on the Island Explorer bus. It was a hop on, hop off bus and we hopped on and hopped off at lots of stops. We said Hello to a quokka and enjoyed watching the Fur Seals flopping around at West End.

Rockingham

We spent three nights anchored in Parrakeet Bay and then on our last night Matt began vomiting. He was sick all night, pretty much every hour. Neither of us got much sleep and I was grateful that we were in a secure and sheltered anchorage.

In the morning I motored us down to Rockingham while Matt stayed in bed. We were heading straight into the wind and the water was rough and choppy. There were also a lot of boats to dodge in the busy waterway. Once we motored around Garden Island and into Cockburn Sound the wind eased and the water was calm and still. A half submerged submarine passed by and I snapped a few photos, but couldn’t raise Matt from bed to have a look.

I rang The Cruising Yacht Club of Western Australia, based in Rockingham, and booked a mooring for a week. As we entered Mangles Bay, Matt came up to help and we tied onto a mooring buoy. Phew! We were safe and secure. The little bay in Rockingham was calm and protected, it was very pretty and it was warm and sunny. I could finally relax.

We ended up staying on the mooring at Rockingham for nine nights. Matt recovered after two days, but on the third night it was my turn. The gastro hit me just as hard and I was up all night, spewing every half an hour. It was a nasty, nasty bug and I spent the next day in bed. Once again, we thanked our lucky stars that we were in a secure and protected anchorage. Being violently ill on a boat is never fun, but would have been a hundred times worse in rolly or choppy conditions. We were also grateful that we hadn’t both been sick at the same time; it’s a pretty small head (bathroom) and I wouldn’t want to have been fighting over the toilet bowl.

We didn’t do much for those first four days, apart from showering at the yacht club, wandering to the supermarket and relaxing on the boardwalk. Finally we were both recovered and ready to explore a bit further afield. We caught a bus to Shoalwater and then took a ferry out to the tiny Penguin Island where we saw five Little Penguins up close in a rehabilitation program. I learnt some fascinating facts about the Little Penguins; such as when they are moulting, which takes two weeks, they can’t eat or swim during that time so they gorge themselves in the weeks leading up and put on extra weight. They also get very hot during this time and the rangers often water the penguins with watering cans to help keep them cool. The island was also home to a huge population of pelicans as well as a range of other birds.

We ventured out to White Lakes Brewing, where we shared a table with a friendly couple and began chatting. After a while, it became clear that we had crashed Scott and Amanda’s first date. Although we were very much enjoying the company, we excused ourselves as getting to know us was not the aim of their first date. Arriving back at Rockingham beach, we found a Johnny Cash tribute band beginning a free concert, so we settled down with an ice cream to enjoy the show. Good times!

Mandurah

As we left Rockingham in the early morning and motored north through Cockburn Sound, we could see Little Penguins in the water, right near us. We had never seen penguins from the boat before and it was really cool to spot them, although it wasn’t easy, with their dark feathers blending seamlessly into the dark water.

We had hoped to see some seals that are known to frequent Carnac Island, but it was not to be, so we continued on uneventfully until we reached the Murray Reefs, not far from our destination of Mandurah. Then the wind swung and we had 25 knots from the south west, turning the bay into a choppy and swirling washing machine. There were cray pots everywhere and they were incredibly hard to see in the rough water. We were on high alert, weaving and dodging our way between the numerous cray pots.

We spent three nights in the Mandurah Ocean Marina and then one night anchored out in the estuary. Mandurah was all about its Christmas Lights Trail, with 23 light installations dotted all over the town. We witnessed some incredible sunsets here, had dinner out a few times and went to the movies to watch Venom 2, which was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.

Bunbury

The sheltered Koombana Bay in Bunbury was just a quick two night stop for us, although you could easily spend longer here. We picked up a ‘free’ mooring and walked into town, enjoying wandering aimlessly though the streets. The weather was just beautiful, warm and sunny. Kristin and Attila from SV Kelandria 3 invited us over for drinks and it was lovely to meet and chat with some like minded cruisers.

Busselton/Geographe Bay

Leaving Bunbury just after sunrise we emerged into calm seas with no swell. With both the main and headsail out we had a lovely sail south. It was the best sail we’d had in months! Our destination was Port Geographe Marina, one of the nicer marinas in WA. We had two nights here before picking up our hire car and driving to Esperance for Christmas. The boat had a big clean, inside and outside and I emptied the fridge.

As per normal, there were many birds in the marina. We’d never before seen this particular bird on the left though. He was quite large, and fascinated us with the way he stalked up and down the docks, occasionally diving in to the water and emerging with a squirming fish in his beak. The other main type of bird, on the right below, were not so welcome. Nicknamed turd factories by Matt, they flocked all over the boat and covered it with droppings. Even when we’d left the marina, with the boat freshly hosed down, they followed us out to the bay and proceeded to cover our decks with crap again.

We drove to Esperance and spent Christmas Eve until Boxing Day at my Uncle and Aunty’s house. They have a large family and with everyone so welcoming and hospitable, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. A busy and bustling household with people constantly coming and going, it was overwhelming in the nicest way to be surrounded by friendly people. We can’t thank them and my cousins enough for having us.

We took two days to drive back to Busselton, stopping overnight in Albany to reconnoitre the marina facilities for our upcoming stop there. There were several boats in the marina that we’d met previously and I gave Jo and Chris from No Regrets a call. They invited us onto their boat for coffee and it was lovely to hear about their passage along the south coast. When they heard that we were going to sleep in our hire car as all the accommodation in Albany was booked out, they invited us to stay in their spare bed. It was very kind of them, and an example of how generous and supportive the cruising community is.

The next morning we drove north to the Porongurup National Park, and walked the steep 1.5 kilometre track to Castle Rock, a granite outcrop with a suspended skywalk offering sweeping views from the summit. The scenery was spectacular, but the track was absolutely swamped with people and we even had to queue to access the skywalk. It was hard to truly appreciate the area with so many tourists there.

Back in Busselton we spent another week at the marina and spent our days cycling into town and just chilling on the boat. We met locals Steve and Christine from SV Sapphire who lived on their boat in the marina there. Matt and Steve enjoyed more than a few beers together and they gave us some tips about Geographe Bay. We also had a visit from John and Frances, friends of our friends, Chris and Anne, who we’d cruised with on the east coast in 2020. They’d left their boat over east (smart people) and come home to visit family. Frances kindly gave me a lift to the shops and I got a big grocery shop done.

After a very quiet New Years Eve, we moved out to Geographe Bay and picked up a mooring right next to the famous Busselton Jetty. It was nice to be back out on the water again and we were treated to some gorgeous sunsets from our prime position here. One night a big pod of dolphins was playing around the boat as the sun was setting; it doesn’t get much more special than that!

When the water was calm I paddled around on my stand up paddleboard and we took the bus to Margaret River for a day trip.

During this time we were constantly checking the wind forecasts to see when we would be able to sail out of Geographe Bay and around to Albany. It was the 60 mile stretch from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwen that was giving us grief. There seemed to constantly be strong southerlies tearing up the coast, and we couldn’t find breaks in the wind long enough to enable us to slip around the corner. We made all manner of plans, but the forecast was frustratingly changeable and we had to constantly keep revising our ideas. It was incredibly frustrating and disheartening.

Moving to the anchorage at Quindalup, we grabbed another ‘free’ mooring and explored the nearby town of Dunsborough. A very pretty little town, we celebrated our anniversary here with brunch at a café. After a couple of days, we thought we had a good window to head around and so we moved slightly north to anchor at Bunker Bay in preparation for a 4.30 am departure.

However, we were awakened at midnight by the smell of smoke and also by strong winds that had shifted leaving us sideways in the little bay, rocking and rolling uncomfortably and pointing directly at the nearby rocks. We suddenly didn’t feel very safe anymore. With difficulty, Matt managed to unhook us from the mooring in the strong winds and rough water and we motored out into the bay. Here we encountered big rough seas and winds gusting to 30 knots. We looked at each other in confusion, what on earth was happening? This hadn’t been in the forecast. Before too long we could identify the source of the smoke; there was a huge bushfire burning right along the coastline of the bay. The flames were incredibly fierce, a bright red glow that lit up the sky.

We quickly decided that we didn’t want to risk heading out and around Cape Naturaliste in this weather and turned the boat to head back to Quindalup. We spent the next two hours bashing through waves. It was not fun. I was tired, I felt sick and I was disappointed. We sat in silence, gazing at the fire raging on the shore. It was quite mesmerising, like staring into a campfire, and it was hard to draw your eyes away. I managed to take a few photos, but it was quite difficult with the boat crashing around so much.

Around 2.30 am we dropped anchor several miles out from the anchorage at Quindalup. We weren’t going to risk trying to grab a mooring in those conditions in the dark. We managed a few hours sleep and woke to move the boat onto a mooring at 7.30 am. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Matt discovered that there was a problem with the anchor windlass as it kept overheating and tripping the override switch. He determined that this was an issue that needed to be dealt with immediately. We did not want to be without a working anchor.

So back into the marina we went. Matt pulled out all the anchor chain and extracted the windlass. It appeared that the gear mechanism was all gummed up with gunk. Steve kindly lent us his car and we zoomed over town, sourcing parts and even finding an engineer to press new bearings onto the shaft.

Thankfully, Matt was able to completely fix the windlass that day, and so after just two nights we headed back out to Geographe Bay. There was another window to get all the way to Albany and this time we were taking it!!

To conquer frustration, one must remain intensely focused on the outcome, not the obstacles.

T.F. Hodge