My apologies for not adding sooner. We've had no phone or Internet signals... not even radio contact, so here's the catch up (going back a couple of days of course........).

FRIDAY NOV 29THE __ we finally left Edithburgh at yet another ungodly hour. The boat was all unmoored and seagoing by 6am (that time in the morning SERIOUSLY has to cease). Barely time for a cup of tea and definitely no time to grab any breakfast.

The morning was gloomy and dull, the water looked about the same colour as oil sludge, the wind was strong and the waves were HIGH. I had a feeling I wasn't going to be happy with the trip today, which was estimated to be about 8 hours around to West Cape Bay, and I was right...

As we pulled out and headed towards Sultana passage, it seemed as though the day may brighten as the morning dolphins arrived, god-rays (Ra's quite possibly) appeared over Troubridge Island and the scores of huge fans at the Edithburgh wind farm turned slowly in the breeze. All it did though, was to instil me with false hope. As we got further out from shore and headed towards the passage, the waves began to pound the boat and my almost happy thoughts suddenly began turning into something more along the lines of crap, crap, oh crap, crap, crap!!! I thought that some ginger pills were in order, (bahahahahaha!) just in case the weather decided to show me what it fully had planned and play havoc with my stomach.

It showed me what it had and more. The seas were over 2 metres high, with a further swell of over a metre that pounded Venture relentlessly on the port (left) side. And of course every time a wave hit one side, it tipped the boat. I had almost had enough when it tipped so far, the scuppers (top rail around the deck) and half the deck ended up in the water.... did you read that? IN. THE. WATER! By now I was in tears and beginning to feel none too well.

Soon after the great scupper incident of November 29th, a feeling began in the depths of my stomach and the almighty chuck/vomit/spew/chunder ... call it what you will... bucket was called upon and over the course of the next 3 hours, it was put to use 8 times, by me alone, I was shattered. The worst part was, because I had had no breakfast and only ½ a cup of tea several hours earlier, my stomach contents were non existent. I really just felt as though I wanted to curl up and die, so I did the next best thing.... I slept for the following 3 hours, only waking long enough for a sip of water and a Kwell tablet and not caring a jot about the waves or the wind or whether I'd end up in the ocean to me menaced by big bitey things with huge teeth and tentacles. When I finally woke, I think the Kwell had kicked in and it didn't feel as though an alien was trying to burst out of my torso. The seas had settled a little and I couldn't wait to get where we were going.

When we finally anchored in West Cape Bay I was very relieved but unfortunately we found there were no signals of any kind, be it phone, Internet or sea radio so Dave couldn't even let the coast guard know we had arrived safely so he had to lower the dinghy and take it to the beach where he finally found a signal by climbing up some dunes. Personally I didn't care about much at all, as long as we were stopped. What a day.



SATURDAY NOVEMBER 30TH - We woke in West Cape Bay to fairly nice weather, if a little too windy (which, in Dave, awoke a paranoia about the anchor dragging). I was looking at another day crag-fast on the boat when Dave suggested, out of the blue, a picnic lunch on the beach. I was stoked (even though he had an ulterior motive in that he could get phone coverage but hey, I was to be off the boat). So, after I had made sandwiches, organised something to drink, crackers and dip, fruit, nuts, sun screen, insect spray, a picnic blanket and cameras, all packed inside a day bag in little waterproof bags, we were ready to go (isn't it amazing that men suggest these things, all romantic like, but we end up doing the work !? I think it must be some kind of unwritten archaic law somewhere).

When we landed at the beach in the dinghy, he noticed that I was wearing shoes and socks, which I then realised was a stupid thing to wear considering that there was every chance I'd get wet, which, of course, I did. Socks off, shoes off and pants rolled up, but that wasn't enough to keep the footwear dry as a wave splashed over the dinghy and soaked anything that was near the floor. So, shoes and socks onto a rock to dry. Luckily the bag with the supplies was sitting atop a pile of rope. Yay for lucky stuff!

The picnic, which we ate in a lovely little 'cave' in a sandstone outcrop (see photo) was nice, made interesting by seeing if we could eat without a fly entering an orifice, be it mouth, nose, or ears. The little buggers were thick and not terribly put off by the bug repellent. I think we were lucky though, in that we both managed to eat our food without the extra protein adding itself to our diet.

After lunch we decided to walk to Pondalowie Bay about 2 ½ kilometres away. We walked along the beach, over some dunes and limestone outcrops into another small bay area and further still over more dunes until we came across a dirt road we didn't even realise was there. We followed the road to a tourist car-park near the much larger Pondalowie Bay where a dozen or so fishing boats were moored. It was nice but not as pretty and isolated as West Cape.

Dave found Internet and phone reception there so spent half an hour getting weather updates whilst I pottered about on the rocks. A really nice day was had by all.


SUNDAY DECEMBER 1ST - Overnight storm with spectacular lightning, lots of wind. Morning until late afternoon, cold, wet, raining, high winds, still anchored, boat rock'n'rollin'. Bleeeech! Moved the boat forward for fear of dragging the anchor and being dashed onto the cliffs. From about 4pm, wind dropped, sun came out, I slept a lot so have not a lot to report, apart from the fact that Dave is no fisherman yet. I'm glad we have beans on the boat otherwise we'd starve. :) Tomorrow we're leaving for Thistle Island.