We had a relaxed mroning the day after running aground at the Cape. OUr goal was to rest and catch up on sleep and decide what to do next with a clearer head.
There was another boat anchored near us who we contacted by radio, and the skipper seemed to have a bit of local knowledge. Grant decided to go over in the dinghy and pick his brain a bit. He found out that the skipper used to be a fisherman up here 25 yrs ago and is now just mainly solo sailing the very big boat he built in california. He was planning to head to seisia- about 7 nm away on the mainland- to provision and then take advantage of the weather window and sail across the Gulf of Carpenteria to the Wessel Islands in a couple of days. We were a bit gun shy about going into the shallower and smaller Seisa anchorage, but this other boat had a deeper draught then us so he said he would let us know how he goes getting in. Meanwhile, we saw the american boat, whom we have been leap frogging with, sail past toward Seisia as well.
So the descision was made to go as well,albet cautiously!
The other 2 boats radioed that they both go safely in and anchored and there was room for us. So we slowly made our way following the leads and channel markers. we got into position and dropped the anchor, but i thought that we were much to close to a catamaran. we decided to re anchor. Second position attempt didn't work so i had to bring the boat around again ( the tide/ current were running pretty swift and we didn;t have much room to manoeuver) as i was about to round a mooring buoy, the depth sounder went from 1.7m to 1.2m ( thats the depth we hit ground) and we drove into a sand bar! Much swearing ensued and i yelled for grant to jump in the dinghy ( which we towed thank goodness) he quickly got in and started pushing the nose of the boat while i reved it in reverse. meanwhile, our helpful neighbour came out in his dinghy and kelly threw him a stern line. But we weren't moving... once again at least it was a rising tide.
Finally another helpful yachtie came in his dinghy and after about 45 min, we got Wandoo off the sand and anchored. JEEPERS!
Once again, Elora was sound asleep in the carrier the whole time ( even through the yelling instructions and swearing) and Ameliana sat quietly next to me just taking in the action.
After Ameliana's nap, we decided to go to shore to explore and check out the grocery store in search of ice cream. it is a small town mainly made up of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders and Tour operators for fishing and trips to Thursday Island. It also has a couple of caravan parks for the people making the 4WD pilgrimage to cape york. It is also quite pretty and has a lovely beach, but once again those darn crocs spoil any chance of swimming.
The grocery store seemed adequate enough ( it had ice cream!), although the prices reflected the remotness of the area. We found the petrol station that would refill out LPG bottles and top up the disel and fuel drums. And there was access to drinking water to top up the water tanks.
So the decision was made to make the most of the weather window to cross the Gulf to the Wessel Islands, bypassing Gove ( where we were going to provision).
With the plan set, we treated ourselves to a gorging of fish and chips at the cafe at the caravan park. It was Elora's first time eating out and she thouroughly enjoyed the grilled fish, some salad and even managed to grab a chip- sneaky little thing!
we were going to try to leave Friday afternoon so the morning was spent grocery shopping for the girls and grant made the numerous dinghy trips to fill the water and then took the trolley with the petrol cans upto the station. the friendly guys gave grant a lift back down to the dinghy.
Once we got home, had lunch and packed everything away, it was almost 2 pm.i didn't think we were rested enough to start the 70+ hour sail, so we decided to leave after the tide turned on saturday afternoon.
Ameliana decided to negate her nap, so we all went to shore in the afternoon. kelly, elora and i were going to walk upto the butcher shop and grant and Ameliana were going to play on the beach.
As luck would have it, a guy named Greg who runs the local fishing charter business was there when we pulled up in the dinghy and insisted on driving us to the butchers, the post box, and the bottle shop! He has been up here for 22 years and loves it. He gave us a bit of a tour and some local history. Ah! small towns- gotta love the people in them.
We tried to have an early night to get as much rest as possible. This morning, the weather conditions to cross the gulf remain the same ( light to moderate SSE winds for next 3 days), although grant is very nervous about getting out of this anchorage without hitting anything!
We are doing the final preparations to leave in about 45 minutes. We won't have any reception except the satellite phone for at least the next few days and possible until we get to Darwin in about 2 weeks, so this maybe the last blog for awhile.
We are getting nervous/excited about this crossing as it will be a very good indicator on how we cope with the passage to indo from Darwin ( which is only about 20 nm longer than the 380nm we are about to do).
Anyway , until next time...