We left Jurien Bay bound for Fremantle at 8.45am on Monday, 30th August. The weather forecast was for a moderate southeast to southwest breeze but 3-5 metre swell, so we knew we were in for a wet day. On went the wet weather gear and up went the reefed in sails as we ventured out to face our last stretch home. Getting out of Jurien Bay and around the neighbouring reef wasn't too bad but boy, did it really pump up when we headed south! Big rolling seas looked like mountains ahead of us, with the wind peaking at a breezy 25 kts southwesterly (again not forecast!). But either I was used to it, or just over it, but in any case it didn't seem too bad and in fact I commented it was better than when we come out of Steep Point (Vic didn't have the same opinion though). We battled the elements down the coast with the boat heaving and rolling away, she's such a tough old boat though that you never feel like it's ever going to affect it. Some waves came over the foredeck, although the angle seemed to just miss us in the cockpit and instead the aft cabin copped a fair bit of water. Luckily we had battened down the hatches so just the deck got a good wash!

Vic had some lunch (I've discovered if I don't eat then I don't get seasick!) and we continued on our merry way until about 4pm when disaster struck. Our normally reliable motor (which was just ticking over to give us some stability) started to cough and splutter and then just...died. We looked at one another bewilderedly, did we snag a craypot on the propeller? Fuel issue? Equipment failure? Not sure. Luckily we already had the sails up so we tweaked them to give us more drive whilst Vic dived into the engine room to investigate. There was lots of muttering and cursing going on, and that was just from me as I tried to manoeuvre the boat around the numerous craypots that seemed to litter our path south. George the autopilot was doing a tremendous job of keeping us on course although I tested it on many occasions with some very quick 30 degree deviations! In the meantime poor Vic was just trying to hang on in the rolling waves as he extracted fuel, tested injectors and changed fuel filters. He determined it was some particles in the fuel that was causing all the trouble, most likely stirred up from the bottom of the fuel tank in the heavy swell. In any case, we managed to get the motor started by 6pm that evening, however the euphoria was shortlived as not 2 hours later it died again. Deciding it wasn't worth trying to start it again we instead just left the sails up and prayed that the wind would hold.

Luckily for us it did and we kept above 5 kt boat speed for most of the night. By 4am on Tuesday we had reached the light loom of Perth, a very welcome sight indeed! The wind started to ease and by the time we were near the Fremantle shipping channel was down below 10kts, with our boat speed about 2kts. It was going to be a long morning... We soldiered on, tired but elated that we were so close to home. With light winds and rain squalls passing through it was too hard to sail into the pen so instead we dropped our mainsail and headed into the Fremantle Sailing Club under the headsail. By 7am we were anchored in the duckpond just inside the club and rang Vic's brother for a tow into our pen using the dinghy. At 8.30am we were in our pen and HOME after being away just shy of 15 weeks. It has certainly been a challenging and at times, difficult journey. But it has also been fun, rewarding and entertaining and both Vic and I are very glad we can now tick that one off the bucket list!

Well this is where our journey and my blog ends. Thanks to all of you for your kind messages, well wishes, thoughts and prayers. I had great fun telling our story and I hope you all were able to escape with us and dream of a different kind of holiday... for a little awhile at least! All the best.

Cheers Michelle & Vic XX

We left Geraldton on Saturday, 28th August about 11am, bound for Jurien Bay. A couple of catamarans that had been in the inlet with us left in the early dawn trying to get to Perth (not sure whether they did though!). The weather was cool but fine, the winds slight but with big swell running we definitely did more miles then anticipated as we had to tack down the coast. The day passed uneventfully (apart from a couple more friendly whales having fun!) as did the evening hours, with the winds and swell lightening off and the mainsail providing that extra knot of speed to get us down to Jurien Bay by 8.30am on Sunday.

On arrival in the marina a distinct smell of rotting seaweed hit the senses. I was warned by the Dept of Transport staff that it was particularly rank due to an algal bloom, and indeed it was. So we remained in the cabin, only venturing out to have a shower. We were visited by a Marine safety officer, checking out our safety gear (on a Sunday no less!) and then Rod and Leonie (Vic’s brother and sister in law) drove up from Perth to take us out for lunch (thanks Guys!). It was great to see some familiar faces after nearly 4 weeks of travelling.

Our intention was to stay here in the marina until Friday (due to some forecast bad weather) however we have been lucky enough that a small weather window has opened up over the next 2 days. We will be heading off from the Marina tomorrow morning and doing one more overnighter (surely our last one!!!) so we can be safely in our pen at the Fremantle Sailing Club by Tuesday lunchtime.

With Vic's cousin Les and his lovely wife Dianne!