I am now on a mooring in Turtle Bay in the most northern group of the Abrolhos Islands (Wallabi Group), I ended up this far north by accident.

After a few pleasant days in the southern group I headed to the central Easter Group and anchored off Morely Island in about 10 meters of water. I spent two days there but this group has few really safe anchorages and being the weekend all the moorings (Only a few in this group with some missing and others in disrepair) were taken. Many boats had troubles on the Friday night so I dived on the anchor on Saturday morning and all was ok. At 10pm (why always late at night!!) I started dragging anchor. It was a dark night and the breeze was up so I decided the best option was to get out of that group and sailed slowly (with very little sail up) North with the breeze to the Wallabi Group. It would have been foolish to try and re anchor as you could not see where the reef started in such darkness.

Turtle Bay offers superb protection from the west through to East. It is also good sand for anchoring, I arrived at 5am and thankfully there was a mooring spare with another yacht just heading off back to Geralton. Incidentally that yacht ran onto a reef 30 minutes later but was successfully pulled off.

One of my concerns during the night sail here was not re enacting the Batavia disaster as I was going to pass past Morning Reef at the same time they did back in 1629, fortunately I do not have many people on board to create a mutiny.

I was looking at additional time at the Abrolhos but with Easter coming there will be an influx from Geralton so I am now considering an early jump to Shark Bay as an option. Photo is Turtle Bay.

After a few days in Jurien Bay anchored off town in very average conditions I moved north looking for a little more protection from the current winds. A quick sail and some 21 NM I headed into Green Head, the bay offered better protection but the wind was relentless with over 30 knots in the evening. I had some minor drama when the anchor bridle snapped at the height of the conditions. I was only able to get ashore once for a quick walk around town.

On the 23rd I headed up to Port Dennison and spent two night on the service jetty, this allowed one day to get off and walking into Dongera for a few fresh supplies. I had been having some issues with the engine cooling system so took time out to dismantle, clean and the reassemble-it now works!

Yesterday it was time to head for the Abrolhos, with perfect sailing conditions 90% of the way, as soon as I passed King Reef the Breeze went up to 20 knots. I sighted my first whale of the trip, a mere 20ft off my bow heading north. It was then a bash South to Middle Island where I am now at anchor. Seneschal is also here but as I type she is setting off for the trip south.

After a quick stopover in Freo to sit out a NWester, the predicted was for good conditions to head north. 24 hours later after a bumpy day and night I took some respite in Jurien. I was hoping to enjoy a few coastal spots along the way but the 3m swell made the alternatives not that attractive. It was a quick ride most of the way at around 7knots (SUF - Sea Urchin Fast) which for a overloaded small boat is not that bad. The crew (more on IT later) stayed below enjoying reruns of The Block. After a break I headed ashore to stretch the legs and the first person I see is from Mandurah! We have a few days of around 25 - 30 knots coming up so time to find a better anchorage as the current one has the swell at 90 degrees to the swell, so when you go to sleep it feels as if you are being massaged by some big Russian woman!

Photo is of sunrise off Jurien

After a nice farewell from family and friends it was time to head out and turn North, first day was an easy one some 32 miles up to Fremantle to catch up with a friend before pushing on.

The little boat has had a few coats of attractfoul added to her hull, three weeks out from heading up the WA coast to Darwin before joining the Rally through Indonesia. It will be a leisurely cruise up the coast, she isn't that fast anyway, with as much time in the Kimberly region as possible.