Arid Bay

[Kyle]We left Victory Boat Harbor at our usual early hour, with our usual plan of getting as much sailing in as we could before the afternoon winds started howling. This day was the only one in the near future where we would not have direct headwinds, but instead quartering headwinds. The hope was that we would only need to do a few tacks.

Some cool clouds on passage

It worked out that way, for the most part. Most of the maneuvering and sail handling that we had to do was just to weave our way through the many islands en route. Overall, we ended up averaging only about fifteen degrees from our destination. Through the water, we sailed roughly the same distance as our previous leg to Victory Boat Harbor, but we covered almost twice as much ground in the process. Again, we were the only boat in sight.

At Anchor in Arid Bay

At Arid Bay, we anchored in a sandy patch at one end of the wide sweep of the beach. We were pummeled overnight by katabatic winds, known locally as “bullets”, that came hurtling down the smooth rock slopes behind the beach. Our anchor was well dug in and the wind turbine kept the batteries at 100% all night.

We knew there would be a lull the next morning, before a new swell came in, so we got up early and rowed to the beach for a stroll – our “one thing” of the day. In the manner of these things, we ended up walking as far as we could go in both directions, plus a hill climb or two, just for the perspective of a little height. In between, we did a little dune bashing, using trails helpfully laid down through the scrub by the kangaroos, to get us back to the beach.

Exploring Arid Bay

Rugged Views, and Kyle spots a snake on our walk back

Our lollygagging got us back to the dinghy later than we should have been. Our row to the beach had been an easy one on flat water until scraping to a stop on the sand. Now there was a barrier of breaking waves to traverse that were big enough that we knew there would be no way to get through without getting wet.

And so it was. Our usual procedure is to wait for a lull in the wave cycle and then for me to board the dinghy first. Maryanne holds the bow into the waves while I get ready with the oars. Then, she boards from the stern, one leg in the dinghy and one in the sand. At her signal, I start pulling with the oars while she kicks us off with the wet foot and then swings it into the boat.

This time, as soon as she was seated, she said, “Hold on, wave!” It was just big enough to break over the bow and then split in two as it hit my back. Oh, Damn! That water is not as warm as I would like it to be. It was the only one, fortunately.

Over the next couple of hours, the surf doubled in height and then doubled again by nightfall. That assured that we wouldn't be going ashore again at Arid Bay. That's fine. We were due for a couple of maintenance days anyway.

[Maryanne] Our time hanging out at Arid Bay was mixed. Mixed weather, mixed emotions. It was to be our last stop in Western Australia (WA) before our push to South Australia.

It was lovely to ponder our time in WA, a place we had been keen to visit, but was denied us (due to COVID restrictions); a place we only entered because of the loss of the forestay during our passage around. Expensive fixes, and frustrating delays kept us in Exmouth just long enough for the COVID rules to change all over again, and we were given permission to remain in WA but then had to rush south due to us being in the cyclone zone/season. Despite that, we were lucky enough to visit some beautiful places AND meet some amazing people. It was fun to remind ourselves of all the amazing animals we'd been 'up close' with in WA (quokkas, kangaroos, Emus).

I'm not sure when (if?) we will ever manage to return to WA, at least not in the foreseeable future. I'm especially sad we missed exploring the Kimberley (way up North). The downtime aboard allowed me to start painting the corridors inside the boat - a project that was long overdue!. While we waited for the weather to be more favourable for our passage west across the Bight to South Australia (SA).