Sailing Around Australia; A Glorious Day On Land

Sunday 23/2/2014 A Glorious Day on land.

Our Sailing Around Australia adventures took a day on land yesterday. A very kind offer from Geoff and Heather Georgiou was gleefully accepted by Leanne, me, Maree from Urchin and Brian (b2) and Eva.

9.00am we met on the jetty and loaded into the 4wd. Down the road away from the jetty and out of sight of the ocean for the first time in over a month. It did feel a bit weird.

I quickly felt right at home though, as the road to Sceale (scale) bay wound it’s way through farm country. The land around these parts is very similar to northern and eastern wheatbelt country in WA. Similar drums for mailboxes at the end of long gravel homestead roads and names of farms were all familiar. Except for one that stood out. I haven’t ever seen a farm called “blow me downs” before.

Our first stop was Sceale Bay. The sailing trio has suggested that this may be our next anchorage, when (and IF) we leave Streaky Bay. A quick stop at “the Granites” was first on the agenda. Strangely there was no-one surfing the Granites that day, but it is a popular surf spot even though a big shark had been seen in the area the day before we visited.

We poked our head in at another couple of small bays. All look really beautiful and many would be great anchorages. Of course they all looked wonderful in the near perfect for anything conditions in which we were viewing them.

Geoff and Heather showed us the popular picnicking areas that they have been visiting most of their lives, with Geoff having done a lot of cray fishing and working for an abalone diver.

Speed point was another beautiful spot. An abalone diver was working in the water quite close to the bottom of the cliff ledge we were standing on. The water was so clear we could see not only the yellow hose to his hooker but could see his black shape clearly in the water.

Just around the next corner was Yanerbie Beach. What a delightful place with the white sand similar to the Esperance beaches and the cleanest looking turquoise water that was flat calm.

At the south end of Yanerbie beach is the small settlement of Sceale Bay. This is a group of perhaps twenty houses across the road from one of the best beaches and bays one will ever see. Even better, there was literally no one to be seen. Small patches of sand could be seen in the water a few hundred meters off shore. They looked to be just waiting for two catamarans and a yacht to come and visit.

According to Geoff though, we don’t “have” to go there as there is a place around near the point or headland that is “just” as good and a lot less travelling needed to get there. Very good advice. No need to go further to eutopia if it is just as good nearby.

After a quick smoko provided by master chef Eva, The girls had to visit the cute little public toilet block. Then we drove down some more gravel roads and past more farming homesteads. There were even some farm gates that I had to get out and open. Never thought I would enjoy that little touch of my history so much.

About 1.30pm we arrived in Venus Bay, the real subject of our guided tour. We had noted on the charts that Venus Bay seemed about the right distance for us from Sceale Bay so that we could day sail our way down the western coast of South Australia. But, Geoff had urged a lot of caution about Venus Bay.

On inspection of the inlet or in our case the entrance into the bay, our rating of Venus bay took a nose dive. A huge mass of water, although shallow, Venus bay has tidal movements of about 1.5 to 2 metres and that empties or recharges through a gap of about 100 metres at the entrance. If we were trying to motor against this mass movement of water and the current created we would have a battle on our hands to make any way at all. In fact, we could be swept side on to the swell and that would be disastrous.

A nice lunch was had at the Venus Bay store and then I drove back to Streaky Bay to the sounds of heavy duty snoring from the back of the vehicle.

In the evening B1 and Maree kindly hosted the sundowner, with Geoff and Heather coming to join us aboard Urchin and swap more tall stories.

I think our group was very glad to have seen the next ports of call, even if one was scrubbed off the list. We all very much appreciated Geoff and Heather’s efforts on their one day a week off.

Next weekend we hope to all go for a sail together.