Sailing Around Australia; In the Middle of Nowhere

5/2 2014 In the Middle of Nowhere

Middle Island. In the middle of...?

Today it has been a momentous day on our Sailing Around Australia Adventure as Easy Tiger is anchored in the eastern anchorage off Middle Island. That means we are right on the edge of The Great Australian Bight. Momentous as we have all agreed by VHF radio conference this afternoon that we are starting the most talked about, the most worried about and the most anxiety causing part of our sailing around Australia Adventure. Crossing the Great Australian Bight.

Middle Island is a long way east of Esperance, quite a few kilometres south of Cape Arid (itself pretty remote) and some 1075kilomters from Streaky Bay to the east. So you would think that it would not be surprising if I told you that it was deserted.

Every bay that we have visited so far on our Sailing Around Australia Adventures has been populated by four wheel drives on the land, Jet skis and tinnie type fishing runabouts buzzing around us in the water. Yes, it was school holidays and yes,  the population on these beaches has thinned out while we have been in Duke of Orleans bay. But at Middle Island?

It took us 9 hours to sail here from Duke Of Orleans bay. We plotted and re-plotted the course according to the weather forecasts. Turns out non of them were even nearly right. Our best summary of the Predict Wind, Meteye and Bureau of Meterology services was for a North Easterly to turn South Easterly mid morning. We plotted steer an Easterly course, so that we could head due south later on the approach to Middle Island.

We had Easterly straight into our faces, then as we turned South so did the wind, picking up an uncomfortable wind chop. We were very glad to get here and get anchored in this peaceful secluded, deserted Island.

Then some people started dropping in.

That's right. People were parachuting on to Middle Island.

And when there's people around there's loud, noisy toys around.

The ultimate boys toy. Makes a nice change from being buzzed by Jet Ski's

Esperance Island Cruises

My turn to catch a fish today. A nice Pike  caught on the way to Middle Island.

We take turns at skippering, and have a roster drawn up for crossing the bight. 2.5 hours shifts in daylight and 6 hours each at night.

I look forward to blogging for you on the other side. Here we go... here we go... here we...