The atomic islands
ECCENTRIC souls we are and a sense of humour is normally a great asset when you are out at sea for long periods of time, especially if it is with your husband/partner. My Capy’s nickname is ‘silent goat running’ while he calls me ‘crazy horse dancing.’
We were getting reading for the big adventure of finally getting our girl Spirit of Sherry up to the Kimberley. My wee brunette head was spinning trying to plan our four month trip with stocking the boat and finalising our land-based home with last minute lockup, see ya later alligator instructions.
Sailing had been a dream of mine with our first boat being a 25 foot Sunbird trailer sailer, where we started our sea life back in 2007 in Mangles Bay in Rockingham. After eloping in the Whitsundays and getting married on a catamaran called Dream On, this quickly turned our view into selling our Sunbird and buying our first catamaran.
BLAST OFF
Our beloved 36 foot Crowther Witness catamaran may be the slow boat from China but, after ten years of enjoyable sailing on parts of the west coast, she has been a grand vessel and part time home for us and time and time again has got us safe passage to our given destinations.
A pod of dolphins raced the hulls of Spirit Of Sherry as we departed Mangles Bay on the 11th April 2018 in fair weather and I sighed to myself; a damn good omen ‘tis the dolphin!
Unfortunately, north easterlies never stopped and we sat out the weather more than we wanted. This provided time to nickname each other: ‘sneaky goat running’ for the captain and ‘crazy horse dancing’ for myself.
Sundowner time gave us pause to reflect on more boat business. With lashings of wine we succumbed to having to change tack on our trip, as now having lost three weeks waiting out weather our new destination was to be the Montebello Islands.
Family commitments we had at the end of August and this took the pressure off us and the Kimberley will be there for us next year, 2019.
From Steamboat Island we departed at 2.30am and captain scored a lot of brownie points leaving wifey in bed to get her beauty sleep while he threw the pick and headed off. We had a bril crossing with 10 to 15 knot NE winds for a good crossing of 35 nautical mile.
Bleary eyed and not flashing my pearly whites at 7am was my norm, as I am not the happiest little fish in the mornings. That is when I cherish me hearty husband and took over the helm so he could flap his jowls with more sleep.
Our autopilot had stopped working back in May after our
