Left about 8,for a cafe in town for breakfast.Arrived at the yard at 9 to see the hoist parked over the boat and the old owner ready to supervise and give us a run over the things which would not work,even more than he expected,mainly electrical.
We mucked around for a while fixing things while filling the fuel tanks.We wanted to fill them as full as possible to get an accurate fuel consumption figure on the 100 od mile run to Fremantle.
Rod and Cheroz jumped ashore to drive the van back to Perth and buy up more supplies and pick up the spare oil we needed.
We pulled away from the pier at exactly 12 under the command of Biggs.Mick had instructions of how to get out past the reef from the old owner,only thing was he had never been there himself as he fishes further north up the coast.
We managed to negotiate the passage ok and avoid a famous rock which has caught quite a few unsuspecting skippers we were told.
Motored about three miles off shore into the deeper water and headed South.
There was about a twelve to fifteen knot SW wind with a 2 meter swell with a wind chop on top.
The boat handled it well at 1800 rpm travelling at about 16 knots.
We were surprised of how much bottom there is on the way down, there was about 2 to 3 miles off shore the whole way down.We dodged quite a few pots 
out where we were ,interesting to note how even the bottom was at 15 to 18 fathoms deep with only very short weed,no more than 400 mm most of the time.The bottom we saw near the pots had no distinctive features like where we set them at home.
Out of the harbour.
Bruv put on a nice salad roll lunch out of things bought by Cheroz earlier in the morning.
I believe Rod and Cheroz pulled up at a servo to get some petrol and fill the windscreen washer bottle only to leave the key inside when the auto locking took over,Bugger,had to pay the servo staff to break into the van to get them back.
Mean while we were makin good time and tied up to the wharf at fisherman's harbour at 7.30 after navigating through all the lights leading into Freo.
Met by the owner and loaded all the stuff they had bought during the day.
Went out to the Esplanade Hotel for a excellent meal.
Back to the boat about 9 to sort out the sleepin arrangements.I have a den of my own with extra foam which seems to be excellent.
Most have gone to sleep as I am writing this ,one light snoring audible coming from the front cabin I think..
We are happy with today's effort but have a bit to do before getting under way again,may be tomorrow or Thursday,Clouds forecast seems pretty good for the run to Esperance so we will leave asap.
Under way
Mick and Rod at Fisherman's Harbour Freemantle.
Good work boys. Keep up the blogs Perk.
ReplyDeleteregards Shieldsy