Port Lincoln to Tumby Bay

30 January to 6 February – Around Port Lincoln

From Coffin Bay, we booked into the Port Lincoln Tourist Park to spend some time getting repairs done. Firstly, we needed some repairs:

• The outboard is cutting out when throttling down, resulting in a nightmare when berthing
• The bow of the boat had a hole in it where we hit the jetty when the motor stalled in Coffin Bay
• I needed repairs because the virus I contracted in Melbourne is just not getting better and the muscle spasms are making life on the boat difficult.

The motor was dropped off an outboard service centre on the way to the caravan park.

Our new friend John Hookings organised someone to repair the hull and remove the scratches on the side. Richard Mason is a semi-retired shipwright / surf board /canoe designer and a wizard with fibreglass. Sandpiper was parked in his back yard for 5 days or so while he did the work. During this time, we hired a chalet at the PL Tourist Village, which was a good thing because it coincided with a nasty heat wave. Richard was so helpful and accommodating, letting us come and go at will and sharing his extensive knowledge of the waters around Port Lincoln.

Several trips to a local doctor and a series of blood tests confirmed the presence of some or other virus but not the suspected Ross River. This was good news, because it meant it would clear up quicker than the nasty RRV. As it was, it had been a couple of weeks of agony. The doctor prescribed codeine which did help bring things under control until a daily improvement was noted.

While we camped in the caravan park, we were really surprised to see Dennis and Maureen Hoult, a couple from Shark Bay, parked nearby. They had been over to Tamworth for the annual music festival, one of our aims (among many). They were doing a slow drive back checking out the wonderful sights of the Eyre Peninsula. Dennis is a whiting fisherman in Shark Bay and I was little amused when they went out into town for dinner at Del Giorno’s, the holder of many awards for the best Seafood Restaurant in SA. They did report that the seafood was excellent.

The rest of the time in Port Lincoln was spent resting (sleeping in my case), watching the terrible midday movies, walking and sometimes swimming down in front of the caravan park. All beaches around here have a Shark Action Plan sign, which seems to be about as useful as WA’s baiting program but a lot cheaper. We certainly got to know our way around this wonderful little city. We continue to find that people are so helpful and friendly, whether we are talking about shop assistants, caravan park workers or just people you come across around town. People are still taking the time to stop and chat.

7 February to 13 February – Sailing Port Lincoln to Tumby Bay

With repairs complete and me on the improve, we launched Sandpiper in Port Lincoln, with Richard and John Hookings helping out with storing the car and trailer and running us back to the boat etc. It was like a limo service with valet parking.

We sailed North past Port Lincoln township inside the beautiful Boston Island, dodging the numerous fish farms dotting the bay. The tuna industry now catches wild Southern Bluefin Tuna of all sizes and puts them in large circular floating compounds. These are then towed into more sheltered waters and the tuna grown out to size using locally caught sardines and fish meal pellets. The same system is used for Yellowtail Kingfish, except these are hatchery reared on land then transferred to sea cages for growth. We also saw a mussel farm and some land based abalone farms along the coast near Point Boston.

We sailed North between Louth and Rabbit Islands to overnight in Peake Bay, a large deep bay about 4 nautical miles across. We had to choose a couple of spots before finding a really calm and comfortable spot, tucked in behind Point Bolingbroke. The beach was absolutely gorgeous white sand and the water clean and clear. However, we were mindful of John Hookings’ warnings of a large great white shark in this very area over the last few days.

On one occasion, a large seal (probably an Australian Fur Seal), could be seen hunting along the edge of the narrow sand strip. We were anchored right on this line so we watched as he just passed right under the bow and kept cruising. I kept thinking about the shark and hoping the seal would make it. Another time, a large pelican came and stood on the beach opposite the boat and waited for us to clean fish. We didn’t have any but I waded ashore anyway to try to get a photo alongside it. He wasn’t having any of this and waddled off down the beach. I played the “Pelican Whisperer” and held out a hand to him. That got his attention and he came back to discuss things. I felt so guilty about the deception I went and got some of my fresh squid and gave him a snack.

Over the next few days, the weather turned bad, giving everything from extreme heat and fierce North-West winds to strong cool Southerlies. We spent several days criss-crossing the bay in search of calm anchorages, three times on one occasion. Near where we were anchored was an access track through private farming property and a few boats came and went to fish the area. One guy, Steve White, turned out to be the owner of the Seabreeze Hotel in Tumby Bay and we spent a great time swapping yarns about the area. He knew the owners of the property and regularly accessed it for fishing. We promised to catch up later in Tumby Bay for a drink. The next day I talked to another fisherman, this time a professional whiting fisherman, who actually turned out to be Steve’s father-in-law.  He fishes for King George Whiting by line, the netting having been stopped some years ago. It’s a small world.

Meanwhile, we managed to keep ourselves fed on seafood, with steady catches of herring and the occasional whiting. One evening, we caught four large squid so we had a couple of great meals of calamari.

After a few days of criss-crossing Peake Bay, the weather improved and we crossed the 10 nautical miles of more open ocean to Reevesby Island, the largest of the Sir Joseph Banks Group. Numerous other islands surrounded us, Winceby, Lusby, Kirkby, Dalby,  Partney etc, the “by” suffix reflecting  village names of Mathew Flinders’ native Lincolnshire. The trip over was terrific, with calm winds and glassy seas. For a long time, we had the company of two beautiful dolphins playing in our bow wave, eventually to be joined by a mother and her tiny calf. It was so small it must have been very young but managed to keep up with the rest.

Once at Reevesby Island, we entered Home Bay, locally referred to as the lagoon. It offers protection from most winds and is a broad expanse of reasonably shallow water and glorious white sand beaches. Seals patrol the weed lines and a wide variety of bird life can be seen on every sand bar or rocky outcrop. It is the sort of area that brings the dulcet tones of Sir Richard Attenborough to mind.

From a more human perspective, a number of boats dotted the lagoon, one, a large white catamaran that we had been told was in the area for several months, and others, a series of smaller craft fishing for the day from either Port Lincoln or Tumby Bay. As the day progressed, boats came and went, some anchoring overnight. We found great entertainment in listening to the chatter of VHF radio from boats scattered all over the lower Spencers Gulf area for the various fishing reports and anchorage expectations of each craft. Over the next few days, we grew to know various craft by call sign, even if we’d never sighted them.

 

We went ashore to look at the ruins of the old homestead, just over the first set of dunes. Despite the heat, we put on stout long trousers and wore full booties for the walk, the island being heavily populated with black tiger snakes. We stuck carefully to the boardwalk. Eventually, we had to cross a samphire flat and it is this area that is reputed to be populated with death adders. We jointly decided that we could see the ruins perfectly well from the safety of the boardwalk and left exploring the buildings to others. The snake situation here is so bad that one boat reported over the radio that three tiger snakes were swimming at the back of the boat. Fisherman report them as being quite aggressive.

Old Reevesby homestead

 

Unfortunately, the weather forecast was not good, with a major rain event was coming with falls of up to 100mm predicted and some fairly strong winds. We elected to use a small window of opportunity to sail to Tumby Bay, a coastal town around 50km North of Port Lincoln and hole up there. We’d work out later how to get the car and trailer down from Lincoln. Anchorages off Tumby Bay are not very good so we entered their small marina. A call to the Shire about a berth quickly had us put on to a very helpful man from Modra Apartments who kindly let us use a berth for a few days to get sorted.

We dropped in on our new friend Steve from the Seabreeze Hotel and destroyed the diet with a huge schnitzel each and a couple of beers. He also lent us a power cord for the berth and gave us a guided tour of some of the new developments in town. Tumby Bay is a lovely little town, with good amenities and facilities. Once again, everyone seems very friendly. Another night we went to the pub for happy hour and got talking to a couple alongside us. They immediately knew us as the yacht people from WA who had been anchored in Peake Bay. By chance, they own the farm that we were anchored off and are also good friends of John and Helen Hookings, our Port Lincoln friends. You can’t get away with anything down here.

 

The rain event came with a vengeance and we spent a couple of days holed up inside the boat. John and Helen kindly delivered the car and trailer to us so we could pull out when the winds eased and drive back to Port Lincoln. There, we will re-launch and explore the many bays and islands to the South.

Christine’s culinary creations while at sea. She really is a wonder.