Messing about in Boats - Part II

Delinquent Adventures continued

Sorry about the delay in posting this conclusion. Due to adverse circumstances, like limited access to the net courtesy of Telstra, I was not able to write last week's blog.
However, here we go with the continuing saga of Delinquent.
After our first misadventures trying to reach Geographe Bay we set out again a few weeks later to make good on our promise to ourselves to visit Busselton.
Well, the gods of the sea had other ideas, once more. Once we reached the channel between Rottnest and Carnac Island to enter the Indian Ocean proper and head south a fierce south-south-westerly came up that pushed us more backwards than forwards.
With little room to tack I decided it would be prudent to turn around and head for Thompson Bay at Rottnest to wait for better weather.
We practically flew into Thompson's and found a nice little spot to drop anchor. Being quite protected from the winds there we spent a lovely afternoon lazing about, swimming and cooking up some good food on our tine little stove in the galley.
The weather didn't abate at all, but we were quite content to stay at Rottnest and enjoy the early summer weather. Little did we know that our daughter hit panic stations after two days of not hearing from us and alerted the authorities! We even scored a write-up in The West Australian newspaper headlined 'Couple lost at Sea'!
Them were the days when nobody had a mobile or cell phone. One had to row ashore to use a public phone box to inform relatives of ones whereabouts. That required effort (swimming ashore, we had no dinghy then) and loose change to operate the phone.
On the third day in the bay a police boat pulled up to our little ship and inquired whether this was Delinquent and so on. Well, they gave me a bollocking and took me off my ship to the main jetty to call our distressed daughter. In the end everything was good and we enjoyed our mini holiday.

Jurien Bay 'Marina'

Not being deterred by these minor mishaps we decided to go north instead just after Christmas. We figured that would be a better alternative to battling the strong south-westerlies. Our aim was to reach Jurien Bay.
We set off late in the morning, preparations always take longer than one anticipates, and head north. By early evening we made Cervantes, then a little fishing village about half-way between Hillarys and Jurien Bay. We pulled in there and anchored for the night. Next day we had no problem making Jurien Bay by early afternoon. Docking alongside the main jetty I went in search of the harbour master to be allocated a berth. No worries he said and described which berth we could use. He was thoughtful enough to caution: "Mind the strong sea breeze, approach in a wide arch and have your engine in reverse. The wind will push you in anyway, just grab the rope from the outboard pylon to stop you and be ready to throw a rope to whoever is on the jetty to stop you from hitting other boats."
Worked like charm, we got into the berth and tied up, wind blowing in the cockpit like crazy but it was still enjoyable.
The plan was to spend two nights there and then sail back to Perth for New Years eve. The weather, however, had different ideas.  Five times we tried to leave only to be pushed back towards Jurien again and again. We tried early morning, middle of the night and anytime in between - all to no avail.
Gave us a great opportunity to get to know most of the crayfishermen on our jetty and have some great yarns with them and share a few beers.
On Jnauary 2 I woke up about 4 AM because there was an eerie stillness and humid smell in the air. I woke the deckhand (the good lady wife) and said: "Stow everything and get ready in ten minutes, we're out of here!" Sleepyhead stumbled about stowing and securing things below deck, in between asking: "What about breakfast?", whilst I got things organised above deck. "Stuff breakfast, we can have that later!"
And off we went, motoring out of the harbour, hoisting sails and heading south. A lovely north-north-westerly had sprung up by then. I put the sails 'wing on wing' and we were just surfing down the coast.
The deckhand prepared some breakfast and we enjoyed the rapid progress.
Didn't even bother to stop at Cervantes since we made such good headway. We reached Hillarys by about 8 PM - no mean feat for a 28 foot yacht covering about 110 nautical miles in that time.
And here comes what you've all been waiting for - the guaranteed cure for seasickness:

  STAND UNDER A TREE !