Sécurité, sécurité, strong wind warning.

I knew that wind this morning was strong enough to blow a dog off its chain. We left the safety of Pelican Bay and headed north under storm sails – two handkerchiefs wouldn’t have looked out of place up our mast! Roo Bin Esque lifted her skirts and scooted along in the gusty winds and the only draw back was knowing the channel ahead through the Sandy Strait was very twisting and shallow – even for a catamaran. Mid-morning the local Coast Guard stations were broadcasting sécurité messages with strong wind warnings. We slowed down, started the engines and dropped the sails. Even then with current and wind we were whistling along at 7 kts.

Just before lunch time, Huey,  (he’s responsible for the wind) and Neptune, (bloke with a trident who looks after the ocean), teamed up to give us a reminder that we are mere mortals (and relative novice seafarers…) Nothing gets a sailor’s attention more than an ‘insufficient depth’ alarm on their navigation system. Who knew we could move so fast!

Thankfully we snuck through that section without grounding and then anchored up to wait for the tide to rise some more. It was a salutory reminder that conditions can and do change and charts aren’t always accurate. Complacency will bite every time.

When thunderstorms started rolling in from the east we decided a safe anchorage would be the wisest course so we headed for a spot to the south of Kingfisher Bay resort. In the space of fifty metres we went from manic whitecaps, pouring rain and howling wind to a gentle little spot in the lee of some impressive sand dunes.

What else is a man to do but go fishing! (I promise you he is fishing 🙂 ) Oh, and it’s another sunset, of course.

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12 thoughts on “Sécurité, sécurité, strong wind warning.

  1. We’re still waiting to catch anything, Brett… But will keep that Spanish Mackerel in mind!

    Not sure which way we’re going yet although probably inshore for now. Still have to work out which bit of the Wide Bay military areas are active…

    Hoping for dropping winds in the next few days 🙂 GW sends his regards.

  2. Hi Helene, hope your trolling a couple of lures while your cruising. Fresh Spanish Mackerel on that little Weber is beautiful.
    Are you heading out via the Capricorn Bunker group or staying inshore on the way north?
    Looks like the wind may start to drop on Sunday afternoon. Say Hi to GW for us, Brett

  3. Louise, that’s priceless! Swings and round abouts in all things. We’ll have to do the interior one day as GW hasn’t really seen any of it. But first the coast.

  4. Gosh, I’m loving this! The beauty of travel is the elements. For us, it’s not the ocean but the outback. We were in the Flinders Ranges last year being blown to smithereens by icy winds. 200 metres away, someone had snagged a campsite beside a large rock/hillock and they were snug as a bug. Next day, all quiet and we had the extraordinary views. They still had the rock 🙂

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