Fremantle to Bunbury

After months of preparation the adventure begins. 

Leaving Fremantle 27 Oct 2017

After one nights sleep from a school reunion in NZ Mike is on watch

The sail to Bunbury was easy for the first 3/4 and then the wind built up. We came roaring into Bunbury harbour after dark, tired and a little beat up. We set the anchor, but not the anchor alarm, doh!

We dragged anchor and touched bottom at 3am, Mike raced forward while I put the motor in reverse. Our anchor and chain was caught up in a marker buoy. By the time Mike cut it free we were stuck on the bottom. We kedged out two anchors to try and pull us off with each wave. We called Sea Rescue to pull us off. They said since they have been taken over by the Government they have to get permission to rescue and permission was denied, even though we were close to rocks and in distress. We requested they ring again as at this stage we could be pulled off easily. Again we were denied as we had touched bottom they regarded it as salvage.

Sea Rescue gave us some other numbers to contact. The only boat used in Bunbury for this type of thing was in Queensland. The only ones that would help was Bunbury Harbour Services (BHS), but they could not stop their work in the harbour, so we waited 24 hours, by which time we had sunk more in the sand. An excavator was needed to dig a hole beside us to turn us and pull us out. The BHS boat needed 3.5M depth and it was 2M for approx 80M from us. They did a great job and got us out. The relief of floating again cannot be put into words.

We discovered the steering would not work. Oh no! not a good start.

The insurance company were very good all the way (TopSail). We had the boat lifted out which was just as scary as the grounding. after being shunted up some railway tracks the whole boat lurch forward, so we ran to the back. They took it back down and ensured the bottom was on 3 sleepers not 2. The damage:

Steering cable jumped off

Antifoul scraped off the bottom

The propeller had a ding 

The hull had a small ding

The total cost $10,000 for getting us off, lifter and repairs.

We have gone over what we did wrong and to try never to let this happen again.

Special Friends

We met up with our cruising companions Kylie and Craig in Bunbury and their support and friendship was amazing during this ordeal.

Craig

Kylie

We got in the local paper that did not interview us and almost all that was written was wrong.