Baking Bread

We headed out for Seisia optimistically on 5th Oct.  I sent Krista (my daughter) a happy birthday message for the following day as I would be out of range for phone calls by then.

We motored out of the bay, past the bauxite refinery loading wharf where we were greeted by the eerie spectacle of a ship engulfed in steam.

 I would tell you what they were doing if I knew.

After passing the last channel buoy, the sails went up.  We needed to go east but as the wind was coming from that direction, we had to settle for north-east.  After a while we tacked to south-east and so it went that day, zig-zagging our way eastwards.

As the day went on, the oncoming swell got bigger and the wind got stronger.  

Ian said, "this is ridiculous".

I agreed.

It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon, we had been sailing for over 7 hours and had only progressed about 25nm.

Dalywoi Bay at Cape Arnhem seemed like a protected anchorage when you looked at it on the map, so our new heading was south. 

Tuna and Terns compete for the the schools of bait fish which whip the waters into a frenzy.

 We arrived at Dalywoi Bay about 5 o'clock to find that it wasn't as sheltered in reality as it was in theory.  Well, too late now, it was going to be a rock and roly night. 

Swell turns into surf as it meets land at Dalywoi Bay

About 8 o'clock that night we see another boat anchor further up the bay.  I thought it might have been Rob and Henma who had left for Seisia on their catamaran "Easy Rider" the day before us.  Ian didn't think so.

As we left the next morning, the VHF radio sprang to life. 

"Is that you sneaking off Winkali?"

It was Easy Rider!

They had had enough of the rough seas also and it was back to Gove for both of us.

"That's funny", say the Brown Boobies sitting on their  channel marker, "didn't we see you guys leaving yesterday?"

That evening we had 'sundowners' with Rob and Henma and discussed options for weather breaks to get to Seisia. 

It is now a week later and the wind is gusting up to 20kn in our sheltered harbour.

Sundowners have been on Easy Rider every other night - there are advantages to having a roomy catamaran.

We have stocked up on books and movies and there are now 5 boats waiting to go east.

I have been honing my skills at bread making.  I started on Foccacia  and Naan bread.  Then bravely tried making bread rolls.  It takes time but it's getting better.  I bought a loaf tin and some Lauke Bread Improver from town.

Take a look