Dear Cracklin Rosie fans,
Greetings from the Exmouth Boat Harbour, into which we sailed yesterday afternoon.  However, back to the beginning of the Broome - Exmouth leg (about 515 nm).  We welcomed Alec Holm and Ros Mackinlay aboard in Broome, and thanks to the loan of a vehicle from Ros' niece Gina, we were able to get all of our provisions (food, booze, fuel and gas) with ease.  Getting them to the boat via our leaking rubber ducky was less easy, given that the cardboard boxes holding wine and beer dissolved en route, result in 14 bottles of wine and 30 cans of beer rolling around the floor of said dinghy.  However, we managed to get them all on board without losing any.
We left Broome on 19 September, and sailed not stop for four days heading for the Montebellos.  Alec and Ros were introduced into the dubious pleasures of night watches, although the sailing conditions were reasonable benign, although rough conditions on one day required Alec to end a day lying on his bunk.  Along the way, we caught a Mackerel Tuna, which although it has quite dark meat, was perfectly adequate for two meals. Alec and Ros introduced us to crossword puzzles which as well improving our minds, helped to pass the time.  Finally, we ran the competition for estimating each day's 24 hour run, with Alec, Ros and Don winning on day each, and with Alec as the overall winner.  For readers' information, the day runs were 84, 105 and 119 nm respectively.  And we also instituted euchre playing with Jim and Alec comprehensively thrashing Ros and Don 6 games to 1 over the course of the whole trip.
We arrived in the Montebellos at about 11 pm on the 22nd, and spent all of next day there, with shore trips via swimming to see the site where the atomic tests occurred in the 50s, and also to eat some oysters.  It was a very pleasant and relaxing day in a lovely location.
We set off the next day heading for an anchorage off Barrow Island and almost immediately caught a good-sized Spanish Mackerel, which provided for four excellent meals.  We had some dramas with the anchorage at Barrow Island (string winds, rocky bottom, and stuck anchor), but after recovering the anchor by diving over the side, we relocated to a better place where Alec caught two good Spangled Emperor.
From there we progressed to Thevenard Island, and we admired untold now redundant oil platforms along the way, and we could see the developments at Chevron's Wheatstone LNG plant quite clearly by day and night.  While anchored at Thevenard, we were visited by two good sized sharks, and a huge cod, which was clearly hoping to be fed.
Next day, it was off to Surrurier Island (also called Long Island), which is a beautiful pot with crystal clear water and long sandy beaches.  Alec, Ros and Don swam ashore and explored.
We had not seen many whales on our trip up to then, but we were rewarded yesterday coming across the top of the Exmouth Gulf when we saw many whales, some breaching, and tail slapping etc.  It was great to see.  After arrival here and cleaning up, we took ourselves off to the flash Novotel Resort for a slap up feed last night which was very enjoyable.  Today, we have reprovisioned and just now said goodbye to Alec and Ros, and we will soon be welcoming Jim Murray aboard for our trip down the west coast to Perth - but that will be the next story!
regards
Don and Jim