Tuesday 17th August
After a less than comfortable night we set out to go further north at 8 am, planning to anchor overnight behind Cape Bowling Green. We set out in 20 knots + SE breeze with a reef in the mainsail, and we comfortably averaging 7 knots in a bumpy sea.
We gradually overtook Cooinda and arrived at Cape Bowling Green well ahead of them.
As we approached (at a bit after 2 pm),we were pretty unimpressed, as Cape Bowling Green is basically a large sand spit and the suggested anchorage is “protected” by a sand spit a couple of feet above sea level. The bay is very shallow and visibility in the water poor as it was quite murky. The only attractive thing about it was were saw 2 whales frolicking just off the Cape.
There was only one yacht anchored there when we arrived, and he was anchored on the ocean side right at the tip of the spit about 6 metres from the sand, obviously hoping the wind direction didn't change. It was still blowing around 20 knots and we decided not to stop there and continue on to Cape Cleveland. Cooinda had not yet turned in to approach Cape Bowling Green so continued on. It was an extra 20 nm but we would still get there before sunset and at least it looked like a secure anchorage but not the most comfortable you could find.
As we were approaching Cape Cleveland we received a call on the radio from another yacht “Amazon” who was most upset because he had lost his 3.6 m aluminium dinghy coming up the coast a few mile south of the Cape. As he could see us passing through the area where he thought he had lost it he asked us to keep a lookout. It seems that in the rough seas the towing ring had pullued out of the front of the dinghy.
We did not see the dinghy but did see Amazon sailing south looking for it. It a was about a 30 ft yacht being sailed single handed by an older guy and had so much stuff tied to the rails it was hard to see on board.
Rounding Cape Cleveland
We arrived at our anchorage at around 5.30pm, only to find it was so shallow, we ended up anchoring well out from the coast in a very rolling sea. The boat rolled and pitched all night. Carole found a reference in our cruising guide placed under a photograph not in the main text which described it as “survivable, if not pleasant”.
Later that evening Amazon appeared towing his dinghy. How he recovered it and towed it all the way back in the conditions is anyones guess. A little later the Coastguard arrived with a searchlight trying to locate him to ensure everything was OK.
Once again it was not a good night for sleep.
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