Sailboat Misadventures & Camping Adventures

About three weeks ago a sailing race from Perth up to Exmouth was held for the first time in 30 years. It happened once and then never took off because organizers thought it was more fun to host as an international race up past Exmouth and into Bali. So a one-off that might never have repeated if not for Covid. Because Aussies still can't leave the country without governmental approval due to Covid border regulations, they needed a new end spot for the race and Exmouth was the logical choice. So away they went, lots of fancy racing yachts (and a bunch of pleasure cruising yachts), and ended up in Exmouth about a week later (I think the fastest boat was here in 4 days). Besides the boats themselves, each had a whole coterie of support crew that came up to town to celebrate the race's success, spend some time in the sunny weather, and, for some, to swap over crews for the return trip to Perth. Many of the crew members have other jobs they had to get back to, so they handed over the reins.

One of the week's concluding events was a "come meet the yachts" day at the Marina in town. It was a really family-friendly, county fair kind of event. Food trucks, face painting, live music, local artists selling wares, and the excited crews, all ready to show off their boats. Jess, Gaia, Corinne and I went down to check things out and had such a blast! A lot of the yachties had been hanging out for hours showing little kids and families their boats, so they were extra chatty when a group of cute ladies came up, especially since we're not exactly shy. On one boat, the crew wanted us to better understand how limited their movements can be when they're hooked into their life vests and have to keep hooked to the boat at all times (because if you fall overboard at night, you've got major problems), so they strapped us into the contraptions!

Wearing our life jackets

Me, Jess, Corinne and Gaia

It was so interesting to learn about the different kinds of boats and set ups. Learning that the serious racing boat crew members only get maybe 2-3 hours of sleep per night convinced me that sailing is not EVER going to be my sport, but chatting with the Rally Class "racers" - the ones in pleasure cruise yachts who get to use motors when the wind dies down - made me think perhaps that's more my style. Sunset BBQs while cruising up the coast vs sleeping in a sweaty, smelly, windowless "bunk" which is more of a V-shaped wedge so you don't fall out in rough seas. Yeah, tough choice. 

The last boat we were checking out was one of the really fancy, fast racing boats. It has a long nose, called the bow sprit, that one of the crew members has to climb out on to change the sails, no matter the weather. So, since we were parked in a marina berth and it was a still, calm day, I thought I'd just stroll out on it. Since it's a racing yacht, it doesn't have any rails (drag), but my balance is decent so I made my way to the end without issues. Crew guy mentions that my balance is pretty decent which inspires my amazing, beautiful, asshole friend Jess to start jumping up and down to make the boat lurch. So anyway, that's the story of how this happened:

"are you sure you don't want help!?"

"please just take my expensive sunnies off my face"

It was a hot day in the sun so it felt nice and cool in the water

On the way down my legs got tangled up in the ropes, so the poor boat crew/owners were having kittens 'til they heard me laughing upside down. Fortunately Corinne was a little slow with her camera work and didn't capture that part, just the bits after I'd disentangled myself a little. But it has meant that I've had some epic bruises for the last two weeks. That afternoon at work at the pub some of my regulars mentioned that they'd witnessed the whole fiasco and had taken some photos of their own. It's certainly given me plenty of fodder for conversation at work, explaining what my bruises are from and getting teased constantly about how I'm no good around boats!

Two days later

One week later

The racing yacht bonanza was on a Saturday but I had Sunday Monday off and wanted to use the time well. I usually over-book myself when I have days off. I tell all my friends that I'm free and then spend as much time flitting about as I possibly can in hopes of getting to spend time with all of them and soak up fun free time. Also the weather here is so perfectly autumnal: warm, breezy days and crisp, cool nights. Conveniently, that's also ideal camping weather! Anyway, two weeks ago I did a sensible thing and told my friends that I was going camping on my days off and suggested they could join me! 

I'd been wanting to check out Winderabandi Point on the west side but knew it was a little bit of a mission to get there. It's 16km or so south of where the paved road ends in the National Park, so you take dirt tracks for that last stretch. Sunday morning I was slow from being sore (falling off a boat is surprisingly hard on this 30 year old body) and from being Kate, so I did grocery shopping, hung out with my friend Chiara (one of my usual camping buddies), and didn't get on the road til 4pm. It took about 2 hours to get down to Winderabandi, so I was in the weird position of having to find my campsite in twilight. I made it just before dark fell completely but my headlamp allowed me to get my swag all set up without issues. 

That little red splotch is the light from my car fridge reflecting on my tailgate, and that's the Milky Way as seen from my site

The track through the campground is all sand, so I was just happy to get to my site and settled without getting bogged on the way in! It turned out that none of my friends had the same days off as me, so the two nights turned into an amazing little quiet retreat in nature. The campsites are all located at the edge of the dunes on the beach, so I got to fall asleep looking at the stars through the fly net in my swag, listening to the waves lapping on the shore. It was magic.

Left side of campsite

Right side of campsite

I spent my one full day reading books, napping, and swimming in the Indian Ocean. We were in the midst of an invasion of Red Bell Jellyfish but when I woke up in the morning my beach was pretty clear of the critters. By noon that was not the case. By 5pm, the whole beach was covered. 

Noon-ish

5-ish

My insanely talented co-worker Sara Barbieri took this gorgeous shot of the Red Bells looking far more cinematic than when they're dead, washed up on shore

As I wandered along the beach a bit before sunset, I had chats with other folks staying at the campground. Lots were planning to dip out early because the Red Bell stings are pretty annoying - think a horse fly bite in terms of ouch. Since I was only there a couple of days I didn't mind so much. I was just happy to be sitting on a beach, reading a book, soaking up the peace and quiet. 

See the Southern Cross??

After two nights out I had to head back to civilization (and toilets... did I tell you I had to bring a camping toilet?!), but it was all so wonderful. This past week I was able to get out for a quick one-night camping trip with Corinne and Chiara during the night of the lunar eclipse. The clouds rolled in just in time to obscure most of the eclipse, but it was fun to hang out with friends (who stayed for the eclipse and then boogied because it was "too cold for camping") and meet new people who wanted to see the same thing. 

Corinne watches the sun rise

It's been lots of chaos at the pub the last few weeks. We've lost a bunch of long-term staff who've moved on to new roles. Some have stayed at the Potshot but aren't in the bar now, others have left and gone to New Zealand now that we have a travel bubble with them, others have just moved to different jobs here in town. That's meant a LOT of new hires to train, and so many of them are total loves. Some of the earliest hires of the season, ones who started in March and April, are now considered senior staff. It's hectic but really fun to be busy. 

Staff drinks: Nicole, Mia, me, and Gaia

Paul and Andrew

With all the movement at the pub, they're really trying hard to keep me here. We've been having chats about whether I would be willing to stay on in town and at the pub for a longer-term commitment, so the July road trip is currently a question mark. Some portion of it will happen, but it might not be the epic trip to Tassie that I'd envisioned and might be more of a month-long adventure along the Gibb River Road and then back to Exmouth. We'll see, but for now I just continue to be grateful that the universe has put me in this beautiful place surrounded by beautiful people. It makes it a little easier, this Memorial Day Weekend, to miss out on the annual family softball game with the Albemarle Softball Society. But only a little bit easier. 

Tomorrow I'm rostered to work on the whale shark boat! It's the first time since January that I've made the roster (SO MANY STAFF), so I'm totally hyped up about it. Even though the weather is maybe going to be crappy, Corinne and I are working together and it's going to be an amazing day! So now it's time to hit the hay and get another good night's sleep... 12 hours of sleep last night plus a chill day today - surely I can manage a 6am wake up call?!