A happy 2005 to all of you!
My initial plan to celebrate the new year was to get a party of boats to The Prongs. They are long peninsulas in the deepest and most remote reaches of Shark Bay, and I'm pretty confident that no celebration was held there ever. But as things go, nobody was interested so I sailed to Monkey Mia instead. On my new-old half boat. Trekka has beeen rebaptized '4ourty2' by Lee, and one hull belongs to me.
I'm not sure what this 18 month sojourn in Europe has done to me. I was as excited as ever by the stark beauty of the vibrant colours of Shark Bay. On the other hand, I was also a bit scared alone in the middle of nowhere with no land in sight and out of radio contact. Obviously not 'in tune' with it all, yet. So I shouted a heartfelt YO when the keels slid on the beach an hour after sunset. To be met by a grumpy fisherman complaining about the loss of his private 10 meters of beach.
But in any case, Monkey Mia is not a bad place to hang out. I went for day-sails to Faure Island, and further South into the Bay. Go around the corner and it's as desolate as the Sahara, coming back there's lights and music and one of the best restaurants in the area a minute's walk from the beach.
While lazing on the trampoline under a shade cloth, an old bloke came over for a chat. Turned out he's done 16 Brisbane-Gladstone races in his catamaran, and a bit later Bill and Jean were out on 4ourty2 for a sail. A couple of miles upwind, I handed over the helm and launched the kitesurfer. The boat sailed slowly through the clear shallows and I cruised along with it. Scaring big eagle rays and racing the turtles. And after a while, I shouted I'd had enough and stopped in waist-deep water. To see one massive shark cruising up to me, sniffing me out. I thought it was a 10 footer, Bill reckoned it was closer to 12. In either case I screamed blue murder and broke the world record for getting onto a boat. Phew.
Anyway, the new year was celebrated with lots of beer and a live band in the Backpackers- the usual, really. And on the first day of the new year the wind was howling a gale and I cruised to Cape Peron. Two reefs, three reefs, then jib alone. By the second day of 2005 whe wind hadn't abated a bit and the waves in the bay were as big as I've seen them. Surfing under jib alone, reading a book while the autopilot did the hard work.
Woody- my fisherman neighbour- tells me that The Change is happening. For unknown reasons, the waves get steeper and bigger and will stay that way for three months. He also used to make a living as a shark fisherman in Monkey Mia. Quartered goats on big hooks. One tiger shark he caught there would have been about 18 foot, but it had been bitten in half by something bigger.
Between the two of us we shake our heads when we think of all the happy tourists swimming in Monkey Mia.
