Itz that thyme of the year and once again Galleycat is being prepared to travel 2 far off destinations (wkoa).
My search for a second person to share the trip has begun with Jake (no!, not the gnome) showing up for a 5 day stint.
This alas wasn't long enuf to safely reach Cape York but we did manage to get to the outer islands and allow him to catch his biggest fish eva,
" 3 thymes".
The first was a horse of a GT that stretched his armz and the gear to the limit.
Jake hails from Port Phillip bay area of Victoria where the biggest trevally are around 20cm long.
We anchored out from Wedge Rock in the hope of finding a feed 4 dinner. A couple of nice sized emporer made their way to the skillet.
The following morning had us searching for calmer waters to do sum maintenance
We ended up hiding away in Rat's Cove to get away from the breeze.
Several Trout and emporer showed up for dinner and they ended up crumbed and served with chipz and salad.
The task of preparing Galleycat for this yearz cruising is well underway with the anchoring systems receiving the most attention Very .Important "Make it stop"!
The winch itself has new "pawls" fitted basically the anti reverse bits.A new bow roller has been ordered from Qld while both primary anchorz have been heated with an oxy torch and re straightened.
The anchor chain is 12 meters shorter than last season thanx to our Marble Point adventure.. But ordering 50 meters of 8 mm anchor chain is not something you do while in such a remote local as Groote.
Freight, Freight and more Freight.
Jakes next monster fish was a good sized queenie topping the brag mat measure at 80 or 89 depending on where you measure from. Still a damn big phish. We spent many hours sending baits to the bottom in search of quality fish for dinner with a nice sized spanish mackerel taking point at the top of the list for a special thai red curry.and jasmine rice dinner.
There will be more fotoz 2 follow but Jake's camera was one of those that still uses film so I won't receive his foto's until they R digitally converted.We went ashore at Marble point to show Jake the Aboriginal rock art and paintings.While there we also harvested a heap of large oysters for kilpatrick from the local seafood store.
Itz interesting 2 meet people that "reside within the system" and seem totally lost.
While I refer to myself as totally lost outside the system!, I recognise this fact as the norm 2 live this lifestyle.
I've had several potential crew members contact me through Helpx and Gumtree but no definates yet. If I don't have a second crew member by the middle of next week I'll set off alone towards Bamaga.
Today I waz witness to one of natures true miracles I was busy trying to recover the dinghy (again) from a pounding surf that had the onboard pumps totally fukked. When out of the same pounding surf came a really large green turtle who proceeded to dig a hole and deposit a heap of eggs! Awesome!It seemz even during chaos nature finds a balance!
Big Ash was on the fone this week to brag about his latest conquest a couple of "really" nice sized pink snapper. From the old 40 fathom bank just south of rotto!
Thats as close a gps mark that I'll give!
It seems there are actual fish off the Perth coast between the swarmz of Great White sharx!
My repair work on the bow roller is well underway with the final roller itself arriving. The brackets needed to be resized from an 8mm centre hole to a more substantial 13mm. Anyone who's ever drilled 10mm stainless plate knows that's never going 2B a fun task.
Luckily Andrew knows how 2 sharpen drill bitz.
With the reconstruction now complete I just have to repair the damaged support bar and refitt the whole operation.
The Yot is nearly ready to leave, with the fuel tanks topped off today and just final water and shopping needed, It loox like next weekend will be the goal but if the weather turns at least I'll be ready.
