Rockingham stay

Rockingham

We slept on the boat on Thursday night, Ross joined us for dinner and Bob arrived a little after seven pm. Frank told them that he wanted to be away by 3.30am and Bob believed him. He was up at 3.20 thinking he had slept in. The skipper was still in bed snoring much to our disgust but was soon up as preparing to get underway. We left at 4.30am, I went back to bed and tried to get a bit extra sleep but with all the banging and crashing around on deck gave up, so joined them.
A nice breeze to help us along until we reached Hillary's and then it died, so on with the iron sail. In the distance we could see another yacht and was wondering if it was one of the Hillary's crew heading to Rockingham. As we got closer we realised it was Camelot, so of course it was then on. Of course cruising yachties do NOT race, they just tweak the sails a little. We caught up to them with the help of the motor of course and had some fun seeing who could outdo the other. Finally some wind so we were able to kill the motor and once again, blissful silence.
I took a heap of photo's of Camelot as she was sailing and have to say she certainly looks beautiful in full sail. We passed a huge ferry as it came down the shipping channel, Camelot on one side and we outside the shipping channel on the other side of her.
Grant and Ann in Coco and Brendan and Jan in Vaninna arrived in Rockingham later in the afternoon. We anchored neared the silo's as there was a regatta on that weekend and couldn't get a mooring out from the sailing club.
It was a great weekend with walks together, coffees and a bbq tea on the beach, then the last night it was dinner at the club.
We, along with Brendan and Jan shifted to a mooring for the last night as a fairly strong wind was forecast for that night and we were a little concerned about getting back to the yacht late at night.
A fitful nights sleep after unwisely having a coffee after dinner, up at 5am and prepared to sail back to Mindarie. Bob suggested Frank put the main up while on the mooring and sail off it which he did with great success.
Apart from hitting the doldrums near the shipping channel we had good winds all the way, so had no need to put the motor on.
It was rather amazing watching a submarine slowly moving down the shipping lane and off into the distance. Not a thing we often see around these parts.
We were back at Mindarie by 3.30 and after a cold drink and a snack Bob and Ross said there goodbyes and left us. We were feeling rather tired, so decided to have tea on the boat and sleep here tonight.

So another lovely weekend gone and hopefully not the last.