Wednesday, 29 October 2014

A dugong at West Pethebridge Islet

 
The Captain will at some point be updating you with the action packed account of our journey around Cape Melville and onward, but in the meantime here is one of those beautiful things that occur just when things seem to be getting unpleasant.
 

 
 


Travelling south from Ingram Island to Cape Flattery on Sunday 28th September, conditions were deteriorating. We pulled in behind West Pethebridge Islet to have a break and consider our options. As soon as we dropped anchor, a dugong ambled past and continued to swim near the boat for  almost an hour - just beautiful. We were pretty sure we could hear them breathing at night around the boat at Blackwood and Flinders Islands but we hadn't been able to see them, so this was pretty special.
 
You're unlikely to even locate the tiny speck of West Pethebridge Islet on the map. It's one of those places that doesn't rate much as an anchorage or anything else. Which is probably why dugongs are still wombling about here without concern when a passing yacht pulls in for morning tea.
 
Amazingly we also managed to pick up a Telstra signal and download our first GRIB weather files in 12 days. The weather was only going to get much worse over the next few days. Rather than fight into the wind and swell to Cape Flattery, we decided to sail across it back over to Lizard Island and sit tight there.



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