Heading to Monkey Mia

 It’s been a while since I updated the blog.  Since the autopilot motor failed, we must steer True North by hand.  This means there is less time while underway to make blog entries.

John and I spent some time diagnosing the problem with the autopilot.  When activated, the motor comes on trying to turn the board but the motor shaft does not turn.  The motor contains a clutch to disconnect it from the steering system when we are manually steering.  The clutch is not activating even though the correct signal is being sent.

The autopilot motor being analysed 

Once we determined the problem with the motor we set about trying to find someone nearby who may be able to make a repair.  After a couple of calls to local marine chandlers, we had a suggestion to call an auto electrician in Carnarvon which was within 60 miles of our location.  The electrician said he could take a look at the motor the following week so we agreed that drop it off Monday May 8.  This gave us a week to explore the Shark Bay area.

We did some swimming and walks on the beach at Shelter Bay in the South Channel entrance to Shark Bay.  In the evening, I tried catching squid and was successful in catching three small ones.  They made for delicious Calamari.

Cleaning the squid

They are going to be tasty!

Some “shags” (cormorants) at South Passage

We moved a bit north along the east side of Dirk Hartog Island to an anchorage near the old homestead.  The light made the sea and sky the same colours so looking back at True North from the dinghy, she appeared to be hanging in the sky.


We attempted to catch some more squid from the dinghy since the last batch had been so delicious.  Unfortunately a large fish decided it would like to eat my squid jig and took a big bite out of it almost breaking it in half.  The jig would not work properly anymore and ended up getting snagged on the bottom and breaking the line.

Fran fishing for squid with our last squid jig

The next day on our passage around Cape Peron, John hooked and landed a nice spotted mackerel. We had a delicious dinner of squid and mackerel for dinner with lots of leftover mackerel for another meal.

Landing a spotted mackerel

Landing a squid

We are on passage to Monkey Mia now.  Almost arrived so I’ll fill you in on this destination later…


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