Port Dennison

We arrived at Port Denison about a week ago, Friday night to be exact after a sail and motor from Jurien Bay. We came in just after sunset and got busy setting up some lines on a borrowed mooring. Port Denison is one of our favourite spots along this coast and this is our second visit by boat. The first was memorable. We had left the Abrolhos on our way home from a circumnavigation a few years earlier and we had been pushing it to get home before the summer winds set in. About two hours out we got a storm warning coming from the south and we had to decide to push on for a hidey hole further south or back track to the safety of Port Denison. Readers of our Norlee news emails will remember the weeping woman at the wheel who could only mutter between sobs" its not fair, its just not..........g fair, I just want to go home!!!!!" We detoured to Denison and picked up a cray boat mooring seconds before the wind and rain hit. Well it has been less dramatic this time. We have had 7 peaceful days hanging off another cray boat mooring with official sanction from Sea Rescue locals. Seems the some of the boats are over at the Abrolohos still filling up their quotas and these moorings are good to go. We jump into the dinghy for a 2 minute ride to a wooden gangway that leads up to a newish concrete jetty. About 50 metres along the jetty you will find clean toilets, a further 50 meters across the road a bakery, pub, small grocery store and take-away. The harbour is secure in all winds and it has ample water within the moorings. The sea wall takes in the natural contour of the headland and then extends along and inside the reef line. Today we drifted over to the service jetty and loaded up with water from a tap we could almost reach from the cockpit. Too easy!! We unpacked our folding bikes a few days ago a cycled in to town for mail, coffee, papers and a few items from the hardware. Too easy!!

It's been a good week for us in many ways. Just to slow down and get into the mood of a different time schedule has been therapy after our manic few months in Freo. Each day we have done little jobs that were left over from Freo.Tomorrow we head off to the Abrolhos and from there we'll make our way up to Steep Point and then inside Shark Bay to Carnarvon. So it's farewell to Port Denison, a safe harbour that will be fondly remembered. Till next time, Rob