Hi all

After experiencing my first trip to the Abrolhos Islands at the end of last December, and keen to go again, we finally made it over there after a couple of false starts....Australia Day and Labor Day long weekends were blown out by the weather. The same 3 boats went: me on mine, Paul G and his crew of Jesse, Kevin and abledog (aka george) and Mr & Mrs outdoinit (aka Lyndon & Rosie).

The plan for Thursday (28/03) was an early knock off for me (11.30am), then meet up with Paul G at his place in Yanchep. We'd then travel up to Geraldton, fuel up the boats and stay overnight at the marina, before heading across at first light on Friday. I hit the road at 2pm and made good time until half way up the Kwinana Freeway....that's when the stop-start traffic congestion started. This continued all the up to the Mitchell Freeway, where roadworks also slowed the traffic to a crawl until we finally got a clear run up to the end of the freeway and onto Marmion Ave, arriving at Paul's just after 4.30m.

We pulled out of Paul's just after 5pm and after a fuel stop at Jurien, we arrived in Geraldton and fuelled the boats (without incident this time), then down to the marina where we met up with Lyndon. A quick feed and the boats were in the water, cars and trailers locked away and we hit the sleeping bags on the jetty around midnight. 

We were on the water just before 6am and with the conditions a little rough, the bigger boats made better time than us (a big thanks to Kevin for joining me for the trip across and back) but we weren't too far behind. Once we reached the islands, breakfast was the first order of the day and just as we pulled up alongside the others, abledog was releasing his first fish of the trip....a nice looking coral trout.

Later we went for a dive, where was all managed to spear a fish or two, my highlights were seeing a school of dhuies and other fish, all happily swimming close to me, but just out of speargun range, before a 67cm coral trout came a bit too close! Had a visit from the fisheries guys, too. Found a sheltered bay where we anchored for lunch (I suffered thru my Jurien Bay crayfish sandwiches), then a snorkel around the shallows in the afternoon only netted me cramp in my legs and a close encounter with a 5' bronzie.

We anchored up for the night but the wind was pretty strong, which made for a restless night's sleep on the deck....ok for those snuggled up in their cabins!

After brekky on Saturday, we motored over to the Coral Patches and snorkelled amongst some amazing coral formations, complete with all manner of fish....trout, baldies, spanglies, etc. We followed this up with a dive on a nice coral ledge...again, we all managed to bag a fish or two. A nice 60cm baldie found its way into my esky!!

After lunch, the big red boat went for a fish outside the bay, while the rest of us went kayaking...it's easy going with the wind in your back. Later, after losing a fish to the reef, outdoinit and myself decided to go for a snorkel. A short time later, the boys on the red boat were back at anchor and dragged out their kayaks, while Jesse joined us in the water. The bronzies showed up and gave us a few hairy moments, with a couple getting up close and personal with outdoinit....captured on his gopro and looking forward to seeing the video.

As the sun was going down, the sharks showed up again and out came the big gear....lots of hookups but all were busted off. This was an hilarious hour of fun, mayhem and screaming reels as various rigs were tried, wire traces hastily made up and drink bottles doubling as 'balloons' to keep the baits off the reef.

After dinner we hit the sleeping bags, hoping for a better night's sleep.

Sunday morning saw a return to the shark action and this time Paul got one to the boat, before releasing it after retrieving the rig. A dive on another coral ledge netted some more fish, before the others coming across huge schools of dhuies, snapper, mackies, etc. Looking forward to seeing Jesse's footage.....bugger about the demise of Paul's gopro.

At 11am the decision was made to take advantage of the relatively calm conditions and head back to Geraldton. Once back at the marina, cars collected, boats retrieved and a quick check by the fisheries and we were on the road just before 2pm.

With a fuel stop at Jurien, we called into Lyndon & Rosie's for a cuppa and while the others decided to camp the night there, I decided to hit the road, arriving home just before 9pm.

The road trip was 1041kms and the boat trip was 116kms....only burnt 80L of fuel this time.

In closing, I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to Paul, Jesse, Kevin, George, Lyndon and Rosie for another fantastic trip. Your hospitality, generousity, and friendship means alot to me and I look forward to doing it all again sometime soon.

Hope you enjoy the photos, will compile the video and get that up in a day or so.

regards
rusty... 

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