As a club we travelled to the north coast of Kangaroo Island for a weekend trip back in 2022. On that trip I had flash backs of when I was a kid and my parents renting a shack from a local farmer, We went approx. 3 times when I was between 5 and 10 years old.
When I got back from that trip, I google mapped the whole of Kangaroo Island to find the shack we hired from farmer Bell way back when. It was on the north coast next to Stokes Bay.
In 2023, I contacted the people who now own the shack and took our family for a weekend there. A very basic shack running solar power from two car batteries.
Some memories I had as a kid were catching 21-inch whiting, crayfish you could see while snorkeling, and a septic tank my dad had to fix by hand and him chasing me around for days afterwards with what was under his fingernails.
This year 2024, Sonya and I decided to book a big stay there in March, 9 days around the March long weekend, the thinking was there would be club people wanting to come some of the days and with 9 days booked we were guaranteed to get a bit of good weather.
Well, all 9 days were beautiful weather, offshore winds and flat calm seas.
Unfortunately, we had a problem with the boat, knowing we had a KI trip and then Easter planned we booked the boat in for the yearly service. $1500 later the boat shop said all done, but during the service they found there was water in the gearbox, they said it looked and sounded ok, but to keep an eye on it.
Well as soon as we put the boat in the water in KI, it made a loud bearing noise at approx. 15ks per hour.
So, we waited in the ocean near Stokes Bay as we had one bar of internet to call the boat shop and ask their opinion. After dropping out on a few phone calls and them not answering probably due to a lunch break, we managed to talk with them, and they said that the gearbox was probably stuffed and driving it around could be possible and the motor wouldn’t just stop with a bang.
Our plans to go 30 kms down the north coast to dive the Portland Maru wreck and Pissy Boy rocks were gone.
We had 9 days booked on KI in a cabin on the beach in March 2024
We made the most of the nine days just idling the boat out from the shack, scuba diving and checking out the close by rocky points and bays,
Our son Nic came for the first 3 days, Sonya and Nic did very well in finding and collecting crayfish and a bit of fishing as well.
With the motor only letting us go slow, trolling was an option and Nic managed to catch a Tuna while trolling with a lure.
Time for dinner and beers
After Nic left it was just Sonya and I, we took a day off to go try the local food and wine and spent a lovely afternoon at “ GASTRONOMO THE ENCHANTED FIG TREE”
Back at the cabin, it doesn’t have enough power to run a compressor, so a lot of hours were spent up in the farm shed filling the tanks for more days of diving
The last three days Kevin Jones from the club came to stay with us.
He flew in by Qantas at approx. 9am and we had him in the boat and out on the water around lunchtime.
Lunch breaks!
Lots of Port Jackson sharks , sleeping on the floor and in the caves
We had seals visiting
Feeding the fish last nights crayfish leftovers
A view back to the car and cottage / shack
A week or so before our trip, Flinders Uni people did a trip to the north coast of KI and mentioned seeing a shark, so before the trip we bought two shark shields, just in case.
(one brand new one didn’t even last one dive before it didn’t work)
Luckily Dave Boyle lent us one (thanks Dave) and Reno and Meredith also offered us to use a couple of theirs if we needed them.
Luckily, we didn’t see any sharks all week.
Even though we didn’t go far for the diving, it was great diving with lots of juvenile green groper, Port Jackson sharks and schools of fish and different sea things to see
We had an adventure getting home, which seems to be common when you have a holiday in Kangaroo Island.
One of the two ferries that operate to get you to and from the island broke down the morning we were going back to the mainland. So they told us we were allocated to the 12am ferry.
We were told that if we waited in the standby line, we may be able to get on an earlier ferry. (well, that just didn’t happen, we should have gone fishing.)
This meant a 12-hour wait for us to get on the ferry. and we didn’t get home to our house until 3:30 am…. Very tiring.
All in all, we had a great week and plan to do it again, perhaps next year.
Definitely a lovely place for a holiday and March is the perfect weather.
Cheers
Tim Vandergoot