Quindalup

I can see why this place is popular with WA yachties, the water is like a crystal, ridiculously good visibility, the anchorage is generally very peaceful and the beaches are very white. The tourist madhouse of Dunsborough is 3km away via bicycle path and the rich pickings of WA wineries and (hic’) craft breweries beyond, but it helps to have a car to get to them, being so spread out, and some of the more organised yachties at the anchorage do.

Beach at Quindalup

Dunsborough Yacht Club (at Quindalup)

Right after arriving in the morning and picking up a mooring ball, we headed for the lovely Egyptian cotton lined double berth in the forepeak and passed out for a good 4 hours. That was the first thing we did in Quindalup. We didn’t go ashore at all that first day, but we got to see the mayhem of a convoy of luxury power boats rampage the joint. All the same brand, flying identical flags, must be a club organised by the boat dealer. 13 or 14 of the them motored through the mooring field and jostled around inside the most crowded part closest to the beach. Far from us thankfully, we stayed on the outer. Anyway, all those boats, million or multi million dollar rigs each, paraded past us, each with a woman on the bow with boat hook at the ready. After the mass hysteria of mooring pennant picking was finalised, they then activated their deck cranes to lower the power dinghies and head ashore, lining the whole beach with identical inflatables, with outboards several times more powerful than Ashiki's main auxiliary. Two hours later they were all gone..  and the anchorage was back in quiet mode (to our relief, don't think I could handle too many whirlwinds like that..).

Downtown Dunsborough

We did things like the 45min walk into Dunsborough, buy supplies, hang around the cafes, watch wagons piled with surfboards drive by, jostling with hordes of Audi & Porche SUV’s, another car load of young adults pour out and shout in German language at each other across the street. Dunsborough has several backpacker hostels and a steady stream of European and Asian backpackers. It is the gateway to the surfing coast, famous Pro Am breaks like Margaret River and Yallingup. Now days the housing prices have one too many zero’s for my liking.

Even the public water fountain has filtered water..

Dunsborough foreshore

Later snorkeled around the boat, the water’s so clear I could see the entire submerged hull like it was in direct sunlight. And sit on deck and watch the odd sting ray glide by and frequent dips over the side to cool off. A few days later we moved 2Nm up the bay to anchor opposite the township of Dunsborough itself, right near some huge 150’ passenger charter ship, but because the shallows extended off the beach so far, we had to anchor over a nautical mile off, which was a long row in the dinghy and by the next day it was clearly less sheltered than Quindalup. So we motored back to the mooring.

Beach at Dunsborough with new shark net! WA had been the focus of international attention with the controversial shark cull while we were there, the first drum lines where installed just 2 miles away from this beach, and sharks killed there fuelled international outrage - Richard Branson even had his say. We sailed past those very drum line buoys a few days later.

Quindalup anchorage

Floating around

Quindalup sunset