Portland Roads Anchorage.

Later that morning.......after a wonderfully restorative sleep , in a particularly pleasant and calm spot,  especially when compared to what we had encountered on the way to the anchorage,we saw, that we were in fact , the fifth boat in the anchorage.Shortly after we woke the GBRMPA vessel Reef Ranger arrived. Before they departed the anchorage again, I called them on  the VHF to ask for an updated weather report, which they obliged us with. Further deterioration for the next 24hrs ,then easing over the next 24hrs and eventually dying away to nothing.

It had escaped me last night, in the deteriorating weather, that in passing Piper Reef,(where it all started to go pearshaped) , K'Gari is now further south than she was ever has been north of the equator.

Looking at that forecast, we decided to do a load of washing before venturing ashore to see what, if anything, was to be seen.

The road to the old jetty ruins 

What a surprise it turned out to be. Several houses,

Yes ,its a real ,working, non vandalised phone. 

phoning home

a public phone- which still actually works,Peter rang home as we had no mobile signal still, and a cafe, with a menu which looked very much worth a try.
Unfortunately for us the cafe , Out of the Blue, had in fact closed for the day as it was after 1400, by the time we tootled ashore after  completing our domestic duties. However the prawn lunch on the menu was noted down for tomorrow, unless the weather had abated.

All I knew of Portland Roads was its use as an anchorage for the trawlers and mothership on its fortnightly/weekly run to TI, however historical story boards have now added to my knowledge.

WW2  Wharf at Portland Rds .Photo courtesy of Natural Heritage Trust

During WW2 a major jetty and wharf infrastructure existed for supplying the US airbases at Iron Range, which I have never heard of. The jetty was long enough, to extend out to a depth sufficient to allow the liberty boats to berth there. Remnants of cargo gear (cranes) can be seen still. The jetty had apparently started life as a means of exporting cattle from the Cape and the Americans upgraded and extended it and apparently sealed the road between it and Lockhardt River settlement  Apparently there was an operational RAAF radar station there as well. Along with the WW2 information, a monument to the ill fated explorer Edmund Kennedy can be found , and I guess a few gold diggers would have made their way through Portland Roads as well, during the Rush.

2107. The trucks in the photo above were probably parked about here.

As we  returned to K'Gari , we stopped astern of one  the other  yachts to ask if they had an up to date weather forecast, but no, they had overheard my conversation with Reef Ranger and said that was the latest they had as well. However it was revealed, that literally just around the corner , some 3.5 nm away, once we had cleared south of Restoration Rock , we would find internet coverage for a short period and then again a little further south of the Lockhardt River Community.

The road  out.