High Noisy, although not quite as infamous as the Horn, & Good Hope, your area was feared by the old square rig sailors, back in the day, so I have to agree with those locals of yours. The coral sea can get nasty too, but at least it's not as cold as the southern ocean, when it crashes down onto you from a great height.

I do seem to have an ability to do things differently. I had a moderately large comfortable heavy displacement cruising yacht, that I lived on, & sailed around Sydney Harbour, a task it was not that suited to.

Wanting to have more fun, I bought a very fast stripped out inshore/harbor racer. It had a grog locker, & a couple of bunks to sit on, to drink the grog, but nothing else. No engine, galley, no lockers, but it sailed very fast in the lightest zephyr. It was 40Ft, but very narrow, with a huge rig. She had been used to train one of our Americas Cup crews. As no one wanted this type of boat any longer, she had the advantage of being cheap.

Of course it was then I decided to go cruising. I threw in a bit of a galley, some lockers, & a 6 HP engine, & shot through. It is fair to say she was a work in progress for the next 18 years. I had almost finished setting her up, when I gave in to civilisation sold her. I met my lady during all this, & our eldest daughter had done 2000 nautical miles at sea, before her first birthday.

She did give me a hard time a couple of times, when I could not get her to go as slowly as the conditions required, but her sailing ability got me out of a few stuff ups too.

The little engine was useless at sea, except for battery charging, but the boat was very easy to sail.

I did 53,000 nautical miles, in 6 years, with 13,000 single handed, & still miss her dreadfully some times.

Dear Hasbeen,
Well done, I used to do a lot of sailing on Pittwater with some Dutch friends of mine, in my fearless youth, I used to sail with them in the annual Easter Sydney to Swansea cruise, they sailed a Dragon., it was an annual pilgrimage for them, until the racing law-enforcers decided that the Dragon was to have safety rails installed if she was going to participate again in the race, the argument there was of course, that Dragons are a class boat, and the design did not include safety rails,so we used to sail up 'unofficialy'. Would I do it now? No!
Cheers,
NSB

Noisy, I agree; Esperance is a wonderful place.

I'm fairly familiar with it. Love that rugged coast, especially the big dinosaur rock at Twilight Cove, and Cape Le Grande National Park.

Lots of western wattlebirds there, as well as red wattlebirds, and a great variety of others, as you mentioned. You'd have yellow-throated miners, not noisy miners. But they are just as noisy and rambunctious as noisy miners!!

Yes Two peoples Bay is near Albany.

I grew up in WA, then moved to north Queensland. I've spent the last 28 years in Townsville, but I make lots of trips back to the southwest.

I did lots of botanical exploration all along the south coast back in the late 70s / early 80s. I'm currently cruising around the central wheatbelt, looking at birds and plants.

Good luck with your studies. Wow, it sounds like you've got it happening just beautifully - retired, living in paradise and doing just what you want to do.

Oh, bring on retirement!

Cheers from Cunderdin.

Hi Ludwig,
What a great life you appear to be having, I am sure that your retirement will come around just a quickly as ours did., it was no accident, we had planned to retire when we did, we had already secured a block of land and built a moderate house, when we left Kalgoorlie, we sold our house there, and had enough money to payout the new house in Esperance, we have no regrets that is for sure. Whereabouts do you hope to retire?
Thanks for the correction on the Mickey Minor birds, strangely I have a bird phobia, I love to watch them and feed them, but if they invade my personal space, I freak out....I may have been dropped on my head as a baby....no, don't answer that one.
My eldest daughter attended Cunderdin Ag. School, she enjoyed being there.Keep on Bird watching my friend, and wear a big hat when the Black cockatoos' are around.
NSB

Aren't all rule makers a nuisance Noisy. When I was in Rabaul PNG there was a Dragon there. The owner got an old one, no longer competitive in Sydney, fitted a small cabin, & gone cruising. He still didn't have rails, just used a harness, & had over 5000 nautical miles under his keel.

There were a couple of very sound, well found yachts lost, on the trip back to Sydney from the lake one year. Safety is not always where you, or authorities, think it is.

Ludwig I'm afraid I have news for you, & it's not good. While some people get bored in retirement, I have found you just get busier. I have so much to do, now in retirement propper, that I can't imagine how I ever found time to go to work.

Like me, & Noisy by the sounds of it, I don't think you will find retirement a time for meditation, I think you'll be one of those who is far to busy.

Hasbeen, I reckon I’ll be very busy in retirement. I’m not one to just kick back and meditate. I’m far too fascinated in plants, birds, rocks, landscapes, photography, environmental issues and currant affairs to ever get bored. I just wanna do largely what I’m doing now, minus the damn nuisance of having to go to work.

So yes Noisy, I guess I do have a great life, ‘cept for that damn requirement to make money in order to keep doin’ what I’m doin’!