A recent Saturday morning’s row to Spalding Cove was partly undertaken in darkness – the sun’s rise is becoming tardy with the remorseless axial tilt toward winter!

Departing the Port Lincoln Marina at 6:00 am seemed like a good plan, the aim being to circumnavigate Boston Island again by mid-morning. Once out of the Marina and heading for Billy Light’s Point (named, rather informally, after Colonel William Light, who surveyed the town in days of yore!) it became apparent that, in the interests of my longevity, I should change my plans and alter course for Spalding Cove! Why-so? Well, the local tuna fleet was taking advantage of the calm morning to steam to their tuna feedlots with pallet loads of pilchards – it seemed like every vessel in the fleet was being brought to bare to relieve the tuna of their hunger brought about by bad weather of preceding days and the consequent difficulty of access. They were steaming out towards Cape Donnington and had I joined them on that course, as would be required to fulfil my original plan, I ran the very real risk of being run over in the dark! Spalding Cove is slightly south of east from Billy Light’s Point and away from the “Madding Crowd” of pilchard laden tuna workboats so, away I rowed toward Surfleet Point, four miles distant. I was a lovely morning – just the barest sniff of a breeze from the southeast, calm and dark but with the highway of travelling lights to port and the regular blinking of various significant navigational lights (Fanny Point, Cape Donnington, the fairway beacon, numerous fish farm lease marker lights) and of course the lights of Lincoln City astern.

With dawn approaching the hulking form of Stamford hill loomed to starboard as I rowed on towards Surfleet Point. Once rounding Surfleet, the coast runs away to the south as you enter the bight of Spalding Cove. The Cove is roughly one and a half miles deep on this western side – deeper on the eastern side as the coast there extends north to Cape Donnington – the first little indentation is called SurfleetCove and we (did I mention my crew? The ever-alert canine!) rowed to its southern point to rest and take in the sunrise after a pleasant 4.5 mile stretch. After snapping a few images of the suns orb as it peeped above Fisherman’s Point and barking at a little black duck that had no right to share our space here, we headed across to Fisherman’s.

Fisherman’s Point and Cove is on the eastern shore of Spalding and it’s a treat in these conditions – mirror calm water with nice sandy beach. After a brief stop we headed back toward Lincoln but this time taking a course between the Brother’s (formally Bicker Islands), then slightly south west to pass over the “Sunken Brother” (a shoal patch where the wee Brother didn’t quite grow to get his head above water) and, in bright sunshine now, back across the mouth of Proper Bay to Billy Light’s Point, the Marina and home.

All over by 9:30 am – a three-and-a-half-hour row – so a similar distance to going around the Island but a better choice given the traffic that morning.