I must have been tired as I woke up around 07:00. After a
cup of coffee, we decided to go into the beach at have a look around at the
boat club.
The tide was near low and as I stepped out of the dingy, I
sank up to my knee in mud, so we gave that idea away and headed back to the
boat. The beach is only sandy at high tide, but they don’t mention that in the
cruising guide.
Right away I pulled the anchor and that, as well as the fifty
meters of chain was caked with thick sticky mud. After a quick wash down with a
few buckets of water, we headed for Dugong Bay on the rising tide, 17 miles
away.
Today’s passage was all through uncharted waters and we had
to weave our way through all the Islands. The beautiful rugged Islands and
mainland all looks the same and without a navigation program, I would have no
idea where to go and where the channel cuts between the Islands.
The current was racing in and in some places, we were doing
nine knots through whirlpools and tidal streams which was very exciting.
We saw a couple of small dolphins, but never had a touch on
the fishing lure. The scenery was spectacular but the large waterfall at the
head of the bay was dry as expected as this year has been exceptionally dry. I
wish I was here last year as it was an exceptionally wet year.
Both anchorages we visited in the bay were quite shallow and
it was very hot and still, so I expected to be land locked and hammered with
bugs and sand fly’s, so I made an executive decision to head back out against
the current and head over to the Horizontal falls for the night.
On the way out I had to skirt the shallows to make any
decent progress as the current was so strong. A couple of times I had to take
quick evasive action when I saw shallow ground coming up on the sounder.
We made it back out around 12:30 and turned starboard
through the Islands towards the Horizontal Falls and our speed over ground
picked up to nine knots.
As we came around Slug Island, the Horizontal Falls sausage
factory came into full view with three massive jet boats zipping tourists
around, several sea planes and there seemed to be a helicopter on the roof of
every boat. I might make me self a paper-mâché helicopter to sit on the roof of
Sirocco just so we fit in.
I drove Sirocco right up to the first horizontal falls. It
was spectacular and we could have gone in no problem, but I couldn’t see the
point as then we would be trapped in there until the next slack tide and I
didn’t want to waste time, so we came back out.
I cruised past all the action and dropped the pick right
down the end of the bay where the cruising guide suggests and just as I was
setting the pick, O’l numb nuts comes over in his dingy and says you can’t park
there as that’s where our sea planes land.
I told him his runway is not marked on the charts and this
is the recommended anchorage as per the cruising guide, but I don’t have a
problem moving, but next time call me on channel sixteen and tell me so before
I drop the pick.
My plan worked and I made him feel bad, so he asked us if we
would be interested in doing a power boat ride through the falls or a
helicopter ride. We asked the price and decided tomorrow morning would be the
ideal time when the current is pumping and so we booked ourselves on both a power
boat ride for $77 and a helicopter ride for $150 at 07:30 tomorrow morning.
After we relocated Sirocco off the runway, two sea planes
came down through the ravine at the head of the bay and landed between us and
the floating facility.
We decided to go and checkout the Horizontal falls in our
dingy while it was close to slack tide. As we went through the first horizontal
falls there were whirlpools and a massive tidal stream knocking our little
dingy from side to side, but it was an impressive sight.
We headed over to the second horizontal water fall through
all the turbulent water and as we got close you could see the water was falling
about a meter or two and it was very turbulent. I would risk the ride through,
but there is no way our fifteen horse power outboard was going to get us back
out, so we played around in front, taking some photos before heading back to
the first horizontal falls and then back out for a little trolling.
I lost another gold bomber to some submerged mangroves once again
and didn’t get a touch from any fish. I’m starting to think there is something
wrong with me or the whole Kimberly has been fished out. Mind you, most of
these places we have been so far are not what I would call very good-looking
fishing places.
We gave the fishing away and headed up the canyon at the
head of the bay and it was very impressive country with a wild current flowing
out. It would have been a great place to anchor, but I recon the bugs and sand
flies would have driven us nuts up there.
After exploring in the dinghy, we headed back to Sirocco as
two sea planes took off for the trip back to Broome and a helicopter landed on
the facility next to us.
Once back on Sirocco, I cracked a beer and walked out the
back and there was a huge tawny shark hanging around the back of the boat with
a couple of sucker fish attached to the side of it.
I tried feeding it some freshly baked bread, but I think
these sharks are almost blind or dumb as it just swam around in circles bumping into things. I was able to pat it each time it came past, but I was
weary it was setting me up for a croc attack.
We had a nice sunset and we can hear the people over at the
sausage factory washing down their boats and preparing for tomorrows onslaught.
Later, the work noise turned to loud talking and laughter as no doubt it was
beer o’clock over there.
I am pretty knackered tonight as it is quite stressful
navigating through uncharted waters. There is hardly a breeze and the water is
flat, so I should sleep well and then tomorrow up early for another big day.
Track Sirocco’s
progress
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