I was very tired and slept in this morning. It was a hot
night with lots of bugs. I had decided to ask Lenny from Discovery One for some
diesel as he did offer us some several days ago, and I wanted to catch him now
while he was anchored very close to us.
I called Lenny on the radio and he said no problem and to
catch up with him later on today, which was a real relief, as our dwindling fuel
supply has been playing on my mind for some time now.
During breakfast we watched two Paspaley Pearl sea planes
land nearby to do a crew change with the Paspaley Pearl mother ship anchored
close by.
At the top of the tide we ventured up the Hunter river
several miles and anchored Sirocco while I went exploring in the tender. I saw
many large crocodiles including one sunning itself, three meters high up on a
rock platform. If startled, it could have landed on top of me in the dinghy.
There were high waterfalls at the head of the three separate
creeks and to reach them required walking across muddy rock bars and up through
rugged gorges, I decided not to risk it on my own and headed back to Sirocco.
I tried a bit of fishing on the way back and never got a
sniff.
I moved Sirocco several miles around to the spectacular
Porosus Creek and anchored several miles upstream and immediately went for a
run in the dinghy to check out the upper reaches before the tide went out too
far.
Along the way I saw several crocodiles and the whole place,
although beautiful, was creeping me out and I was worried about getting
stranded at low tide in a blow-up dinghy surrounded by hungry fat crocodiles,
so got the hell out of there and sped back to Sirocco. (doing a spot of fishing
along the way 😊)
While I was away, a massive mega yacht had pulled up right
behind us and three of the crew dropped by on their way fishing to say g’day.
Ironically, they offered us food and fuel and I might go and see them tomorrow
for a little bit of extra fuel.
The whole time we had been anchored here, a two-meter
crocodile has been sitting just behind the boat. At four o’clock I spoke to
Dave from Fonster on the radio. They were at the Horizontal Falls and it was
good to catch up with them and to hear how they were going.
In the late afternoon I went across to Discovery One with my
jerry cans to get fuel and had a good long chat to Lenny. He said he will drop
them off tomorrow. What a nice bloke.
On the way back to Sirocco, I nearly ran over a very large
shark. I decided to go for a quick fish upstream just before dark and sped off
up the creek.
Several miles upstream I was going full throttle when
suddenly I hit a sand bar and, in an instant, I was thrown overboard into the
water. It all happened so fast. I recall being underwater, having sand all over
me, but I never let go of the dinghy hand hold.
I stood up, terrified of being left behind in the creek just
on dark as the dinghy sped off without me. I must have twisted the throttle off
when I got flung out and I was able to pull myself back into the dinghy and
regain control, then I noticed my bucket containing my radio and other bits
floating away, so I reached out to grab that back.
The tide was rapidly going out and we were grounded, so I
had to act fast and get the boat free and floating again and get back out into
deeper water. I was relieved to be moving again, I was soaking wet, sand in my
hair and down my pants and a very sore shoulder.
I still don’t know what happened, but it scared the shit out
of me and I’m so glad I didn’t end up as croc tucker. I waited till I dried
off a bit before heading back to Sirocco (more fishing), then jumped straight
into the shower without telling Putu as she would freak out if she knew. Lesson
learnt, go up stream fast at high tide and slowly at low tide.
For dinner we had lovely mangrove jack fillets out in the
cockpit with a nice breeze blowing and every now and then we would check around
us with the spotlight and the most croc's counted at one time was eight. (I
just can’t imagine spending the night up a mangrove tree in a crocodile
infested creek)
At one point in the night I yelled, saying to Putu “quick
come and have a look at this, there is a croc on the back step of the boat”,
she came running to see her Croc shoe on the back step. Sucked in big time.
Track Sirocco’s
progress
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