It was a very windy night and I was awake half the night. At
02:00 the anchor alarm went off but it was a false alarm.
As high water was
around 12:00, we got to sleep in and after a lazy breakfast and some passage
planning, we got underway around 11:00.
The plan was to cross the dreaded King Sound around high
tide and ride the outgoing tide across to Silica Cove on Hidden Island around
thirty miles away.
When we left the wind was about eighteen knots right on the
nose, so I didn’t even bother to put up the main. It was evident there was a
lag in the tide as we had a several knot current against us.
It was relatively smooth going until we passed the outflow
from Escape Passage and all of a sudden, we were is whirlpools and crazy tidal
streams throwing us all over the place and I decided to start the other engine
to get passed as soon as possible.
It wasn’t long and we were back in calmer conditions and I
switched one of the motors off and unfurled the jib and motor sailed. For most
of the crossing we were getting pushed back into King Sound and around 13:00
the tide changed and we started to speed up considerably.
We rounded Sunday Island and headed north east avoiding
reefs and many Islands getting up to about nine knots. Near Sunday Island we
passed the Kimberly Pearl and the sea temperature was 27.4 degrees.
The Islands we passed were magnificent and we are now truly
into the Kimberly. There were lots of tuna jumping but I never managed to hook
one.
It wasn’t long and we were at Silica Bay around 16:00 but we
were disappointed with how small the bay was and how deep the water was. I
cautiously nosed in and from forty meters it suddenly rose up to two meters
with lots of boulders.
There was no room for two boats to anchor and Dave on
Fonster was concerned that it offered little protection should it blow tonight,
so we made an executive decision to carry on to Coppermine Creek another six
miles away.
We cruised through more whirlpools and tidal streams and
spectacular country as we entered Coppermine Creek. At the mouth there was a
fishing camp. Fonster went ahead to look for a shallower location to anchor and
found one as he ran aground.
I turned around and anchored close to the mouth in eight
meters while Fonster waited for the tide to come in to re-float the boat
several hours after dark.
The only damage was to the ego. It pays to use several
different types of charts or sources of navigation where ever you go up here.
Dinner was lamb shanks and it was a calm still evening with
a beautiful full moon rising just after a spectacular sunset.
Track Sirocco’s
progress
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