Saturday 27th July 2019 – Sampson Inlet to Hanover Bay Inlet

It was a late start departing Samson Inlet as I decided to go fishing on the low tide. I lost a couple of lures getting cut off on the sharp rocks and oysters, but I also caught a couple of trevally, a queen fish and a couple of cod, keeping a cod, the queen fish and a trevally for dinner tonight.

Sampson Inlet is very beautiful but also full of crocodiles. In the upper reaches there is a small canyon that ends in a rock bar that is very creepy but good fishing. The inlet is a natural cyclone shelter and is used by some of the pearl farmers.

We got underway around 10:30 heading for Hanover Bay. We had to make passage through Brecknock Harbour and up trough Rogers Strait which is all un-surveyed and quire a hazardous area with a strong tidal flow.

We passed Kuri Bay pearl farm and I called them many times on the radio and telephone as I wanted to see if I could buy some diesel from them, but I got no answer. It’s a very large setup they have, but they could possibly be working at one of their other sites and nobody was there.

As we headed for Rogers Strait I was concerned about the strong tidal flow as we were going against it. As we approached the narrowest section the tide was three to four knots and I started the second engine and powered through.

When I bought Sirocco, I upgraded the engines from nineteen horsepower to thirty horsepower as I intended cruising in the Kimberly and I’m glad I did. Sirocco is not fast using engines, but she is powerful.

Once through the narrow pass I switched off one engine and as we rounded Augustus Island and headed through Port George IV, a fourteen knot breeze sprang up, at first right on the nose, but as we headed for High Bluff we started to motor sail and not long afterwards I was able to switch the motor off and sail for a couple of hours.

Along this passage there was some nice scenery, but for the Kimberly, I thought it was very average and there are few anchorages and many pearl farms.

I managed to avoid any uncharted rocks and reefs and by five o’clock we were sailing into Hanover Bay Inlet.

At five, I decided to call Fonster on the HF radio and told Putu to take the helm. As soon as I started transmitting Putu let out a scream saying rocks ahead. I nearly had a heart attack and dropped the microphone and ran to helm, disengaged the autopilot and did a crash turn to port, but the rocks ahead were just interference from the HF radio signal.

A few swear words echoed through the canyon and it took a while for the adrenaline rush to wear off for both of us. (Fonster never answered by the way)

We dropped the pick not far from Discovery two who was anchored near us the past two nights at Sampson Inlet and Raft Point.

Hanover Bay Inlet is quite spectacular with high canyon walls and was very sheltered, and we had a nice four knot breeze to keep us cool and hopefully keep the bugs away.

We BBQ’ed the fish I caught this morning for dinner, and it was delicious. The cod was the best, followed by the trevally and then the queen fish. The remaining trevally will go into soup for tomorrow night’s dinner.

We listened to the bloops and splashes from fish feeding around the boat and I had a quick check with the torch to look for red croc eyes but didn’t see anything, only long toms and mullet.

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Friday 26th July 2019 – Raft Point to Sampson Inlet

We departed Raft Point around 07:00 and had breakfast along the way. There was no wind, so we were motoring, but I raised the main just in case we got some wind along the way.

Around nineteen miles we reached Langgi and dropped the pick and went ashore in the dinghy. Langgi Inlet has all these amazing shaped rocks and we pulled the dinghy up on the sandy beach and went for a walk for an hour or so to explore.

The rock formations were truly amazing and so strange that it is contained in this very small area. We had a quick look in the George, but as it was low tide it was shallow and we didn’t get too far, so we headed back to Sirocco.

We left Langgi and decided (as we had time) to head past Camden Sound and Deception Bay and carry on to Sampson Inlet. Along the way I saw some whales in the distance through the binoculars.

Another private boat with its own helicopter

We got to Sampson Inlet around 17:00 and as there was still a bit of day light left, I jumped into the tender and headed off upstream for a spot of fishing before the sun went down.

I lost one lure and broke a treble of another as the upper reaches was very shallow with lots of rocks and oysters. This place reeks of crocodiles and I was on my guard at all times.

I got back to Sirocco just on dark with a nice pan size trevally for tomorrow night’s dinner and as I cleaned it, I noticed a large 2.5 meter tawny shark circling the boat, so I gave him a feed (much to Putu’s disgust) thinking if he ate it the croc's won’t smell it.

Later while listening to all the bloops and splashes from fish feeding around the boat, I had a quick check with the torch and immediately saw the red eyes of a 2.5-meter crocodile about twenty meters away from us.

I kept checking on him every ten to fifteen minutes with the spotlight, and he was there for hours watching us.

Putu baked a lovely loaf of bread and made pizza for dinner which was delicious. I was so tired both today, and tonight, that after two beers I was falling asleep and had to go to bed early. 

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Thursday 25th July 2019 – Raft Point to Red Cone Creek to Raft Point

Fonster departed Raft point around 06:00 heading for Montgomery reef then onto Kingfisher Island while we slept in and I had an early morning fish on the low tide.

I only caught some small trevally which I threw back. We waited for the tide to turn so we could go with the current the ten miles east to Red Cone Creek.

We arrived at Red Cone Creek around 15:30 and right away I went trolling up a couple of the creeks near the top of the tide and this place looks really creepy and I was on edge the whole time looking out for croc's.  I checked out Sapphire Falls and it was dry, so I didn’t bother climbing up to look for water holes.

Two charter boats arrived while I was out fishing and they launched a heap of tenders which all headed off towards Ruby falls.

I went back to Sirocco and re-fuelled the dinghy before heading off again to look for ruby falls. It was a long way up a mangrove crock infested creek where finally the mangroves give way to a nice rock canyon where a small waterfall was flowing.

On the way in there was a three-meter croc watching me on the surface and as I headed over towards him, by the time I got my camera out and turned on he had submerged. Must have been camera shy, I guess?

I tied the dinghy to the rock wall and climbed up to the first water hole. It was nice and clear but there was no way I was swimming in there as a salty could easily climb up in there during spring tides.

The waterfall was flowing quite hard and up above it there was another smaller waterfall and beyond the smaller waterfall was a series of beautiful crystal-clear ponds with water lilies.

I walked back to the large pond and had a lovely swim washing my cloths at the same time. The water was beautiful, and I could have stayed there all day.

After a nice long swim, I wandered back to the dinghy taking lots of photos and by now the tide had turned and it would also be getting close to sunset by the time I got back to Sirocco, so I had better start making tracks.

The croc was nowhere to be seen when I got back to the dinghy and I was sure he was waiting for me underneath it, so I jumped in and got the hell away from there.

I couldn’t resist casting a few lures before I departed and bugger me my lure snapped off, so I had to go and retrieve it, then sit there threading the line and tying it back on, all of which seemed to take hours and in slow motion when all I could think of was that dam crocodile biting the side of my inflatable dinghy.

Finally, I got the job done and off I went. No barra for dinner once again, but I had a fantastic time. It was a fast twenty-minute dinghy ride back to Sirocco, and I decided to head off back to Raft point for the night and to get an early start off up the coast tomorrow.

Its unwise to travel at night in uncharted waters in the Kimberly, but I followed my track in and used Radar to get back to where I was anchored the past two nights previous and I dropped the anchor back in the same hole.

My only concern was hitting a drifting log, but it was only eleven miles back and all went well.

Dave from Fonster gave me a call on the way back and we chatted for a while before losing communications. They were anchored up at Kingfisher Island.

Once back at Raft point, we had dinner and an early night. The midgies were really bad once again, so we locked ourselves inside with the fan going once again.

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Wednesday 24th July 2019 – Raft Point to Montgomery Reef

We departed Raft Point at 06:00 to run with the tide to Montgomery Reef only ten miles away.

It was hot and breathless and very humid and we had to motor all the way again today. True North were already at the reef when we arrived with their helicopter whizzing around all over the place.

I waited for the helicopter to land and take off again before I passed with my twenty-meter-high mast or it could have been very embarrassing getting it caught up in our rigging.

We dropped the pick several hundred meters to the north of True North and headed off in the dingy to explore.

Montgomery reef is a massive high reef platform covering around 300 sq kms, and when the tide falls, a huge volume of water is trapped several meters high up on the reef and it cascaded down back into the ocean in small river torrents.

This is best observed during the largest spring tide, but it was coming off a small spring tide and the runoff was not as spectacular as it could have been.

The channel we headed up was crystal clear and full of fish and turtles with small rivulets cascading down on both sides creating a loud noise and lovely fresh clean air.

We motored the dingy into some of the rivulets cascading down struggling to keep up with the force of the water, then we headed off as far up the channel as we could go.

Eventually the tidal stream became too strong and dangerous resembling wild river rapids and I switched off the engine and we drifted back in the swirling whirlpools and crazy strong current listening to the raw off water and watching all the fish and turtles as we drifted quickly past.

After an hour or two we had had enough and decided it was time to head back to Raft Point. As we passed True North all their passengers were laying back in deck chairs under beach umbrellas on a large sand bar and it was such a bazaar sight in such wilderness.

I felt like donning my crocodile suite and doing the worm up the beach and watching them all scatter in every direction.

After exiting the reef, we had a six to seven knot breeze, so I raised the sails and we had a pleasant two-hour sail back to Raft Point saving some precious diesel.

Back at Raft point we met up with our Fonster friends and as it was Jim’s birthday in a couple of days, we decided to make him a cake and celebrate his birthday tonight while we were all together.

In the afternoon, I motored over to see some aboriginal paintings high up in an overhang which was worth the hot hard walk and then I went trolling deep into the mangroves trying to catch dinner without any success.

We had a great evening all together on Fonster and this may be the last time we see them as they are going back to Cockatoo Island to pick up some more guests and therefore, they will be a week or two behind us from now on. It’s a real shame as we all get on so well and it has been so nice to cruise with them.

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At around ten o’clock in the evening we said our goodbyes and loaded up the dingy for the dodgy ride back to Sirocco in the dark crock infested waters.

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