Many weex and many miles later we have re-emerged from the technology black spot that makes up The Kimberly Region. Even our sat phone struggled at thymes to get enuf reception for a call in or out.
Other than our communication issues the trip waz relatively trouble free... Almost!
We did manage to park the yot on top a reef in the middle of the night. Oddly the name of the reef waz Stewart Reef. We escaped undamaged but our trust levels on our electronic charts haz been radically changed.
After leaving Darwin behind us we had 3 days of ruff progress to get to the King George River and itz famous waterfalls. After sleeping inside the river mouth for a night we pushed up between the massive rock walls that line most of the river. Eventually arriving in what can only be called paradise. A perfect anchorage with stunning scenery.
We are definatly not in Kansas anymore! I'm sure there aren't 2 many places as remote as where we were. The waterfalls while spectacular are also really dangerous for small boats that venture too close and get sucked in then drowned by the mass of falling water, so we kept a healthy distance despite the desire to get under the falls themselves.
Soon enuf it waz thyme to leave the falls behind us and begin to cover a few of the many miles in front of us.
We were expecting to see some spectacular scenery on this voyage but WOW!The 10 miles through endless gorges haz 2B seen and the fotoz don't do these massive features justice.
I was really surprised by the extra deep water in these canyons many thymes I saw 100 meters+. No chance of putting an anchor down there.
We spent the next few dayz clicking off the many miles steaming both day and night passing literally hundreds of islands, reef systems and coves.
So many so that the first weex passed without issue until we were steaming along in 22 meters of water then crunch! We had no water under us just lotz of reef. At 2 in the morning itz just a little unnerving, we had no idea which direction was safe water but we did have a rising tide so we spent the next hour bouncing on top of the reef until we finally dfifted clear into 8 meters of water. No idea of damage so we anchored up until dawn. It wasn't until we checked the gps and Navionics app that we found the reef if we scrolled the screen down to a 1 mile instead of the 15 miles I was using.
A check of the hull in the morning revealed no damage and we had escaped by more good luck than good seamanship. Brad took advantage and set off to troll a lure round our patch of reef.What followed was 2 hours of catch and release mayhem with macks and giant trevors with every cast of the lure. This waz the kind of fishing we were hoping to find in these remote reef systems.
We kept 1 mack for dinner Why not? they don't get any fresher or tastier than fresh macks.
The Islands and reef systems we journey'd past became so prevelent that we decided to go out wide around what iz literally hundreds of islandz . Each worth a visit if we had thyme.
However we were heading for our second major stop in Talbot Bay home of the Horizontal Waterfalls. The tourism base iz serviced by seaplanes and the occasional visit from live aboard charters such as Kimberly Quest or the even more upmarket the True North operation.
Our goal waz to visit these falls and hopefully catch a fish or 2 in areas no one haz fished B4.
My plan to pass the Yot through these falls was quickly abandoned as the whirlpools and rushing water made even a passage with the dinghy out of the question. There iz however 2 places here that the falls emerge so we headed for the second narrow gap at the bottom of the tide. Even with minimal tidal flow trying to steer the yot through the very narrow gap proved difficult but we managed it safely and found ourselves in a full mangrove system.We both thought mudcrabs and barra would be everywhere. This was not 2B either no crabs were found but Brad did manage to get heaps of mangrove jacks and a few barra.
While our journey to Broome iz over the whole Kimberly Region will take many years to explore and we really only skimmed a few of the possible anchorages. Brad haz returned to Perth and Galleycat is in a nice safe anchorage called Roebuck Bay. Broome is not such a yot friendly town with the massive tides making any journey to shore a logistical nightmare. With 10 meter + tides and shallow bottom the yot iz nearly 5km offshore and that only leaves a meter under me at low tide I miss the tame 5 meter tides from Darwin.
Itz now thyme to get to know Broome and prepare the yot for itz next Big adventure with a trip out wide to the Rowley Shoals 2 days sailing straight out West of here. There are 3 legendary coral atols with sum of the worlds best diving. The Powerdive unit iz back aboard and ready to give us underwater access to the shoals. Many people have booked places aboard for these journeys with Big Ash next to arrive for a few days R+R.