17,000 Pulau - the Sailing Adventures of SY Mad Fish

The Central Kimberley 2 - Sharks, a changing landscape, and a difficult passage After the beauty of the Hunter River and Palm/Winyalkan Island area, we continued on through the central Kimberley to round Cape Voltaire and reach Parry Harbour,  Cape Bougainville and Freshwater Bay, where we saw some very different landscapes and scenery.     We sailed from Swift Bay, passing Cape Voltaire and anchored for the night in the sheltered and very picturesque Krait Bay.  We then crossed over the Admiralty Gulf to Parry Harbour, on the western side of the Bougainville Peninsula, for another night anchorage.    The following day, we rounded Cape Bougainville to Freshwater Bay, on the eastern side of the Peninsula.  Cape Voltaire marked the beginning of the dark basalt rocks, dark soils and greener lush vegetation, which continued on the Bougainville Peninsula.  This was a change from the reddish weathered quartzite, granite and sandstone country we had...

 The Central Kimberley 1 - Aboriginal Art, Crocodiles, and Spectacular Scenery Dear all After leaving Hanover Bay, and the comfort that comes from having other people around to provide advice, we started what was to be a 10 day period without seeing another human being.   Our only link to the outside world was our satellite phone on which we could download weather, send text based emails, and talk to the family.  No iternet, no radio, no news, and no Youtube! From Hanover Bay, we made our way through the Coronation Islands to the Hunter River, one of the iconic Kimberley rivers.  En route, we spent a night at a tiny anchorage in a narrow passage between two islands, named Ivy Cove.  On the beach, there is one of the two historic carved boab trees in the Coronation Islands, the other being the Mermaid tree in Careening Bay.  The Ivy tree is the less famous of the two, and bears the inscription Ivy 19.10.1890.  The Ivy was a pearling schooner workin...

 The Western Kimberley After a very enjoyable few days in Yampi Sound, where we still had a little mobile coverage, we headed off for the much more remote central Kimberly.     Usually, the path for yachties includes a trip to Talbot Bay to witness the spectacular Horizontal Falls.    But because we had a fixed deadline to get to Darwin for a medical appointment, we made the difficult decision to skip the trip south to Talbot Bay, which would have added about an extra week to out trip.   Instead we headed directly east through Camden Sound, across the north of Montgomery Reef, to Deception Bay.  While we passed only a few hundred metres from Montgomery Reef, the tide was high and this meant we did not get to witness the thewater rushing off the reef at low tide.    A good excuse to go back to the Kimberly next year.  Deception Bay, and the nearby Samson Inlet, provided our first taste of Kimberly gorges and a glimpse at our fir...

 Dampier to Cape Leveque and Yampi Sound Dear friends Now that we have arrived in Darwin and are back in the land of digital connectivity, I am going to post a number of blogs which cover our 6 week journey through the wonderful Kimberly.  The Kimberly was amazing and very beautiful, but we found it quite a challenge to sail in such an isolated place with little contact with the outside world, not to mention the tides and strong currents and, of course, the crocodiles! We left Dampier on 10 July, sailing and motoring through the Dampier Archipelago and Flying Foam Passage to spend two nights anchored off Dolphin Island, before setting off to the Kimberly.    The Dampier Archipelago is a very beautiful place, and we had windless conditions for our two nights.  The calm seas were only disturbed by passing whales, dolphins, and large fish jumping out of the water each evening to feast on the many schools of smaller ones.  We departed on Monday 12 July, decidin...