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 first crocodile.
Located adjacent to Camden Sound Marine Park, which is the most important Humpback whale nursery in WA, we got to see lots of breaching and resting whales as we sailed. It meant keeping a very close watch, particularly when our motors were not running.
We launched the dinghy at both anchorages and explored the river gorges up to the rock bars - one crocodile dived just as we were approaching it in our dinghy, so we moved on quick smart.
After several nights at both Deception Bay and Samson Inlet, we headed north and east through Rogers Strait to spend a night at the beautiful Tenngara Bay, and then on to Hanover Bay, the launching point for the Prince Regent River. The Prince Regent River is navigable for about 50 nautical miles, and takes many days to explore, so again, this was a casualty of our Darwin deadline.
En route we passed Kuri Bay, made famous by the Bureau of Meteorology weather reports, and home to Paspaley Pearls.
Rogers Straight is one of the narrow channels between the mainland and nearby islands that make the route through the Kimberly. With the large tidal ranges of up to 10 metres, there are very strong currents through these narrow passages, changing directions with the incoming and outgoing tides. Timing your passage through these channels is essential to avoid have strong head currents. We did this well through Rogers Straight, with a 3.5 knot following current pushing us through the channel. But as you will read in future blogs, were were not always successful and this current was mild compared to what we experienced later in the trip.
At Hanover Bay, we anchored along with 4 other catamarans, and were soon invited to join them all for evening drinks on one of the boats - we have discovered yachting to be a highly sociable lifestyle!
One of the catamarans careened on the beach - anchored at high tide in shallow water so that the boat is sitting on dry sand at low tide, enabling hull cleaning and underwater maintenance if required. We have not had to do this yet, but it was good to witness the process in the event that we need to.
After a night at Hanover Bay, we headed into the central Kimberly which I will post about in the next blog, including photos of the amazing Hunter River!
Love to all
Naomi and S2ee
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