WIIN - Finally in the Kimberley’s (15 – 21 July)

From Cape Leveque on we consider ourselves to be in the Kimberley’s and the scenery, currents and tide are letting us know we have arrived. Leaving Cape Leveque early in the morning to catch favourable winds and tide we headed for Hidden Island 36 nautical miles away. All going smooth till we reach Alarm Shoals, this is the fist and not the last time we’ll meet tide going one way with opposing winds and the swell coming a different direction from the other two - we now have a close affinity with how our clothes feel in a top loader washing machine while doing 9 knots. It only lasted a short while but was a real wake up to what we could expect for the next few months. Then it calmed down and we were flying across King Sound with the MPS up.
Hidden Island is the home of Silica Bay considered a safe swimming beach in the Kimberley’s, squeaky white sand, crystal clear warm water; we had arrived in Kimberley paradise. The afternoon was spent swimming, fishing or should I say loosing more lures, exploring and finished with a BBQ onboard Sail Away Too.
The next morning we were all jolted back to reality of where we were, with Sail Away Too’s RIB having been used as a teething ring by a croc, one of the pontoons had been torn beyond repair (at anchor 200 metres from the beach we were swimming at yesterday!). So we changed our plans with a trip to Derby for a new tender for Sail Away Too needed. We left pretty much straight away and had good tidal assistance – getting up to 12 knots at times and reaching a top of 13.4. We travelled the 45nm to Point Usborne in under 5 hours.
We went exploring the inland sea – it goes for miles and miles. We were amazed at the scenery – wide creeks with cliffs, red rock, boab trees, small shrub, then mangroves and mud-banks, and whirlpools caused by the big tidal movement.
We left early again the next day and reached our 2000nm mark! The water became very muddy looking and stayed that way into Derby, arriving around lunchtime on the high tide. We had trouble anchoring as the holding wasn’t great so picked up a mooring. Derby has some of the largest tides in Australia, and while there we had up to 9 metre movement in tide. Once the tide went out we were sitting in just under 3 metres, and there were sand banks all around us - quite amazing. The resulting current running past the boat was very strong.
Vin managed to find a new dinghy for Sail Away Too (aluminium this time), and we took the opportunity to do our washing and restock on fresh fruit and veges. We were also able to catch up with Murray – a friend from FSC.
We left Derby at 3am in the morning as needed the high water to get out and then the outgoing tide going with us. We made it back to Point Usborne early afternoon. I saw my first crocodile while exploring in the inland sea – just swimming by and at a polite distance away, so all okay.
We left at 2am the following morning to get the right tide, and arrived in Coppermine Creek just after 9am. We had strong winds of 25 knots gusting to 35+knots. Seas were sloppy, but with tide and wind we reached speeds of up to 14knots (a new record for WII) – Steve being a speed freak was loving the ride! The next day we motor sailed to Crocodile Creek as there was no wind.
The difference between an Adventure and an Ordeal is Attitude