SV True North

 We arrived at Honeymoon Bay yesterday afternoon after a very rough passage in 30 knot winds through the two narrow passages between Vansittart Bay and Napier Broome Bay.  The very short and steep waves made it an uncomfortable passage with True North being continuously completely covered in salt water spray.  As we made our way south in Napier Broome Bay, the wind moderated slightly we came more into the lea of the shore making the passage more comfortable. Honeymoon Bay has a very remote caravan park which is reached by a 250km very rough track from the nearest larger town Kununurra. On arrival, we took the dinghy ashore to the caravan park to see if we could get a ride into Kalamburu, a small village about 35km up the track where a small general store could be found.  The owners of the caravan park said they would drive us in the next day for a cost of $100 per person.  We needed groceries so we decided to just send Glenn into town to do the shopping.  A...

 We arrived at the Osborne Island anchorage late Thursday after taking a detour around the large Pearl farm in the bay.  You can see our track change direction as we enter the bay to stay outside of the Pearl farm lease.  The next morning Paul and I set out in the dinghy to explore some of the many attractions in the area.  We set out at the start of the rising tide because several sites were up creeks which are dry at low tide. Our first sto- was the apartments, a natural rock formation which had columns holding up a large roof rock forming many interconnected caves.  There were at least a couple dozen seperate rooms all connected by passages.  The aboriginals must have been very excited when they discovered such a great shelter.  There was one little area of aboriginal art by an entrance overhang.   The Apartments from the outside An entranceway  A large interior room Some aboriginal art work We next went a bit further up the creek to anoth...

 We arrived at Swift Bay late afternoon and Glen and I quickly took the dinghy to an inviting beach near our anchor spot.  The beach was very steep and made up entirely of small shells.  The tide was dropping quickly so we had to keep pushing the dinghy off the beach back into the water so it did not end up way up the beach.  There were several large rocks above the high tide level and I climbed atop one of them to fly my drone and get some video of the area.  I will add it here once I have edited it. A very steep shell beach - The high tide line is easily seen in the foreground. The sunset made the rocks glow True North anchored off the Swift Bay beach

 We made a short stop at Palm Island to see some aboriginal rock art.  The passage to The Palm Island anchorage took the whole day so we got up early the next morning when the tide was rising to take the dinghy to see two rock art locations.  The first was a famous drawing of five men in a canoe. Five men in a canoe The other paintings were up a creek and showed a large kangaroo.  We were able to view that painting from the dinghy but I did not get a picture. We returned to True North and quickly got underway for the passage to Swift Bay where we were anchored by late afternoon.  Paul got out the fishing gear as soon as we were underway but we had no luck.  It has been over a week with no bites at all and supplies are getting low. Paul choosing the perfect lure - unfortunately the fish were not biting

 We arrived in the Hunter River and anchored in an Porosus Creek which is a side tributary to the river.  When we arrived there were three cruise boats already here.  Le Soleil is a 466 foot and 234 guest luxury cruise ship and she was anchored in the main river.  The other two cruise ships were anchored in the creek near us and were 175 foot 36 passenger ships named Discovery Expeditions and a second True North!  Needless to say there were tenders from the cruise ships going up and down the creek all day.  Each ship has a helicopter aboard so they were often overhead as well. Yesterday Glen and I took the dinghy for a short trip up the creek.  It is very scenic but it was low tide so there were large mud banks and we could not travel very far due to the low water. The real Canadian True North anchored in Porosus Creek This morning we all took the dinghy about 10 miles up the Hunter River to its headwaters.  At several places the river runs throug...

 We had a long motor from the Prince Regent River to Careening Bay yesterday.  Careening Bay was mainly just an anchorage for overnight but the site had a large boab tree which had been inscribed with the ship name HMC Mermaid 1820.  The Mermaid had been beached at high tide and careened top repair her hull in 1820.  The Mermaid was built in India and launched December 23 1816 but unfortunately iron nails had been used in her construction and she was falling apart.  The crew repaired her on the beach before continuing to explore and map northwest Australia. Carving of HMC Mermaid 1820 on Boab Tree View of the old Boab Tree Today we are continuing northeast to Prince Frederick Harbour and the Hunter River (not the famous Hunter River wine region).

 This morning we were inundated with cruise boat tenders passing us starting at 06:00.  The cruise boats had moored downstream by Camp Creek and set their passengers up in their tenders to see the waterfalls.  Luckily they provide whirlwind tours so by 10:00 all tenders had headed back downstream and we had the upper river to ourselves again.  We headed out in our tinny to explore the upper reaches of the river.  At the head of the river there was a small and narrow creek which ended in a tall waterfall. Waterfall at the head of the Prince Regent River We snapped a few pictures of the waterfall and immediately headed out of the small creek to the main river.  The creek was very narrow and murky and seemed like a perfect location for a crocodile attack. When safely back in the main river we headed back downstream to see Kings Cascade Falls.  This is a very famous waterfall and was the attraction for all the people from the cruise boats. The beautiful Ki...

 After departing Sampson Inlet, it took us two days to arrive at a good anchorage in the Prince Regent River.  The passage was slow because we needed to have enough depth from the tide to get over many shallow areas.  The large tides create strong currents and it seemed we were fighting currents for much of the passage, slowing our progress to less than minor at times. We anchored the first night at Rothesay Waters just for a stopover spot.  The next day we continued to the anchorage in the Prince Regent River just by Camp Creek.The next morning we took the dinghy up Camp Creek to investigate the waterfall at the head of the creek. Camp Creek waterfall The cruising guide said there is a crocodile safe swimming hole in the pool at the top of the waterfall so off we set to hike up to the top.  The initial climb was fairly easy.  At the top we found a large stream to follow to discover the swimming hole. After a bit of scrambling over the rocks we finally saw ...

 We had a short 10.5nm sail and motor to Sampson Inlet this morning.  The inlet is very protected and is often used as a cyclone anchorage for the boats from the nearby pearl farm.  Once anchored we set off in the dinghy for a search for a freshwater pool and aboriginal rock art.  The directions were vague and the tide was low which meant we had a long hike up the dry rock strewn riverbed to reach the freshwater pool.  It was delightful to sit in the flow of the little waterfall feeding the pool to cool off. Hiking up the riverbed Cooling off in the waterfall / stream  Paul searched the area for the rock art but could not find it. No rock art to be found😕 We spent some more time cooling off in the creek feeding the picturesque freshwater soak. Here is a short video of the soak   https://photos.app.goo.gl/FhypepKQV3LjcD696 When we headed back down the stream we found the tide had come up and we had to climb the steep rocks along the bank to get back to...

 This morning we left our anchorage beside Montgomery Reef at 05:30 and headed up a channel into the reef known as The Gutter.  The tide was dropping and the sailing guide said we should be anchored by mid ebb tide to watch the water flowing off of the reef into The Gutter.  The 34 foot tide drop leaves the reef about 10 feet above the ocean level at low tide.  Our trip up The Gutter started before dawn but soon we experienced a beautiful sunrise. Sunrise at Montgomery Reef By the time we anchored there was already a lot of water flowing off the reef. Note the reef height is already several feet above the ocean level It didn’t take long before the water became a torrent  Paul and I took the dinghy up The Gutter further to experience the flow of the water.  A short video is here https://photos.app.goo.gl/zaj5DTrpae3k36ZH7 When we came back down The Gutter we continued out to the sandbar which we had anchored behind yesterday.  Although we knew it was th...

 We motored from Dugong Bay back north to reach a channel where we could come back south but a few miles to the east.  This brought us to the famous Kimberly horizontal waterfalls. The waterfalls are caused by two small gaps in the rocky cliffs which concentrate tidal water flows into a very small area.  The first gap allows the ocean tide to flow in/out of a small but deep bay.  The second gap allows water to flow from the first bay into a second bay.  This means that the water flows between the two gaps are offset from each other by about an hour.  When we went through in the first third of a rising tide, there was a noticeable decline in the flow through the gap to the first bay and the water was fairly turbulent with standing waves, whirlpools and meeting cross current waves.  We motored across the first bay and looked at the second gap but the drop was one to two metres and we did not think the dinghy would be able to climb back up to the first ba...