Crocodile Creek - a very unique anchorage

 We departed Coppermine creek early this morning for a quick 10.5 mile passage to Crocodile Creek.  The reason for our early departure was that we needed to arrive at Crocodile Creek well into a rising tide so we would have enough depth to navigate up the creek to the deep hole at the anchorage.  The cruising guide said there was only enough room for 2 or 3 yachts in the anchorage so when we arrived at the creek entrance, I sent Glen and Paul ahead in the dinghy to check if there was room for us.  Luckily they radioed back that there was only one other yacht in the anchorage and that the skipper of that yacht said we could raft up with them.

Glen and Paul off to check if there is room in the anchorage


The entrance to Crocodile Creek to the right of the big hill on the left side of the picture

The guys rejoined me at the entrance to the anchorage pool and we backed True North along side Salty Dawgz.  It is a unique and beautiful anchorage!

Safely tied up in the Crocodile Creek anchorage 

Once we were anchored, it was the time to explore.  The cruising guide said there was a nice crocodile free swimming hole above the waterfall so we put on our swimming trunks and headed to shore.   We tied the dinghy to the top of a solid stainless steel ladder whose top rung was just above water level.  The swimming was lovely on a hot day with warm clear water in the pool.  When we headed back down to the anchorage we found the tide had dropped a huge amount and continued to drop a total of about 20 feet or 6 metres.  We had to climb down a dozen or so steps on the ladder to reach the dinghy.  Luckily for us, Robin from Salty Dawgz had untied our dinghy and reattached it with a much longer rope.  If he had not done this, the dinghy would have been hanging down swinging in mid air when we returned from our swim.

Where did all the water go?

I took the opportunity to fly the drone and make a movie of the area.  You can watch it at this link

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