S/V Indian Summer 1

 

18-20 June 2016

We eventually managed to leave Jar Island after 4 days and heading up to Cape Talbot.  This is the last good anchorage before you go over the top towards Cape Londonderry, the most northern tip of Western Australia.   It was not the best sailing conditions, but we did arrive before dark.  We were amazed to see two other catamarans in the bay – the first we had seen since we left.   It was practically crowded.  No sooner had we arrived than one of them pulled out and Site came in later – leaving three cats in the bay.   The next morning we all got together for a cuppa and we discovered that  “Ohmless”  is a Fusion 40, sailed by Mike & Chrissie  and that  they had been living aboard for 20 years! Amazing…

The next day we decided to go to the King George River, a days sail away.  Site wanted to push on to Darwin and Ohmless were heading south, so after a walk along the beach to stretch our legs, we set off at around 4pm – heading over the top via Cape Londonderry, the most northerly point of Western Australia, and down to the mouth of the King George River to arrive early the next morning.

 

 

We arrived at the King George River early the next morning just on sunrise.   We meandered down to the end which took a couple of hours.  The King George River is spectacular.  It is not very wide and its fairly shallow but has these towering cliffs either side of her which seemed to completely engulf us.   Because the river is so shallow no charter boats are able to enter and therefore we were completely alone.   When we got to the end, the twin waterfalls were nearly dry as this has been a particularly dry wet season.  If they were running to full capacity it would be an incredible site as the water plunges down 80 metres into the river.  We climbed up the rockface, which is not my favourite pastime, but worth every step as the view was really magnificent.  We knew which way to go by following little piles of rocks that directed us to the head of the waterfall.  We could see India bobbing around the river like a toy and the water was so clear you couldn’t see where she actually sat in the water.  We followed the well worn trail, marked by piles of small rocks on larger rocks, and found the water holes.  These were not big enough to swim in but we lay in them to cool off.   The only other sign of human habitation was the occasional fly over by the rescue helicopter doing patrols.  Nice to know that if we did fall we would be rescued!  After a long day of more climbing and exploring the area, we decided to make our way to the head of the river to get ready for the two day sail to Darwin.   Early to bed and up with the sunrise again, we left King George River and sadly bid farewell to the West Australian Coast for the Northern Territory coast.

 

We sailed into Fannie Bay at 3.30am on 20th June.  We had sailed up the coast of Western Australia to Darwin, a distance of 2259 Nautical Miles or 4041 kilometres.  It had taken us 6 weeks 2 days and we had done 13 overnighters.  After we anchored, we celebrated our longest sail to date at 3.30am with a bottle of red and fell into bed just on sunrise.   We woke the next day next to Site who had sailed in the afternoon before.   By sheer coincidence, we had dropped anchor next to her in the pitch black! A fitting end to a fabulous journey with them.   After a lie-in and a clean up, we headed into the Darwin Sailing Club and spent the rest of the day with Mick and Beth drinking and eating at the club and putting off the inevitable boat maintenance and preparing for East Timor and Indonesia. There’s always tomorrow……