Buccaneer Bound: June 2019

Day 1 25 June 2019 - Derby to Cone Bay - 65nm/ 130km We were up in the dark this morning - 0500. High tide was at 0615 and we wanted to launch on high tide and make to long haul out of King Sound with the outgoing tide at our backs to save fuel and give us plenty of depth. The night before leaving, Bruce and Daph had topped up their 80L fuel Bladder and promptly started having trouble with it leaking along one of the seams. Of course it leaked fuel into Bundy Runner and made it smelly/ fumey/ dangerous. So they soon worked out where the leak was coming from and elevated the leaky end it to stop it leaking further. So we made it to Derby boat ramp at 0630 and backed Skull Drag’n in. She took a fair bit of convincing to get off the trailer. 4500km of ‘settling’ and about 750+ kg of fluid weight (260kg water, 475L of fuel + grog) 150 kg food + bedding etc didn’t help. We were HEAVY. It took about 4 reverse shunts and reversing the hell out of it to get it off. So we putted out a bit and watched as Daph went through the same ordeal with Bundy Runner. Once we were afloat the boys drove the trucks and trailers back to the Kimberley Entrance Caravan park and hitched a ride back to the ramp with the park owner. By the time they got back we had all the rods and aerials fitted and I went in and picked up the boys off the pontoon, transferring Bruce onto Bundy Runner afterwards. Thus commenced our journey up the murky brown of King Sound. It was pretty calm and so brown with mud that it you could almost get out and walk on it without getting your feet wet. Hard to imagine that we were only 100 or so km away from a blue water paradise. We followed our GPS route northward at about 4200 rpm (40kmph) which gave us a fairly economical 0.5NM per Litre (1L per km) with a few stops here and there to allow Bundy Runner to deal with their still leaking fuel bladder. Soon we were crossing Stokes Bay. This area can be notorious in an easterly with the tide running. And while it did get a little choppy around Torment Point, about halfway across the bay the chop reduced to negligible and the brown water started to show green streaks. After a while it really started to be more green than brown and flatten out, with just the occasional broil and whirlpool. After about 2 hours we arrived at Rip Reef. It was the entrance to a whole different world. Beautiful green water, calm, orange cliffy islands up ahead. This was the entrance to an area called Hells Gate. Aptly named because the land and Islands here create a series of choke points for the 10m tides. In the right conditions it can be dangerous - and I wasn’t too interested in being a victim of that. Our plan was to wait until about midday (low tide) and go through when the tide was relatively still. As it was, we had a coffee break at Rip Reef, while Bruce and Daph mopped up after their fuel spill problem. Then we entered Hell Gate at 1100 with the tide still running out. Wow. What a place. We were soon surrounded by orange islands in a sort of large lagoon (Cascade Bay), no swell, and barely a ripple on the turquoise water. As we neared the choke point the rater flattened right out onto glassy plumes caused by underwater currents and swirls. Despite the out-running tide there was nothing to fear regarding whirlpools - It was just calm & very very beautiful. We were already near our first anchorage so we killed a few hours by fishing. Daz Drew first blood with a little coral cod that we sent home to its mama. But not long after that Matilda landed a nice big eyed trevally. We made our way past the pearling lease in Cone Bay and anchored about 1km west of Alcatraz Island in about 10 m of water. It was still very calm and the tide wasn’t too strong so we anchored Skull Drag’n and then just rafted Bundy runner alongside us. 2 boats, 1 anchor. That night the kids were on the torches checking out the little fish and Squid around the side of the boat. Some of the little fish look like they might be baby flying fish (1 - 2 inches long) with big wavy fins (they look a bit like green and gold chinese fighting fish). Then they spotted some red eyes glinting in the torchlight in the distance. If it was a croc, it didn’t come close enough to get a good look though.

Launching at Derby at 0630

Skull Drag'n feet wet

Bundy Runner feet wet

Bundy Runner heading north out of King Sound.

2 hours later - coffee/ beer break at Rip Reef. Bruce in in the background with the boat in "plow position" while Daph mops up the fuel spill from their leaky bladder.

Slick Dazza

Nat & Daz transferring fuel from Bladder 2 into Baldder 1.

Gone is the Derby brown. This is Buccaneer blue!

Tilds bags the first keeper of the trip. A Big Eyed Treva.

Kids in their bedroom

First Anchorage. Cone Bay near Alcatraz Island.

Rafted up for the night.

Cone Bay. Looking towards the pearling fleet at Alcatraz Is.

Our Motley Crew.

Day 2 26 June - Cone Bay - Strickland Bay -(Dunvert Island) 23nm/ 46km

It took a fair while to get going this morning as Bruce has something strange going on with fridges and Batteries. He and Daz spent about an hour fart-arsing around with it and then had to jump start the motor to Bundy Runner. We think his fridges are running too hard at night and flattening his batteries. He needs to use more solar power to help charge his batteries.

Once going we chugged up and had a bit of a look at the pearling fleet anchored nearby, There were about 7 boats ranging from punts up to big high-tech looking things. On Alcatraz Island there are some buildings and a wharf. We kept our distance and then headed over the other side of Cone Bay to check out the Razor Islands and the Gueigerys camp, situated in a private little cove with a beautiful beach. We decided to go for a troll along the edge of the Razors, and Jess landed a Big GT that gave her a hell of a fight, That fish fed 6 of us that night with leftovers - it was delicious. After that we headed out of Cone Bay and worked our way north through the islands and headed into Strickland Bay. After chasing some chopping Tuna around the ocean (futile) we tried bottom bashing at Vickors Reef (also futile), and then headed to an anchorage at Dunvert Island at about 3pm.

That afternoon, after a bit of ongoing diagnosis, we’ve come to the conclusion that Bundy Runner has a slow leak. It’s taking on a litre an hour, possibly near one of the old transducer fittings in the hull. It’s not not an emergency as long as it doesn’t get worse - and Bruce and Daph can keep on top of it by running the bilge pump regularly.

That night there was a big tawny nurse shark (about 8 ft) cruising around the boat along with squid, garfish, big mantis prawn.

High Tech Pearling boat

Sorry Jess - too small.

But THAT will do nicely!

Tilds having an off day.

Nat cleaning Jess's GT

Day 3 27 June - Dunvert Island Anchorage - Gerald Peninsula - 9nm/ 18km
We had a slow morning.The oldies spent a few hours prepping fishing gear. While Daz did a bit of drone photography and Nat did some washing..

After that we headed to Edeline Island to see if we could find the grave sites of some pearl divers from the 1800. What a treat. Edeline Island is utterly stunning, the tide was about 2 hours from low so we beached the boats on a sandy beach and went for a walk. I was talking to the kids as we climbed the steep sandy beach, and on cresting the hill and seeing the view my jaw hung slack and words failed me all together. The view! Oh Boy. There was another beautify beach ahead of us but to the right were these amazing rock formations that looked like something belonging to an art gallery. Up behind the formations we found the graves, with names and dates (1800’s) carved into headstones made from slices of natural sedimentary rock.

We stayed for about 4 hours waiting for the boats to re-float. There were heaps of black lipped oysters on the rocks near the boat so we spent a good hour gathering a feed and we took the chance to have a little fire and burn off some rubbish. After that it was beers and oysters in a little cave in the cliff as we looked down on the boats waiting for the tide. I tried hunting for a few muddies, but did no good. It was a great afternoon.

By the time the boats floated, it was blowing a pretty stiff westerly, so we went to Gerald inlet for anchorage out of wind. While sheltered from the wind, we were expecting crocs an midgies and it’s mud and mangroves all around. But surprisingly we had no problems with either. At night time, this place is teaming with little fish around the boat - Tiny little flying fish, garfish, glitter fish, bream, longtongs, squid.

Daz Drone flying at Dunvert Island

Dunvert Island Anchorage - looking torards Strickland Bay.

Dunvert Island Anchorage - Whirlpool Pass in the background

Us from above

Doing the washing

Exploring Strickland Bay

Exploring Edeline Island

Daph Checking out the amazing Rock formations on Edeline Island

Edeline Is

Grave sites of Pearl Divers on Edeline Is

Edeline Is

More amazing rocks at Edeline

More exploring on Edeline Is

Edeline Is

Daz - King of Edeline Is

Boats Beached at Edeline

Tide's going out..

Beached as Bro

Wind sculped rocks at Edeline Is

Waiting for the tide to come back in

Still waiting

Oysering

Oysters!

Day 4 - 28 June - Gerald Inlet - The Graveyard and back - 7nm/ 14 km
Got up early to enter an area called “the Graveyard” on the slack high tide. The graveyard is entered via a narrow pass about 40m deep and 100m wide. The cruising guide warns the currents in the pass can be a bit treacherous - hence the entry at slack tide. The 100m gap is really imposing with towering cliffs rising either side. The water in the pass was glassy smooth with broils going through, not dangerous, but there was enough going on with the current to make you realise this place could get funky in the right circumstances.

Once through the gap it opens up into something like a fiord. Deep and glassy water surrounded by tall islands and cliffs. But beware! Much of the area is uncharted or marked a foul ground with isolated rocks about. So we proceeded with caution.

We trolled along a bank of mangroves with Bundy Runner maybe a km behind. Daz was driving, the kids had a line each out the back and I was on the front flicking a lure into the mangroves in about 8m of water on the outgoing tide pushing us along from behind. I looked up and suddenly shat myself - we were about to hit a rock!! I erupted: “REVERSE REVERSE REVERSE REVERSE” at the top of my lungs. For once Daz did as he was told with gusto and we were able to back away and go around the rock and continue on our way with somewhat elevated heart rates.

Then Bruce and Daph (oblivious to our near miss) were on the radio reporting they’s bagged a nice cod.

Daz replied with “Good on ya - watch out this rock that’s about 15m from the bank near that overhanging tree”

Bruce said “Wilco” and then we chugged on and around a corner out of sight of Bundy Runner.

3 mins later Bruce is on the radio “You better come back here and help us - we just hit that fucking rock and we’re stuck fast”

Fuck!! The tide would be both pushing them harder onto the rock what the water depth reduced. Time to move. We wound in the lines double time and high tailed back to Bundy Runner.

We got into position behind them and secured a rope from our stern to theirs. Then with Bundy On the Rocks reversing and Skull Drag’n skull dragging them we pulled them free. Hopefully without a new leak - time would tell.

We decided at this point that we could all do with some valium and breakfast so we headed out into the open and did exactly that. We left Bundy Runner to clean their cod and went for a bit more of a troll. There were a lot of Tunas around breaking on the surface and we wanted one! We picked a spot on the map to an opening to another bay and trolled towards it. Jess got a hit but it didn’t stick, and Nat hooked something that put up a decent fight but turned out to be a black tipped reef shark.

At the bay entrance we found a bit of reef, and drifted across it while bottom bashing. Nat cough a NICE gold spotted cod. Daz caught a trickie. Then the fish went off the bite so we left the graveyard thinking to fish the main entrance to the graveyard - The bottom had looked mighty interesting on the sounder on the way in - But the whirlpools and broils were going pretty hard in the entrance so we couldn’t really fish it. Instead we fished on some reefs at the eastern side of Edeline Island. Daph was in the water fo all of 1 minute before landing a BIG Slatey Bream. Too bad they are shit to eat so they released it. Nat caught a nice little trevva on a micro jig, Then as the afternoon was getting along, we headed back to Gerald Inlet where we gave crabbing a go with no success.

We went to bed last night hoping that the “Bundy on the rocks” incident hadn’t caused any leaks in its outer hull - we’ll be monitoring it closely for a while.

Nat's on!

*sigh* - it's a bloody shark

This is more like it!

Bruce & Daph's Slatey Bream - a mother in law fish

Captain Daz

Daz does Fuel Calculations

Kids - ratbags!

Day 5 - 29 June - Gerald Inlet to coppermine creek via whirlpool Passage - 27nm/ 54km

We were up early to catch the high tide at Whirlpool Pass and made it there right on high. Whirlpool pass is a narrow channel that runs between 2 islands in the shape of an S. It is renowned for being very turbulent (read: has destroyed many a boat) when the tide is in full roar. Hence, we’ve timed this to be on a neap tide at the Ebb. Looking at this passage on the satellite photos was one of the things that first drew me into wanting to do this trip. When you see a waterway like that - you just have to drive a boat through it!

Well we navigated it without incident - and what a place! The entrance is towering rocks on either side and deep deep 40m+ water. Not much turbulence at entering the south end. But the passage narrows towards the north end an even at high tide the whirlpools and broils push the boat around. It goes glassy just like the top of a convection current. I drove it with Daz on the Bow filming and Bruce and Daph following behind heeding the warning “don’t drive up my arse - I might have to stop in a hurry”.

We exited the passage unscathed and then headed through Goose Channel. As Cockatoo Island loomed into view with it’s open cut mine face, we spotted a big passenger boat heading south and then entered Yampi Sound with it’s rocky islets jutting up all over the place. We decided to fish for a while on some shoals in Yampi Sound, and after bottom bashing yielded nothing but a Grinner for Daz, we decided to chase those bloody tuna chopping up the fish. We had a few bumps and chased around a bit, but next thing both Matilda and Daz we ON with a double tuna hookup. Such chaos!! The fish were crossing over and generally cutting sick. But after a fight Daz Landed his with Nat on the gaff, and while he removed the hooks I turned my attention to coaching Matilda who was struggling like a little champion with her feisty fish. After a fairly tame start, she got it alongside the boat and then it decided to raise hell. So after another 5 or so minutes She landed the 7kg beastie, and released it to live another day.

Meanwhile Bruce and Daph were having no luck at a nearby island so we cleaned Daz’s tuna ready for Sushimi!!

Then we went back to bottom bashing with me landing 2 x 40cm Trickies and a nice tusk fish and everyone else catching zilch.

At about 2pm we decided to knock off and headed into Coppermine Creek. Another beautiful spot. It is a wide river with rocky walls either side and deep water. We followed it up till it got shallower and here we are anchored up ready for another night. We radiod up Nautical Nick at Cockatoo Island to arrange fuel for next morning and then settled in for another night. At some stage that eventing, someone sneezed and there was a great echo a few seconds afterwards. Thus commenced the Cooee competition that lasted the rest of the trip.

Tomorrow is off to Cockatoo Island to get fuel.

Wherethefuckarewe?

Matilda's 7kg Tuna!

Daz's Tuna

Nat's Trickies and a Tuskfish

Nat working out the mileages for the next leg.

Daz troubleshooting the Waeco. The fan is buggered.

Dig in! It doesn't get much fresher than this...

Sashimi! Thanks to Daz's Tuna

Moored up in Coppermine Creek

Coppermine Creek

Nat and Tilds enjoying the serenity at Coppermine Creek

Coppermine Creek evening colours turning it on

Sunset at Coppermine Creek

Jess - Coppernine Creek dusk

Day 6 - 30 June - Coppermine - Cockatoo Island - Myridi
Up at sunrise and a quick breakfast. Last night was the usual entertainment form the marine life in the top end of Coppermine ck. There is a family of snub nose dolphins here and at night time some of them cruised by the boat. We could hear them breathing on the surface. So we pulled out the torches and there they were - you could see them in the clear water by the torchlight. The kids were so excited. It was great.

We had arranged with Nautical Nick to collect fuel at 9:15 from Cockatoo Island. From Coppermine creek to Cockatoo Island is was only about a 20min run. Nautical Nick saw us coming and was on the radio telling us where to pull up. There was no nice pontoon. Just a 20m high rock and concrete wall that towered above the boats. Nick and his mate had some buffers and soon Bundy Runner was pulled alongside. And then we pulled in and rafted up to the other side of Bundy Runner. It was an interesting operation with nick and his mate 20m above our heads on top of the cliff lowering the fuel hose to us. The Fuel was gravity fed and went like the clappers. In no time at all we had added 200L to the main tank and another 70L to the big bladder. Bruce and Daph were then filling up all their jerry cans while Nautical Nick (whose real name is actually ‘Mick’) lowered us another hose to top up our water. Then he lowered a milk crate on a rope and we sent up our rubbish, and then lowered the milk crate again for us to send up our cash- The Damage:
Skull Dragn - 270L - $877
Bundy Runner - 220L - $812

After this we headed further east along Cockatoo Is to the old wharf to do some fishing. Bruce and Daph bagged a couple of nice cod and a tricky and we got nothing worth keeping. While Daph and Bruce cleaned their fish we headed over to the Pickaninnies (little rock islands) to try bottom fishing for some reefies. We found a great bombie with a huge school of fusiliers hovering over it. We dropped the rock pick as the tide was really moving. After about 40 mins we’d bagged 4 big Stripeys. Nat cleaned them while Daz and the kids did lunch and soon Bruce and Daph joined us and we headed over to check out Myridi Bay.

Myridi Bay has a massive spectacular cliff face on the eastern side. We couldn’t help ourselves - it was time for another cooee competition, a photo opportunity, and, because it was a bit early to knock off, we decided to keep exploring. We were heading for Crocodile Creek but the tide was quite low (too low to get to the anchorage) so we bypassed it and went into Silvergull Creek.

There were 2 yachts in the bay at the entrance to the creek, and it was getting late in the day, so we pulled up and dropped anchor and did the washing. It was a difficult night - The presence of the the 80L water bladder on the floor was a monumental pain in the arse. Living in a 6.5m boat with 4 people is difficult enough (it’s non-stop tetris to do anything) but try play tetris with a big arse fuel bladder on the floor! Ohhh well. We’ll manage.