Buccaneer Bound: Sea Leg 4 - Yampi Sound Back to Derby

11 July - Day 17- Silvergull Creek - Dunvert Island

The bloody easterly wind kicked up hard overnight, but we were comfortable in the mpouth of Silvergull Creek. We had planned to fish around Yampi sound today, but the wind was blowing hard and we spent the morning trolling inside Silvergull Creek, until we were worried that the tide might cause us to get stranded in the creek.

So we decided to head to the deeper waters of Coppermine Creek and maybe beach the boats and try oystering. So with Nat at the helm we headed out of Silvergull. It was a bit choppy outside, but with a following sea so it wasn’t too bad. Yet. It’s about 10NM to Coppermine Ck and the last 2 were horrendous. Another choke point between islands, and tide working against a 20Kt Easterly and the surf was up. It was throttle jockey time, go at the same speed as the surf and never look behind you.

Obviously we made it. There was a lovely sheltered beach ahead in Coppermine Creek so we eased into there and beached the boats. We found a nice little cave with shade and a sandy floor so we huddled in there for a while and have a few beers to settle the nerves, then we pulled out the maps and weather reports, and and did a planning session. The weather report was a problem. We had 3-4 days of deteriating weather followed by 25Knot+ entenched easterleys for as far as the reports projected. We agreed that it was time for us to make the rest of the mission about hopping our way home in the gaps between the rising winds which looked like it was going to be our constant nemesis for here on in.

It was on this beach that we finally had a chance to assess the damage to Bundy Runner after the “Bundy-on-the-rocks” incident. There are a few decent chunks of fibreglass out of the bow, but no cracks and it looks like there’s no water ingress. I guess we would have been in trouble before now if there was. We had nothing else to do but wait for the tide to come in and re-float the boats, so we rock hopped around the point and got another great feed of oysters. As is the trend here the easterleys backed off aroung early afternoon, and as it did the white caps disappeared from outside the river mouth. So when the boats floated again we decided to make a run for Silica Beach where we planned to spend the night.

It was an easy run with the weather behaving itself and it only took about 40 mins of driving. But arriving at the beach was a bit of a surprise. While the scenery was spectacular with jutting rocks that looked like a dragon's lair, this was not the sort of place I’d like to anchor up in. If the anchor dragged here the boats would be up on those jutting rocks in no time. It was also quite exposed to the weather so the mooring arrangement would be awkward. So we decided to press on to the known entity of Dunvert Island (where we had stayed on the way north) while the weather was still good.

We went around the outside of Hidden Island and then hooked around into the shelter of Dunvert and were soon anchored up and rafted up with Bundy runner alongside. The big Tawny Nurse shark was still there, so we fed it a couple of Trevally fillets that we’d been saving for crab bait. It’s a pretty good experience for the kids to see these huge creatures alongside the boat getting fed. How lucky are they?

Coppernine Creek - Our Shelter from the Easterleys

Oystering at Coppermine Creel

Jessie getting stuck into the oysters

12 July - Day 18- Dunvert Island - Port Usborne

The mongrel easterly wind kicked up overnight causing a rolling waves to come into our anchorage. From about 2am Bundy Runner bucked around and the boats would bash together and then yank each other sideways. It was impossible to sleep from then and come first light we de-rafted Bundy Runner to go anchor on her own to make it comfortable for everyone.

After breakfast we fished around the area for a while. We had spotted this interesting looking Blue Hole on a satellite photo. So we drove up to it. It was 3m all around the circular lip of the hole, then sheer walls that dropped down to 24 m at the bottom. The deep part was only about 100m across. I can't help but wonder if it’s an ancient volcano crater. As Interesting as the underwater topography was though, 3 drifts across that hole yielded nothing more than some tiny rock cod.

The weather was looking pretty good with the wind having settled down, and everyone was putting the pressure on to get to the next stop for the night. The plan had been to wait till about 2pm so we’d be tackling the tidal rips at Hells Gate on the ebb. But stupidly I let peer pressure get the better of me and so we headed on out way. Sure the weather was fine, but the tidal rips through hells gate were scary as hell. Daz tried to navigate us through a death trap, which I chickened out of, and the “non-death-trap” rout had me shitting bricks too. At first, it was possible to dodge the whirlpools but near the end all I could do was jam on the power and drive through them, hoping for the best. By the time we got to the other side and out of the rips I had promised myself to never bend to peer pressure ever again.

We got to Waterfall beach and holed up behind an island out of the wind which had kicked in again. Once again suggestions were made to keep going to Port Usborne since It was so early. Remembering my promise to myself I agreed to move only near the ebb tide. This led to a few hours of hanging around. We had lunch, Jessie and I had a ‘snotty party” and finished the oysters from yesterday, and we fished for a bit with no notable results.

At about 3pm we made out move to Port Usborne. We found a deep creek that leads up into another big waterway, so we anchored in the creek where we were protected from the wind and moored up for the night. This is as close as you can get to Derby before crossing the open water of Stokes Bay and King Sound. So now we just needed a 3 hour window of opportunity to make our dash. The weather reports are telling us that tomorrow will be a bit shit, but every day after that will be really shit. So we're aiming for tomorrow.

Matilda fished after dark and pulled in a few undersized Redfish. It would be a great place to explore here for a few days, but alas the weather is not on our side. Tomorrow we are expecting 14kt Easterlies. After that it gets worse and worse. I’m worried about the crossing of Stokes Bay in a cross wind and with tidal rips. It can get pretty bad there. So we’re going to have to suck it up and do the crossing in 14 Kts. I’m going to try to time it with the top of the tide so maybe the tide races won’t be so bad. So it’s a 9am departure tomorrow and all going well we should be at Derby by lunchtime.

Sunrise at Dunvet Island

Early stages of Hells Gate - just getting warmed up

13 July - Day 19. Port Usborne - Derby

Our 9am departure did not go well. We headed out as planned but the wind and seas around the exposed parts of Port Usborne we're very nasty. We decided to turn back and wait a few hours.

Back in our sheltered waterway, we dropped anchor and rafted up. Daz tried to get a better weather report on the sat phone, but the sat phone was playing up intermittently. On the occasions it worked the BOM 1900 number failed. We asked Bruce and Daph to give it a go on there phone, but after 3 failed attempts at unlocking her sat phone Daph bricked the phone. Eventually Daz did get a report via inreach tracker but it didn’t make life better since it just told us what we already knew. The weather would be getting worse over the coming days.

All we could do was wait and try again in a few hours. While we waited, Matilda fished and hauled in a lovely big cod (60+) complete with cockroach-like parasites burrowed into it's face. Ewww.... Then a roaring sound grew louder and a boat rounded the corner. We waved him over and asked for some tips about getting back to Derby on this tide and weather. Old mate said “ahh yeah maybe try again at midday - the wind should have dropped a bit by then. You’ll get into Derby with just enough water”.

He was right.

We headed out again at 1130. At Port Usborne it was still pretty rough, but a bit better than a few hours ago. So we decided to go for it. Settling in for a long rough slog we began our last leg home. Thankfully the rough stuff lessened as we crossed Stokes bay, and by the time we passed Point Torment it was positively comfortable. Inside King Sound proper, with plenty of fuel and only a slight brown chop we throttled on to race home to beat the outgoing tide. We did it in the nick of time with only 4m of water to spare over the drying sandbars near Derby. But we were back at the boat ramp.

After dropping off Bruce and Daz at the ramp Daph and I waited around and lowered all the rods and aerials. About 45mins later the boys arrived and backed the trailers down. Daph and I drove our respective boats onto the trailers without incident and that was that. Water mission over. What a weird feeling.