Buccaneer Bound: Sea Leg Number 2 - Talbot Bay, Horizontal Falls, Dugong Bay, Raft Point

Day 7 - 1 July - Silvergull Ck

The good news is that Bundy Runner doesn't seem to be sinking after the "Bundy on the Rocks" incident. In fact, what is strange, is the the slow leak that it had beforehand seems to have stopped too. Perhaps the wood around the transducer inlet has swelled up a bit and plugged the leak? Anyway, we're grateful for big mercy's. Thankyou ocean gods!

After refuelling yesterday we anchoured at the sheltered entrance to Silvergull Creek. After a slow morning and a cooked Breakfast, we headed up Silvergull Creek as the tide neared high. Inside Silvergull Creek were more cliffs and on the left there were quite a few chasms that entered the creek proper. No doubt these would become raging waterfalls at certain times in the wet season, but at the moment they are dry, but still really beautiful. We did a bit of trolling and lure flicking off the bow, and Daz landed a nice cod flicking lures.

There's a place up this creek called “The Squatters Arms” where a couple set up their home years ago and did a mighty job at it. It was empty when we called in but there are signs of habitation, with old gardens, buildings and tools around, and a few huge canvas tents set up on top of a hill. We explored the beautiful scenery upstream of the Squatters Arms before doubling back and pulling Skull Drag’n up alongside a rocky shelf. Going ashore we found a little slice of tropical paradise, complete with a loo with a view, and a concrete water tank with a non stop supply of fresh spring water, a wet bar (BYO) and an “infinity window” cut into the side with a million dollar view.

At first the kids wouldn’t get in the pool, but once I got in and proved there were no snakes or spiders they were in like flynn. Fresh water swimming after a week on a boat...Hell yes!! Daz joined in and then Bruce and Daph came in for a shift while we looked after the boats and kept an eye on the tide. The tide was beginning to run out, and mindful of boats being stranded, we had to be on our way.

We trolled out again and Dazza picked up a Mangrove Jack, Then we headed out to check out Dog Leg Creek, with the intention being to anchor up there overnight. But Dog Leg Creek wasn’t such a great anchorage so we did a bit more fishing near the incredible rock formations of Nares Point and then doubled back to anchor up out the front of Silvergull Creek again.

We had fresh whole fish for dinner tonight, and tomorrow we’ll head down to the Horizontal Falls.

Going for a troll up Silvergull Creek

Chasms in Silvergull

Nat flicking lures in Silvergull

Skull Drag'n visiting the Squatters Arms

Loo with a view

Tilds Exploring the gardens around the Squatters Arms

Looking along Sulvergull Cteek from the Squatters Arms

Daz and the Girls looking for the pool

Found it!

Warm spring fed concrete watertank with it's own infinity window with a view. A freswater swim - pure bliss!

We're never gunna get them out....

It even has a warm waterfall!

Skull Drag'n at the Squatters Arms

Dazza flicking lures - He's the Mangrove king

Another chasm offshoot to Silvergull Ck

Day 8 - 2 July - Silvergull to Horizontal falls - 49nm/ 98km
We got going a few hours before the high tide and cruised on down the Koolan channel. The Iron Ore mine there is a sight to behold. Looks like the broken sea wall is repaired and mining (or something that causes dust plumes) is happening in that deep hole below sea level. The rust coloured terrace of the mine walls are enormous, and there’s 2 tug boats moored out the right side of the channel.

Further along the channel narrows, and we followed a previous path on the GPS through the narrow passage out and around the Iron Islands. The Active captain track we were following went to a different place so we stopped and marked out a track down past Molema and Slug islands into Talbot Bay. The path was riddled with whirlpools and broils despite being really deep for the most part. We could tell we were nearing the Horizontal Falls by the flotilla of ships, pontoons, seaplanes and helicopters up ahead.

We arrived at the Horizontal Falls after about an hour of driving and went straight in to take a look. Despite the tide chart saying it was a bit after high tide, the Horizontal falls were still filling, and there was a bit of white water and maybe a ½ m difference in water height, so we lingered around the top end of them for a while and took photos while the tourist boats roared in and out. Then we went up to the floating city nearby and had a chat to the staff, while the Tawney Nurse sharks lolled around the boat, wowing the kids,

We booked ourselves onto a 4:30 boat ride ($77 per head) which was when the tide should really be roaring, and then killed some time by exploring Cyclone Creek for a few hours. Daph and Bruce caught a few nice Cod, but Matilda got busted off by something BIG. Big enough to snap the trace. Cyclone creek is really quite spectacular. Like the Horizontal Falls, the is a tight point called “The Drain” where the tide really rips through creating whirlpools and strong currents. But it doesn't get full on like the Hoz Falls so it’s safe to drive a boat through, as long as you keep the power on to maintain steerage.

After a while we went back out front and anchored up Skull Drag’n near the other moored boats and all piled onto Bundy Runner to go to the pontoons and get on the boat ride through the Horizontal Falls.

Wow - what a ride!!! It was a spring tide at full roar. Words are inadequate to describe the forces at play in that chasm. There are 2 gaps in the Horizontal falls. The First gap is the wider of the two (6.5m), and the mighty whirlpools would have destroyed our boats about 30 metres before we even hit the gap. The boat we were on had 3 x 300hp outboards on it, and when the driver put the throttle forward they just purred and that boat leaped UP the 1m fall that was coming towards us in the first gap. Wowee! Then the water opened up either side of us into a small bay and the driver fanged the boat around so tight you could feel the G forces pushing sideways. Then we smashed back down the fall again. My adrenaline was definitely pumping.

We did that a few more times and then the driver went up the falls and across the small bay right up to the 2nd gap. This gap was narrower and the water on the other side was 3m higher than we were! At this point I couldn’t remember if the boats went through the second gap (maybe I forgot to ask) but holy shit the way the bloke was driving it looked like we were going through!! There’s no WAY we’d fit through it surely! There was a gnarly bit of rock hanging out the left side that would almost certainly hit the boat and kill us. Or even if it didn’t the force of the water was terrifying! Everyone was screaming at this point and at the last minute the driver pulled back on the throttle with the bow of the boat steady in the churn of the bottom of the fall.

After we all finished shitting ourselves we did that a few more times, got a bit of a speel about the falls from the driver. The top fall (the one we didn’t go up) is considered the most turbulent water in the world.

Anyway $304 was done in about 15 minutes and our thrill ride was done. After we got back to the pontoon we hung around for awhile and chatted to the staff and a few yachties who we’d bumped into first at Dunvert Island. There is a caged swimming area in the pontoons as well and a few of us had a quick dip (refreshing ahhh!) before we all piled back onto Bundy runner and rafted up with Skull Drag’n again, we had dinner and settled in for the night.

Fully layden Skull Drag'n on the move

Nares Point

Koolan Channel - Iron Ore mine in the background

Heading down Koolan Channel

Coming through the drain at Koolan Channel

The Horizontal Falls near the ebb tide

Skull Drag'n inspectin the falls

Bundy Runner at the Horizontal falls

Daz and Girls at the Horizontal falls in Skull Drag'n

Horizontal Falls - the Flotilla

Sea plane landing in front of Cyclone Creek

Seaplanes at the Horizontal Falls

Boarding the Horizontal Falls flotilla

Ready to rock the Horizontal Falls with 900 horses

Just a couple of random Grey Nomads. They are just checking with the driver that the boat won't do more than 90kmph or the wind will mess up their hair

Horizontal Falls - the WIde gap

Horizontal Falls - the narrow gap

The narrow gap

Day 9 - 3 July - Hoz Falls to Dugong Bay - 26nm/ 53km

With the Horizontal falls done we decided it was time to go check out Dugong Bay. But since we were now dealing with spring tides, the safest time to travel is for the few hours on either side of high tide, when there’s plenty of water (about 9m more!) and the whirlpools aren’t so dangerous. So we spent the morning fishing and exploring upstream of the drain in Cyclone creek. Matilda (sort of) caught a nice Cod. By sort of I mean, She had a line out the back as we trolled, but boredom had finally got the better of her and she was playing “go fish” with Jess and a deck of cards as we trolled. Daz was on the bow flicking lures. I was driving and turned around to notice Matilda’s line was going off.

“Matilda!! Fish ON!!” She finally noticed and spent the next 5 minutes realing in a very nice cod. Personally I think that should have counted as my fish.

We spent a few more hours chugging right up that creek until cliff faces gave way to mangrove flood plains. Bundy Runner saw the first croc of the trip up there but still we caught no more fish. So we worked our way back down the creek and prepped for the high speed leg to Dugong Bay.

On the way through we stuck our noses into the Horizontal falls for one last look and some photos, and the we legged it to the majestic Dugong Bay. We found a place to be a likely anchorage, but had a few hours to kill so we zoomed over to Butterfly Falls and Turtle falls on the other side of the bay.

Sadly the wet season this year was a bit pathetic so the falls weren’t running (maybe the were leaking up behind the mangroves as there were pandanus palms growing up there), but we couldn’t get to them, so we had to settle for admiring these breathtaking georges from afar. So we trolled a bit more. Daz bagged another nice cod flicking lures from the bow. And Bruce and Daph came away with a good sized fingermark. We trolled and trolled and eventually I got to have a turn flicking lures off the bow. I’m pretty sure I spotted a barra but buggered if I could jag one. We did see a little croc though, and this sent the kids into a frenzy of excitement.

It was getting late in the day so we went back to our anchorage and rafted up. “Lemmeny” the Tawny Nurse shark that we initially thought was a lemon shark promptly moved in and circled the boat like a pet dog. I couldn’t help myself - I pulled out a little bite sized trevally and fed a rope through it and dangled it over the side. Lemmeny brushed past it a few times and eventually took the bait. Thus commenced Nat Vs Lemmeny Tug-of-war game. Boy Lemmeny was strong and resorted to doing death rolls while I started to freak out that Lemmeny would swallow the fish rope and all! But it was ok. After a bit of a tussle the rope tore through the fish and Lemmeny got his tasty treat. The kids found the whole episode (particularly the bit where I stated stressing that the shark would swallow the rope) pretty funny.

Later that night, the tide going out and out and out, and me getting worried that we’d end up high and dry (we got down to 1.8m) we spotted crocks eyes in the dark. But the ever present Limmeny remained our only close company and we didn't dry out.

Matilda's Cod up Cyclone Creek

The Drain - Cyclone Creek

Upper reaches of Cyclone Creek - we're off the map!

Cyclone Creek

Daz having a shower at Dugong Bay

Sundowners on the flight deck

"Lemmony" - the Tawny Nurse Sharke

Dugong bay

Feeding Lemmony - Dont worry - there were no hooks involved. Lemmony just munched up the fish and spat out the rope

Day 10- 4 July - Dugong Bay to North Yampi - 24nm/ 48km

This morning we awoke to foggy cascades coming down through the waterfall chasms and suspended on the surrounding ranges. The view was like something out of a fantasy story. Every surface on the boats were wet and covered in millions of tiny unfortunate bugs who got stuck in the dew and died there, and the ever present Lemmeny circling the boat. With the tide out and nowhere to go Daz did a bit of drone flying

Once photos were taken and breakfast was done and the boat cleaned up of glued on bugs, we worked our way out to a bit of foul ground (shallow reef) and tried to bottom fish. We didn’t do any good. Daz pulled in a whopper of a Papuan JawFish (which was really beautiful, but still a shit fish). Not to be beaten Daph put in a 20 fight against something massive ... which turned out to be … Lemmeny?? Is that you? (We hope not). The Shark was sent on his way, and we give up on the bottom fishing and went back to trolling and flicking lures around the mangroves on the incoming tide. Still No good!! WTF is going on with the fishing in this place? We’re in the wilderness and can’t seem to get onto some decent fish. We did spot another croc though.

So we gave up on the fishing and decided to head for Yampi North. We plotted ourselves a course over “virgin ground”, meaning we had no Idea if this was going to be deep/ shallow / passable etc until we intercepted a known path on Active Captain. (Active Captain is a newish feature on our GPS that allows you to see the previous paths of other boats who recorded an Active Captain track themselves - it shows where they went and the depth of the water as they passed over the spot. It’s very handy for identifying safe passages when exploring areas that you’re not familiar with)

The course we set to intercept the active captain path was a bit dodgy (less than 10m) in places and we slowed down and used out satelite photos to try and keep to the deepest water. Once we intersected the active captain path we were back in 30+m and able to zoom up an unnamed creek to what looked like a good anchorage.

Anchorage confirmed, we tried fishing again. And again we bombed out completely. We’ve all got RSI from flicking lures and the country looks perfect and untouched. But the fish just aren't biting. Not that we can complain. If you’re going to fail at fishing, this sure is a spectacular place to do it. On either side of our creek are chasms that you can drive up a fair way into. We explored quite a few and the scenery is amazing. The way the rock seems to have been folded and rolled and levered up into the great cliffs is something to behold. I’m sure that given a better wet season all of these chasms would be flowing with fresh waterfalls. And I can't help try to imagine what forces of nature asserted themselves to create this incredible landscape.

So another anchorage in the creek, and finally a creepy croc encounter! Scanning with the torchlight showed up a few sets of glowing red eyes, and just before bed time a 3.5m croc came right up to the back of the boat. We were all a bit excited/ amazed/ creeped out, and yeah, we slept with the croc repellant nearby just in case he figured out how to get in the boat. But of course it was unnecessary. Next morning there was no sign of our creepy croc friend, and no one got eaten in the night.

Nat getting a sleep in...

Foggy morning in Dugong Bay

This is a waterfall in the wet season - but today it's a fog-fall

Butterfly Falls is full of fog

Drone shot of Dugong Bay

Jessie making pancakes for breakky while Lemmony cruises around the back looking for a feed

Daz's big Papuan JawFish

Evening time at an unamed creek in North Talbot Bay

Scenery near North Talbot Bay

Above: Creepy Croc Encounter

Day 11 - 5 July - North Yampi - Crocodile Creek - 26nm/ 53km
It was another slow morning since the tide was out at dawn. We couldn’t do much until the tide was much higher, so we had a slow brekky and then set off for a bit more creek fishing until about 11am. Once again the trolling and flicking lures into the mangroves yielded no results, But Daz and I did get to check out another gully that led to sheer cliffs blocked off by dense mangroves. Certainly another waterfall in the wet season. But still unaccountably, bugger all fish.

So at 11 am we readied ourselves and then sped back out of Yampi Sound, up through the Koolan Channel heading for out new anchorage, Crocodile Creek.

The Yachting guide warns that Croc Creek can be a bit treacherous with submerged rocks etc, so we carefully chugged up the creek. What became increasingly apparent, was that we were in fact up the wrong creek!! Months ago when we were planning the trip we must have accidentally plugged the wrong waypoint into the GPS and now here we were in the wrong place! Oops. There was no harm done though apart from a bit of a dent in the pride, so we soon corrected out wayward waypoints and entered the REAL Crocodile Creek.

It’s a fairly nondescript entrance to the creek. We were nearing the top of a 9m spring tide and the depth was a fairly constant 5-6, meaning that the whole creek dried out on the low. Nevertheless, we had time on our side so we chugged up carefully until the creek took a sharp narrow right turn, then opened up into a small amphitheatre surrounded by rock cliffs on either side. Dead ahead was a small gap in the rock cliff that you could squeeze boat through. Through the gap we could see a rock wall with a waterfall cascading down it, and what looked like a concreted picnic area.

Daph and Bruce nearly drove through the gap, but I re-re-re-read the cruising guide and advised “better not”. Closer examination revealed some ropes at water level on either side of the amphitheatre, and the top of a stainless steel ladder (like the sort you see at the local swimming pool) just under the water surface in the small gap that led to the next pool. Beneath us, in the amphitheatre, the depth had plunged to a deep hole of up to about 15m.

I was getting a few dubious looks from Daz but we decided to give this a go. After all, we didn’t come all this way to not experience the Kimberly Coast with its full offering. So we asked Bundy Runner to go back out while we fart arsed around with anchoring and mooring lines so we could spend the night in the amphitheatre. It took up maybe 20 minutes to get sorted out. First setting the bow anchor up in the shallow area, then reversing back into the deep amphitheatre and securing a loop for a stern rope to the top of the ladder just under the water. Then a bit of tricky driving and ropework had us looped onto the port side rope, then we pulled tight all the ropes to get ourselves nicely positioned in the deep part of the amphitheatre.

Then it was Bruce and Daph’s turn. They came in and snagged the rope on the Starboard side and a bit more fancy driving, then we rafted them onto our starboard side. Mission Complete! And did anyone argue? Of course not!

In the time it took to do all that the tide turned and started running out. The top rungs of the ladder were now a foot above water level. For the next hour or so we did boaty maintenance things and watched the tide drop at an alarming rate. Soon, that ladder was about 4m out of the water and that narrow gap we considered driving through had turned into a rocky waterfall about 3m high, plunging down into our amphitheater in which we were moored. As the tide dropped the ladder got longer, as did the waterfall, and the waterfall got louder.

At the other end of the amphitheatre, a rock bar appeared and the water on the other side dropped and dropped till it was about 2m below us. We were now moored in a landlocked crater with a waterfall flowing in at one end, and a waterfall (sort of) flowing out at the other end. The cliff walls on either side of us loomed higher and higher. It was spectacular!!

But wait there’s more…..

Later in the day we pulled up on our stern rope which got us to the ladder. We managed to all safely transfer from Skull Drag’n to the ladder, (now about 5m high) climb the ladder and enter the second pool. Some people swim here but it is open to crocs at high tide and the water was murky and salty, so we mountain-goated our way up another rock face and there we found heaven! A freshwater, croc free, pool!! Our first fresh water swim in two weeks!! It was a little piece of paradise.

We eventually arse-walked our way down the rock face again and made use of the BBQ facilities to burn off some rubbish. Someone has been to a lot of trouble in this place, concreting a nice flat area and BBQ facilities, there’s even a bunch of old steel sprung bed frames concreted into place halfway up a rock face (obviously no longer in use).

Upon returning to the ladder the tide had dropped even further so it was about a 7m climb down the ladder back to the boats, where we settled down to spend an evening in a very strange place.

Our Anchorage in Crocodile creek at high tide

As the tide drops the ladder and a stone ledge appear

....and at low tide - the waterfall and ladder emerge in the narrow gap as the tide runs out

So we go exploring....

And find a picnic area

From the Picnic area you can either choose to swim in the salt water pool (maybe with crocs), or you can climb the rockface and swim above that fresh waterfall...

...and so we climb to the fresh water falls...

....and get in a nice swim

Meanwhile the tide keeps going out and the boats are dropping lower and lower

Bruce back on board for refreshments

Matilda - where did that waterfall come from??

Drone footage of Croc Creek

Drone footage of Croc Creek - looking downstream - we're landlocked

Downstream - Totally landlocked in Crocodile Creek

Day 12 - 6 July - Croc Creek - Cockatoo Is (fuel) - Raft Pt - 65nm/ 130km

Overnight the tide rose another 9m making the waterfalls infront and behind us dissapear again. It’s weird - the sound of plunging water just fades to nothing, silence settles, then slowly the sound re-establishes itself into a healthy roar as the tide drops again. Next morning the tide was low again and we had about a 4 hour wait till it was deep enough to get out. Daz Did a bit of drone flying and I caught up on blogging.

Once we were out we headed over to Cockatoo Island for Fuel and Water resupply. It was time for the longest leg of the trip - up to Raft Point, Sale River and Montgomery reef. We’re going to need to carry as much fuel as we can, and conserve it.

Bruce & Daphs fuel Bladder was discovered to be leaky on the first leg of the trip, so they're using Jerry Cans instead - having converted 2 of his water Jerry’s for fuel. We’re also as full as a goog with 260L of water, and 480L of fuel. Nautical Nick (whose real name is Mick) at Cockatoo Is was super helpful too, setting us up with some coke zero (the whizz fizz for making coke is bloody useless) and Ice (since the Waeco freezer fan shat itself we’ve converted it to a storage box and reshuffled the cooking gear so we can use the big blue esky as a fridge)…….

Once we were all loaded up to the brim we decided it was still early enough and the tide high enough to get us at least part way to Raft Point. We wanted to burn off as much fuel as possible to get rid of the bladders off the floor so we would be able to have room for our beds, so it was off down the Koolan Channel once more and out past the Iron Islands and into the open ocean for the long haul.

The open ocean was lovely and calm so we keep rolling all the way to Raft Point (It took about 3 hours). On arrival the tide was absolutely tearing through Foam Channel but the boats didn’t care and made easy work of it. Around into Raft point there was Steep Island all lit up and bright orange in the afternoon sun, Mirrored by the huge bluff at Raft Point. Just Beautiful! Sometimes I have to pinch myself - are we really doing this?

We picked a spot to anchor having had enough of driving. There were a couple of Yachts on one side so I decided to steer a bit clear of them. That was a bit of a mistake. We’ve crossed 2 tide charts and now we’re into 11+ m spring tides. Finding a spot that was deep enough to not dry out on the low, but not too close to the cliffs was a bit difficult. So for better or for worse we picked our spot and settled down for what turned out to be a pretty unsettled night.

There was a bit of a surge coming in which made the water sloshing on the boats noisy, then Bruce and Daphs Fuel fume detector kept going off over and over again. There wasn’t much they could do about it. Then something changed which set me on edge, the boat movement, or the sound of the waves alerted me to something being different. So I was up and consulting the GPS and checking the surrounds by torch when the drift alarm went off (a sign that the anchor might be dragging and we were only in 2.5m of water. Shit.

So Daz went up on the bow to pull up on the anchor rope while I manned the motor. Pulling up on the rope indicated the anchor was still set, and shortening the rope gave us an extra few metres of depth. So we decided to leave it at that and see what would happen. So we settled down again to the sound of Bruce and Daph’s fuel fume alarm going off every 10 minutes.

But I wasn’t going to sleep. I could hear the waves lapping on the nearby cliffs and was thinking of all the scenarios that could happen to bring us to grief. The tide coming back in with us not having enough rope out could lift the anchor and make us drift into the rocks. An easterly wind could also swing us onto those rocks. After a few hours of fearing the worst I decided that we should move. So Daz and I roused the crew and with Bundy Runner still tied alongside we pulled anchor and chugged towards the yachts. It was a good 10-15 mins of chugging before we were happy and we reset the anchor again and FINALLY settled down to sleep with some peace of mind.