Dateless in Dampier

After a lovely run down the southern side of Enderby Island, enjoying the colours of the spinifex, rocks and white sandy beaches, we turned the corner around Bluff Point and tucked into a little anchorage just off a small point. The plan was for a quick lunch and then explore…

Back in Bob and we were headed back around to the southern side of Enderby Island where I had spied a cool little mangrove creek that weaved its way into the island. We would hit it right at high tide so perfect for an explore, with high water allowing us to get as far as possible up the creek.

After a couple of false starts we located the entrance and soon had a cool experience slowly moving up the crystal clear waters of this mangrove lined creek, which was filled with birdsong and plenty of fish. We had a memorable explore and then headed back around to one of the bays where we parked up Bob and went for a quick walk along the beach and then up some of those iconic Pilbara rock hills. Great views followed by a cheeky nudie swim in crystal clear water… heaven!!

We had a cruisy afternoon back on the boat watching the assortment of barges, rig tenders and other interesting ships and vessels making their way past us or pulling up in the strait. The next morning we had a semi stiff southerly and so headed across the bay towards the northern side of the island where we once again legged it around the point to the next bay and beyond. Plenty of interesting sights and sounds once again; but it was time to head back to Bob and then head into Hampton Harbour for a few days. The wind was due to pick up and I was pretty keen to navigate my way into the harbour in light winds.

Navigating into and around Dampier sure is interesting with the convergence of a number of shipping channels making life very interesting for first time visitors like us… plus throw in some ship movements and it gets pretty tricky working out where you are supposed to be. Even the entrance into Hampton Harbour, where the small vessel anchorage is located is a bit tricky, but we safely negotiated everything from channels markers, cardinal markers, tide poles, moorings and isolated danger marks to safely get to the anchorage.

We had touched base with some old buddies from the surf club, Karthi and Justin and they were very generously able to lend us their car for a few days, which is a complete gamechanger for us, especially in Dampier where it is difficult to get around and to Karratha (20kms away) where the shops are.

We caught up with Seb and Corban on ‘The Gathering’ in the anchorage; they too were heading towards the Kimberley so we exchanged notes and considered it likely that we would be sharing some wind and anchorages over the next few months.

Parking Bob at the Yacht club dinghy jetty we spent the next few days walking around the neat little town of Dampier and into the hub of Karratha for some provisioning. We were able to host Karthi and Justin for dinner but in typical fashion the wind wasn’t really cooperating, making for a rolly anchorage so that cut our night a bit short.

With a free afternoon on our hands we went for a quick road trip across to Roebourne, where I had worked some 35 years ago (!), out to Cossack and Point Samson and a quick look at Port Walcott, which is on the back side of Wickham and where I used to launch my tinny back in the day.

The relentless easterlies that had been blowing were set to continue for at least another week, gusting to 30 knots and of course we needed to go east still and so we resigned ourselves to the fact that we would be hanging in Dampier awaiting a departure date for a little while yet.

Extra time allowed us to visit the iconic Sam’s Island, located just offshore from the main townsite. Sam Ostojich arrived in the Pilbara in the 1960's and fell in love with Tidepole Island, now affectionately referred to as ‘Sam’s Island’. Located only a short distance across the water from the Dampier foreshore, Sam’s Island is an historic and iconic Pilbara landmark. Over four decades, Sam transformed the rocky site by hand, creating an oasis and building his own castle which he called home. It still stands today, just as he left it - which is pretty amazing considering it has seen numerous cyclones over the years.

With our chores completed we said our goodbyes and thanks to Karthi and Justin over a coffee at the Seafarer’s. Great to catch up and see them enjoying Pilbara life as much as we did back in the day and thanks again for the car – amazing!

Back to the boat and the plan was to head out along the Burrup Peninsula to Conzinc Bay for a few days and also check out Angel Island where there is the possibility of getting a little wave. Our track to Conzinc was only about 6nm from Hampton Harbour but would put us right on the edge of the restricted area of both of Woodside’s gas facilities. As has seemed the norm for us we had a little escort vessel making sure we weren’t going to stray and unfurl a fossil fuel banner and we safely made it past and into Conzinc Bay.

Although we were tucked in to the bay, we had up to 30+ knots of gusty easterly making the mornings not that pleasant. We were able to get out after lunch for a beach walk and explore and we found our first petroglyphs, or rock art, left behind by the local indigenous people. This art has been dated some 20 – 30,000 years in age.  A quick dinghy run around the bay and we decided to move a little closer to the point and try and tuck in out of the wind a little more, so it was up anchor and a move of about 400 metres. This turned out to be a great little spot, a bit more protected and we spent the next few days exploring, fishing, swimming and generally relaxing. The water is quite turbid here so when we spied a very large dorsal fin swimming the shallows we suspected a big hammerhead and although we got within a couple of metres of him all that we could confirm was that we was very big (4m+) and we think a hammerhead shark.     

Keen to see if we could sniff out a wave, we moved around to the western side of Angel Island to get closer to the small sandbar where there can be a fun little wave. When we left Conzinc Bay the easterly was gusting to 28knots still – bloody painful! We settled in a small bay at the back of Angel Island and after sitting for a while to make sure our anchor was good, we set about a dinghy explore. We could see some potential little waves but with 20+knots of breeze against it we cut our losses and headed back to Singularity, via the beach for a quick dip. The tide was dropping rapidly, and we were sitting pretty close to the rocks so before the sun left us we up anchored and moved another 75metres further out to the west. Of course, now the wind was dropping away and the tide was pushing us sideways – another night of rock’n’roll!

We awoke early after a shitty nights sleep and up anchored and moved over adjacent to the sandbar where the wave is with a plan to try and have a playful surf then head back to Conzinc Bay for a good night’s sleep.

Not long after we had anchored we were delivered the devastating news that our friend Greg Quicke had passed from cancer aged 62. Greg is a local legend in Broome and featured in our blog a few years ago in Busselton. We had walked up to the shed to get a bag of tomatoes and ran into Greg, turning the tomato trip into a coffee, then a lunch and four hours later we had well and truly caught up! Greg was probably one of the most intelligent, softly spoken, spiritually enlightened and interesting blokes you would ever meet. We had traded chats and waves in Broome and Wadjemup and were looking forward to catching him up on our arrival in Broome this season. A really sad loss for us all. 

The wave wasn’t happening so we decided to head back to Conzinc for the night before departing to Point Samson the following day. After a nice motor back we arrived late afternoon and had a quiet night, confirming the weather forecast for tomorrow’s passage.