Cape Voltaire

After a fantastic stay in the Winyalkin Island area it was time to keep moving north and our next passage was a case of weaving between islands and shoals to reach a small, sheltered anchorage at Murrangingi Island, some 20nm away.

We needed to wait for the outgoing tide and so it was a delayed departure and with the usual light winds we were motoring with one engine running in order to preserve fuel. Although only a fairly standard Kimberley hop of 20nm we needed to thread the needle initially out past Palm Island before passing to the west of Wollaston Island. We could have spent another month in this area exploring – there is reported to be some awesome spots around Wollaston Island including a passage that can take you around to Swift Bay, an area with more art sites and commonly frequented by the larger cruise ships.

It was slow going as we made our way northeast steering clear of some shoaling reef near Katers Island before making a beeline to a small channel to the southeast of Murrangingi Island. Our friends on Blue Yonder had recommended this anchorage, but the way we were travelling it was looking like we would arrive in the dark – not a great outcome in an unsurveyed area!

On the Double were a few miles ahead as the day started to close out and entered the channel to the anchorage just ahead of us. We came in right on dark – the sun had well and truly set, and we had gone past twilight leaving us to cautiously poke our way into the anchorage. We weren’t too sure about this one as there was quite a bit of reef visible and the tide was running through quite strongly as well, but we were soon settled and into some dinner before an early night.

Waking up in a new anchorage, to which you have arrived in the dark, can often spring a surprise as you walk up from the bed into the saloon and look outside to see just exactly where you are. Fortunately for us – no surprises and we were happy with where we had anchored. Again, it looked like a great spot to explore so we were soon in the dinghies, loaded with fishing rods and the usual tricks.

We headed north down the channel past the island where we found a couple of cool looking spots that looked the goods for a fish. We were unsuccessful, something that has become a bit of a common theme at the moment, but Ted and Tina were keen to explore a bit further across the bay.

We found ourselves another Kimberley gem of a beach – beautiful white sand, protected and with some rock formations providing some shade. We wandered up amongst the watercourse at the back of the beach, climbed up to some vantage points and took it all in. After a bit of rock hopping Pete found a really cool vantage point up high that looked down into a small estuary.  The water was alive with schools of giant diamond back mullet, cruising sharks and some big fish, which we couldn’t identify that were cruising through the shallows chasing baitfish. The sort of place you could sit for ages just watching the tide change and nature at its best.

Ted tried his best to net a couple of big mullet and finally found some success just around the corner where our dinghy had been left. We hung out for a few hours and then decided to check out a couple of beached around the corner and we were treated to a couple of ‘Croatia’ look-alikes with big limestone style cliffs guiding you into a small white sanded and pebbled beach. A quick walk around to check out the flotsam and jetson revealed plenty of Indonesian fisherman rubbish but not much else.

Back to Singularity after a couple more unsuccessful casts and our day was done. We would only spend one full day here exploring but we all agreed this was another spot you could easily spend a week or two hanging out and exploring in more depth.

On the outgoing tide we were able to run out through the narrow channel between Murrangingi Island and the mainland ad started our run up the coast towards the infamous Cape Voltaire – well know for its treacherous choppy water where opposing wind and tide currents meet.

But before we reached the Cape, we needed to tack out to the northwest and clear some shallow shoaling reef before turning more northward and following the coast. We had a little bit of wind, but it wasn’t really cooperating and was soon at about 40 degrees, effectively meaning that we weren’t able to hold a direct course. Pretty standard Kimberley stuff so far but we had sails up and one motor going so were making some progress.

Once again, the ever-changing landscape came to the fore, this time it was a giant grove of pandanus palms that stood out like a plantation!

We arrived at Cape Voltaire and were greeted with a messy sea state as the infamous wind and tide combined to stir things up. Our planning had ensured that we had a favourable tide and fortunately the wind was also heading in the same direction, but we were getting refraction back out of the rocky shore and so it was up and down, left and right as we bounced our way through. Like many of these areas you can see the tide line where the water goes back to normal and before long, we had passed through the turbulence and back to normal.

Like all of our passages we had been trolling a lure without success and as the afternoon started to fade, we cut though a narrow channel just to the north of Lavoisier Island. The water here was nice and clear, compared to the rest of the passage but the tide had turned and was pushing against us. Once more we were racing to get to the anchorage before sunset and we still had about 2nm to run as the sun set.

We pulled our lure in and about ten minutes later On the Double called us to let us know they had caught a big Spaniard about right where we pulled our lure! AArrgghh...  the fishing curse continues!

Our anchorage was on the east side of Barracuda Bay, just a half mile off the beach and sheltered from the prevailing westerly wind. After a long day it was a quiet evening and a good night’s sleep, knowing we had a fairly easy run into the Osborn Islands tomorrow, where we were planning to spend at least a week exploring.

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Osborne Islands

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The beauty of Winyalkin Island