On the trail of Phillip Parker King

Departing Whirlpool Point on the outgoing tide we were heading to another historical bucket list spot in the Kimberley – Careening Bay. In September 1820. Phillip Parker King was exploring the Coronation Islands and was looking for a suitable location to careen his vessel the Mermaid and conduct repairs to her hull.

A visit to a nearby bay on the mainland provided King with a suitable area, described as having a natural break wall of rocks to the north and a smooth flat sandy beach, in which to beach the Mermaid and make repairs to her rotten timber hull. After emptying the vessel to lighten it, the Mermaid was beached using a combination of tides and manpower and for the next three weeks repairs were made to the hull by the ships carpenter. During this time, the ships carpenter also carved the inscription “HMC Mermaid 1820” onto a nearby twin trunked boab tree.

We arrived at the anchorage in the bay just to the northeast of Careening Bay and after slowly nudging our way south into the protection of a small headland we dropped anchor in just 3 metres of water at the bottom of the tide.

The next morning, we were into Bob and a quick dinghy ride around the corner into Careening Bay. Careening Bay is quite small and at first you wonder why King chose the location. However, once you come ashore and spend some time surveying the beach and natural rock wall to the north you understand.

After securing Bob we made our way ashore under an already blazing morning sun. We had landed at the southern end and after some exploration, including a really cool grove of cycad palms (which we had not yet seen anywhere else) we walked up towards the tree. The beach had fresh dog tracks, we are presuming dingoes, one large and one small and you could see where they had been playing by the tracks they had left. We had seen quite a lot of dog tracks but yet to sight one.

In 2011, a small boardwalk was built by the Uunguu Rangers to protect the roots of the boab tree from being trampled by tourists, as this is a popular visitation for the charter boats, and from the boardwalk you get to look at an amazing piece of Australian history.

On the back side of the tree is there is a lesser-known piece of history. A small altar shaped alcove has been inscribed in the tree and this was done by the visiting Macassan fishermen and is an Islam prayer window.

We wandered around the area walking amongst some other boabs as well as exploring a small dry watercourse. King had found freshwater here, but we didn’t have the same luck, but it was pretty cool to know that nothing had really changed at this bay since their time here 200 years ago.

With the afternoon ebbing tide assisting, we set sail for Cape Pond in what turned out to be windy sail. As we left the sheltered waters of Port Nelson and changed course northeast to Cape Pond, we were crossing the top of York Sound. Soon we had the old wind versus tide, with a stiff 18 knot north westerly wind and a couple of knots of tide coming from the southeast and 15nm to travel making for a lumpy passage.

Cape Pond proved to be a real highlight – we had been told that it was ‘interesting’ and the next day we got to see why. It basically consists of a whole series of small, interconnected waterways running between big formations of rocks, with mangrove systems and beaches. Initially we went and fished at low tide and saw all sorts – dugongs, turtles, even scooped up a spider crab with the net, as well as a variety of fish. As the tide filled in the waterways opened up and we drifted with the tide past the rock formations and around every corner was another channel or a glimpse through to other islands. A great exploration spot!

From Cape Pond we had to take the tide to negotiate Scott Strait, a small passage of water that runs with Bigge Island to the west and the mainland to the east. Our destination was Prudhoe Island, a distance of some 20nm. We put up our mainsail and screecher and headed northeast, covering the 6 or so nm to the strait in good time.

Just before entering the strait, we dropped the screecher, primarily as it blocks a lot of the view and we wanted to have a clear view as we negotiated a fairly tight stretch of water with a few rocks and a large sandbar marked on the charts. The tide was ripping along and soon we had a speed in the water of 3.5 knots but a speed over ground of 10.5knots and I was doing my best to just keep the boat pointed in the right direction, letting the current do the rest.

The wind dropped out and then for a while completely changed direction and after passing the Fisheries Research vessel, Naturaliste, which was anchored up near the top of the strait, we were spat out the other side and the wind returned from the northwest (where it was originally) and we continued onwards.

We made our way cautiously into Shelter Bay, a protected anchorage on the southwestern side of the island. As usual, using our tide app to work out how much water we needed to allow when anchoring, we dropped anchor less than 100 metres from a rocky shoreline to our south. We were back in spring tides now so big movements, and we hoped we had found the sweet spot in the anchorage. A few hours later that was confirmed when we were sitting in six metres of water but only 30metres away it was dry!

After hearing hoots and hollers from our neighbours Ted and Tina we turned on our back lights to be greeted with a shark fest!  Sharks, mainly black tips were everywhere and every time we shone the torch on the baitfish they were set upon by the sharks. Good entertainment and we had gardies leaping into the dinghy and on the back steps to avoid getting munched!

The next day we had an awesome dinghy explore to the beaches and bays on the north side of the Island. It was hot but we walked and explored, climbed up to a couple of high points and then tramped our way across to a small beach, where a quick nudie swim to cool off was the treat. Once again, we found plenty of Indonesian rubbish, most likely from illegal fishermen, who are currently all over the Kimberley coast.  Quite annoying, especially the small plastic water cups – a single use plastic that should be banned!

Fantastic views to some of the outer island groups, the Montalivet’s out to the north and the Maret’s and Bigge to our south and west. Beautiful sandstone headlands and blue water – true Kimberley!

We would now be heading east across to the Winyalkin and Palm Island areas, reported to be beautiful with plenty to explore!