Vanisttart Bay
Our next destination was Vanisttart Bay, but to get there we had a few days of travelling and exploring. Our first task was to round Cape Bougainville and then slip into a small estuary creek called White Finger Creek.
We successfully negotiated the Cape and enjoyed the scenery around Red Island, before a high tide entry into the creek, which provided a sheltered and sweet anchorage. We spent a few days exploring here, managed to catch our first and only Kimberley squid and saw a big croc over near Red Island. We discovered a lovely anchorage just inside Red Island with a lovely white sand beach and decided this would be a good one for future reference.
Our next hop was an afternoon skip around the corner to Freshwater Bay, where after a night’s rest we headed across Vanisttart Bay to explore a couple of cool Kimberley icons.
The first was the DC3 aeroplane, a USAAF Air Transport Command C-53 Skytrooper, which crashed enroute from Perth to Broome back in February 1942, after the disoriented pilot made an emergency landing in bad weather on a salt pan.
The plane is still pretty much intact, with one engine still on site. The other engine can be found in the museum at Broome, but the actual shell of the plane is very much intact, a testament to the skill of the manufacturer and also to the longevity of aluminium, from which it is constructed.
We returned to our yachts after a few hours of walking and exploring and headed over to Jar Island. Like so much of this region Jar Island is spectacular with large rock formations, white beaches, indigenous art and rocks that were brimming with large oysters.
The oysters were spectacular, and a few hours was spent with a hammer and screwdriver eating them straight from the shell (Nicky – not Pete!). We also had some great walking, with an entry through a rock maze to a dry creek bed, which lead up to more rock art and spectacular views across the bay.
We were sitting at anchor one night about to go to sleep when we heard the familiar sound of an Indonesian fishing boat moving about in the dark close-by. The stillness allowed us to hear them clearly but we couldn’t ascertain where they were – they were just sneaking around at night to avoid detection!
We were getting excited as we had been monitoring the progress of our friends Nic and Julia on Blue Yonder. They had spent the previous season in the Kimberley before some time in Darwin and now were heading back for more Kimberley time. We had planned to meet at Freshwater Bay, the first catch up for a few years.
And so it was – we transited back up to Freshwater Bay where we met up with Nic, Julia, Huey and Molly once more. We spent a few days hanging out before we were ready to continue heading north and they were heading south – to rendezvous with Coban and Seb on The Gathering.
With dwindling supplies and more than nine weeks since seeing a shop we were keen for some fresh food and Kalumburu community was just a few days away!