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25.01.2022 Caree is now over 2000 nautical miles into her journey to her new home in Fremantle

24.01.2022 Caree has now traveled 2306 nautical miles since leaving Brisbane. Departing Darwin Saturday for Fremantle.

22.01.2022 Departed Broome this afternoon thanks to Nat and Bec for all the running around and collecting fuel, water and food. Was a huge help. Caree is now heading for Point Sampson for re stocking before hitting the Montebello Islands.

22.01.2022 Anchored in the King George River overlooking the waterfalls. Incredible beauty here.

22.01.2022 As a result of the regulator failure the house battery bank is now shot. We are making direct for Dampier, 5 days on the high seas with little wind.

21.01.2022 Anchored in the majestic Montebello Islands only 100 metres from Australias biggest explosion. (98 kilotonne)

20.01.2022 Caree anchored at one end of King George River and the crew at the top of the twin falls. Mark, Nadja, Andy and Jens.

18.01.2022 Overnighting at Wilgam Island

18.01.2022 Horn Island We weaved our way through the many sand bars and sunken vessels into the Horn Island anchorage and joined many other power boat and yachts. The tidal flow was quite strong requiring us to anchor twice to make sure we were not going to drag the anchor. The sun sets were amazing as it sets over Thursday Island only a mile and a half north of Horn Island.... The waters are a magic blue colour and very inviting if it wasnt for the crocodiles and sharks. We were reminded this by a shark thrashing around in the water as we approached the ferry jetty one morning. The ferry worker had a good laugh about the shark being much the same size as our tender.

17.01.2022 Horn Island to Seisia A nice short sail back to the Australian main land. Seisia is a small port originally built to service the nearby aboriginal settlement. The amount of tourists coming to the cape has seen it grow into a town of its own. There are three camp grounds and unit areas along the foreshore. Claimed to be the best fishing in Australia, there was an abundance of fish around the jetty including a huge groper. The supermarket was well stocked. It is supplied twice a week from Cairns via the ship Trinity Bay, a cargo and passenger ship. The fruit and vegetables were top quality and just about everything was still cheaper than Perth prices, except the diesel at $2.00 a litre. The cheapest washing so far at $3 a load and showers a gold coin donation. Fresh water is available from a tap on the jetty. Wild horses roam the streets.

17.01.2022 Dolphins Came to Play

16.01.2022 Geraldton The plan was to sail South through the shallows of Shark Bay overnight to the South Passage between Steep Point and Dirk Hartog Island, however with forecast swells of 3-5 metres, we sought out some local knowledge from the fishing tackle store. They confirmed that the South Passage would have breaking waves with the forecast swell and suggested we head West to the Northern end of Dirk Hartog Island and straight out to sea to avoid the swell that rebounds off the Zu...ytdorp Cliffs. The Zuytdorp Cliffs stretch for 150 kilometres from Steep Point to Kalbarri and reach a height of 250 metres. There is no refuge along the cliffs so a good weather window has to be found for the sail South. The normal swell is from the South West and then hits the cliffs and rebounds out to sea giving a very confused sea many miles out from the cliffs, so the safest was is to stay at least 10 nautical miles out to sea according to the local knowledge we were supplied. We departed Carnarvon at 11am on the 11th of August 2018 and headed for Geraldton 286 Nautical Miles or 530 kilometres South. With a planning speed of four knots it would be a four day and three night sail. We had a nice South Easterly wind that pushed us along at 6 to 7 knots. With a 4 knot planning speed we would be in the middle of Shark Bay during darkness and head out between the islands to the open sea in morning light. With the wind being in our favour we soon reached the passage in the early evening and headed out to sea. The wind soon died off and we had a nice motor sail through the next day. The next night the winds built up and added some very uncomfortable wind waves to the top of the swells giving us a very uncomfortable ride into Geraldton. Although with the good winds across Shark Bay and further down the coast we did manage to shave off a fair bit of time from the passage and managed to arrive in Garaldton 1 night earlier than planned. Batavia Marina in Geraldton is a fairly new marina with floating jetties run by the Department of Transport and fixed jetties of the Geraldton Yacht Club. We tied up to the end of the A jetty of the Yacht Club and settled in for some catch up sleep. We soon discovered that the surge from the swell enters the marina and slaps the boats back and forward against the jetties. More fenders and lines were placed alongside Caree to give her some protection. These were soon bolstered by even more fenders, lines and tires attached to the lines to provide some stretch. The end result of the slapping against the jetty was 5 fenders blown including one that totally ruptured. The area around the marina was a nice place to spend a couple of days waiting for a weather window to see us through to Fremantle. The maritime museum overlooks the marina and the replica of the Batavia Long Boat is moored close to the museum.

16.01.2022 Gove to Darwin Gove to Darwin was to be a big one, The Hole in the Wall flows at up to 12 knots so if I judged the time incorrectly it could be catastrophic, crossing Van Diemen Gulf was another long two day and one or two night trip, then the currents around Darwin would come into play. The trip was to be split into several sections with overnight anchorages for some rest, with no autopilot and shorthanded sailing it was taking it out of us....Continue reading

16.01.2022 Enjoying the beauty of bio illuminated bow wave.

15.01.2022 We wound our way through the reefs and rocks of the Montebello Islands and headed West between the Montebellos and Barrow Island. The Western Australian Cruising Guide notes that navigating this area is hazardous, with lots of coral bombies and swells breaking to the West of the islands. We managed to avoid the rocks and bombies without much problems however there were some large breaking waves on the Western edge of the channel. After a few course changes and some planning ...Continue reading

15.01.2022 Departed Gove for a Approximately 8 days sailing to Darwin

13.01.2022 Sailing Caree now has a subscribe button. If you would like to be emailed when a new post is published, submit your email with the subscribe function by clicking below.

12.01.2022 Time to say goodbye to Dampier. New battery bank fitter. Fuel and water topped up. We heard the squid are running in the Montebello Islands so we are heading there, arriving at dawn tomorrow for a feed.

12.01.2022 Lovely feed of Spanish Mackerel hooked up and lept out of the water higher than the shark. Unfortunately shark still got a feed and a hookup. Set free.

12.01.2022 Departed Carnarvon for Geraldton in nice conditions. Heading down the West side of Dirk Hartog Island later tonight or tomorrow morning.

11.01.2022 Escape River to Horn Island We upped anchor and headed to Horn Island in the Torres Straights, a sail of 48 nautical miles. We cut through Albany Passage a very picturesque area at the tip of Cape York and leave the mainland behind. The sail through Albany passage was amazing, such a beautiful area, it was a shame we could not anchor and spend some time there. After quite a while with no reception we suddenly had mobile internet and phone coverage in one of the most remote areas in Australia.

11.01.2022 Anchored in Alcora Bay to see the most spectacular sun set that lasted over an hour.

11.01.2022 Goodbye Darwin This morning we departed Darwin. Great place to visit in the dry season. We are now headed for King George River on the other side of the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. Seas are flat with no wind. The journey should take us about 48 hours.

10.01.2022 Our first sighting of whales off the Kimberly coast.

07.01.2022 Hiked to the top of King George Falls. What a spectacular view. Was well worth the climb. Nice swim. Gathered fresh water and anchored at river mouth

06.01.2022 Heading out from Darwin

06.01.2022 Departed the magic Montebello Islands for Exmouth. Sea snakes and mother and baby whales along the route. Now passing the West coast of Barrow Island.

06.01.2022 Lizard Island Clam Garden While on our visit to Lizard Island Andy and I came across a young couple having a drink on the beach while recording a time lapse of the sunset. We struck up a conversation and they asked us if we had snorkeled the Clam Garden. I had read about the Clam Garden in Cruising The Coral Coast by Alan Lucas but had forgotten about it. They highly recommended it so we decided to delay our departure the next morning and snorkel the reef. Here is a video of that snorkel.

03.01.2022 Departed King George River at 5am into light winds and seas. Built to nice winds and currents for the 95nm leg to Parry Harbour.

03.01.2022 Departed Exmouth for Carnarvon at 1pm Monday. Nice seas and winds and a few whales.

02.01.2022 The Hole In The Wall Gugari Rip The Hole In The Wall or Gugari Rip, as it is also known, is a dead straight channel between Guluwuru Island and Raragala Island of the Wessel Islands Group. Located in the remote waters of the Arafura Sea between the Northern Territory and Papua New Guinia. It looks like a meteorite glanced through here many thousands of years ago and calved a dead straight channel. The chart warns of 12 knots of current ripping through. Thats a lot faster t...han Caree can move, so it had to be timed right. The Gove Boat Club produces a good leaflet on working the time from the Gove tide time. I wanted to check so did a quick Google and found there was a lot of confusion, with people saying that the Gove Boat Club advice was wrong and various other advice was wrong. I decided to hit it at Slack Water on High Tide as measured by the Guluwru Island tide marker. We anchored at Wigram Island and aimed to make the 6 hour sail to the Rip to coincide with the 1:09pm high tide. We missed it by only a minute and entered just after. The decision was reinforced with two other boats converging at the same time. The ride started nicely with a little current and a few whirlpools, there was soon a lot of current and 10.9 knots on the speed over ground gauge with a few small standing waves. A quick ride through some spectacular scenery. Watch the video below.

02.01.2022 Seisia to Gove The sail across the gulf started nicely after pulling anchor and heading out through the channel towards the Gulf of Carpentaria. Later that afternoon the last of the land slipped from the horizon. That would be the last time we would see land for 3 days. The autopilot clutch had given out before reaching Horn Island and the advice from the mechanic was get it fixed in Darwin or you will be stuck here. So off we went steering by hand 24 hours a day. The seas st...arted nicely but soon built to about 3 metres for 24 hours. We started with 2 hour rotating shifts and moved to 3 hours as the seas abated. By day 2 we had 1 to 2 metre seas. The last stint into Gove was a bit exciting as we negotiated the channel with a lot of traffic, not expected at 4am. Anchored in the wrong place and went to sleep before shifting the boat the next morning. The Gove Boat Club was the place to be Sunday night with the restaurant full. Monday was a public holiday in most of Australia (Western Australian and Queenslanders had to work) so everyone was keen on a night out and in Gove, The Boat Club is defiantly a favorite with the locals. Unfortunately this meant we ended up with a 2 hour wait for food. Beer was about $1 to $4 a stubby cheaper than Perth. Food was slightly cheaper. Gove is dominated by the Rio Tinto bauxite mine, refinery and ship loading facilities. It is the biggest town in Arnhem Land. The last day we hired a car and went to town for fuel and supplies. It is cheaper to hire a car than it is to catch a cab. Today (Tuesday) we set of for Darwin, a 8 day sail if we get some wind.

01.01.2022 Montebello Islands Montebello Islands are about 70 nautical miles West of Dampier. With full fuel, water and bellies we departed Dampier for the overnight sail to the 170 plus islands of the Montebello Group. We had a great motor sail out of the channel keeping an eye out for the tugs and barges servicing Barrow Island and the nearby gas and oil fields. As we approached the islands we had to make a detour around the gas production wells and sailed into the waters South of Alp...Continue reading