Australian Kimberley, Sailing our Leopard 50 catamaran. WHAT AN ADVENTURE!!!

We leave Broome and sailing up to Cape Leveque, exploring the spectacular red cliffs and rocky bays along the way. We are amazed at the number of people who have driven their cars with caravans and campers right up to these remote beach spots. The bush camp areas are fairly rustic and rudimentary but people are fishing, swimming, snorkelling and generally enjoying the true Kimberley experience. We enjoyed looking around these stunning locations and walking along the beaches. We had reasonable weather to round Cape Leveque and crossed Buccaneer Archipelago and anchored at Silica Beach on Hidden Island, our first real Kimberley anchorage. The current across the King Sound from Cape Leveque to Silica Beach varied enormously – up to 5.5 knots – and it was our first taste of what a 12m tide can do and how you really need to be super aware of tides and plan accordingly. We walked around Silica Beach and marvelled at the bright white sand and the fascinating red rock formations. We decided that it might be too shallow here at low tide, so we moved on to Coppermine Creek and anchored safely out of the main current of the river. Next morning we headed out in the dinghy to explore the river and to start our mission to catch a barramundi. We caught a cod near the upper reaches and then ventured right up a very tidal shallow creek. We were so busy catching fish on each throw that we didn’t notice the tide receding and realised we’d better try to get the dinghy out before it was too late. We dragged it over the shallow rocky bottom until we couldn’t get it any further and had to admit that we were stuck in croc country until the tide came back in enough. We waited under a mangrove tree, on the rocky shore, watching for crocs and noticing every millimetre that the tide went out. We were certainly pleased that we had brought our newly assembled ‘survival bag’ with water, a towel and muesli bars. After 3-4 hours we were able to get the dinghy out in the main part of the river and head home with a our fish (which we’d kept cool in the shade). Our first serious tidal situation! and hopefully our last but there’s a lot to think about up here and you can’t be certain it won’t happen again. We continued fishing again and found an almost dry waterfall which we walked up and swam in the last remaining clean water. Only 30 degrees C! Our first Kimberley waterfall with amazing colours and rock formations.