Category Archives: Uncategorized

After three days exploring the lower parts of the river, we were ready to see what other wonders the Berkeley held. Early one morning we slowly made our way upstream, in what was to be one of the highlights of our entire trip. There was no wind at all and the water was completely calmContinue reading “Cruising the Kimberley: Berkeley River – Part Two”

The Berkeley River, situated on the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, is the eastern most part of the Kimberley, one of the oldest and largest wilderness landscapes in the world.  Our first peek at the Kimberley as we had approached at first light and sunrise had been a magical introduction and left us excited with anticipation forContinue reading “Cruising the Kimberley: Berkeley River – Part One”

It was with the utmost relief that we sailed out of Fannie Bay and away from Darwin. It was time to leave all the covid/lockdown rubbish behind us. I felt incredibly grateful that we were able to escape in this way. Over the next four days we made our way down the east coast ofContinue reading “Fleeing the Northern Territory, Crossing into Western Australia and Finally Arriving in the Kimberley…”

We had booked into the marina at Cullen Bay in Darwin for two weeks. There were a few minor repairs and maintenance that needed doing on the yacht, as well as the massive task of provisioning for the Kimberley, and we also planned on doing some sightseeing around Darwin and its surrounds. We spent theContinue reading “Darwin”

We reluctantly farewelled the beauty and solitude of Marchinbar Island and resumed our journey again. Although we felt we could easily have spent several more days there, we were conscious of needing to move on, to reach Darwin and to prepare for the Kimberley. It’s a bit of a juggling act, spending enough time inContinue reading “Day Sailing to Darwin”

After motoring through the Gulgari Rip, we turned south and anchored in Guruliya Bay on Raragala Island, one of the southern most islands of the Wessels. We had originally planned on anchoring in the first bay north of the Rip on Guluwuru Island, but Terry and Leonie on Sens de La Vie who were aContinue reading “The Wessel Islands”

So here we are in the Northern Territory, our fourth state/territory of the circumnavigation. We are pretty much at the opposite end of the country to Melbourne, so I think that makes us about halfway through our trip. Only halfway! It has been many, many years since I was last in the NT, and MattContinue reading “Hello Northern Territory!”

While we had really enjoyed our time in the Torres Straits and around Seisia and Bamaga, our next challenge loomed large, ever present in our thoughts and our conversations with other yachties. The Gulf of Carpanteria. 350 nautical miles. Two to three days of non stop sailing. Up to this point our longest passage hadContinue reading “Crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria”

Described as ‘impossibly beautiful and virtually untouched’ the Torres Strait Islands lay north of Cape York and consist of 274 tiny islands. Only 14 of the islands are inhabited and only a few of these permit visitors. The Torres Strait Islander peoples, being predominantly Melanesian, are ethnically, culturally and linguistically different from Aboriginal Australians. MattContinue reading “Exploring the Torres Strait”

The second leg of our circumnavigation has been quite different in many ways to the first part. In January 2020 we sailed from Melbourne up the East Coast, arriving in Cairns at the start of December. The sailing caper was still pretty new to us then, and we were constantly learning new skills, discovering newContinue reading “Rounding ‘The Tip’…”