Sunday we sailed for Freshwater Bay in Vansittart Bay/Gulf only 30NM. To get there we had to pass through Geranium Harbour and Middle Rock passage which is renowned for its strong tidal currents. After a lengthy discussion with Illusion and some confusion interpreting the guide books about working our departure time to favour the direction of the tides we agreed to leave early on the bet of a bottle of wine if we had it wrong. Our arrival at Geranium Harbour worked well with a flood tide in our favour moving west, our bottle seemed safe. But the tide turned and we had an ebb tide after midday which according to the diagram in the Western Australian Cruising Guide the current moving through the passage past Middle Rock would be in our favour, but instead we had a 4-5knot current against us making the 1NM or so passage very tedious and slow going. At one stage we’re sure the rock actually moved forward and found Chris scratching his head at the helm. Our bottle was no longer safe. To also add the WA Cruising Guide provides two transit points to pass Middle Rock which is inaccurately charted, or should be renamed Not-so-middle Rock. The so called safe waypoints provided if we had followed them would have placed us exactly on top of the Rock. So with guide books and charts discarded we had our eyes on the water and followed the safe passage against the current through the deep water to the other side and onwards to Freshwater Bay, this is definitely not a passage to be made at night when one is dependant on the chart plotter! Our reward for our efforts was to find Freshwater Bay to be a lovely spot with nearby pearl farm encompassing the bulk of the bay with its black floats apart from this secluded nook where Freshwater Creek flows out and where we found our haven. Freshwater Bay is described as one the best anchorages in the Kimberlies and I think I’d tend to agree. Later that evening Kieran tried the rod over the stern hoping to catch something and it wasn’t long before he was yelling ‘shark, shark’. On inspection we found a 3.4m Tawny Shark that had become very fond of the water around our stern. We quickly confirmed that this fella with his very cute whiskers and large pectoral fins was harmless, according to the Australian Fish Guide, we realised that he must be familiar with vessels and possibly fed by the pearl farm. It seems if its not crocs we’re on the look out for its sharks and they seem to breed them big up here!
Monday was my birthday and after being thoroughly spoilt with gifts (much to Chris’ taunts of giving me a stainless steel bow roller) we headed up Freshwater Creek in amongst the mangroves and towards the rock-bar together with Bruce & Dianne to explore the rock pools that the Darwin Yacht Club detailed in their cruising notes. Well we were not disappointed and had an absolutely glorious morning swimming in the fresh rock pools and walking through the Kimberly bush. After deciding that the last rock pool, which is apparently the largest and also spring fed, was going to be too hazardous and difficult to pursue we headed back to the second of the larger pools where we enjoyed freshly home made choc chip & macadamia nut birthday cookies followed by a lovely cool swim and soaked up the sun on the warm rocks. Safely away from the possibility of any crocs the dogs enjoyed being off the lead for the first time since Lizard Island in QLD and ran crazy chasing dragon flies around the rock pool and swam in the pool the entire time. With dogs happily exhausted, we moved back down towards the first rock pool and had another swim to cool off and enjoyed our picnic lunch under the shady gum trees before heading back to the rock bar and returning to our yachts before the tide made the mangrove entrance too shallow to exit. The next plan was to collect our crab traps (which we found empty), fish for some Trevally (which is quickly becoming my favourite fish) and collect oysters from the shore on the low tide to supply our seafood feast. The oysters here are black lipped oysters, the size of a saucer!!! Bruce and Dianne joined us for a meal of fresh and Kilpatrick oysters, marinated lamb, salad and parsley potatoes, all washed down with copious amounts of wine!!What an absolutely glorious and memorable birthday. Tomorrow we sail for Parry Harbour within the Admiralty Gulf.