Sailing the full length of Bunga Arm to explore the less visited eastern half. A very special place with wind blown coastal dunes and easy access to the 90 mile beach. Peaceful moonlit nights, glorious sunrises and sunsets, peace and tranquillity

Highlights of our big Kimberley sailing adventure. If this whets your interest for even more see the videos of each leg with more information and detail.

I talk about the pros and cons of installing an induction cooktop along with a 3000w inverter, a DC to DC charger, high efficiency Perc solar cells and 240ah of Lithium batteries on our trailer sailer. Sceptical about the concept at first, I am now a firm convert to the safety, speed and convenience of induction cooking on our boat.

A few days of enjoyable mid winter sailing on the Gippsland Lakes. I sail from Metung to the Perry River at the west end of the lakes. On the return trip I stop by Blonde Bay, north west of Loch Sport before spending the night at Duck Arm. As always Duck Arm is a peaceful beautiful place to overnight with glorious twilight colours.

A review of our new Watersnake Advance, 12v, 70lb Brushless Trolling motor for use with our 8.5m RL28 Trailersailer and dinghy. The motor was purchased to replace our previous Pelican Trolling Motor. I talk about its various uses, batteries used and some of its limitations. I also draw some comparisons between the trolling motor and some of the more expensive electric outboards on the market.

Complete install of a 4" Marinco Solar vent in the main cabin of our RL28. The Marinco Solar vent is a quality unit with large solar panels, a built in light and a blow and exhaust switch for fan direction. The unit can be screwed into the permanently mounted deck plate or removed and replace with a deck cap that returns a flush deck when needed.

Highlights of our Kimberley trip Raft Point to Camden Harbour leg including Ruby Falls and Sampson Inlet

Kimberley adventure highlights Crocodile Creek to Dugong Bay leg.

Highlights of our Kimberley trip Derby to Hidden Island leg.

In this video we travel west to Lake Wellington once more to visit the Avon and Perry Rivers. The Perry River is a pretty place with the Avon-Perry Delta Gippsland Lakes Reserve along much of its eastern shore. We sail upstream until the depth and width of the river turns us around. On the way downstream we find a beautiful grassed area under majestic gum trees. The rushes allow for up to 2 boats to nose in with a soft mud bottom. As a bonus you can step of the front of the boat onto the grass.... no ladder needed. Beautiful area with room for a campfire and extensive walks though the reserve. After taking extensive drone footage of the area we head out of the Perry and up the Avon. A much larger river but very scenic with plenty of bird life. Along the eastern shores is the Avon-Perry free camping area with a small boat ramp and several fishing platforms. A few potential landing spots but care is needed as many sections are rock lined. With a strong SW change on the way for the following day, we decide to cross back across the shallow Lake Wellington before heading back to Metung the next day.

Sailing from Lakes Entrance along the full length of the Gippsland Lakes to Marlay Point on the west side of Lake Wellington. Intended as an overview of the lakes system we show some of the main public jetties, berths and anchorages along the way. Overnighting in Duck Arm we wake to a scene of serenity and a gorgeous sunrise. We reach Marlay point that afternoon and without any good anchorage nearby decide to head back to Plover Point at the entrance of McLennans Strait and a beautiful little beach landing. The area abounds with wetlands and the birdlife is wonderful. Highly recommend plover point for overnighting, just remember the insect repellant. After glorious sunset and sunrise we head back to Metung via Loch Sport and Paynesville.

The final video of our Kimberley adventure. We leave Koolama Bay to catch the last of the flood tide before battling the tide and anchoring behind Eric Island short of the Berkeley River. In the morning we sail on to the Berkeley a cross the sand bar and motor upstream to Casuarina falls. We find superb swimming holes and aboriginal rock art above the falls. Heading further upstream we head for the rock bar at the end of the navigable water visiting the amphitheater and the perennial falls along the way. On our final day we head downstream to shower at Casuarina falls once more before exploring Pauls Creek and then reading Neringa for the 3 day 2 night crossing of Bonaparte Gulf the next day. We depart at 2am the following day to cross the bar at high tide and make the most of the ebb for the first 6 hours. Grib files show promising conditions for the first 2 days but a worrying strengthening of the winds rounding into Darwin. The crossing goes to plan despite some of the roughest seas on the last day rounding the Cox Peninsular into Darwin. After retrieving the car and trailer from Derby we load Neringa after 1372 nautical miles on the water in readiness for the 5000 km road trip home.

We set off from Cape Tabolt bay before dawn to round the notorious Cape Londonderry. We timed our rounding to coincide with 12 hours tides that happen every 28 days and avoid the usually rough seas where tides collide. The picturesque Glycosomis Bay is our next stop, a perfect anchorage. The following day we visit the Lost City, and area rich in aboriginal rock art and culture. Moving on we reach the iconic King George River with its awe inspiring gorges, rock formations, walks and falls. Almost a spiritual experience, very hard to truly capture in pictures and words.

We round Cape Voltaire, one of the challenging capes with neap tides and find the ebb tide against us but with placid seas. Crossing Admiralty Gulf the Osborne Island area provides many art sites and some spectacular geological formation to explore. Parry Harbour and Cape Bouganville are our next challenges and with spring tides the cape produces some worrying moments. Freshwater bay with its year round fresh water gives us a few peaceful days to rest and recharge with great swimming walks and a chance to do the laundry. Next stop is Jar Island known for its great rock art. We are greeted by a large and aggressive croc when we land and only convince it to leave with a few well placed thrown rocks. We are left feeling nervous but the rock are on the island is great and well worth the effort. We visit the WW2 DC3 plane wreck next, a fascinating site and the best preserved plane crash site we have ever seen. With fuel running low, after transiting the challenging middle rock passage we head for Honeymoon Bay where Joy, the owner of the camp ground get 6 jerries filled for us in Kalumbaru. After moving to Anjo Cove for the night we head for Cape Talbot Bay to prepare for our rounding of Cape Londonderry with its reputation as being one of the roughest Capes to negotiate.

On this leg of our adventure we explore Montague Sound, and area rich in aboriginal art. We visit many art sites in the Winyalkan Island area before moving on to the Swift Bay Area. Sadly our inflatable dinghy gets attacked and badly damaged in Art Creek overnight and takes all of our large repair kit and 3 days to repair the damage. Finally we move on to anchor behind Cape Voltaire finding a beach rich in turtle activity.

With time ticking on we sail from Camden Harbour to Prudhoe Islands in Montague Sound visiting Hanover Bay, Careening Bay and Bigge Island along the way. We find fresh water in Hanover Bay and visit the Mermaid tree in Careening Bay. On the long sail to Bigge Island we hit 25 knot winds against time and some rough seas for around 6 hours. Impressive rock art is found at Wary bay and we are given a bag of banana prawns but a friendly prawn trawler crew. We finally head for Prudhoe Islands for a peaceful night in shelter bay enjoying a meal of fresh fish and barbequed prawns.

We leave Talbot Bay to cross the fierce currents of Collier Bay to reach Raft Point. After a few days enjoying Ruby and Little Ruby falls we set out in the early hours of the morning to sail to Sampson Inlet with its beautiful waterway at its end. A few days later we move on to Camden Harbour with the ruins and graves of the ill fated attempt at settlement in 1840. The sad story and thinking of the hardships the settlers experienced was certainly a thought provoking and sobering experience about the harshness of the country we are sailing through.

Our adventure continues. We start at the amazing Crocodile Creek with its unique anchorage, waterfalls and crystal clear swimming pools. We then move onto Silver Gull Creek and Squatters Arms with its water pipe barge landing. We negotiate the Canal and Gutter past Koolan Island and sail into Talbot Bay with the Horizontal Waterfalls and the beautiful Dugong Bay. Tides, whirlpools, waterfall and waterholes along with spectacular scenery.

Our Kimberley adventure starts at Derby with its claim to the 2nd highest tides in the world. We juggle tides, rips and whirlpools to cross King Sound visiting the Inland Sea, Cone Bay and Silica Beach on Hidden Island. Included in the video is some of the tidal information and what is involved in the passage planning when undertaking such a trip.

Towing our boat Neringa 5000km from Macedon in Victoria to Derby in Western Australia. With the boat just over 3 tonnes on the trailer it was a long hard tow with a few tyre issues along the way. We entered SA as soon as borders opened which closed again 4 days later. Entering the NT we thought we were home free only to find out Covid has broken out there too. The only option left to us then was to drive to the WA border as hard and fast as the rig allowed to then enter 14 days quarantine in Derby. This option allowed just enough time to sail our 14 day shortened trip to Darwin. Fingers crossed no more surprises delay us further. An epic and somewhat stressful tow but we arrived safely after many beautiful camp spots along the way. With luck the next of the trip videos will be posted late September when we reach Darwin.