With the tide beginning its ebb west at 3.30am, we got away from Raft Point early. With not a breath of wind with us, we motored about 50Nm back to Dugong Bay. Here, we saw many more charter boats and their tenders zipping about the bays. But: we had Dugong Bay all to ourselves and some got some more Queenies = more curry. Stefan had also noticed that the water maker output was getting slightly higher in salinity and it had begun to leak slowly from the pressure intensifier. So we got to use our sat phone for the first time and worked out a way to order the spare parts and get them out to a fairly remote part of Australia. Luckily, of all the places throughout the Kimberley, the bay around the corner has the most air traffic. And it was where we needed to head next for Gilbert and Ursula to get their chartered float plane back to civilisation…. and wine. Thanks to Scott and Network Express – delivering things whereever you need them – our parts would be here in 2 days!!

So on Friday 11th August we motored through the windy channels back to Talbot Bay, where the iconic Horizontal Falls are and the “Horizontal Hotel” that operates there. Gilbert wanted to give the kids a helicopter ride, and after zipping over to see if it could be managed – the kids and Stefan were away for an exciting 10 minutes over the surrounding area!

We farewelled Gilbert and Ursula the next day as they flew out in style on a chartered float plane flight back to Broome. What a great few weeks were had, and many memories made for us all! And my prediction on wine stores was correct, see post ‘Broome to Cape Leveque’