We spent the day exploring Deception Bay after catching up on a bit of sleep post night sail. We had a very quick swim at the beach and caught two Estuary Cod on the same lure, at the same time up the creek before crocs came along. We were told that Deception Bay was an important area of whale dreaming for the local Aboriginals, and on the short sail around to Sampson Inlet we passed a couple of mother humpbacks and their calves.

We decided the first ‘creek’ had just enough swinging room for the tides and dropped anchor to explore. After unsuccessfully trekking around for any freshwater to be found, we returned to Gonyonda at low tide. I thought I’d check out what the white dots on the low-tide rocks were, and was able to return with dinner. Just add Ursula’s supply of continental bacon.

Friday 19th August saw us depart Sampson Inlet (after collecting some more oysters) and head through Kuri Bay to Rogers Strait, which we read can be difficult. We had timed the tides almost perfectly and had no turbulance at all, but the wind was north 10-15, right on the nose and we had to motor for much of the day. We passed another 4 mother humpy’s and their calves through this area and once out of Port George IV we were able to sail south-east to Hanover Bay Inlet and anchor under 50m high cliffs. Quite spectacular again.

We explored this area but didn’t have the tide in our favour to go up the creek to the freshwater. Our plan was to go into the Prince Regent river system from here, but as we had arrived at spring tides and swift currents, we weren’t sure we would have enough fuel to run the 35 odd miles up and back. So reluctantly, we decided to pass by and explore further along. At least we had the wind with us…