Broome to Cape Leveque

First leg of the voyage is the roughly 115Nm Broome to Cape Leveque. I’ll mostly stick to pictures and captions, as there is too much the write. We did try to anchor for lunch during a calm on the first day out, but the bay had too many whales! That wold be Quondong Pt, just before James Price Pt, which has had some publicity of late, where our State leader wanted to build an LNG plant. He couldn't because of the humpback whale highway.

The strategy for the Kimberley, is sail for 6 hours when the tide is with you, anchor, go again the next day when the tide turns for 6 hours. No one gets very far this way, commonly 15 to 30 miles/day. The alternative is to go out to sea, 30 miles off the coast where the currents are weaker and sail continuously, do your 90 miles/day or whatever, but you don't see anything that way.

First day out of Broome, this guy, longer than our boat, was along side
then dived, saw him underwater, a big dark shadow floating, seeming
to wait for us to pass. He resurface astern crossing our line.
He was giving way to us!

The whole 6 days to Cape Leveque we saw these shenanigans.
First we'd hear a "pop", and look to see a pile of spray on
the horizon somewhere. So I waited with the telephoto
lens and got this shot. Sorry for the fuzzy's, he was a long
way away.

Lovely splash he makes. We'd hear these "pop"
sounds all day long.

Pender Bay, where the guide book says
Kimberley-type scenery starts. We can see the difference.
The rocks are more interesting and Pandanus palms, 
a Kimberley native tree, begin to show themselves.

Rocks at Pender Bay, beginning of "Kimberly-type" scenery.

Cape Leveque at last. We had spent 4 days marooned in
Thomas Bay prior to this, waiting out gales. We lost a solar
panel overboard, but retrieved it the following
morning at low tide.

On the beach at Cape Leveque

Kimberley sunset, enhanced by bushfire smoke.

The view from Cape Leveque cafe/camp site.

Cape Leveque beach, people were swimming and
sun baking around the corner...  don't they know
about crocodiles?? (the swimming beach had one visit
last year)