Seadevil said..
We did the trip in our 38' Cat in 2023, up the QLD coast arrived Cooktown area mid may, Cape York & Thursday Island mid June,
Arrived in Darwin first week of July, restocked and headed to the Kimberley explored rivers and bays and arrived in Broome end of August.
Dampier/ Montebello islands then the hard slog into the predominant Southerly winds all the way to Perth. and got to Busselton in November.
Sailing across to Broome was no problems just tides & current to plan for you will motor a lot. We carried 6 jerry cans of Diesel. You can get fuel at Dog leg creek $4 litre 2023, getting fuel in Broome is painful (we didn't) we filled up in Dampier.
Sailing from Montebello's we used the morning Easterlies and tried to do day hops as much as possible.
Steep Point to Geraldton was overnight,
Jurien Bay to Perth overnight.
We also cruised back to Montebello's from Busselton for a few months and sailed down in August 2024 using NW winds in front of weather changes and did no sailing into headwinds.
A few people stay in Darwin over the wet season or leave boats in the marina's but that was not an option for us.
Go soon and do the boat trip through Horizontal Falls before it is banned , 2026 is the last year I think.
We are contemplating just from Cairns around to Broome with an extended exploration of The Kimberley's versus just 3/4 months in The Kimberley's in a 28 foot trailer sailer. Thoughts? We have been semi invited to join a couple of other maxi trailer sailers on this adventure in 2026 instead of just our planned Kimberley's adventure.
We have equipped our unusual crossover yacht with 250 litres of fuel and 250 litres of drinking water along with 12v desalination. We have adequate solar (1400w) with all the extra folding panels deployed ( over 1000w fixed) and over 800ah of lithium battery storage which allow also using our electric outboard auxiliary which can move the yacht at around 3 knots in doldrums with no fuel use. These also power all our 240v induction cooking, hotwater, desalination, outboard battery charging, compressor refrigeration and separate freezer and many other power uses.
Our yacht is briefly capable of 15knots under its main outboard but this ability is very rarely used (eats fuel) but has come in handy in the past running over adverse currents or quickly exiting brewing bad weather. What was the maximum time between anchorages? Just being a couple we have no love of really long passages especially on short watch change overs at night. We have however lived for months onboard out sailing so are no strangers to fairly extended cruising on our Imexus 28.
