Broome

Broome had been a relaxing break however working the tides to get ashore in the dinghy has been a challenge. We were anchored 1 mile off shore so it was usually a very wet ride home into the westerley afternoon sea breeze. Broome is a tourist town with many interesting shops and restaurants as well as the rich history surrounding the pearl industry. Cable Beach lives up to its reputation with a long sandy beach and many resorts and restaurants along the high sand dunes looking out over the "azure" blue of the Indian Ocean. We were fortunate to have friends in town who lent us their car, a big help with boat shopping and reprovioning for the trip south. We also managed a trip to the dump to remove a "few" empty wine bottles from the trip from Darwin!!

While in Broome our friends Nick and Kat announced their engagement. They joined us for a lovely day on the water on Sunday with their friend Sarah. We motored around to Cable Beach, with the fishing lures out but no luck. Tried a bit of fishing at the reef then anchored just off the beach for a swim and lunch. The beach was covered in 4WD vehicles, the occupants enjoying the beautiful weather. We then had a good sail back to Roebuck Bay and nearly lost the lure to a large mackerel - however it was one the ones that got away, such a shame for Nick who is a keen fisherman.

The Sea Princess was in Broome for the day - it is a large inernational cruise ship and was quite a site at the wharf. We are currently sailing out of Broome heading south to Dampier. We will be sailing non stop for the next few days as there are not many anchorages of this stretch of the coast.