Cruise: Port Hedland to Exmouth

July is a cool and wet time of year in Adelaide, so we were eagerly counting down the days until we could return to the North-West. On August 5th, we were transported from an overnight temperature of 4° Celsius (39°F) to Port Hedland’s balmy 26°C (79°F).

For reasons that are still not entirely clear, Lightning’s big 96V battery was completely drained upon our return. Furthermore, since the big battery powers the inverter, we couldn’t cook or boil water, as our Vietnamese kettle wouldn’t plug into an Australian outlet. A quick trip to the shops to purchase a new electric kettle with an Australian plug solved the hot water problem (and now we have redundant kettles).

Lightning was not plugged into shore power while we were away, anticipating that Port Hedland’s sunny climate would provide ample solar charging. Evidently, the solar charger ceased working at some point during our absence. It’s the kind of glitch that a toggling of the power switch would usually remedy—assuming you’re on onboard at the time. All smart lithium batteries have a Battery Management System (BMS) that protects the battery from deep discharge events, so there was no damage to the 96V battery. However the battery voltage was so low (~34V) that the AC charger refused to work. In a pinch, I used my ePropulsion outboard 48V battery charger to bootstrap the charging process, raising the voltage sufficiently for the AC charger to kick in. I now carry an emergency power supply for this purpose, which is powered by the genset.

The other disappointment was that Lightning’s port motor, which had been sent away for repairs a month previously, had not arrived. Having sailed for much of the last 1,000 nautical miles on one motor, this was annoying, but not a show-stopper. Apart from the loss of redundancy, I really missed the second motor when maneuvering in tight spaces.

Satisfied that our big battery was at last consuming the marina’s electricity, we went food shopping and then treated ourselves to dinner at Ray's one last time.

 

Leaving Port Hedland.

As expected, getting out of the tight marina on one motor the next day was a bit tricky; I even resorted to temporarily anchoring to let the wind swing the boat around. However, by 11:30 we had succeeded and were on our way. We took it easy for our first day and only went as far as Cape Thouin, 23 miles to the west. The following day we pushed on to within 16 nautical miles ESE of Point Samson, logging 67.5 nautical miles (20°40.904'S 117°28.311'E) (top photo).

We were now approaching the Dampier Archipelago, so named by Frenchman Nicolas Baudin in honor of Englishman William Dampier, who explored the area in 1699. The area is renowned for its rich marine biodiversity and ancient rock art and we were keen to explore a part of it. Powered by a twenty-knot southeasterly, the next day we knocked off the 73 nautical miles to Enderby Island in just twelve hours (20°35.746'S 116°33.905'E ). The following morning we went ashore looking for petroglyphs but, armed with only the vaguest information as to where to search, we were unsuccessful. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a delightful walk—our first in three days. It was certainly humbling to realize that the rocks on Enderby Island have endured for an astonishing 2.7 billion years.

Enderby Island.

Our next anchorage was on the west side of Potter Island (20°56.071'S 116°8.407'E), 35 nautical miles away. Trolling as we went, we caught a beautiful Australian spotted mackerel, which was served as sashimi for lunch and sauteed for dinner.

Australian spotted mackerel.

August 11th was Census Day, so we had the unusual experience of completing Australia’s census online while at sea. Our home state of South Australia would register two fewer people in 2026, while Western Australia temporarily gained two people. We anchored on the north coast of Thevenard Island (21°26.719'S 115°1.337'E), having sailed another 75 nautical miles. When we arrived the wind was from the south, but overnight we experienced a wind shift to the southeast. The anchorage became completely exposed and quite bumpy, but the holding was excellent. There is a resort on the island, but the entire shoreline is surrounded by reef, which would make landing by dinghy difficult.

The next morning we motor-sailed the 14 nautical miles to Onslow, where we spent a relaxing day ashore enjoying town amenities for the first time in five days. We luxuriated in long showers while doing laundry at the local caravan park, followed by a huge pub lunch served by enthusiastic working-holiday makers, and a visit to the local museum.

Onslow pub.

Leaving Onslow required crossing a busy shipping channel and negotiating over VHF with a work vessel that was briefly on a collision course. We were sailing at 7 knots close to the wind with no ability to go further upwind and limited options to go further downwind, due to the depth constraints. We politely informed the other vessel we could not alter our course. Fortunately, they did the right thing and altered the course to go astern of us.

Vessel going astern of us.

By 15:15, we were anchored just outside the Exmouth Marina, having sailed 60 nautical miles from Onslow.

OVER.