We arrived at our waypoint to enter St George Basin two and half hours early. It was still dark, with little wind so we drifted around 1M outside the entrance between Uwins Island and the mainland until we could enter at slack water. With a 5.5m range of tide, the current can run at up to 7kts at its peak, which would make it impossible for us to make any headway.

Alan and Matt navigating us through St George Basin

As daylight started to break, we started motoring toward the entrance to begin following our pilotage plan down the river. Motoring into 2kts of current, we had our engine at its maximum cruising revs to make 6kts. You could see the eddies on the surface of the water swirling around the boat and forcing the bow left and right and we moved toward our way point.

The land around us slowly narrowed to about 500m across, creating the winding river that leads to the Basin. At each turn, the current increased, decreased and changed direction forcing me to focus on trying to maintain our course along the planned route rather than admiring the scenery. As we reached the (well named) strong tide point, it increased to 4 kts from behind us, driving us along at over 10 kts! All of this was just short of slack water, imagine what it would be like in full force.
Entering the Basin it opened up to an enormous expanse of water. There were only three other boats that we could see on AIS. One was definitely a tourist boat and the other two looked like they may be cruising. We selected a spot in about 6m of water and waited as Silver Fern dropped anchor. Dave radioed us to tell us that they were secure and we motored alongside to raft up for the night.

Once tied up, we launched the landing craft and prepared for an expedition down the river. Between us and Silver Fern we loaded up medical and rescue kits, two satellite phones and some additional fuel, each of the crew brought their personal items, water and sunscreen. Suitably prepared, we headed off for the 3M run toward to mouth of the river.

With six of our crew onboard and four of Silver Fern’s in their tender we motored into the mouth of the river. Considering the number of crocodiles that live in this area we were keeping a close eye out for pairs of eyes peering above the surface. Several sticks were accused of being crocodiles (it is remarkable how similar a large stick looks to a crocodile when you are a little nervous!) but we did not manage to spot any real crocs.

The banks of the river were lined with Mangroves and unique rock formations which ranged from towers of randomly stacked rocks to huge boulders. After about 30mins, we stopped whilst Dave unblocked his outboard cooling telltale. Shortly after that, we decided we should head back to the boats before the tide turned and we could not make it back up the river against the current.

Amazing rock formations in St George Basin

As we turned away from the Silver Fern crew, heading back upriver, they roared alongside us trying to soak David, Sally and Kingsley. Outrageous behaviour! That was it, first shots fired by Silver Fern, let the battle commence! Silver Fern had the smaller more agile craft and buzzed around us like a small irritating fly. They cut in front of us and tried to chase us to get close enough to splash water on our crew. Each time, the weight and size of the Landing craft won through, easily swatting them aside with a small bump. As the battle intensified, there was some discussion about needing supersoakers and even beer can bazooka’s (those who know, know) to fight our way through. The lack of armament aboard, necessitated hand to hand combat... Dave crouched like a coiled spring as we chased them down. Once close enough, he sprang into action shovelling armfuls of water over their gunnel’s, soaking most of their crew.

Silver Fern instigating the mischief as usual

The battle raged as we raced back to the boats, ducking and diving behind, beside and in front of each other. I even tried the “hit the brakes and they’ll fly right by” manoeuvre, but Dave was onto me and countered by slowing down as well. This lead to some further frantic hand to hand combat between the boats. After much splashing, yelling, screaming and laughter we separated the tenders to take some respite.

By the time we were close to our respective mother ships, it was clear that Salt Lines had won the day. Silver Fern’s crew were significantly wetter than we were and also missing a phone. So we positioned ourselves to take some photographs of the boats rafted up together. However, Silver Fern motored away from us with one of the crew members suspiciously rummaging through one of the bags onboard. Suspecting a final assault as they headed back toward us, we prepared ourselves for the final fight. Silver Fern raced toward us, turning at the last moment as Freya stood up and launched a bailer full of water in our direction. Clearly the battle had taken its toll, as the water fell well short of us and Silver Fern raced back their boat suitably chastised :).

The rest of the day was spent continuing to croc spot and catch up with our fellow Silver Fern crew. Ken was kind enough to share with us his beautiful Yellow Fin Tuna Sashimi which he’d whipped up from his fishing spoils the previous day and we lapped up the view of another beautiful sunset. We rafted up to Silver Fern for the night which seemed only fair since we have no deck wash pump and the sea floor was guaranteed to be muddy! Thanks SF!

Til next time, Matt.

Salt Lines and Silver Fern rafted up for the day

Join the crew for a sailing adventure

The Naval battle of St George Basin

Is it a stick? Or is it a croc?

Visitors, fishing & sunsights