3 sleeps to Go

Well It's been 3 long years since we took off to the Limmen River in the Gulf and we're overdue for another jaunt to somewhere amazing. So we've set a course for the mighty Arnhem Land!

We've decided to pull out the big guns for this one and planned the trip around the arrival of our new 6.5m tinnie "Skull Drag'n". Here's the journey of the Boat build and the end result is this:

Our boat Skull Drag'n is being towed by Dazza

Our Crew is Darren (Dazza) towing the boat behind the Patrol, Nat (Me!) towing the camper behind the Dmax, Jess and Matilda (The Kids) and my parents Bruce and Daph ("The Old Farts") with their camper and mod-podded Cruiser ute.

Dazza

Nat

Jess

Matilda

Bruce and Daph

So where are we going?
From home in Narangba we're going to take about a week to get to West Arnhem Land where we're booked in for a couple of weeks at Willigi Outstation near Cobourg Peninsula. From here we hope to get in some serious fishing, visit some islands in the Arafura Sea (Grant, Mc Cleur, Oxley, Lawson, New Year Islands) which are aprox 50km out. There's also an abandoned settlement called at Port Essington that was once intended to grow into a major shipping port from about 1830 - 1848 until people concluded that it was impractical. If you're interested in Aussie history, you might like the story of the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt who tracked from the Darling Downs to Port Essington in 1844/45 - I think his first words as he stepped out of the bush at Victoria settlement might have been "I say chaps, I think this journey would be much faster by boat!".

After a few week at based at Willigi, we're heading back down to Katherine to re-stock and then back up to Nhulunbuy where we hope to keep fishing and explore some of the Wessel Islands.

Logistics 
The biggest difficulty with this trip is going to be the fuel on the West Arnhem Land leg. We've got some pretty ambitious plans to do some long distances in the boat and there's no fuel at Willigi.  That means that the nearest fuel run is a day trip to Jabiru via the notorious Cahills Crossing (requires  crossing at low tide). On the way north  we'll be filling up fuel tank in the boat, as well as a bunch of jerry cans and fuel bladders in the back of the Dmax so hopefully we wont have to do a fuel run to Jabiru.

Nhulunbuy on the other hand is a township with grocery stores, fuel and concrete boat ramps, so logistically should be a bit easier, although it's about 700Ks of dirt road to get there and depending on the road conditions we could have some challenges getting the boat there.


What did we do to Prep?

• Built a boat! - it's a 6.5m beast built by Performance Plate Boats with 225hp Suzuki 4 stroke outboard. The drive-on double axle trailer has been built with 150mm Aluminum RHS to tolerate off-road conditions (we hope!). The Boat carries 385L of fuel under the floor and will sleep 4 adults and 2 kids at a pinch (I'm talking good friends here - cos the chances are you're gunna see them poo in a bucket at some point!). Weather permitting we're hoping to spend a few nights on board among the islands in the Arafura Sea.
• Pimped up the Dmax with:
• 2 inch lift kit & Suspension
• Snorkel
• Roof Rack
• Bull bar
• Winch
• Long range fuel tank
• Under Vehicle Protection
•  Running maintenance on the Camper (there's not much to do on this as it's a pretty basic unit and we use it pretty regularly so it's well maintained)
• new springs
• repacked the bearings
• repaired the annex zip
• loaded it to the brim with food
• Permits - To go to Arnhem Land you need to get permits from the Traditional Owners covering:
• West Arnhem Land access
• East Arnhem Land access
• Nhulunbuy
• Alcohol consumption 
• Restocked first aid kits, brewed some moonshine, sewed midgie nets for the boat, devised special anchoring/ mooring systems for the boat (so we don't have to swim out to the boat with the crocs), pre-cooked a bunch of road meals, made stone guards for the boat, stocked up on fishing gear, spare parts, tools, maps, nautical charts, tide charts, local fishing regs, and generally planned our butts off.
• Organised 3 weeks off school for the Jess and Matilda including all that wonderful homework that they are looking forward to doing in the car

So here we are! 3 Sleeps to go and still we're nearly ready to roll! Tag along if you're interested and we'll let you know what happens every now and then! Here's a few pics of our prep work.

We've glued in carpet, added solar, seating, fridge, eski, fishing gear, camping gear, and a bucket load of other little jos to make Skull Drag'n ready to roll!

Nat fitting her home made stone guards

Weekend before - Dazza loafing the Dmax roof ravcks

Weekend before - Nat loading the patrol roof rack

Weekend before - The boat and the camper packed and ready to roll

Dazza fitting the Rock Tamers to help protect the boat

Working out where to meet up with the oldies

Trying to keep the outboard fresh!