The day has finally arrived, we board the Odyssey for a nine day cruise along the rugged Kimberly Coast. Awake early, showered, breakfast concluded and we have two hours to kill. At 8am a call from Dave, the panel beater, distracts as we take the Patrol around to his workshop where Dave will lock it up awaiting the OK from RACQ for the claim we have lodged. Back to the Odyssey compound and we have only minutes to await the bus.

After a 40 minute chook run picking the punters up we are driven onto the beach by the bus, a strange feeling as buses and beaches seems a strange combination. Waiting on the beach is "Homer" a purpose built tender comfortably accommodating the full 20 passengers. Powered by twin 150HP outboards, we come to love this neat vessel for the adventures it takes us on. Odyssey is a 24 metre aluminium twin hull power catamaran that takes twenty passengers and six crew. She is a very comfortable vessel, cruises at about 9 knots and a shallow enough draught to allow access to many inlets and rivers.
 
Our "Deluxe Double" room is on the main deck, Starboard, with two large windows giving plenty of light and view. The rear of the main deck is a large assembly area for us to gather for fishing, swimming, walking and exploring outings over the next nine days. The top deck holds the Bridge, galley, indoor dining room and a large covered rear deck that easily caters for our group. Oops, and a bar servery. The roof top is home to another two tenders, open dinghies with 30hp motors. Lastly is the ever popular front deck with a covered bench seat for about ten people just under the bridge windows. Whilst cruising you would always find at least four punters out here.

Our destination for day one is Yampi Sound, about a 10 hour cruise north then northeast as we round Cape Leveque, finally eastward across King Sound and inside the Buccaneer Archipelago. We are destined to arrive after 10pm, and all the guests are well asleep as the crew settle to vessel for the evening.
 
The cruise north begins well enough with a very gentle swell which presents no problems for us landlubbers, however, as we journey further from protected waters and the wind picks up conditions become less friendly, though the worst will occur as we cross King Sound and we are all tucked into our bunks, most of us do not even know it became quite rough.

Back to the early cruising story, a couple of hours out of Broome we spot our first whales, not close but a promising sign. We are several kilometres off the Cape Leveque coastline, however, we easily identify Quondong Point and the campsites we had visited a few days earlier. The coastline, though quite straight, is peppered with wide white beaches, creek inlets and highlighted by 20 metre red sandstone cliffs that become at first brighter then deeper in colour as the sun passes westward.
 
The whale sightings continue as we cruise on a deep bright blue ocean. Three hours into the the cruise the skipper slows Odyssey as we pass a mother Humpback Whale and her calf which is probably no more than 4-5 metres. The motors cut, we drift as cameras click and everyone is enchanted as both whales slap tails and flippers on the surface as they laze alongside. Both make their way around the bow with mum laying on her back, white underbelly bright in the sun, both flippers loudly smacking the water as her calf practises breaching beside her. The show lasts about 15 minutes and leaves us delighted and happy. Blowing, slapping and breaching whales continue their entertainment for the remainder of the day, however, mum and calf have captured the spotlight.
 
Mention needs be made of the cruise Chef, Liam, a Pom but a shy and polite one, also extremely talented in the culinary arts. Breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, nibbles and dinner, he seems ever present whenever you pass the galley. By day 2 we all come to love him as his meals, breads and cakes are all fresh, tasty and beautifully presented. By day 6 we note our girths increasing and we become wary of his offerings and by cruise end we wish he would go away as buttons and zippers seem to have shrunk. His offerings became an unexpected highlight of the trip.
 
Sundown is passed with all on the rear deck, Liam's nibbles on the table and our two hostesses, Paige and Leah serving drinks and fussing over us. This is the first of many spectacular sunsets onboard, all different due to perspectives of open ocean, quiet rivers and bays or distant islands swallowing the sun then a backdrop of changing luminescent orange, red and purples.

PS. Dinner was bloody marvellous.