The NE breeze and the flood tide carried us rapidly under spinnaker from Napier Broome Bay west to Vansittart Bay, where we stopped along the eastern shore to walk and explore a WWII plane wreck.
In 1943, a DC3 travelling from Perth to Broome became lost in bad weather, and ran out of fuel. They put the plane down on this salt pan on the edge of Vansittart Bay, hundreds of kilometres beyond their intended destination, and all four on board survived. They were travelling with none of the navigational aids we have today. Now we can identify the wreck from satellite images on the internet. Back then, all they had was a compass and a paper chart.
Time and weather has taken its toll, and the well worn track indicates that many travellers have been through it too. I can recall seeing on television many years ago that some aircraft historians visited and salvaged some parts to use on another DC3 that they were restoring. Today it is a mark of history from 80 years ago. Tomorrow we will go looking for art that marks a history going back 65,000 years.
And this video shows a restored DC3 in all its glory…
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