Hi Roddo, from what I have herd, it pays to have plenty of rope out, if you anchoring, as the tides very a lot, & your boat will drag the anchor, if you only have short rope, good luck, have fun, cheers Don.

I take a plastic wave ski to paddle out to the boat so I dont have to swim. Doesn't weigh too much.

I have an 6.5m ally and run a 45lb plough anchor with ~6m of 13mm chain (chain weighs more than the anchor) and only a short length of rope, helps reduce the swing if it is a small bay or other boats in the area.

 If your boat is comfortable to sleep on, yes. But if you are doing what many do, ie, going over to fill a freezer , which means running a generator, etc, obviously not. You will need somewhere to put your extra fuel ashore, anyway.  If you are on springs, there will be a lot of water movement. This will affect everything. Including your trip over--if you get wind running against tide, the middle stretch--about 20 miles or so-- can get REALLY nasty. Run-out tide means it will be pushing against any wind from East-Nor'east. Any wind over 17 knots sustained, gusting higher, you'd better think twice about the crossing, either direction, on a run-out spring tide. The warning about Tide Rips on the chart for that section should be heeded.   If the tide is running in, definitely better. Remember you are a long way from anywhere, probably no help anywhere, out of site of land for a long way. This is not a trip to Rotto. It is something like 45 nautical miles from Fortescue River to the first islands. About 6 NM to Fortescue island. If it's bad by the time you get out  to Fortescue Island, go back. That's the calm part of the trip.

As for camping, there are bays which dry out completely. Others might have a little pocket of deep water, typically near the entrance, but you may actually be stranded in that little pool until the tide comes in. I would strongly advise you to get the paid Navionics app. So useful for sitting around and planning. It even comes with a Google earth overlay, which actually shows you the deeper patches by colour, that may not be apparent from the chart. A good MFD with the tides included is very useful, there are tidal stations out there. The Navionics app won't show you them far enough ahead  for long-term planning.   You are mostly looking at needing protection from the east wind.  Assuming you want to stay out of the Sanctuary zones, you'll be limited to camping in the middle stretch. Home Lagoon and Champagne Bay dry out completely, apart from the deep patches at their entrances. Others further north, like Alpha and Bluebell, mostly have water, but beware of radiation risk areas if you want to camp ashore. Trimouille is popular with yachties.  Not a real lot of camping westside, others may care to comment. 

HTH, and take care.

 I'd take bluebell on those tides. Actually you'll probably see me there if the weather is ok. Got a mate up for a bit and he wants a trip over. 

It's people like you that stuff this web site up 

you went of your way to track me down in 2015 via pm and I went out of my way to send you paragraphs and paragraphs of info the same day  and you didn't have the common decency to say a simple thank you .

ive helped so many people out with monties info , including ranmar and he at least had the decency to reply 

there's you and a few others I sent info to and you're too fkn lazy to thank people for their help then just go there and work it out yourself 
 

 Ouch...

 Thanks for all the info very valuable.

 Still heading over?  Weather window looking decent. 

 Yep looks pretty good fingers crossed it stays that way. We will be leaving dampier around 10am.