6June2010

About 30 miles up the course from Middle Percy Island a fleet of 57 closely spaced AIS targets showed up on the radar. These targets were ships ranging in length from 735 ft to almost 1000 feet anchored off Mackay waiting to be loaded with coal bound for China and India!

We passed another large loading station, Newcastle, just North of Sydney on our way to Tasmania last year. Australia is a major exporter of coal as well as Uranium, a big help to the economy here!

There is no moon and our course takes us through several islands spaced about 2 miles apart. With 17 knots of true wind pushing us along at 8 to 9 knots the watch keeper has to adjust the course much more than if we were in the middle of the ocean. Having recently read about a spate of boats hitting reefs, this is quite a different and sobering experience. It will be like this for the next 500 or so miles as we pass inside the Great Barrier Reef until we reach the top of Australia.