Hi Everyone,
Thought I would send our last update from Australia as we leave on Monday (16th July) for Indonesia.
We left the Brisbane area on 9th May after going out for the weekend to meet friends on Morton Island. The main reason for the trip was to check that the engine was OK. I am pleased to say she is working better than ever and hopefully we have corrected the design fault that caused the problem. Normally after having a break from sailing we would take it easy and have short hops to get our 'sea legs' back but because of the delay with the engine we decided to go straight to the Whitsunday Islands about 500 miles. We were rather pleased with ourselves as we were both well. On the second day at sea the seas were a little rough but according to our wind instruments the wind strength was only 15 to 18 knots. We put the sea state down to the area we were sailing in - off Frazer Island, which has a reputation for rough seas. The forecast was for it to go to 30 knots so we decided to divert to Pancake Creek, which we knew so that made it easy. Once tucked up nice and cosy on anchor I had a look at the wind instruments and discovered that it was set on metre/sec instead of knots. This meant that our 15 to 18 'knots' was in-fact 30 to 36 knots, so no wonder the seas were a little rough. It goes to show how it was mind over matter and as we thought we at 15 knots we were quite happy out there.
We arrived at Bowen 4 days later with only 2 nights at anchor. Some of you may remember that Bowen is our favorite place in Australia and we were greeted with a friend (Mike), standing on the wall with a big sign saying 'Welcome back Jane-G'. We arranged a quick lift out to antifoul the bottom. And it was quick, because of the tides, we were lifted out at 1030, finished painting at 1630 and was put back in the water at 2300. We were very lucky that Mike volunteered to help. Bowen had changed a little because the film 'Australia' with Nicole Kidman was being shot there. Part of the town was closed off and they had built a 'new' town by the waterfront. Lots of the locals had parts as extras so we are looking forward to seeing the film to see if we recognize anybody.
Because we wanted to be in Darwin by the end of June we really had to keep moving. It was almost 2500 mile from Brisbane and when your average speed is only 5 knots it takes a long time. We were now passage making not cruising, which meant long sails some overnight, and only 1 or 2 nights at anchor to recover. We did stop in Cairns for 4 nights and were impressed with the city. It was very clean but very touristy with mainly Japanese. We did take a day off to be a tourist and took the Scenic Railway up to Kuranda a real tourist town and the Skyrail down. The Skyrail is 7.5 km ride in a gondola over the treetops. The views were magnificent and the ride so smooth. At the bottom we went into the Tjapukai Cultural Park, which gave the 'Aboriginal Experience'. It was really interesting and we got to throw boomerangs (mine came back better than Clive's) and throw spears.
From Cairns the sailing became much more interesting (read stressful), as the Great Barrier Reef gets nearer to the mainland. The passage is well marked but some gaps between islands and reef were only ½ mile wide and also we did quite a few night sails. It certainly kept us on our toes and there was no dozing on the night watch. We stopped at Lizard Island where they have a Research center for the Great Barrier Reef. We were lucky enough to be there for the once a week guided tour. It was very interesting and informative about what is happening to the reefs and how they hope to help it recover. This was also where we caught up with friends who had left Brisbane 2 weeks before us. They were surprised to see us because they thought they had been traveling fast. The next island was Flinders where we joined our friends on a walk around the island to see the 'Cave Paintings'. It was a good walk but I must admit that you need a good imagination when you look at the paintings.
We rounded Cape York, which is the northern most part of Australia and anchored in the bay. The next day we went ashore to climb up to the top and stand on the end of Australia. It certainly felt good to be 'over the top'. 10 miles further along the coast was the settlement of Seisia. It was the best anchorage we had had for a few weeks and a great place to stop for a few days waiting for the weather to cross the Gulf of Carpenteria. This is where the Torres Strait and the Arafura Sea meet and mix and with the shallow depths tend to kick the seas up a little. The trip across to Gove on the other side was about 350.With plenty of wind we had one of our fastest trips so far even if it was uncomfortable and Clive felt seasick most of the time. We arrived in Gove at 1 in the morning but Alcan have a big Alumina refinery there and with all the lights it was like tinsel town. What a disappointment to see it in the morning all grey and dusty. At Gove, apart from the refinery, there is only the Yacht Club and the town of Nhulunbuy about 15km away. With no bus service the only way is to hitch a ride, which neither of us like but did it. No problem going in and on the way out a lovely lady called Kate picked us up and before taking us to the Yacht Club we went to her house for tea. The next day we joined her and her husband for dinner at the Golf Club. We do get to meet some wonderful people in our travels.
Again we were lucky to be in a comfortable anchorage for a few days while to wind blew hard. Our next trip was tricky as we were going through 'the hole in the wall' this is a passage between 2 islands that is 60 feet wide and ½ mile long. Because of this the tide rushes through at up to 9 knots so you have to get your timing right to go through at slack water. We judged it perfectly and we were on our way to Port Essington 250 miles away going as fast as we could as bad weather was forecast yet again. We arrived in good time and had 2 days off. The beach here was about a mile long and we picked up the best shells of our trip so far. We had not seen such a variety of colours or shapes of shells and have added to our collection.
The next trip was to Darwin and again needed planning to get the tides right. I planned it and if I say so my self it was perfect. In the places where we needed to have the tide with us we were there at the right time. It was a very fast and furious sail with us carrying too much sail but not wanting to reef at night. As it got light Clive woke me up to reef but before I could get out of bed the wind started to ease and we had a wonderful sail into Darwin. I even persuaded Clive to go into a marina and because of the big tidal range we had to go through a lock into the marina. Even that was perfect as we arrived at high water and the lockkeeper let us straight in.
The last 2 weeks has been spent washing and cleaning everything on the boat. In Brisbane they are desperate for water and are on water rations. Here in Darwin they have plenty so we can wash the boat with fresh water and take as long a shower as we want. It's brill! The weather is also great with daytime temps around 28 deg and cooling down at night so we can sleep. The city and people are very friendly and helpful and we have been using our bikes to see as much as possible.
The next leg into Indonesia really is into the unknown. It will be a completely different culture to what we have experienced so far but we are really looking forward to it. 5 days after we leave a rally will be following with 110 boats so we hope to stay just ahead of them until Singapore.
That's all for now so it's a final farewell from Australia.
Bye for Now,
Jane and Clive