Serenity at anchor in Gove Harbor--she is center with the big American flag.
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On the first night of our crossing, around dusk, a small swallow came flying around the boat. We were eighty miles from the nearest land--and this poor guy cannot land on water! He flew around us many times, sometimes coming right under our canvas cover--he flew right up to Sherry's face and looked at her. After deciding that we were not going to hurt him he came into our cockpit and landed on Sherry's book light. He just sat there exhusted and said thanks. Then he flew to one of the lines securing our dinghy and sat there all night long. As dawn broke, he took off--we hoped he made it.
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June 8--10, 2012 The Gulf of Carpenteria can be tricky at best. There are alot of forces acting on this shallow body of water. This passage will take around 48 hours-- two days and two nights. As we left the penninsula off our port stern we only had 4o feet of water twenty miles from shore. Then we passed through the Rothsay Banks--there were reefs, small islets, and VERY shallow depths--some below seven feet at datum. We chose our path carefully and were soon past the shallows and into deep water--sixty feet (which is deep for coastal OZ). The wind was 120 deg off the bow at 5-20 knots--very nice. But there was an annoying 'swell' coming from the south, which made us roll from side to side. Overall, it was a good two day crossing--but that rolling was tiring. Our second day out we were buzzed by a low flying mid-sized turbo-proped airplane--Australian Customs. They hailed us on our VHF radio and asked a few questions--very nice and polite (in case they read sail blogs). The real excitement happened as we approached the Gove Penninsula on Arnhem Land. It was 5 am (dark) and our radar was picking up the coast with off-laying islands and rocks. But our chartplotter was not showing detail of the coast. We have paper charts for back-up but the chart for this part of the coast was small scaled--not showing details either. Our cruising guide (the Lucas Bible) ends at the Gulf--we were Fubared! We slowed down and changed course to pass far off the rocks and islets of Bremmen Island. By dawn we were motoring up Melville Bay into 15 knots of morning breeze. As we rounded the huge bauxite refinery we were not sure where the anchorage was--so we hailed a small open aluminum boat (the Aussies call them 'tinnies') and they pointed to the anchorage. We anchored in Gove Harbor off the Gove Boat Club in 17 feet of water--Yeah!
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June 7, 2012 Having decided to go to Seisia on the fly so to speak, we had to set new way points and routes. This wasn't a problem and the route was nice as the tip of the penninsula gave us protection from the seas, and we had a nice wind. But, what we forgot to take into account was the tides on entering Seisia. As we approached the sea morker (buoy) off Seisia the depth was reduced rapidly and as we rounded the inner green marker we had 0.8 feet of water under the keel! It would have been smarter to come in at high tide--not low tide as we did. We made it and anchored in fourteen feet of water. Seisia is the small port for an inland aboriginal town called Bamaga. We went ashore at Seisia and visited the small grocery store--everything was very expensive. The cafe' was closed and it was really hot--so we headed back to the boat. The weather looked benign for the next few days as the high had moved from the Great Australian Bight into the Tasman Sea--so we went to bed early for our early morning departure to cross the Gulf of Carpenteria.
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This fishing boat wreck was on the sand bar not far behind Serenity-- a reminder of the perils of this wild area.
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Serenity at anchor in Seisia behind our friends Chris and Liz on Rum Runner II. Seisia got it's name from six brothers who homesteaded here-- their names were Saguakaz, Elu, Isua, Suni, Ibuai, and Aken.
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