Photo: Heading into South Goulbourn Island Anchorage

We left Darwin behind us by beating into the prevailing easterly and south easterly trade winds. And we were leaving civilisation too. Considering we were now in a first world country it dawned upon us both that this part of Australia was desolate, wild and empty. And huge....

We had nearly 600 nautical miles of nothing ahead of us before we reached our first port of call. We were heading for Gove, a small harbour bay served by no road links to the rest of Australia except for 500 miles of dirt tracks. The harbour served the bauxite mines, existing to load up ore carrying ships and it was our only port of call. But along the way we picked up a couple of remote wilderness anchorages among the islands and mangroves. Valencia Island and South Goulbourn Island gave us some good rest from the relentless tacking into the wind. But the weather was turning foul so we decided to go for it and complete the final 280 miles to Gove in a series of long tacks that took us through the infamous 'Hole in the Wall' and 12kt currents....

Fabulous Gove. A run down 'yacht club' that at first offered not much, a dusty road to the mining town of Nuhulunbuy and its aboriginal settlements. The harbour bay gave us good shelter from the passing storm except that we dragged our anchor. The 'club' served us some good beer and revealed a shady garden area and a fine barbecue. It was a good place to rest and stock up....

And we began to make new friends....
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