Azzans Adventures

26 June 2011
Departed Gove after an early morning cuppa with Brad McGill, who came out to Azzan to see us off. We had good winds, 15/20 knots most of the way to Cape Wiberforce and then on to the Wessels. We passed another yacht, Stamper from the Netherlands who is also on the rally. We timed our arrival at the Hole in the Wall in time for the tide change. We had a safe and exciting passage through here on our second time round. Lots of apprehension, with tidal rush and whirlpools to contend with as the current can run at up to 5 knots. On our first passage through here we had 8 knots of flow under the boat and where covering 2.5 knots over the surface. We made anchorage one bay north of the channel, very nice spot, no other boats.
27-28 June
Spent 2 days & nights in this anchorage in 6 meters of water, fished the nearby creek by foot and caught some nice mangrove jack and got to a photograph up close of a six foot croc on the bank, he wasn't worried about us at all. No crabs or barra!!The rock headlands provided us with another good feed of oysters plus some for later on. Also, landed a nice bluefin tuna which we used for sushi.
29 June
Moved to the next bay north, another sheltered anchorage with good holding, the winds have been blowing 20 knots most of the time so good to find such good secure positions. Great creek here, full of mangrave jacks and barra. Caught 2 nice barramundi - 670 & 710mm (The freezer is now full). Had a good day doing maintenance on the boat and got to paint back deck and dodger top with non-skid.
1 July
Decided to make our move towards Darwin and have chosen the coastal path to stay away from the strong winds to the north. Made anchorage at Refuge bay on Elcho Island. The anchorage is a fair way in but good holding in 4 meters. We had a good sail and part of the passage was shared with Boomerang, a catamaran from Fremantle. They continued on to Howard Island.
2 & 3 July
Up early 7am departure for Mjrungga Island, a lot of shallow shoals to negotiate and a bit hairy at times, arrived on the west side of the island at 6pm and found anchorage in 5 meteres on the edge of the reef. We stayed 2 days here...no fish.
4 July
Decided on a short run of 20 miles to Cape Stewart, not a big cape and 20 knot winds from the east created a fair bit of roll in the bay. Dawn suggested we break out Elvis, our Rock & Roll reducing device. He worked a treat, so much so that we had the opportunity to do our washing and make water . It was a very rough night as we had set the anchor drag to the minimum setting which was set off by the boat swinging at anchor, so a lot of time spent checking our position. (Happy Birthday, sister Michelle)
5 July
Had a good 45 mile run to Maningreda , a large aboriginal community at the mouth of the Liverpool river. We anchored about 3 mile from the community , behind Entrance Island , lots of mossies on dark...no fish.
6, 7 & 8 July
An early start and a very rolly sea as we made our way to the King River, which we were hoping to enter for some serious fishing, crabbing and shelter from the forecasted strong wind warning. On arrival at the mouth the wind had increased to 20knots, the depth getting below its chart indication and the seas resembled the bar at Southport, so we hightailed it out of there as it was too risky to enter with the possibility of changing sandbars. We made our way to North Goulburn Island, arriving at the anchorage at 11pm. Due to there being a community on South Goulburn Island we were able to receive TV, phone and internet reception and got to watch the last 30 minutes of the state of origin match....you little beauty!! We spent 3 nights here as we were still concerned about the strong wind warning .
9 July
With the winds consistently blowing 20 to 25 knots, after 10am we decided to head for Malay Bay. A 30 mile run with good wind on our aft quarter, a great sail, goose-winged all the way, averaging 6 knots. No fish the whole way, the ocean is empty and have worn the paint off the YBE lure from Brad McGill. Malay Bay was a nice anchorage, good holding in 3 meters with a mud bottom and have been experiencing spectacular sunsets each evening due to the smoke haze from the burning (country) that is common place in this area at this time of year and unfortunately our photos do not capture the real effect.
10th July
7.30 start for the passage through the Bowen straights for Cape Danger. Good country through here, should have planned more time to spend here as the estuary fishing looks good here. Was also an interesting day as the radio was busy due to the rescue of a stricken catamaran called Good Times. Sounds like they came to grief about 60 miles north of us in the open sea. They were rescued by a barge, the Captain Roberts and monitored by air for 6 plus hours, not sure what happened to them. As far as boat traffic goes, haven't seen another yacht since we left the Wessels some 10 days ago. We anchored in behind the Point Danger sandspit in 3 meters of water. Another good safe anchorage in these conditions.
11 July
7.30 departure for Cape Don, the top of Coburg peninsula and the entrance to the Darwin channel. This leg took us past Port Essington bay where we sighted first of many yachts exiting that bay, by the end of the day there were 7 boats on the water, Azzan holding her own with the captain twigging the sails all day. (A very competitive lad is he) Anchored in Alcaro Bay with 4 other boats, Atlantia, Cop-out, & Elina of Laird and one other cat, two kept going and the other chose another (smoky) bay....burning country still!! Alcaro Bay looks like another good crabbing spot , but alas Darwin beckons ... priorities (only 8 beers left) (Happy Birthday, Dougie)
12 July
We departed about 7.30am as we had to negotiate the tides coming around Cape Don into the channel. We were a bit early, but this gave us a good start as it was a good run to the next anchorage of Cape Hotham. By the time we rounded Cape Don the wind completely died and we had to crank up the motor. (iced vovo) We motored for 8 hours and decided to do a night passage into Darwin as we still had the tides, currents and no wind to contend with. We anchored up at 7.30pm for dinner and a couple of hours sleep before heading off at 11pm for our final leg into Darwin arriving at 7am.
13 July
We dropped anchor in about 3.6 meters of water and hit the hay for a well deserved sleep. We woke an hour later to quite a commotion going on over head, this being a couple of the RAAF F1 18's taking off. That was the end of our sleep. So a quick shower and off to catch up our friends off Freycinet, Veedon Fleece & Anima. Then went ashore and walked to town to sort out our visas, and pick up our mail at the PO, then caught the bus back. Tide & wind caught us out as when we got back to our dingy she was high and dry and full of sand??. Then found out that some good Samaritan had rescued poly and dragged her up the beach. She was side on to the shore waves and was filled with sandy water. We paid $10 and become a member of the yacht club who have boat trollies to use so now we can pull the dingy up above high