After picking up a few supplies in Seisa last Monday (30th June) we up anchored on Tuesday morning just before 11am to head for Gove across the other side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, along with Musketelle & Keshi. We could not leave any earlier as we had to wait for the tide to come in so we had a bit more depth going up the channel.

We had a pretty good trip across the Gulf with good south easterlies of around 15 knots but each night it seemed to get up to 25 knots. We did have a very slow patch on Wednesday for about 8-9 hours but then it picked up at about 9pm. We finally dropped anchor in Gove at 4.15pm on Thursday (3rd July). Musketelle arrived about 2.5 hours before us and Keshi half an hour after, although we virtually lost sight of both of them on the second day. We were called up by Customs Coastwatch who flew over and called us all up for our details. Keshi were called up 3 times in all and Musketelle twice - they asked Keshi the name of our yacht but they couldn't get their head around our name!! The last of Keshi's call was at night so they are on the ball here.

The Chefs on board on all three yachts had decided they were not cooking dinner on Thursday night so we went to the Gove Yacht Club for a cool drink and a meal. Cheap enough but wasn't anything to rave about.

Janine & Garth on Catala had rounded Cape York the day we left Seisa so they ended up arriving in Gove Friday morning. At mid day Friday between the eight of us we hired a mini taxi to take us into Nhulunbuy which is the local town that services Gove. We all had lunch there and did some grocery shopping - the bare minimum as prices were considerably dearer. Had a look around the town which had the usual small town amenities. The Woolworth's supermarket was well stocked. As you can imagine it is an aboriginal town and there were plenty in town as it was benefit day!! Need I say more! That night we had a pot luck dinner on board Keshi. Also picked up our bike covers from the yachties whom we bought the bikes from in Cairns. They are living on their yacht and working in the mining industry. We saw a couple of jobs advertised in Nhulunbuy that maybe we could have applied for - a receptionist for a real estate agency and a fencing job for Rio Tinto!!

Bauxite (the raw material for aluminium) was discovered in the 1950's when a geologist recognised the value of it's red cliffs. The Comalco Company was formed expressly to exploit the Weipa deposits and then in the mid 1960s another big deposit was found on the Gove Peninsula on the north east corner of Arnhem Land. Also about that time banana prawns were found which are a type that can be netted in daylight hours allowing trawler operators to work office hours!! Gove Harbour is deep and commodious boasting a bauxite ore loading plant on its headland and Gove is also a customs clearance port. Once we get to Darwin and have internet I will be able to download some more photos.

It is not until you are in Australia for awhile that you realise how big the mineral and mining business in Australia is. It is just huge and there seem to be more deposits of minerals being found all the time. It is certainly holding up their economy at the moment.

We are certainly in crocodile territory so no swimming but as yet haven't seen any, other than what we saw when we were in Cairns.

Left Gove yesterday afternoon and headed 30 miles further on to Elizabeth Bay around from Cape Wilberforce but did not get there until dark. Fortunately Keshi had arrived in daylight so could direct us. Catala and Musketelle are also with us and we are joined today by another boat whom we have seen on our travels but as yet haven't met - Serenity 11. It is great travelling with other boats as we can at least have a chat on the VHF every now and then.

This morning all five boats of us left Elizabeth Bay in order to go through the "Hole in the Wall" or another name, the Gugari Rip between Guluwuru Island and Raragala Island. This gap between the two islands is only 100 metres wide and you have to work it with the tide. With no wind going through the tide whipped us through at just over 7 knots. It was a lovely piece of water but now on the other side it is pretty windy. Keshi & Musketelle have carried on and Catala, Serenity & us are now anchored in Guruliya Bay for the afternoon & night. Musketelle's genoa halyard has jammed so they will carry on until they can get into calmer water to fix it, but will be okay in the meantime if they keep sailing as it is not completely unfurled. Catala and us may do some overnighters to get to Darwin, but will see how we go as we all have some repairs to be done when we get there. Fortunately ours are not majors.

No doubt I will add to our blog in a few days when we are further down the track. We have about 388 miles to go to get to Darwin

Position: 11.35.97 S 136.17.773E