Gary's Deliveries

The day started off really well.  I was on the 06:00-12:00 watch and for the first 4 or 5hrs conditions were really nice, 10kts on the nose with a small swell.  Then it all went back to normal and by midday it was blowing 30kts and the sea state was unpleasant.   Around lunchtime we had an encounter with an Aussie fishing trawler who came within 600m of us out in the middle of nowhere and he was within a cats whisker of being on the right side of the No Fishing area I did have a plan B in mind and that was to duck into the long chain of islands called Wessel Islands.  We ended up in a really nice bay called Burston Bay on the northern Wessel Island. Just as we were rounding the corner into the bay with the 3D forward facing sonar on we get a call from an Australian Boarder Force aircraft.  The questions were - what is your port of registration, last port of call, next port of call, all answered and off they went after doing 3 fly by's!  Funnily enough ...

Now nearly midnight on Friday 13th, day 7 of this trip and to be honest I'm pretty glad this day is over.  The weather forecast lied to us.  It was supposed to be 10-15kts and 1m seas from just off the starboard bow.  Well we have had 10-20kts, 1.5-2.5m chop 45 degrees off the starboard bow but every now and then it would come round to the beam which this boat does not like, even with the highest giro stabiliser setting we have had a good few slaps and rolls.  We have had to put everything in the galley either under the table on the floor, in drawers or in the sink to stop it crashing to the floor.  I had to sleep in the saloon table area earlier as I was getting thrown around the bed and even getting airborne occasionally.   We are in the middle of nowhere then all of a sudden I get a target on the radar.  A 280m cargo ship has come out of some port in the Gulf of Carpentaria heading NW.  As I watch it closely and activate the target tracker...

We had a leisurely start to today, Thursday, up around 0830.  The boat had a good 'ol wash down as the heavens opened.  We also had hundreds of bugs all over the cockpit as we left the cockpit lights on as well as the anchor light just to make sure any foolhardy boaters saw us in the middle of the night.  Aussie bugs are next level!  They are massive. After looking at the weather forecast we decided to get going and head for Darwin.  It was forecast to be 15kts of wind and 1m sea on the nose which is no problem for this boat.  So we had an early lunch and got going at 12:00 Once we got back over the entrance bar to the river and around Cape York (the very top of mainland Aus) the conditions were not as expected.  We had a decent chop 45 degrees off the starboard bow which made the ride slightly bouncey and pretty uncomfortable.  This was caused mainly by the very shallow water around this area between 6-8m.  After battling our way through the...

 We went through the night as planned.  Weather was so-so, we had 20kts wind, 1.5m seas, thunder/lightning and squally rain.  Apart from that it was an ok night.  We decided to do 3hrs on 3hrs off watches which I don't normally do as it is very tiring but as it was only 1 night that it worked. As we were not going to make Thursday Island before night fall I decided to stop in a little river by Turtle Head Island only 40 ish nm from Thursday. So we go into the river and found a good spot to anchor.  On our way into the river by Turtle head Island  OMG!!  After anchoring up with absolutely no one else here we and sitting around watching "Drive To Survive" on Netflix for an hour or so I heard this strange noise.  When I looked out the window and all I could see was the tail of a helicopter!!  Holly shit!  It was 10mts off the stern and about 5mts off the water and the downdraft was churning up the water something crazy!  We both went o...

Tuesday 10th March and today's plan was to get up and leave early and keep going overnight till we get to or very close to Thursday Island.  So the anchor was up at 1st light which was around 06:00 and off we went.        Cool sunrise           Conditions were really good, 5kts of wind, flat calm seas and 9+kts of boat speed burning 17lts per hour total for both engines.  We have 2 Yanmar 150hp engines which is small for a 62ft boat but this boat was designed for  efficiency  and fuel economy with 4,400lt fuel capacity and a 4,000nm range.  It also has a pretty unusual feature,  the propellors are variable pitch.  So you can keep the revs  consistent , change the pitch which in turn changes the speed and fuel consumption up or down depending on which way you pitch it.  Not many boats of this size have variable pitch props. The last few days I have been trying to find a supplier in Darwin that...

The reason for the Day 2&3 heading is we left on Saturday, travelled 10nm and stayed the night (Day 1).  Yesterday we ended up in Cooktown river for the night (Day 2).  Writing this today, Monday at 16:00 which is Day 3. Now to the actual Day 3 blog........ Our stop last night was Cooktown river and we arrived into the entrance around 14:00. The charts show it as a very shallow river but there were yachts in there anchored in 3m of water so I knew it was ok for us as we draw about 1.3m. I drove in very slowly with the forward facing sonar on, best one I’ve ever used, as the charts were not particularly accurate.  We got past the fuel wharf where the depth got to less than a meter below the keel so I stopped and backed out looking for another route to the deeper water.  As I was doing this one of the old salty locals came over his tender and showed us the way round the shallows to 3m depth.  Anchor down with excellent holding.  The water coming out of th...