Gary's Deliveries

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...

At the back end of August last year I was writing about a delivery I was doing of a Dickey Pacific 62 from Opua to Bundaberg.  Well I got a call to ask if I was available to take her ("Moonlao") from Port Douglas through to Bali.  Luckily I had a small window before I head over to Panama for my next job early next month.  So David, my crew mate, and I  flew into Cairns on Thursday afternoon, hired a car and drove the 1hr or so to Port Douglas marina where the boat was. We were greeted by Tan and Geoff, spent a a couple of nights with them on the boat which was great fun before we departed and they headed off in the car. There was a "Yellow" cyclone warning issued the day before we arrived but it only turned out to be a bit of a blow so nothing to worry about. Although this boat could make Bali in one go without stopping I decided to clear out of Darwin where we can top up the tanks and the owner has really good quality fuel where as the quality of fuel in Indonesia ...

 Tuesday 30th Dec '25 Route Overview This last leg of the Nordhavn 76 delivery was a short but operationally sensitive transit from Nongsa Point Marina into Singapore waters, finishing at Raffles Marina . The final passage of a 5000nm trip! Departure was at first light to manage traffic density in the Singapore Strait , one of the most commercially congested shipping corridors in the world. Even on a short passage, timing matters. The route involved a westbound exit into the Strait before turning north through the channel separating Malaysia and Singapore, finishing just south of the Johor–Singapore Causeway. For a 76-foot long-range motor yacht, this is not technically demanding in terms of range or endurance. The challenge is traffic management, AIS monitoring, radar plotting, and disciplined bridge watchkeeping. Commercial vessels move fast and with limited manoeuvrability. Positioning decisions must be made early. Routing Decisions This delivery follows earlier offshore work...

  Monday 29th Dec '25 Arrived at the entrance to Nongsa Point Marina, Batam Island, Indonesia at 09:00, waited till we got the all clear to go in.  Put the boat on to berth number B6 with 1/2 a metre either space either side between a dock and an 80ft boat which was very tight, just as well we have bow and stern thrusters and they were working overtime for this docking.   Then it was off to the office to do the paperwork and pay the silly money to berth for 1 night and clear in/out.  NZ$650 was the total for those 2 things! An hour or so later we had a visit from a Customs guy to come onboard to take photos of the main engine, the auxiliary engine, VF radio which showed our unique MMSI number, if you don't know what that is, don't ask :-) then he went up to the fly bridge and took photos of both radar units.  That was it - very strange.  12:45 now and waiting for all our paperwork to come back from the marina office, including our passports then it wil...

Day 21 of this Nordhavn 76 yacht delivery from Cairns to Singapore positioned us off Batam Island , staging for final arrival into Singapore waters. Anchorage Selection – Shelter and Security Initial arrival into a bay on the eastern side of a small island at 14:30 revealed excessive residual swell. Rather than accept unnecessary roll at anchor, we relocated to the western side between two islands where the landmass provided effective protection. Anchor was set at 15:30 in well-sheltered water. Following seven days of sustained sea state, the vessel required a full exterior freshwater washdown. Salt accumulation accelerates corrosion, particularly in tropical humidity. Cleaning commenced from the upper superstructure downward, ensuring exhaust stack, rails, and decks were cleared. Security considerations in parts of the Indonesian archipelago remain relevant. Opportunistic boarding incidents have been reported in certain corridors. Standard protocol included: All access poin...