Boxing day


*  A note for my mate Pete in Guernsey  - with reference to your comment from Christmas Days blog see note 4 below!!! 

When we arrived in Darwin I would have put a reasonable sum of money on us not moving for a week or more due to

  1. 1.  It being right on Christmas
  2. 2.  Being given a “Restricted to Port” notice by ABF as their was an offical form missing for the importation of the boat
  3. 3.  Having something wrapped around the starboard prop or shaft causing a vibration
  4. 4.  No way in hell am I diving into the murky Darwin waters only to have a chat with a prehistoric salt water crocodile! Sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it. Apparently they get around 300 of them a year inside the port area.
  5. 5.  Also the nasty jellyfish etc etc etc


It seems everything up here wants to kill you.
Needless to say nobody goes swimming in the sea in Darwin.

In the end the miracle happened and all the stars aligned albeit at a cost.

We left around midday and the weather has been amazing! Virtually no wind or waves.

As I write this it is late afternoon on Boxing day and since we left we have had sunshine, max 5kts of wind, a slight ripple on top of the water masquerading as waves and 3 ship sightings. I could get used to this.
The forecast for the next few days is for more of the same🤞.

Both engines got a birthday this afternoon with replacement air filters as it was "time".     

We’re heading due east for the group of islands at the very tip of Queensland called the Torres Strait Islands. I suppose the most well known of them is Thursday Island. We should be there sometime Saturday night Sunday morning. From there we hang a right and head down the east coast and follow the shipping lanes inside the Great Barrier Reef.

Cairns is our current destination as it is roughly half way from Darwin to Sydney.  There we intend to get another top up of fuel but if all is going well and we have enough left in the tanks we may just keep going and fuel up somewhere further south.

1st picture is from last nights sunset
2nd is our saloon helm station. The left iPad mimics the main chart plotter/radar from the fly bridge and the right is the iPad is running Navionics charts with our route. When it gets busy we go up to the fly bridge to control things.
3rd is the area we use most when on watch.
4th picture is a nice, calm day on the water! You will notice the engine room hatch open for extra ventilation
We have been getting a starboard engine room overheat alarm (not engine just the room) so I’ve left both hatches open to try and help with ventilation, it’s so hot up this end of the country.

  In the end I opened up the "engine removal" hatch which is really big so hopefully that will give it enough air to stop alarming.

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Comments

  1. Pete26 December 2024 at 23:55

    Thanks for the reply. I forgot about crocodiles and jellyfish. Can understand why the divers were so expensive. Danger money. Looks like a great trip down to Sydney. Did you say you were picking up the owners for the last bit of the delivery.

    ReplyDelete

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