Day 4 Port Douglas-Bali

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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 sells boat courtesy flags as the boat needs one for Indo, Singapore and Thailand.  Finally found a supplier in the Gold Coast who is couriering them up to a marina in Darwin for me where I can pick them up.  When I went into Bali in December we didn't have an Indo courtesy flag and the officials were not happy.  I told them we did have one but it must have been blown off by the wind.  Don't think they were overly impressed so i'm pleased I manage to get one this time. The white 

A short time ago we were passed by the enormous cruise liner Queen Anne heading south it was light up like a Christmas tree.  It was so big and produced such a big wake we could see it on the radar for ages!  



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