Day 7 Port Douglas-Bali

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 on the electronics system I realise he is not changing speed or course but is aiming to cut across our path at a distance of less than 1/2 nm.  I was the stand on vessel and he was the give way vessel but I decided on this occasion might can have right and he is way bigger than us so I slowed down to make sure we had at least 1nm gap.  

We also came across an Indonesian fishing boat earlier who to my amazement had AIS and it was on!  Not only that but his net, that he had out, had 5 or 6 marker bouys that each had AIS!  I have never come across that before.  Indo fishing boats sometimes don't even have nav lights!  How things are changing. 

We are making pretty good progress, trucking along at 7.5-8kts.

Making good progress across the "top end"  

Only 500nm to go to Darwin