Day 9 Port Douglas-Bali

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Up at 06:00 this morning Sunday, after a really peaceful nights sleep at anchor.  Yet again there was an infestation of bugs in the cockpit some of them unfortunately got into the main cabin so we spent most of the day vacuuming them up as they appeared from under cabinetry.  Tiny little things.

We left the anchorage just before 06:30 with calm seas and vertically no wind.  Headed south to the Cumberland Straite between Marchinbar Island and Guluwuru Island to get on the west side of them for the last 350nm run to Darwin..  
The chart states “strong tide rips”.  WELL, I would call it more like breaking surf all the way across.   OMG!

The photo below shows the route I had planned and the blue dotted line the actual route I ended up taking.  The swirls are a bit of a giveaway.  When I saw the surf I was ready to turn away and head back up the way we came and go around the top of the island some 30nm away but as we got closer I noticed that at either end there was calmer water so we gingerly approached the northern end of the surf near the shoreline and managed to find a way through without too much drama.  The tide was with us and we were gaining an extra 4kts on top of our own speed of 9 so we crossed over at 13kts.  There is no way I would have gone through without the forward facing sonar (Garmin Fish Eye).  It is an amazing piece of kit.  It shows all the bumps, holes and bomies on the seabed so far forward you have plenty of warning of any danger in your path, just brilliant!



After that little bit of excitement we settled into the day, most of which was pretty nice conditions.  Wind and sea increased a little later in the afternoon but only for a couple of hours and nothing crazy.  

I’m now on my evening watch 18:00-22:00 and things are ticking along.  1550rpm, 8.2kts burning 15lts per hour and 10kts of wind on the nose.  

We did have an alarm go off earlier which shut down the giro stabiliser and AC.  AC shut down - panic stations.  We can’t loose the AC, not in this heat.  David popped down to the engine room and found one of the inverters had tripped out.  Flick it back on and on came the AC - panic averted, phew. 

We also had a not so smart bird try and land on the forward railings, very entertaining to watch.



Comments

  1. Anonymous17 March 2026 at 18:16

    Pic of the forward facing sonar image?

    ReplyDelete

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