Sailing around the World, ( Presently in Darwin, Australia. )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Tue 24 Aug 2010 06:55
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MONDAY 23rd AUGUST
2010
00.45 hrs We shut down the engine as the
wind had oicked up again , so once we were sailing down " Van Dieman Gulf "
towards Darwin.
04.00hrs, we sailed past " Poopers Rock" and the
tide turned against us. We had already looked up the rise and fall of
tides and they are significant,
so the net result of this would be strong tidal
flows. and within a short period ,we had almost 3 knots against us, that
really slowed things down,
Later we had to use the engine again for 1.5 hrs to
get through the current as the wind shifted, " Grand Filou " passed us to
starboard
( also motoring )and went well ahead and
almost out of sight, " Arianne" was still behind, and motoring
also, and remained there for the night, This boat is Swiss and the
five or six men on board are very pleasent
and quiet people, Even though they are presbyterian gentlemen, they always
turned up at Mass in the RC churches at most
places we visited. so Aileen thinks they are saints...............
On reaching Clarence Straight, We ( sailing
again ) took " A Lady " through a short cut inside the reefs and passed " Grand
Filou" again,
he he, we were delighted with ourselves, we dont
know wether they knew it or not, but we were having our own private little race
with them.
and now we were in front again,
BUT,, but, as dawn broke we could see them away in
the distance behind making great progress, the wind was 25+ knots tight on
our port side,
and we were flying, perfect sailing conditions,
flat seas, plenty of wind, sunshine, dolphins, etc.
Fast and all that we were going, " Grand Filou "
was going even faster, ( but then she is a Shipman 63 ) and it was not long
before she passed
us very close to port.. what a pity, we were
hoping beyond hope that we would get over the finish line in pole position, but
alas ! that was not to be.
Anyway, we will certainly get them on
handicap.........
10.01Hrs we crossed the finish line, about 10
minutes after " grand Filou ",, not bad after 743 n miles at
sea.....
10 .45hrs The environmental agency came to
the boat and sent a female diver down under the hull and injected a chemical
fluid
into the toilet and engine openings to kill off any
potential Zebra mussels living in these places. It was interesting to
watch the operation,, there
were two on board their aluminium little launch and
when the diver went down, they spoke to one another all the time on a 2 way
radio. the whole
operation took less than 30 minutes. but now we
could not use anything on the boat for 14 hours,,,
12.00hrs, we launched the rib, and went
ashore, actually we had to land on the beach outside the Yacht Club ,, and with
a rise and fall of 6m,
the beach was a long way out, We found a trailor in the yacht club and were able to wheel
the rib all the way up the beach, and beyond the HW mark.
We met the lovely Susanne and Paul from W. ARC who
had everything on shore all under control as usual, They took skipper to the
Customs building
and got all the paperwork sorted out, before a
quick visit to " Woolworths" and then Paul drove Skip. back to the
Y.C.
15.00hrs, The 4 of us got the bus into Darwin city
and explored the place, the girls did some retail therapy, as the girls will do,
and Niall
bought a local piece of sculpture and had it posted
home. Skipper had his watch strap repaired, and we got all the usual post cards
and things,,
The City itself was a bit scattered, not too many
high rise buildings, almost a bit like a wild west town. without the
horses.
Later we retired to a local steakhouse and had a
great steak meal, plenty of wine, and some great laughs, and
generally great to be ashore again.
22.00hrs We returned to the Y.C .and had a
night cap before we hauled the rib down the beach to the water, returned the
trolly, and all hopped aboard
motored out to the lovely " A LADY " all feeling
lovely too...
We had another couple of night caps, Rum and Cokes
on board, and we understand from Aileen this morning, that the boys did some
afull singing, imagine that. and we cant remember a
thing, Probably ,just as well.
anyway, a good night was had by all.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Thats it.
Signaed ;- Stephen
Hyde, ( Skipper )
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