12.28.212S 130.51.21E  Wednesday 18^th September  We’ve arrived!  We anchored yesterday evening at 1800hrs in Frances bay outside the estuary leading to Tipperary Marina – Fannie Bay was totally untenable with heavy swells and strong SE winds.

Sunrise yesterday morning

And moon set, taken at exactly the same time!

Heidenskip beat us to it by about an hour and they collected us in their tender for drinks and a meal which was wonderful after 10 days at sea.  This morning at 06.30am the infestation team arrived and dove underneath the boat to treat all the seawater inlets – now we have to wait 14 hours before we can draw in any salt water – so no generator, engine, flushing of loos etc for the day – luckily we have holding tanks! 

The anti infestation team arriving

It’s so tidal here we have to wait for the next rise before we can reach Tipperary which is some way up the river – tomorrow morning between 8.00am and 11.00am I believe.  Plenty to do today, cleaning up and generally getting the boat in order again…..other boats are arriving – Spectra, Happy Wanderer, Lousill all glided in this morning on a glassy flat sea.

Spectra gliding in to join the anchorage

We had an amazing passage yesterday through the straights topping 12.1 knots over the ground!  Can you imagine – a ship’s speed and our true knots were only around 6.5!

The proof is in the pudding! 

It was very shallow with overruns and whirlpools but not scary – just incredibly exhilarating – and the weather has changed too – hot hot hot and very humid.

Paul says he can’t respect me in this hat but it certainly

does its job!

The Darwin shoreline looks very industrial here from our vantage point with cranes and skyscrapers.

Heavy swell and cross winds coming in to Darwin last evening

After the entire city was blown away on Boxing Day some years ago the whole place has been rebuilt and is now a lively modern metropolis with a young population and cosmopolitan atmosphere. We might go ashore today by tender to have a look. We are really looking forward to being in a multicultural environment again - there are up to 60 ethnic groups represented here with apparently no racial tensions – it is truly an integrated mix with no ghettos…… very different from the predominantly ‘white’ areas we have visited so far.  Asians we have seen, mainly in Sydney, very few aboriginal people and no black afro-Caribbean people whatsoever…..