10.57S 132.09E  Tuesday 17^th September  At the end of our passage through the Arafura Sea, with eight more hours of trickling along, we should reach Cape Don as planned, and suggested, four and a half hours before high tide in Darwin.  Then if everything goes according to plan, we should whistle through the Dundas Strait with two knots of tide running with us and arrive in time to catch the next westbound tide through Howards Passage into Beagle Gulf – then it’s the home run into Darwin.  Clocks have gone back half an hour and with the moon only just waning (97%) there are massive 7 metre tides!  Over 21 feet of tidal difference!  It is  6.30 in the evening so Paul has gone for a long sleep as it promises to be an exacting night ahead…..

We have been in touch via email with new Rally participants Liz and Roy Deeley who, being Australian and knowing these waters, kindly wrote up comprehensive notes for the whole passage and distributed them to us all.  They are berthed in Tipperary Marina along with Gaia and as spaces are at such a premium we decided to book ourselves in there too, in advance.  This has meant paying in advance too, from yesterday, but we think it is worth it with three teenagers on board from the 24th to be alongside where they can freely get on and off during the next couple of weeks.

We’ve all heard of the Mutiny on the Bounty, but not so Men Against the Sea (the epic journey taken by Bligh who with the 19 loyal men set adrift from the Bounty in an open 23 foot launch, sailed 3,600 miles from Tonga to Kupang) and Pitcairn’s Island (which chronicles the fate of Fletcher Christian, the mutineers, and a handful of Tahitians who take refuge there).  Written by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall in 1932, I found the trilogy by chance in a book swap yacht club….. and what a wonderfully written, sympathetic and even poetic style it has, obviously made all the more poignant as we are covering the exact same ground as Bligh all those years ago….even to his landfall at Kupang.   Known to be the highest regarded cartographer of his time in England, many of his readings and soundings (taken non stop during that heartrending ordeal) are still used to this day, or certainly confirmed.

Once outside Tipperary Marina we must call Quarantine and get inspected for mussel infestations and have our waterways expunged with detergent; then after 14 hours we will be given permission to go through the lock gates to our pre-paid berth.  We haven’t been ashore for a week, since a brief ten minutes on Lizard island, or provisioned for ten days but we seem to be managing fine with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.  Jennie introduced me to (and gave me) ‘green bags’ from Lakeland which are marvellous for keeping produce fresh – and reusable which is great.

Only a week until our children arrive in Darwin; Oscar flew to Sydney today – Vic and Clara will fly from Madrid on the 22^nd and we cannot wait to see them again…..