Arrived in Darwin

Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Mon 27 Aug 2012 21:56
12:27.1S 130:49.2E
 
We have arrived in Darwin after a smooth traversal of the Van Dieman Gulf.  The only problem we encountered was a total loss of wind, which meant we had to motor the last 20 hours.
 
Anastasia has had her seawater orifices treated for mussel growth, which apparently causes issues with the lock gates on the marinas.  The marinas all have lock gates because Darwin has 6 meter tides so presumably it would be prohibitively expensive to use piles and floating docks like marinas do in areas with lesser tides.
 
We have to wait six hours before using our engines which means we are on the temporary dock until 6am tomorrow morning.  Then we will go and refuel before entering the "duck pond" marina, which is the only marina with lock gates wide enough for Anastasia to fit through.
Dawn over a windless Van Dieman Gulf
The sun rises over the still windless gulf (it was always windless)
An example of the lock gates we will have to squeeze through tomorrow.  Here the tide is only about 3 meters down.