West of Darwin - Day One - 12 26.283S 128 11.454E
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Fri 6 Sep 2013 05:57
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Underway again, and west again! Didn't get the time to
add pictures from Kakadu and Darwin - something for when we next get good
Internet. Locked out of the marina at 0615 yesterday to ensure we had plenty of
water in the channel and to get a full day to get clear of Darwin before
nightfall. That was achieved with the help of a good wind from the east and a
strong tide in our favour. So the start was good, but the wind dropped down
overnight and we even had a couple of hours of wind from the northwest (ahead of
the beam) - that wasn't in the forecast! But it's come back again from the
southeast so far today and been quite strong in the gusts, so progress
is good again. It will be interesting to see if it follows the pattern of
strongish during the day, easing during the evening and light overnight. The
wind has kicked up quite a lumpy sea and we're rocking and rolling when one
of the bigger waves goes through. Makes putting poles up and down quite
interesting! The position above is our noon position today. The noon to
noon run was 128.4 miles and we had covered 166 miles to that
point. Jacaranda is accompanying us and we've stayed within VHF range
so far. If tests on their SSB are successful later today, we may wander further
apart as no two boats sail the same, but we hope to stay in radio contact. A pod
of 6 or so dolphins came to play while we had lunch. It was good to see them so
early. They were spotted dolphins, not ones we had seen before (bigger than the
Atlantic spotted dolphins). No birds as yet, other than, you guessed it, the man
made variety - we were overflown (low level) by the friendly Customs flying
machine and gave our details. Wonder if that will be a daily visit like it was
on our way to Darwin. The only other event so far today was having to change
direction and give way to a fishing boat trawling. All this sea and we
end up on a collision course! We've been asked if we could swim at Darwin. They
remove several hundred crocodiles from Darwin harbour each year, so no! We liked
the Darwin climate, what we experienced of it - very hot (32C+) during
the day and only a little bit cooler at night - it's what a tropical climate
should be like! It's a bit hot to work out in the open, but otherwise it's fine.
If the marina had a swimming pool it would have been perfect - we've suggested
it! Every day there we had clear blue skies from dawn to dusk. Could
happily have stayed longer, but time and tide...... The changing seasons are
important on this leg, so we have a schedule to follow.
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