Graptolite - Crewless in Darwin
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Sun 7 Sep 2008 12:57
Alison arrived in Darwin last week following a side trip to New Zealand and
Sydney so she could take Tom home and back to school. We all saw the closing
performance of the Darwin Festival in the Botanic Gardens. It was some
people swaying about up bendy poles inside illuminated balls. You had to be
there really!
Heike returned from Adelaide and we anchored out in Fannie Bay ready for an
early morning tide on Wednesday to enter the boatyard at Ludmilla Creek.
Grapto's bottom wasn't too badly covered with barnacles and weed but she
will still take some cleaning up and painting. Later that morning, we went
along to HMAS Coonawarra Naval Base to see the rest of the WARC fleet cross
the start line for the leg to Bali.
Heike had a couple of days walkabout in Kakadu National Park and left for
Berlin yesterday afternoon leaving the skipper to organize his own repairs.
As Heike has been doing all the organizing for the boat for the last
half-year, it's going to be difficult for me although as I've had emails and
phone calls from all her stopovers on the way home it doesn't feel like
she's actually left yet.
Thanks for being my traveling companion for the past six months, Heiki. It's
been a lot of fun sailing from Galapagos to Darwin with you and an otherwise
memorable trip has been upgraded to unforgettable by you being onboard.
M