Dundas Straits-Fannie Bay 3 October
Moonshadow of London
Peter Mantle
Wed 13 Oct 2010 01:49
We had to leave Port Essington at 0730 to be able to encounter tidal flows
at the right times on our journey southeastward toward Darwin. We sailed 24
hours into Darwin, arriving at Fannie Bay near Darwin at about 0730 on 4
October. Having passed through the narrow and very tidal straights at
midnight. We were met by a team of mussel mitigation specialists - they put
a female diver in the water to apply some mussel cleaning solution in the
water inlets of Moonshadow while all the guys watched. They had her rigged
with a communications set so we could assist her in locating the seacocks.
We couldn't start the main engine or the generator until 2100 that night. We
were using fresh water to flush the heads until then.
Because of the large tidal swings, we had to anchor about 3/4 mile from
shore and when we went ashore to the Darwin Sailing Club in our dingey, it
was a very long ride. We stayed ashore, going to the wharf and enjoyed some
good seafood and Sqealing Pig wine until after dark and managed to find
Moonshadow, with great difficult,y as we had left no lights on, when we
returned.