The top end bit

So
this will test if we still have any readers its been a long time since our last
little stories and travellers. After
our little river venture we needed to make some progress around the Australian
coast, I had preplanned For
about a months cruising to achieve
the distance from Bundaburg to Darwin and we were getting behind on
Our
dates we where also having minor problems with kit on the boat, The Genoa Roller
reefing kit was not working Properly and my attempts to repair it had resulted in
losing bits into the sea, Our new Propeller bought in NZ
was Also
not working as it should, so whilst sailing in the Whitsundays we arranged to
pull into Yacht
riggers could look at the reefing
system, Arlie beach is the Mainland centre for the charter fleets that sail
ect Around
the Whitsundays. Anyway the stop was a total success the showers & Laundry
at the Class
the reefing kit was rebuilt a small grub screw had come undone allowing the
system to unscrew itself and move Up
the forestay, So after a two day
pit stop we were good to go we would push straight on to Cairns about 300
miles. All went smoothly up to
Flying
from Rendezvous sailing with Penguin, So she decided to travel
cross country on a 4x4 bus arriving exactly on time
on The
3rd. As Colin was still
on walkabout somewhere this left Will and I to get to
Interesting few days passage making as we would be
travelling inside the Barrier reef
and would have to stay inside The
shipping channels night and day for 500miles. On the28may at 0630 Niamh left for
the bus trip and at1100 hrs Penguin
left bound for The trip north could not have been
smoother we decided on 3hr shifts through the night and day, the winds
stayed Light
and from the SE perfect. I plugged into the GPS about 40 waypoints which would
snake our way through the Coral
reefs and up to We
would take advantage and get a good nights sleep, but we seemed to pass all good
stopping places either in the middle Of
the night and before 3 in the afternoon,
So we sailed for three days and nights before finally getting a good
nights Sleep
at On
coral so we past first Endeavour
reef and also Cooktown on the
mainland where Endeavour was beached to
enable The
hull to be repaired. Gets
more sparsely populated the further north you Travel, so on finally reaching the
Northern tip Deserted of Human population. We Anchored
ourselves in the bay by the Fear
of crocodiles and strong currents combined with our lack of good sleep meant after a small
celebration we went off To our
bunks for a full night . The
following morning we continued north to With
any human population, the area being the centre of what was a very profitable
pearl diving industry. We were able To
replenish our stores with fresh produce and a couple of beers where drunk in
Around the town and Museum where all accomplished in the
afternoon. Another good nights sleep and off early the
Following morning at seven with the tides. Two
hours later we where out into open water with 700miles still to go to
We
took 4 ½ days to get their the highlights being the fishing competition won with
a 4 ½ ft Kingfish beautiful eating
but we Only
managed to use 1/3rd the rest given back to the sea, We also had our
nightly visits from the Australian Customs
and Coast
watch aircraft, they would fly over every evening and check out who we where
chatting to us on CH 16. So at 1800hrs on the 7th of
may Penguin arrived off Darwin Yacht Club Where Niamh was already at the Bar
ordering The
beer. Timing is everything is the Penguin Moto once again the sun was setting as
the Anchored was going down, Twenty minutes most of the penguin crew where together
having a well deserved beer at the Club Bar, although it
Had
been a close call for Will to decide if beer and food was more important than
sleep. Cape
York The Northern tip of Our Main reason for choosing
For
Visas and cruising permits for Sort
out we left still requiring a final stamp on the Cruising permit, which we hoped
we would be able to get sorted in Kupang
West Consulate Internet café and making phone calls to a
shipping agent in Java, but Finally on Monday afternoon we
were Issued
with 4 Indonesian Visas and on Tuesday the15th at By 07.30 we were on our way to
So
that’s good night from Will and Rob in the Gulf of Carpentaria
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