Torres Straits
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Tue 16 Nov 2010 10:58
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Tuesday 16th November 2026 Local 1026
UTC
10:51.47S 139:33.19E
Yesterday was a hot and sticky day as we motored up
the east coast of Cape York on Queensland's north west coast. At about 1200 what
appeared to be a light sea breeze set in. Initially for the first hour, as our
course was neccessarily NW and the breeze was filling in at right angles to the
coast we could not take advantage of it. However as the channel through the
reefs and our course swung into a more northerly direction we managed to sail
for about five hours. Other than two minutes today when we quickly got sail
up as a light squall brushed by us and just as quckly left us, there has
been no wind and no sailing!
I expected this in Indonesia but not through the
Torres Straits, which is supposed to be one of the most reliable trade wind
blown areas in the world! Admittedly we are right at the end of the trade wind
season but I could have hoped for even an occasional puff.
The Cape was quite dramatic with lots of little
islands around and strange white, I guess chalk or limestone escarpments all
along the northerly section. For all the world it looked like snow but in 35+
deg C I am sure it was not...
The straits were interesting and initially we had
quite a lot of heavy shipping traffic at close quarters. Our passage was all at
night and our timing was good getting the first half of the passage with the
tide before slack water for the second half. Streams in the straits can reach up
to seven knots. Later we passed through the south of Prince of Wales and
Thursday (and Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday) Islands and there were lots of
rocks and very shallow water. To get back into the "deep" (over 10metres)
water and enter the Gulf of Carpentaria we had to cross a bar which at one
point left only 4metres under the keel. Quite spooky really in the black of
night.
We are motoring slowly in an attempt to eeke out
our fuel just in case the forecast is right and we get NO wind all the way to
Darwin. My calculations, which are worked and reworked time and again have is
down to the last few lites to make it. At the moment I am running one tank way
down below the empty mark on the guage to make sure we get everything. Of course
the risk is that I run dry and take an air lock in th esystem. Anyway it has to
be done.
As the sea was actually mirror flat at times today
we were treated to the spectacle on ocassions too numerous to count, of tuna
literally making the sea boil as the rounded up and gorged on smaller
fish. Of course in a bid to save some of the small fish I took a rather
decent tuna in th elate morning which was eaten as ceviche (raw in lime juice
with peppers, onions, chillies etc) for lunch fried as delicious fillets
for dinner and enough for two more meals tomorrow.
Nights are welcome on this passage as it brings
some very welcome cooler temperatures.
We have not yet had any hassle from Customs and
Border patrols other than to radio us yesterday, east of the
straits, asking for all our details.
They ahve a tough job to do in the north here as
Australia is being swamped with illegal immigrants from Papua New Guinea, Timor
and Indonesia as well as other asian countries further north. The treatment of
these illegal migrants is the subject of hot and polarised debate in Australia.
Some Australians (of course all relatively recent immigrants themselves) claim
that immigrants are getting better welfare and treatment than naturalised
Australians living right beside them.
Speaking of Australians, I wil write a bit
more later but what we can say for now is that we have found in every contact we
have had, in all our Aussie travelling, them to be universally friendly and
approachable.
If we get to Darwin and get a few things sorted
there we may try and take an inland trip to the outback. In the meantime I have
to go and wring the deisel out of that oily rag in my toolbox and into the fuel
tank!
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