Over the top

Simanderal
Michael Hughes and Ger White
Fri 17 Jun 2011 11:53
We've now past Cape York--the northermost point of mainland Australia--and are anchored in Seisia. The winds have been good to us for the last several days--plenty of it from aft the beam--and we've had some great fast passages up the coast, anchoring every night behind a cape or an island. Last night we were anchored off Mount Adolphus Island in the Torres Straights. And today we mwde a short--30 mile --passage down Endeavour Straight to Seisia, a small remote township on the coast where we could do some provisioning before setting off across the Gulf of Carpentaria. Lovely quiet anchorage--happy to go ashore during the day, but decided to give it a miss in the dark--there are crocs about!!
Entrance to the Seisia anchorage was interesting--very shallow water for the last mile--did my tidal calcs carefully and concluded we should have 3 metres at shallowest point--giving 0.9m under the keel--and to my delight--and relief--it was dead on!!  The tides here are also monsters--we had over 4 knots of tide with us on passage, bringing us down the Straight at 11 knots.
So a restful afternoon today, and tomorrow we'll have a relaxed morning and then set off at noon on the 3 day passage to Gove--provided I don't go aground on the way out!