Reality - Fannie Bay, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Thu 22 Jul 2010 23:46
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12:25.572S 130:49.109E
Per the plan, we sailed out of Popham Bay
at 3am on June 28th with a full moon overhead and a gentle 15 knot breeze
from the southeast behind us.
Then we rounded Cape Don and turned
south.
Maybe it's something in the name? Because all
hell broke loose as soon as we rounded Cape Don with its deceptively
friendly lighthouse and giant rotating light beam. Our gentle 15 knot
breeze from the southeast turned into nearly 30 knots as we started to rocket
down the Dundas Strait. "Where did all this wind come from?" we shouted to
each other as we brought sail in and secured some unidentified flying
objects. "Oh! Look at our speed!" And there it was - a
new speed record - 12.5 knots over the ground, according to the GPS.
It's possible our speed went higher, but in the hullabaloo, neither one of us
noticed. What we did notice was we had at least 3.5 knots of current
with us, and that plus our sailing speed through the water of a good 9 knots was
causing us to fly into the increasingly confused seas. Because we had
turned south into the wind and were sailing at a massive 12.5 knots, the
gentle 15 knot breeze behind us turned into a 27 knot roar in front of
us. On top of that, the wind blowing against the 3.5 knot current
whipped up lumpy seas that looked like moguls on a dark Aspen mountain at
night - black and sinister with shadows in the gullies making
it impossible to see how deep they really were. This was the
ride of all rides. We had it all going on. Bow slamming, wind
gusts, bow spearing mogul waves and scooping giant gulps of seawater
up on the deck, which bubbled in great sheets all the way to
the dodger where streams found their way into the cockpit. We were in
a washing machine. The big time commercial size used to
wash rugs. The heavy-duty rug wash cycle.
The good news: we went so fast it took us
only four hours to clear the Dundas Strait and reach the center of Van
Dieman Gulf.
The bad news: we went so fast
we beat the plan and ended up slogging against a 2.5 knot current
for four hours in the Van Dieman Gulf.
The rest:
The tide did turn before we reached the Clarence
Strait and the Vernon Islands, so we rode the ebb tide per the
plan.
The wind died for the last four or five
hours, causing us to motorsail the rest of the way to Fannie Bay
just west of Darwin, where we set the anchor down (being careful not to
put it in a spot that would dry out at low tide) and
breathed.
130 miles in 14 hours - a record average speed of
9.3 knots.
Later we noticed several salt crystal piles in
the cabin underneath two of the hatches - remnants of salt water leaks.
We've never had salt water come through any hatches before so we can only guess
it happened during the 4-hour wash cycle. Here's hoping
we're done with wash cycles for now.
Anne
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