10.49S 141.04E
JENNY
Alan Franklin/ Lynne Gane
Wed 17 Sep 2008 11:32
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Hi everyone
Our journey continues northwards on route
eventually to Darwin. We've had a great journey up the east coast, up to and
around Cape York. Fast sailing with strong south easterly trade winds blew us
briskly up to the cape, logging 482 miles in 72 hrs. and a new best 24 hr run of
169 miles.
An interesting journey sailing up inside the Great
Barrier Reef where there is quite a busy shipping lane. This shipping lane
twists and turns from south of Mackay all the way up to Cape York, its
path dictated by the many individual reefs. We have to share this
shipping lane which, In a few places can be as much as 4 miles wide,
but otherwise only 2 miles wide, the narrows usually
accompanied by a dog leg turn as well. No guesses as to where we meet any ships!
The ships in the main are either large
tankers, or crude ore carriers - coal destined or China!. It can be
quite stressful approaching a corner with one coming up behind and one coming
down - in daylight it looks tight but at night........ luckily we can, and
do, cautiously stray out of the main shipping channel to let them pass us
by.
On reaching the Cape we decided to anchor over
night in the Thursday Island group north of the cape. We anchored in the Lee of
Horn Island, the wind still blowing 20-25 knots, and found a snug anchorage, a
nice spot but bless the day we bought our larger anchor - the tidal
current whips through at over 4 knots, as we found on our approach, the boat
moving sideways as we motored up to anchor.
We used the local ferry - an ex Sydney Harbour
packet, to cross to Thursday Island, had a VB each in the most Northern pub
of Australia - very "outback-ish" but no Crocodile Dundee! We could use
him here - the waters are beautiful and clear, turquoise, deserted white beaches
-- but nobody ever swims here - too many Estuarine Crocodiles - warning
notices everywhere 5-7 metres - no thanks - but such a shame.
A mediocre meal in the mis-named "Grand Hotel" gave
us just enough time to catch the late ferry back to Horn Island, and a good
nights sleep.
We later wondered why Thursday Island was so
named - we could see also Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday Islands on the charts,
but no Saturday, Sunday or Monday Islands! We surmised that it must have
been a heavy weekend when they discovered these islands - there seems very
little else to do except drink here!!! Imagination naming places does not
seem to be an Aussie strong point!!!
We've now left and are on our way towards Gove
Harbour, the Gulf of Carpentaria 400 mile wide to cross- but never more than 60
metres deep. We have chatted to other rally boats close by, which was a
surprise as we thought we were miles behind them all but it seems no.
We will enjoy meeting up with them all again in Darwin - seems ages since we
last met.
That's all for now.
Alan
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