Tuesday 3rd September 2019 – Darwin

This morning was a bit of a rush as we had to be at the lock gates at Bay View Marina around 10:00. It was much further than I realised and there was a strong two to three knot current flowing against us.

MV Brewster

We eventually got there a bit late and waited for the lock to fill and the huge gates to open for us. It was all very exciting not quite knowing what to expect.

Once in, the gates closed behind us and the water level started to rise. It didn’t take long and then the front gate was opening so we could pass through into the marina.

It didn’t take long to find our allotted pen and unlike our pen at Hillary’s, I had to back in while Bruce gave me a hand to rig up some temporary mooring lines. Once centrally moored, I then spent the next few hours in the hot sun rigging up a set of permanent mooring lines.

By the time I had finished I was sun burnt and totally knackered.

My next task was to remove about ten buckets of Kimberly mud from the anchor well and then wash sixty meters of anchor chain and about eight meters of anchor rode.

I also had to wash all the halyards and spare fuel tanks that were also covered in mud. I think it was around 8pm when I finally finished and retreated to the saloon to get away from the mosquitoes.

Once again we were both totally knackered and we still had another long day tomorrow cleaning the boat before heading back to Perth on Thursday.

Since leaving Hillary’s Yacht Club 83 days ago, we have traveled 3186 nautical miles (5,900 kms) and have burnt 1,746 litres of diesel and used about 13 kgs of LPG.

Track Sirocco’s progress

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Sirocco

Monday 2nd September 2019 – Darwin

Today I slept in while Putu was keen to get off the boat and take a look around Darwin. We had an early morning visit from our friends Michael and Liz from Cosmoc Drift who we haven’t seen since Broome. They were leaving for Lombok in Indonesia in the next day or two and had been very busy getting organised.

After they left, Putu hitched a ride into the yacht club with Bruce and headed off into town. One of her tasks was to buy me some shorts as after nearly four months at sea, all my shorts had rotted to pieces and I was looking like Fred Flinstone.

I spent the day organising our quarantine stat-dec and our entry through the lock into Bay View Marina tomorrow. After lunch, I dropped the dinghy and set it up ready to go into the yacht Club tonight for dinner and spent the rest of the time cleaning up the boat.

Just as the sun was setting, Bruce and I headed off in our dinghies to the Yacht Club where I met Putu who had new shorts for me to wear.

After a very nice dinner with Luke’s lovely wife joining us, we headed back to Sirocco for the evening.

Track Sirocco’s progress

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Sirocco

Sunday 1st September 2019 – Point Ford to Darwin

After a good night’s sleep in a very exposed and rolley anchorage, we departed Anson Bay around 07:30. Lizard had already departed around 07:10.

With a lite south easterly we sailed along for a while, but the wind gradually crept around until it was right on the nose and then I started motor sailing and it wasn’t long before I had to roll the genoa and just motor into the wind.

Our planned destination is Turnbull Bay, but at around seventy miles, we may not make it before night fall. I plotted a course in through the shoaly reef to our anchorage and also for our exit out to Darwin tomorrow.

As Darwin is only ninety miles away, we might even decide to push on, but that will mean arriving at Darwin in the dark.

The wind died off to around two knots and the sea state flattened right out and it became hot and humid as we rode the ebb tide north, picking up a couple of extra knots listening to the monotonous drone of the engine.

Lizard (with a smaller engine) has dropped way back in the distance and I can see a catamaran (Soggy paws) six miles to the east of us.

As well as plotting our course, I spent the morning changing all our clocks to CST and figuring out all the new times for the weather fax transmissions and NT weather broadcasts. I also changed the lure on the fishing rod that hasn’t caught a fish for the past five hundred miles, then I spent quite a few hours catching up on my blog.

We passed Fish Reef around 17:15 and after discussions with Bruce from Lizard, we decided to head directly for Darwin instead of going into Turnbull Bay. This will mean arriving in Fanny Bay in the dark, but it will save us about thirteen miles of fuel and give us an extra day.

I discussed an area to anchor with Bruce and we should arrive sometime around 21:00, while Bruce could arrive as late as midnight.

The wind has dropped to nothing and it has become very hot and humid. The ocean is a dirty brown colour and we are still getting a ride in a two to four knot current.

There is lots of seaweed in the water and every now and then a huge lump gets tangled around the propeller causing it to cavitate and vibrate.

After another beautiful sunset, I could see the lights of Darwin just after the sun went down and we were now on the homeward run. I dodged a few large ships as we rounded Charles Point and then we entered the Darwin shipping channel.

I was now on full alert for any traffic large or small as I tried to pick out the channel port and starboard lights through the back drop of big city lights, moving from chart plotter, to radar to eyeballs and binoculars. It’s always a stressful time entering a new port at night, especially a large city port.

We arrived at the anchorage around 21:30 and I shit myself when I saw how many boats there were. I used our radar to carefully pick my way through the boats until I found a suitable location to anchor in 6.6m.

I knew how difficult and dangerous it would be for Bruce to enter the anchorage without radar, so I radioed him the coordinates of a safe clear location so he could easily anchor and get strait to sleep without any fuss.

Lizard arrived around midnight long after I had nodded off.

Track Sirocco’s progress

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Sirocco