Wednesday 18th May 2022 - Darwin - Bay View Marina

At 08:00 Wayne took me to the boat where Luke was waiting. Shortly after we motored around to Bay View Marina with a strong head current all the way taking in all the sights to see around Darwin harbour along the way.

When we entered the estuary, I took it nice and slow and checked out all the boats and broken dreams anchored or abandoned along the channel and among them was a nice old wooden sailing boat owned by Denice, the old man we met in the restaurant at Nemberela and a Wharram catamaran that I had sailed with in the Kimberly over two years ago.

Wharram catamaran that I had sailed with in the Kimberly two years ago

Denise's boat

We waited outside the lock for a short time arriving a little before at 10:00, the time I had booked the lock for yesterday and after a boat came out, I slowly maneuvered Sirocco into the close confine while the large gate closed behind us.

After a few minutes, the water raised high enough to enter the marina. The inner lock gate opened and I was able to carefully motor through the narrow gate and maneuver around to my new pen that I had arranged a couple of months ago.

Initially, I tried bow first into the pen but I wasn’t really happy with this arrangement, so I reversed in stern first and we messed around with the mooring lines for an hour or so until I got them how I wanted, then Wayne & Luke went home and I started the mammoth job of cleaning the boat on my own.

 

All the beds had to be stripped and dirty cloths taken off to be washed. All perishable food had to go and both fridges and freezers switched off and cleaned.

Basically, I started at one end of each hull, first vacuuming then wiping down all surfaces from one end to the other and sorting every thing out and placing everything into its permanent position. While cleaning, I also removed all items that I didn’t want on the boat any more or that hadn’t been used or wasn’t required. I also removed all Putu’s clothing and personal possessions to be brought back to Perth.

My whole day was pretty much spent cleaning the inside of Sirocco and around 17:00 Luke showed up to take me to the Dinah Beach Yacht Club for a few beers and a feed. I slept very well that night.

The next two days were spent cleaning the outside of the boat, cleaning all the Kimberly mud out of the anchor locker and making repairs. I removed the genoa and tied up the main sail in the sail bag very tightly to making the boat safe for the cyclone season. I cleaned the dinghy as best I could and flushed the outboard with fresh water. Luke took a heap of jerry cans to the service station to get diesel for me and I topped up the main tank till it was full.

On Friday 21st May, after staying at Wayne’s place, I went to the boat around 10:00 bringing back all the washing and I made up all the beds, then I cleaned the cockpit and saloon until Sirocco was spotless and looking as beautiful as ever.

I brought all the clothing and other unwanted items back to Wayne's apartment and boxed it all up ready to take back home to Perth. My flight left Darwin at 17:30 and I couldn’t wait to get back home for a hard earnt rest.

Track Sirocco's progress

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

Tuesday 17th May 2022 - Arrive in Darwin

Luke woke me around 06:00 for my watch and there were several large ships and rain squalls around us. We were speeding along nicely with a two-knot tail current that gradually turned into a two-knot current against us the closer to Darwin we got, slowing us down.

Suddenly out of nowhere a very large Border Force plane flew very low overhead calling me on the radio with the call sign BF-33. They asked me a lot of questions cross checking the information I had already sent them.

When they asked if I had any plant material onboard, I looked down at the box containing the last couple of coconuts and assuming they had already seen them with their long range cameras, I declared them and said I will throw the remaining coconuts overboard after having my breakfast. They were happy with this.

As we got withing radio range of Darwin harbor, I called Darwin harbour control on channel 10 to inform them of our imminent arrival and I raised the quarantine flag requesting pratique. Suddenly after days of solitude, there was so much happening all at once. There were so many things to do, so many people to notify, it was all happening.

While coming into Darwin harbour, I got a call from a huge LNG tanker approaching from behind us telling me politely to move out of his way. So much for sailing vessels having the right away. I wasn’t about to test the collision regulations today, so I moved out of the shipping channel and he sped past us doing around 15 knots.

We arrived in Darwin at 10:00 (11:30 Darwin time) and I headed straight to the Cullen Bay pontoon where we tied up and got organised for checking back into Australia. It wasn’t long before two nice Quarantine officers turned up to inspect the boat looking for contraban and termites. All they could find was my half empty cracked pepper which they confiscated. I guess they couldn’t leave without taking something. They also took away my bag of rubbish and this all cost me $750 and I could now take down the Q-flag.

A short time later two Border Force officers turned up and we filled out a few documents and talked about the journey. I passed on the information I had about people smuggling boat building at Wera and the caption from Ba’a and they were very appreciative. We were now officially cleared back into Australia.

My brother Wayne (who lives in Darwin) came down to greet us and we chatted for quite a while, then at 15:00 three people from the Aquatic Bio-security Unit of Northern Territory and Fisheries Department arrived on site and began setting up all their diving equipment on the pontoon.

I had a brief discussion with them about the location of my water makers water inlet as I didn’t want them injecting poison into that through hole and they agreed to stay clear of that one. Shortly after, the diver went in and injected insecticide into all the hull through holes and I had to run both the engines until the coloured insecticide had been sucked through and pumped out the exhaust.

After this had been completed, we were instructed not to move the boat and Sirocco had to stay here for the next 10 hours, so I went back to Wayne's place for the night sleeping in a luxury bed with air conditioning.

The ocean crossing of the Timor Sea from Do'o Island to Darwin was 494 nautical miles in distance and we used 260 litres of diesel and had 85 litres remaining in reserve from a total of 345 litres carried for the passage.

Track Sirocco’s progress

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

Monday 16th May 2022 – En-route to Darwin

I was woken by Luke at 02:00 for my second watch. I laid on one of the cockpit cushions on the trampoline for almost the entire four hours of my watch, listening to an audio book and I saw many meteorites burning up as they streaked across the sky including one huge white ball of fire falling very slowly which lasted for about five seconds.

I also saw many satellites and enjoyed looking at the moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter through the binoculars. There were no other vessels all night and the featureless sea bed was flat and around 100 metres deep all the way. Sun rise was beautiful and for a while there were many dolphins riding the bow wave keeping me company.

Luke woke around 07:00 and took over watch keeping and I was asleep in two minutes and didn’t wake until around 10:00. I pored the remaining 100 litres of diesel (stored in jerry cans) into the main fuel tank and Darwin was still 126nm (19 hours) away.

The water got even more calmer and was now like an oil slick and it was hard to tell where the water ended and the sky started. Occasionally, some very tired birds would land on the boat for a rest and every now and then we passed large schools of small fish leaping out of the water as we glided past.

We both listened to audio books and music to pass the time. The day was rather uneventful with no other boats being sighted; we were totally alone on this vast ocean crossing. At around 23:00 I was feeling very sleepy and was about to wake Luke for his watch when suddenly the STBD engine over temperature alarm went off.

The raw water pump belt was totally worn out and was slipping. I had to straddle the red-hot engine to disassemble the V-belt cover so I could first remove the alternator belt to then be able to remove the raw water pump belt, burning my arms and hands in the process.

It probably took about 1 ½ hours to complete the task and then I cleaned up some remaining oil around the engine. By now I was extremely tired and covered in oil & grease. I had a shower out on the back deck and tried to cool down and relax with a cold beer. It was around 01:30 before I finally went to bed totally knackered.

Track Sirocco’s progress

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

Sunday 15th May 2022 - En-route to Darwin

I was on watch from 02:00 to 06:00. Around 03:00 I noticed the oil alarm on the STBD engine that we were currently running on was just on the threshold of alarming.

So I went down stairs to the engine room to check on things and discovered once again the seal around the oil filter was badly leaking and we had lost most of the oil into the bilge, so I went back up to the helm and started the port engine and when I reduced the revs on the STBD engine the oil alarm came on permanently, so I quickly shut it down.

I will sort it out later when the sun comes up. We passed through an area with some sea mounts where the depth went from around 300m to 20m that would be an awesome place to stop for a dive or some fishing. We also passed several tide gauges at Pee Shoal and Dillon Shoal and we could see a light on both of them in the distance.

Next, we passed close by the Bay Undan oil field and the Jabiru FPSO and there were dolphins riding our bow wave for many hours throughout night. The moon was nearly full lighting up the night and it looked incredible through the binoculars.

At one stage we passed what I assumed to be a small wooden Indonesian fishing boat. It passed about 2.5nm away and I could see a small light, but I couldn’t pick it up on the RADAR until it got at the closest point to us. He was about 150nm from the closest land in Indonesia.

We followed Venus, Jupiter and Mars all lined up in a row and I spent hours laying in the trampoline looking up at the start, watching satellites and falling stars. For many hours we had around six knots of wind and with the main sail up, it helped blow us along at over seven knots.

It was an amazing sight laying in the trampoline watching the sun slowly rise, as by then it was glassy calm and there were small sea snakes everywhere. I was very tired and glad to be relieved by Luke around 06:00. When I climbed into bed I immediately crashed out into a deep sleep.

I woke up around 09:30 and cooked sausages once again for breakfast as I am trying to empty the freezer so we don't have to throw everything away. It was hot and the ocean was glassed out so much you could hardly see the horizon.

 

We still haven’t seen another boat since leaving Rote Island, now 190nm behind us. I poured 80 litres of diesel into the fuel tank from four jerry cans and there are now 110 litres in the main tank. Next task was to clean up all the oil in the STBD engine room that leaked out of the oil filter. I spent the next three hours in the hot cramped engine room mopping up about five litres of dirty black sump oil.

I hate getting this stuff all over me and I also managed to get it on my bed and also flicked it on the nice white walls in my cabin. Finally, I got it cleaned up pretty well and I replaced the oil filter with a new one with hopefully a good seal and then I filled the engine with fresh oil. I decided not to touch both V-belts if they were still working OK.

I then went and checked the fuel filter on the port engine and discovered it was pulling a high vacuum indicating it was clogged up, so I replaced both engine fuel filters and spent another hour cleaning up.

By now it was dark and I was filthy, my back was hurting and I was extremely tired, so I took a long nice shower on the back step and cooled off. Luke cooked some lovely fried rice and after dinner, he went to bed leaving me to take the first watch. It was another beautiful night with the ocean glassed out and with a full moon lighting up the way home. I sat up for as long as I could and Luke came to relieve me around 10:00 and I fell instantly to sleep.

Track Sirocco’s progress

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

Saturday 14th May 2022 - Do’o Island to Darwin

I woke around 09:00 and cooked up some sausages for breakfast. It was another hot calm day at sea and today I lowered and removed the Indonesian flag and raised ONLY the Australian red ensign. Today is exactly three years to the day that Sirocco departed Hillary’s Yacht Club and after 2 ½ years in Indonesia, today she is coming home.

I did some washing and then packed away all my dive gear and also some clothes that were drying on the life lines. I then spent several hours cleaning the second bathroom that was still a mess with lots of mould and horrible black goo on the floor.

Every item in there had to be individually cleaned and wiped down with vinegar. It came up spotless and that was the last of the major cleaning now completed and the boat is looking like brand new again.

While I had the bleach out, I washed a lot of stains and bird shit off the forward deck area and did a few other chores. I was pretty exhausted after all that work and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

We sailed past a few logs and coconuts floating on the water and at one stage we went past this huge tree trunk. I would hate to hit that at night. I steered very close to it and there was a massive amount of quite large fish sitting under it including one very large fish, but none of them were interested in the fishing lure.

To help pass the time, I setup some cans on the life lines for target practice and we had pot shots with the air rifle.

For dinner I cooked up a heap of spicy chicken wings again that were very nice. Luke went to sleep right after dinner and I woke him up around 22:00 for his first watch while I got a bit of shut eye as I had the grave yard watch starting at 02:00.

Track Sirocco’s progress

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