We departed Nemberala at 08:00 passing through the gap in the reef with the amazing surf breaks on either side. Set after set of perfect parallel waves, rolling in from the deep Indian Ocean. We were heading for Do'o Island only 7nm away where I will finish cleaning the hulls and then I can chill out for the day snorkelling, walking the beach or just relaxing on the boat.
As we are leaving for Darwin at 00:01, as I didn't want to have to negotiate any reefs like the entrance to Nemberala in the dark and risk getting snagged on a mooring. We are leaving at 00:01 as it’s bad luck to leave on a Friday, and even worse leaving on Friday the 13th. This morning the ocean is oil slick calm with a slight deep ocean swell and it will probably be like this for a large portion of the crossing back to Darwin.
I anchored close in at Do'o on a sandy patch in 10m of water around 09:00. Luke slept most of the day while I notified Border Force, The Department of Agriculture, The Aquatic bio security department and Darwin Harbour Control as well as my customs agent of our imminent arrival in Darwin.
I also filled out some forms with some last minute information about the last ports we have visited, amount of fuel expected to be left over once we reach Darwin (so our pathetic government can double tax me on it), prescription medicine and alcohol onboard etc, and emailed this to my customs agent.
These were friendly pirates
I spent an hour trying to find out the latest COVID19 requirements upon entry into the Northern Territory and gave up as there were so many hyperlinks that no longer worked on their website and lots of outdated information, so I will worry about that when we arrive.
I then re-soldered a broken wire in the switch board, counted all the prescription medicine and alcohol, then I jumped over the side and spent the next three hours under water cleaning both hulls spotless, so hopefully I won’t have any issues with The Aquatic bio security department.
The department emailed me yesterday saying the want to put a diver in the water to inspect the hulls and to inject poison into each of the through hull openings and after this, the boat will have to remain stationary for 10 hours before being allowed to move into a marina. Funny how they don't make all this fuss and do this sort of thing for the hundreds of large ships that come into Australian ports each year.
There was a crazy strong current in the water that kept changing direction back and forth and after three hours scrubbing growth off the hulls, I was exhausted. I was going to check both engines, but I totally lost track of time and by now the sun was going down, so we jumped in the dinghy to go ashore for a quick walk around on the Island before it got too dark.
On the way to the beach, we stopped at a fishing boat anchored close by to give them what remained of Luke’s betel nut and they were very happy to take it. They showed us a bag of crayfish they had caught and asked if we would like to buy some. I cut a deal with them for four crayfish for IDR100,000 plus two old crusty bottles of bilge wine. They were more than happy and so we had steamed crayfish for dinner.
It got dark very quickly, and we didn’t get to spend much time on the beach, so we headed back to Sirocco and got her ready for the long ocean passage that would begin in five hour’s time.
Luke went to bed straight after dinner while I lingered for a little while doing a few last-minute calculations and navigation way-points. My alarm clock went off at 24:00 and I was pretty dazed as I only had two hours sleep.
We pulled the anchor and headed off into the dark night gliding across the glassy calm water. I navigated between a couple of Islands and reefs before setting a direct course for Darwin, 487 nautical miles away.
There is a bright moon to iluminarte the path and it will be a full moon on Sunday. I saw a dolphin swimming on the bow wave and when I shun the torch on it, the dolphin freaked out and swam off. I did the first four-hour shift while Luke slept, waking him at 04:00 so I could get some well earnt rest.
Track Sirocco’s progress
https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Sirocco
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