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.
What a trip it’s amazing to me all the repairs you were capable of doing. Your quite a guy Craig you should be very proud of yourself.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s a terrific adventure you have had . Mum.xx