Darwin and beyond

We've made it to Darwin...we've completed stage one or is it stage 61 of our journey to Darwin. After the many sailing days, island stopovers, rest days ie boat maintenance days, provisioning and relaxation in between we've arrived in Fannie Bay, Darwin.

We were treated to a spectacular fireworks display that evening for their Independence Day. The best display i've ever seen, all around the bay we were surrounded by mini displays of fireworks.

We are now registered and on the count down for the Sail Indonesia Rally and are in the bay with many yachts awaiting our departure day of 24th July. Which is now 4 days from now. It's an exciting time as we set to more maintenance on the boat and provisioning in readiness for our next big passage.

There are many photos i could share with you of our journey from Cape York to Darwin but i have chosen only a hand full because time is running short. We've had some great sailing days and we had some challenges that have really made us learn very quickly all about the workings of our boat and how to improvise when necessary. 

We've learnt where the limits are and when to be conservative. We've been tested in our patience, endurance, problem solving, persistence, our ability to respond and courage. Its challenged us physically and psychologically, its been a full time experience and we're still keen. IN saying that it does help to have recovery time lucky for us we've had enough of it before we set off again.

We've had a great time in Darwin, 2 and a half weeks has flown so quickly when we've been so busy each day with our endless list of things to do. It's a relief that our leaving day is arriving soon it's been quite tiring with all our preparation.

WE've beached the boat and enjoyed the magical darwin sunsets each evening. We've walked the city of Darwin several times and enjoyed the Botanic Gardens. We've dined at the local Mindil market consuming several mango lassi's. Yummmmmm We've caught the bus into town and hired a car, i think Richard has visited all the marine shops in Darwin, and there's a lot of them, to source all the necessary supplies. And lastly but not least we been enriched by the aboriginal culture and arts.

Yesterday we had our technical briefing day and was introduced to the rally that follows on from Sail INdonesia, Sail Malayasia. Many more adventures in store if we choose. 

One aspect of INdonesia that was emphasized to us was their unreliability and unpredictability. Just smile and go with the flow was the message. Welcome to INdonesia!

Another funny saying that we were introduced to that we could come across was "It is impossible....but it can be arranged." I was surprised at the powerpoint presentation we were shown to see that there are many cultures on islands so remote that are still living their traditional ways. Yachty's are really privileged to be welcomed by these cultures and invited to stay. These islands are not tourist destinations you can find through a travel agent they are isolated islands with people living very simply. I am really looking forward to being among the natural landscapes and experiencing their culture.

So 4 days and 3 nights of sailing and we hope to arrive in Banda. We have an Indonesian navy fleet accompanying us.... i wonder what that will consist of. WE've bought our Aussie flag, and INdonesian to fly.

We are both very excited as our leaving date draws nearer and we realize that we are leaving Australia. OUr visas allow us three months in Indonesia and who knows from then on.....we wait and see. Its a lifestyle full of unknowns yet many potentials. We can only imagine.

So we say farewell from Darwin and will speak to you from INdoneisa.

Lots of love to you all

This is Ultimate Dream out.

Here are some photos of our journey from Cooktown to Darwin.

Where we didnt see any

Smooth sailing just what we like

OUr friends on Intiaq, Karin and Jean Francois

Looks menacing but no problem for this big cat

Surfing fun

Morris Island

Cave paintings were a treat, lots of art here

Yachties walking track making their mark to find their way home

The furious arafura sea and the gulf of carpenteria. Midnight and all hell broke loose for us, we lost all our steering mechanisms for 2 hours. Not fun at all but we made it to Gove, NT after much hand steering and exhaustion.

Just another day of repairs and maintenance in the engine bay.

Cape York we made it.

One of the many Darwin gardens.

Another stunning sunset with the boat on the beach, waiting for high tide so we can float off.

The famous Lizard Island

Here we are having a good run with our spinnaker.

We had been told about the Customs flybys and here is our first, it was a frightening experience the first time as they flew very close to our boat to get our attention. We then speak to them via our radio and they ask us questions about our vessel and destination. Since our first flyby we've spoken to Customs at least 10 times at various locations.

Lizard we'd heard alot about this island as a destination for cruisers. Where the waters are soo beautifully azure blue.

A remote island that has a resort on it that costs a small fortune to stay at we walked its beaches, it was a lovely environment for a resort. Pitty it seemed very empty.

We climbed to the top of mountain peak what a walk it was hard yakka plus. We saw the lizard's of lizard island they're big prehistoric looking creatures. Slow and gentle.

We snorkelled along the reef beside our boat but the visibility was poor with all the wind.

The seagulls take refuge from the wind on our tender and always enjoy any food that comes their way. They were prepared to bob around as the tender bounced in the water.

Another lovely sunset.

Cooktown

The feature of Cooktown was Captain Cook's Museum. The most stunning piece was the anchor that was recovered from the sea of Cook's ship "The Endeavour". It was huge like 300 times bigger than our anchor is. It was really fossilized all black, well restored for it's age.

There were alot of indigenous artefacts and stories told from their perspective of the arrival of white people to their land.

IN Cooktown we met Karin and Jean Francois from Switzerland who were also travelling on the rally.  We had a fantastic meal together at the local bowling club of all places and set off down the creek the next day in search of crocodiles.

No such luck, in our sightings much to the disappointment of Karin and Jean Francois and
after a couple of days food shopping we set off for Lizard Island.

The Low Isles

Arriving late afternoon early evening we anchored and found swimming up to the boat a batfish. Much to our amusement we decided to feed it and what else would a batfish eat but Ryvita and pumpkin. Soon we had 2 batfish and what looked like a shark which also had a buddy. It was remarkable how tame the batfish appeared as they waited for more food and gobbled up all the Ryvita we feed them.

A picture postcard setting one of the islands, here you can see thatched huts in the distance.

Hinchinbrook Channel to Cairns

Here we are heading along the Hinchinbrook islands. More stunning scenery of mountain ranges of treed wilderness.

We stopped at Haven ISland for a bush walk and after leaving the tender in the sloppy mud and walking to the beach I noticed the warning sign for crocodiles. Geez crocodiles !

Lucky for us we never saw any and we enjoyed a short walk and bathe in the creek. It was refreshing and cool just what we needed for a hot day.

Cairns Harbour


Arriving at Cairns we were surprised at the boating activity here, lots of it. Big charter cats taking people out to the reef, dive boats, little yachts racing around channel markers, super luxury yachts and powerboats the size of what looked like a small city.  The yacht in the picture below passed the back of our boat wildly, it then hit the bottom and the crew managed to get it off again and on they went. The angle that they came at us i thought they were going to hit us it was exhilarating watching and scarey.

The daily pilgrimmage of boats going out to the reef each morning and coming home was great entertainment for us as the parade passed us each day. They disappeared over the horizon and returned again engines roaring.

There were sea planes that landed close by and the international airport was close also.

Cairns is very much a tourist town with plenty of asian tourists. I was amused looking through marketing material to see that i've already been to many of the great tourist sites one can only access on a boat and there's going to be plenty more to come heading north.

After more endless shopping for food supplies we decided at the last minute to haul the boat out of the water and repaint the antifoul. This protects the boat from barnacle growth and enables us to move through the water quicker. Since we had beached the boat not so long ago and cleaned it there was only slim build up to remove.

We also had an alternator problem that seemed to mystify us and our marine electricians until finally it was solved and we had our alternator replaced and our engine alarms restored to normal function. Much relief we gained !

Huge machinery lifts the boat out of the water it really is spectacular to see. At the time the boat was being hauled out of the water we were still in it ! It was a very smooth operation and was like going up on a ferris wheel including a little bit of swinging, which the guys put a stop to quickly.

Here the boat is being water blasted to give a really good clean. It certainly did the job, got all the really big barnacles off the bottom no problem, more action to watch !

Here's the boat on the move.

The boat is being parked onto blocks so we can work on the underside to prepare for the painting.

Here we are parked on the ground safely. After 2 days on the ground having anti fouled and cleaned the dust that seemed to get all over the boat inside and out we were back in the water to get our new signage put on the boat to fulfil our Australian ship registration. 

OUr next destination leaving Cairns was The Low Isles.

Magnetic island here we come

Originally we planned to stop at Airlie beach to re stock with fuel and food, we decided to instead head to Cardwell nearing Cardwell we decided to bypass it and head to Townsville. As we drew nearer to Townsville we much preferfed the option of heading to Magnetic Island.

The islands are a much preferred option over heading to town and we still had enough supplies to keep us going, heading into town would take up valuable time out of our schedule. Lucky for us we did small shop at Magnetic island to keep us going til we reached Cairns.

Enjoying the local art murals.

Here we are on another gorgeous bush walk to Radical BAy.

Whitsunday Magic

What a thrill to arrive at the Whitsunday Islands, we had a great sail to get there. Arriving in the late afternoon with what's known as bullet winds, winds the come out of no where at fast speed they raced us through the channels as we headed for our anchorage at Whitsunday Island.

We anchored beside an enormous yet spectacular rock wall and soon found numerous other yachts were coming in to anchor for the night.  This was my first experience of being around the charter yachts.

The next day we did the big climb up to the Whitsunday peak in the National Park, a good 4 hour hike up the mountain. It was truly spectacular at the top the views were stunning. The forest hike was a pleasant change from the daily sea voyages we'd made to get there. Being on land surrounded by forest was yummy.

AT the peak.

We stayed 3 nights on the islands and enjoyed the bullet winds as we took off and hit great speeds. It was exhilarating as we raced along with the wind picking up in our sails and propelling us along. The anchorages were all beautiful and we had time to enjoy our surroundings.

I was sad leaving the islands i could definitely spend more time there and no doubt we shall in the future.  For now we had a rough plan to be in Darwin by July so we had to keep moving.