We arrived in
Darwin on 8th July after a very lonely trip north and east
after sailing 2100 miles from Bundaberg . We left Lizard Island with
friends Ula and Christa on Circe and enjoyed a lovely evening with
them at Flinders Island. We left ahead of them and anchored at Morris
Island. This was the last place that we were anchored with another
yacht until we reached Darwin. It's very surreal anchoring every
night in bays with no signs of any other civilisation. Australia
really is a big empty continent. Cairns was the last time we had any
signs of civilisation or internet though we did see a supermarket and
other humans at Red Island, which was just after we rounded Cape
York.
Although we
anchored most nights the anchorages were not very memorable. This
was not helped by not being able to get off the boat. There are lots
of Crocodiles in the north and apparently they like to bite
inflatable dinghies. No one swims anywhere and if you walk along the
shore you are never sure where a croc may be hiding. It was like
seeing the place through prison bars.
Going around the
top of Cape York was memorable. We motored between the Cape and York
Island which is a very narrow gap and anchored on the west
side of the Cape. Here we did dinghy ashore and walk to the northern
tip of Australia. Rounding the cape was like landing in a different
country, suddenly the weather was hot and sunny and the sea was a
very milky blue. We could finally put away our trousers and jumpers
and coats!
Just south of the
cape was where we stopped at Red Island. This is the end of the road
in the northern territory and lots of camper vans stop here. We are
not sure why anyone would want to live there but they did have a
supermarket and a laundry.
When we left Red
Island we had a 3 day passage across the Gulf of Carpenteria. It was
a good passage, though the shallow seas do make for short choppy
swells. We compared the Gulf to the north sea only warmer!
The anchorage in
Darwin is a big shallow basin. We are anchored as close as we can but
it is still half a mile to the shore. When it gets near to spring
tides we have to move further out otherwise we would be sitting on
the bottom at low tide. Even so, we were very relieved to be here and
to see other cruisers.
We had the boat
lifted last week as we had a problem with our engine shaft alignment
following our leak in NZ. The yard where we were lifted was up a
creek that is only accessible at spring high tides so we had to be
back out by Friday. The place was so horrible that we were very
pleased to leave as quickly as possible. The yard is surrounded by
mangroves so we were eaten alive by sandflies and mosquitoes. Also
the staff will certainly not win any awards for friendliness and are
poor ambassadors for the Australian people. They are not very yacht
friendly either which comes from handling lot of steel commercial
boats.
It was lovely to
go back in the water with the boat in one piece and with minimal
damage to the outside. When we got back to the anchorage friends
Chris and Dave on CD and Stef and Sue on Charlottte had arrived. It
is so nice to have company again and it has really made us realise
how much this whole experience is better with good company and
friends to share it with.
We are hoping to
leave for Indonesia as soon as possible. We haven't enjoyed Australia
and of all the countries we have sailed in it goes bottom of the
list.
