Tides.....
Well, we worked it out like this....
Hammond Rock Slack @ 09:30 - Tide turns West
Thursday Island Low Tide @ 08:00
Therefore Slack = 1.5 hours after LW.
Albany Island LW @ 06:30
Therefore Albany Island Slack @ 08:00
We left Adolphus Island @ 08:15 towards Albany and had slack water for the short crossing. Soon after, we recorded a stream with us and it has remained that way. We were well past Hammond Rock 1 hour and forty minutes after Slack water there with 2 knots in our favour. Theoretically, we had more than 4 hours left of good tide to go as we are racing at over 9 knots to keep up with the tidal bulge!!
We kept South of Prince of Wales Island and though the shoals in Endeavour Passage. 32 miles in 4 hours. The weather looked a bit grim before we started out and we thought about the third reef whilst at anchor but remained with the 2 already in. The seas have now calmed down and we have one reef and all the headsail - let's hope it remains that way! Our batteries are recording -0.2 ampere hours having been at zero for the past couple of weeks with the laptop running almost continually - a sign of calming winds hopefully.
I rechecked our charts on Van Diemen Gulf and Clarence Straights and they have tidal diamonds scattered liberally all over them and the necessary information relating to tidal streams in relation to HW Darwin. We shall try to plan passage for the Westgoing slack there.
19th August 2008
Not a bad day and we had a fullish moon that showed between the clouds occasionally but generally lightened the scene in any case. The breeze was stronger overnight and did some silly things that meant three trips on deck for jib-pole work and mainsail reefing but, all in all, it settled down for a relaxing time.
The Gulf of Carpentaria has been dubbed locally as the "Washing Machine" - on rinse cycle probably. We have some strange swell coming directly from the South even though the winds are more of an Easterly slant. This provides quite a bit of surging, shoshing and screwing which is a bit uncomfortable.
20th August 2008
A quieter day today with some sunshine which is quite relaxing. We have just passed Cape Wessel and the side-to swell has disappeared making life a little more comfortable.
We did carry favourable currents right through the straights but now have a regular countercurrent that always appears to be greater than the current with us. Probably due to an over zealous log rotor.
Sunset
21st August 2008
And Sunrise
We hope to be approaching Clarence Strait at midnight tomorrow night and will then have to plug 2 hours of current against us before getting a favourable flow. This will mean a lunchtime arrival at Darwin after which we will pass out and go to bed (not necessarily in that order). We have to wait for our CAIT cruising permit before we can get our Indonesian Visa and this will take to the end of the month. Our CAIT Agent told us not to go to Kupang (W Timor) as the customs there will extort a percentage of the boats value so we will make landfall in Flores instead. This means that an amount of cruising in Indonesia will be bypassed and brings us back on our original schedule.
A nice sunny day here after a cloudy night. Last night it was Fliss's turn to get rained on, hopefully it will stay dry tonight.
22nd August 2008
We ended up butting the tide going into the Dundas Strait which leads into Van Diemens Gulf and have over a knot against. The tide turns in 1.5 hours time. We are a bit late here as the winds were a bit fickle today and they have just turned through 180 degrees (or thereabout). We are motorsailing and have been for about an hour after making the most of the last winds in our direction at 8 knots boatspeed under full sail. We still have about an hour in the bag to make Clarence Strait at slack and so don't feel too pushed yet - the start of Clarence Strait is 69 miles away yet but we hope to make better speed with tide in our favour.
23rd August 2008
Well, we used the engine and butted a bunch of tide in Van Diemens Gulf so that we could make the tidal gate to get through the Clarence Strait. The winds were light and we were mainsail only but Fliss managed to eke a bit of extra speed by deploying the jib whilst I slept ready for the Clarence St passage. I got up at midnight as we were approaching Cape Hotham and we were inundated by insects of every nature....Hard-backed mini ones, flies, big cockroachy things, dragonflies - the lot. We extinguished all lights and did a thorough spray and eventually got rid of them although we will be sweeping them up from inside and off the decks for a while.
Fliss knocked-off and the tide turned in our favour at 02:15 as planned and the breeze increased a little so we could turn the engine off. We approached the Clarence Strait cautiously - there was supposed to be a red buoy at Rooper Rks but all was black - no lighthouse (sectored so you cannot see it) and no red flashing light. Sailing into the darkness with the tide running up behind when you know there is stuff out there is very unnerving - I thought they had turned the power off!
Anyway, the lighthouse appeared on cue and at 2 miles away, I spotted the red buoy. All went smoothly from thereon although the channel is really marked for boats going the opposite direction (in the way the light sectors work).
We rounded up towards Darwin on a fairly close haul and I managed to get a couple of degrees in the bag for later just in case the wind headed us. Not long after, we were doing 7.5 knots and getting a bit of spray so I put a few furls in the headsail (we always have 2 in the main at night) and we stormed on. As we approached Darwin the sun rose - how is that for perfect timing - and we also had an hour and a half of tide still left. However, the wind increased and we had to turn hard into it to get into the entrance so we dispensed with the jib and motor-sailed hard into it. We were almost at a standstill but the tide did us a favour and we crept slowly huddling behind the sprayhood on two tacks to get into Fannie Bay - if the tide had been against us, it would have been difficult even getting in here. Just heard on the VHF that there is a 30kt strong wind warning. Anyway, we could not have had it more perfect, the overall sail was very good, the approach timing worked perfectly, the wind stayed light and pleasant through the tricky bit and we arrived just as the sh17 hit the fan.
We will stay on Naz today and have a rest, tomorrow, we might go further upstream where there is a pontoon to land the dinghy. Here in Fannie Bay, the 6m tide goes out a long way and it is a long haul with the dinghy. So, no chips for us today but a Fray Bentos pie and mash sounds good.
We will stay here as long as it takes to do paperwork and visas and go to the chandlers (again - for jib sheets that won't last the way back) as well as doing provisioning - again.
Fliss is busy sweeping bugs off the deck at the moment - I'm surprised that they didn't all get washed off on our approach as we were scooping water with the bows.
24th August 2008
We moved to a location that is more convenient for the dinghy parking. We are just outside one of the marinas here and there is a pontoon to strap your dinghy to. The alternative is to haul the dinghy over half a mile of sand at low tide (the range being up to 6m here)
We went into town which is a good 40 minute walk and treated ourselves to burger and chips before visiting the supermarket and hauling the goods back through the intense heat here. Whew! it really does get hot.
This morning we received our CAIT by e-mail and printed it off before embarking on the hot slog back into town. We started off at the Copy-Shop where we had learned that we could get charts....ask for Chris because no-one else will admit to having charts. He asked about our itinerary and then suggested that he could print off a full portfolio of charts through Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand for $250 - cash only, I will also have a word with him about Turkey and Greece as well - he told me to simply tell me where I was going and he will print the charts - highly illegal of course but, when BA charts cost $60 a piece, I am not complaining!
We visited the customs house where we received information about duty-free fuel, alcohol and chandlery and started the check-out process so that, when we leave, things will run smoothly. Then, on to the Post Office to pick up post-restante Registration Cetrificate. After that, we went to the Indonesian Embassy and completed the necessary forms, handed over our CAIT and $120 cash and have been promised that the Visas will be ready at 14:30 next Tuesday. So, it looks like we will be leaving soon after that.
Darwin is ok but not as nice as Cairns. One of the problems is the distance to town and also the feeling that it has a sprawling centre. We will be glad to move on when the time comes.
Nomad Life are here. They went to a beach party (jugglers and fire dancers etc) last night and returned to their dinghy to find it missing. Graham was convinced that he tied it securely to a large boulder and thinks that it was stolen rather than simply floated away. They were going to leave tomorrow so that has put paid to those plans for a while. I haven't asked whether it was insured. We had already started locking everything here after news that a danforth kedge was stolen off a boat in Fannie Bay recently.
So everything has suddenly fallen into place here and now it's shower time and time to treat those blisters on my feet.
25th August to 1st September 2008
We spent our time re-provisioning, washing and fixing bits and bobs.
Dressed overall in washing
having done some varnishing, Fliss called from the chandlers and told me that they had sourced some suitable toilet piping to replace the clogged one in our front loo. I got to work and stripped out the old pipe and cut it away from the seacock. It was then that I realised that the seacock does not seal very effectively and was dribbling water out so tried to get the new pipe on quickly. Of course, it would not slide over the end and the lead-in through the cupboard wall was not really large enough or at the right angle to get a good push at it. As soon as I bent the pipe to the seacock, the pipe would not run through the hole in the wall. With Fliss mopping bilges, I sawed a larger hole and faired it off and then soaked the pipe-end in boiling water. Eventually it went on and I had even remembered to put two new hose clips on the pipe beforehand.
The hose clips had mullered my fingers with their sharp edges and I eventually found a use for the gardening gloves that dad us before we left!
The pump refurbished ok and I started fitting it. It goes into the smallest space imaginable and, without pre-bend on the new pipe, it was almost impossible to get it twisted through the right angle to settle it onto the bolts. After lots of cursing, swearing and grunting in the stifling heat, it eventually listened and gave up the fight.
I fitted the last piece of hose next morning onto the rear of the loo and gave it a good flush only to find that we had a leak at the pump. I believe that it is the topmost elbow joint (outflow) but the fix would have to wait for my torn and bleeding hands to heal. Although I had treated the cuts that night with iodine, two of the cuts were sore and weepy next morning. No more messing with even new toiletry items until they are good again.
Calcification of Urine
Finally, we got fuelled up and fully watered and then went into town where Fliss got her hair cut and we did the last bit of provisioning. We went to the chandlers to get gas bottles filled and went to a rigging shop for a spare part. From there, we walked to the Indonesian Embassy who had our visas ready and then on to Customs for our exit papers.
A slow walk back to the dinghy brought us back in time to meet Customs there with our pepper spray (that arrived from Mackay today) and also meet the duty-free delivery man.
We now have to go back to the chandlers to pay our bill and pick up the gas bottles and then we can relax before setting off tomorow morning. Phew!
The tide starts going out at 08:30 so we will probably set off then. We will need a little push as there is no wind in this entire area and we expect to be using the motor a lotta-lotta more than we would want to. Flores will take about 6 days or 8 days depending on how much juice we want to use - always a discussion that I lose since I don't want to spend the money motoring but Fliss is always eager for landfall!
No comments:
Post a Comment