svbeachhouse

Category: 2012 Blog

  • Kupang, Indonesia

    August 1-3, 2012, Eastern Hemisphere

    Dear F&F,

    We arrived at Kupang in the middle of the night and after adjusting our watches to the new time zone, were able to get a good nights sleep. The next day was quite the experience as checking into Indonesia is quite complex. The main reason I chose to do the rally was to ease the hassle of entering this very officious nation.

    First, I had to pick up the customs and quarantine officials with the dinghy. One of them couldn\’t swim and was afraid. Only one spoke English, but that was fine. The young lady from quarantine for some reason wanted to assure me that this was a more Christian part of Indonesia than Muslim. I wasn\’t really sure why she felt that was necessary?

    Both influences are quite visible here including hearing the daily calls to prayer from the local Mosque over the loud speakers. As Nikki had lived extensively in Arabic countries, this seemed almost natural to her. It was actually fascinating to listen too.

    Back to checking in! After lots of paper work filled out, we were told that we had to take one piece of paper ashore and meet customs in a special set up area for the arriving boats. Long story short, we needed to go back to the boat to get LOTS more documents and had to visit 5 different sets of officials, blessedly all in the same place. Had we come in as a single vessel, this process would have taken at least two or three days! You must do the steps in exact order and the offices are all driving distance from each other. So, the rally paid off for sure in this regard. Essentially, we looked at Sail Indonesia as our \”agent\” to check in.

    The first night there was a welcome dinner for the boats, about half of whom had arrived at this point. Lots of speeches by local Mayor\’s and Governor\’s and some dancing entertainment. A good time was had by all.

    The next day, I found a local mechanic refereed by the rally who spoke English and he cleaned the carburetor out on the dinghy motor which had been acting up. We got 100 liters of diesel fuel (which is the dirtiest I\’ve ever seen), and we will filter it extensively before adding it to our tanks. Again, a dinner was to be attended on the second night (now about 85% of the boats were here) and it was more of the same, speeches, entertainment and dinner. Nikki and I didn\’t stay for the dinner, we heard they ran out of food. Probably expecting the same number of boaties they had the night before!…

    To keep the dinghy safe, we all had to pay $4.00/day to insure they were watched….. The water was the dirtiest I\’ve ever seen. Plastic is floating everywhere, the beach was filthy, lots of broken glass and no one seemed to care. Welcome to a different part of the world…….

    We were anxious to move on to cleaner waters and motored up the coast 47 miles to anchor for the night before crossing the Sulu Sea to Lembata. Stay tuned!

    KIT, Scott and Nikki

  • Sail Indonesia Rally – Darwin to Kupang

    28 – 31 July 2012, Eastern Hemisphere

    Dear F&F,

    We left our anchorage for the busy starting area about an hour before the event was to begin. Several boats had left hours earlier or the day before to insure their arrival with \”the fleet\”. There were about 110 boats in the starting area and it was anything but organized. We left about 11:10 when it was clear that no formal start was to really take place.

    Soon after we got going, the fleet separated into two as about 30 of the boats were heading to the alternate destination; Samulaki, Indonesia.

    We hoisted the full main and spinnaker and were soon in the front with about 7 other boats. About 4:30 pm the wind completely quit and we all motored for anywhere between and hour and a half to three hours. We actually motored 84 minutes which was less than anyone around us. One boat who was next to us, ended up five miles ahead when the wind came back and everyone started to sail again.

    I could tell from the predicted weather, it would be advantageous to be on the more western side of the course. That first night, it stated to blow and we briefly saw winds around 30 knots. With a full main and genoa poled out to windward on our port side, we steadily stayed left of the fleet and quickly got back into the front 5 boats. The second day was a bit of a washing machine as to the seas, so we didn\’t push our speed (we could have flown the spinnaker for 20 hours that we didn\’t!) and still managed to keep near the front. The second night was much more comfortable and on the third morning, we gybed the main, hoisted the spinnaker and were off.

    We quickly realized by noon that due to our tactic of staying to the west side of the course, we were in the lead! We have a trans-ponding device aboard Beach House which shows us the speed, name and position of other boats similarly equipped. So it was fun to watch the video game on the chart plotter as the lead 5 boats all had this equipment. We had to gybe the spinnaker twice. Once after dark and in 23 knots of wind and building. Nikki did great for a spinnaker handling novice and we managed to reach the turning point at Timor Island about 7.5 miles ahead of the next boat, old friends, \”Pakia Mist\” who had steadily passed from about 7th place to second. 10 miles behind was \”Miss Beehaven\”, followed by \”Relapse\” and \”Sea Mist\”. The boats behind us were 50-56 feet long and mostly monohull flyers.

    The last trick was to negotiate the approximately 100 fishing boats, improperly lit, and zigzagging everywhere amongst the arriving boats. It was like running a gauntlet. We all survived….:-)

    We were the only boat that sailed almost to the anchorage and finally went to bed at 3:30 a.m. enjoying the results of our spirited competition amongst the 85 boats who sailed to Kupang.

    Next – culture shock in Kupang!

    KIT, Scott and Nikki

  • Darwin

    28 July 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    We left the anchorage at Alcara (last we wrote), and made the trip in 11 hours, going 96 miles. This average speed was enhanced, retarded and again enhanced by the large tides in the Van Diemen Gulf and the Dundas Strait approaching Darwin. At one time while the boat was going 8.5 knots through the water, we saw a head current slow us to 6.5 knots and a following current speed us up to 12.5 knots!

    We anchored in Fanny Bay with about 125 boats. The Darwin Sailing Club is here and the dinghy landings are quite the experience as the height of the tide can move 22+ feet!

    The new dinghy wheels were a huge help. We checked in with the Sail Indonesia Rally and found out we could move into the \”Duck Pond\” (Commercial Marina) here in Darwin.

    There are four marinas all of which have lock systems due to the extreme tides. We were the ONLY recreational boat in the entire \”Pond\”. Mostly fishing vessels, pilot vessels and work boats were all around us. We had some mechanical and electrical work to attend to, so this was a big help. Getting fuel and shopping was aided by having a rental car which we used constantly.

    The big projects were replacing the broken bolt on the port engine. Replacing the impeller on that engine which turned out to require rebuilding the water pump and refreshing our sail drive (transmission) fluids. Lots of other jobs were also accomplished and Nikki is the \”domestic diva\”!….:-)

    We took an overnight trip to the town of Katherine and a two hour cruise along it\’s gorge system on the river. We were able to see some Aboriginal rock art, beautiful views and lots and lots OF FIRES!

    These fires are intentionally set by the local communities to keep the brush (spinafex grass) down during the dry season.

    We had a chance to meet and catch up with some old friends (about 10) who would be participating on the rally.

    Yesterday, \”Mr. John VI\” left a day early as he thought he\’d otherwise finish a day behind everyone else.

    Today, the wind has come up at 15-20 knots exactly from where we want it. This is the first day this has happened since we arrived 18 days ago and hopefully a good omen!

    We cleared out of Australia yesterday \”en mass\” and received our Indonesian visas as well. We\’re all packed up and ready to go. I\’ll start putting out position reports again today!

    The rally departs in 90 minutes, just us and 110 of our closest friends! See: www.sailindonesia.net for details.

    Enjoy and KIT, Scott and Nikki…..

  • North Goulbourn Island to Coral Bay, Coubourg Peninsula on to Darwin…..

    08 -10, July 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    When we woke up in Mullet Bay at North Goulbourn Island, we saw that new friends \”Silver Girl\” had just arrived and went to sleep. They, and \”Mr. John VI\” did a day/night/day passage from Howard Island where we\’d left them three days earlier. We enjoyed our day sails! They both had a pretty rough night, so we\’re glad despite the tide problems and not so great anchorages that we were able to get good night sleeps!

    We actually sailed toward Malay Bay and caught up to Mr. John where we found anchorage in Mount Norris Bay was best due to the wind shifting to the East. The smoke from the burn offs at the Aboriginal communities was quite thick. We even had ash on our decks the next morning.

    We heard as we arrived from \”Georgia J\” (Tiburon, California), that they could smell the smoke 50+ miles offshore.

    The challenge of today was sailing through the Bowen Strait. The strait is not really charted and we used our guide books and a literal photocopy of a chart they put in the guide as our \”guide\”. Fortunately, it all went well, but we did have to move out of the main channel for a commercial barge (June Virgo) and almost ran aground. The water got down to 7 feet! (2.1 meters). Once back in the channel, it was easy from there.

    There was no wind today and the predictions are for less tomorrow and the next day. We are anchored in lovely Coral Bay where delightfully, the resort radioed us and asked if we\’d like to come to dinner tonight. As a treat, we\’re going ashore as will \”Georgia J\”. \”Mr. John VI\” won\’t be in for a few hours, so they\’re likely to just relax aboard for the evening.

    This the first anchorage on the \”NT\” coast that has looked anything like the Pacific Islands. Shallow, pretty and picturesque.

    Nikki is threatening to learn how to use the sextant and try her hand at celestial navigation. She\’s into it! With modern GPS, celestial has gone the way of the horse and buggy, but it\’s still really cool to know how to do.

    Tomorrow, we\’ll most likely head the 30 miles to Alcaro Bay and then jump to Adams Bay just East of Darwin. Darwin the next day (our Wednesday) to Fannie Bay.

    We left the anchorage at Alcara (last we wrote), and made the trip in 11 hours, going 96 miles. This average speed was enhanced, retarded and again enhanced by the large tides in the Van Diemen Gulf and the Dundas Strait approaching Darwin. At one time while the boat was going 8.5 knots through the water, we saw a head current slow us to 6.5 knots and a following current speed us up to 12.5 knots!

    We anchored in Fanny Bay with about 125 boats. The Darwin Sailing Club is here and the dinghy landings are quite the experience as the height of the tide can move 22+ feet!

    The new dinghy wheels were a huge help. We checked in with the Sail Indonesia Rally and found out we could move into the “Duck Pond” (Commercial Marina) here in Darwin.

    KIT, Scott and Nikki

  • Mlingimbi Inlet to North Goulbourn Island and assorted other stuff!

    06 July 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    Last I wrote, we\’d anchored at Yabooma Island and I\’d gone over the whole big tide math to make sure that at \”O Dark Thirty\” we didn\’t visit the muddy bottom of the Yabooma Esturary. WELL…. I got nervous after my own lecture and figured it would be too close for comfort (aka: a good nights sleep).

    So, before it got dark, we picked up the anchor with our new engine impeller working great and re-anchored in deeper water at the bottom of Boojaragi Island in the estuary. The depth was good and I had to make sure we were not too close to the reef system which at low tide stuck out of the water like razor blades. A bit windy and the current was 2.5 knots during the flood, but we got a good nights sleep and moved on early the next morning.

    We\’d heard that barges plied these estuary\’s as it\’s easier to supply the Aboriginal Communities by boat/ship than by truck as half the year the roads are closed anyway. As we were leaving the estuary, we passed \”M/V Victora Tujhua\” who was making his twice weekly visit to the Mlingimbi community that was several miles further up river than we went. As it was, it took us over an hour just to get out of the estuary and back on the track toward our next anchorage. Adding to the fun was the fact that many of the areas here say, \”Unsurveyd\”. This means, there is NO CHART and sailor beware. It was easy enough to skirt these areas, so no big deal, but it lets you know how far afield we truly are. Adding to the eeriness of it all is the pea soup green water that runs out of the various river estuaries along the \”NT\” coast.

    The problem with this coast is that it is featureless. The land is no more than 20 feet high and it\’s that way for hundreds of miles along the coast and quite far inland. There is also no real \”welcome mat\” for the boats to visit the Aboriginal Communities (indeed it requires a permit which is a big deal to get) and, there are no facilities and nothing we can really do off boat except explore by dinghy. No swimming because of the crocodiles and the water is muddy anyway. Hence, not a lot of boats come along the \”shore route\”. There is no quality guide book materials, you are truly on your own.

    The wind has been very strong offshore and because of this, the twenty of so boats behind us en-route to Darwin for the rally are stuck (99% of them are doing the offshore route to Darwin). As such, we figured we might be the only boat actually making progress toward Darwin as the winds were thirty knots offshore. They were down to a pedestrian 18-25 for us, but directly astern and small seas as we were close to land.

    We still needed to find one more anchorage to avoid a night sail and we thought about several of the poor options. We opted for Rolling Bay. Yep, that\’s the name and boy did it roll! Very safe, no white caps even in 25 knots of wind, but the swell wrapped around the corner and around 11 pm we were rocked and rolled for about 2 hours. The wind dropped down and reasonable sleep was had. The next morning, the wind was up yet again. The phenomenon is that the huge high pressure systems that come up the East Coast of OZ from the Southern Ocean get accelerated due to the cooling of the continental land mass at night. This cold air \”falls\” into the Arafura Sea like a rock displacing the tropically warmed air over the water here near the equator. As the land heats during the day, the wind drops significantly as the temperature gradient disappears.

    We had yet another great sail en-route to our next stop, a really comfortable anchorage, North Goulbourn Island. As the crow flies, we\’re 160 miles from Darwin and have covered over 2000 miles since we left Brisbane 7 weeks ago. We\’ve 200 sailing miles to go as we must go around the Coburg Peninsula just to the East of Darwin. The anchorages from here to there should finally all be nice ones. As we approached South Goulbourn Island, we noticed that a quarter of the island seemed to be on fire! Indeed, it was. We read that the Aboriginal communities burn the dry spinifex grass to hunt amongst other things and apparently it is good for the diversity of the plant life. They hunt a certain lizard for food, but again, we read this on the internet and are not positive. We noticed several land areas along the northern coast with fires burning including the Mlingimbi Community area at Yabooma Island Esturary. We shall investigate further…..

    I hadn\’t mentioned this before, but our generator main circuit breaker went out on us several days ago. The good news was that the shore power breaker is identical to it and I just swapped them out. At first it didn\’t work. Nikki said (she\’s a certified electrician btw!) that the relay coil wasn\’t activating. I took it apart, re-assymbled and we\’re now back in the generator business.

    Tomorrow, we\’ll be off to Malay Bay on the Cobourg Peninsula which has some sorted history of it\’s own…. More later, stay tuned!

    KIT, Scott and Nikki

    Happy Birthday Robert Sheinbein. Robert for those of you who don\’t know him, was my oldest childhood friend!

  • Yabooma Island Estuary…..

    04 July 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    Well, the wind didn\’t look all that bad to us this morning despite the forecast for gusts up to 30 knots. As we would be very inshore next to the \”continent\” vs. small narrow islands, we thought the winds would be lighter and indeed they were!

    With two reefs in the main and the staysail, off we went straight downwind to Yabooma Island Estuary. THIS IS ABOUT AS REMOTE AS YOU CAN GET. The charts have vast areas which are \”inadequately surveyed\” or worse, \”unsurveyed\”. Sort of like sailing without a chart IF we went in the unsurveyed areas which WE DID NOT. The Aussies have done a great job charting perhaps the most difficult waterway area in the world. 2000 miles of reef, reef, reef! We had an uneventful sail and were even marginally underpowered with winds at only 16-20 knots. Interestingly, a bit erie!, the water turned a pea soup green when we were 10 miles from the island and it\’s convoluted waterway. After negotiating the entrance, my first plan had to be tossed out the window as the \”anchorage\” (side of the river) was open to the prevailing wind. It wasn\’t blowing hard, but we never like the shore behind us and it was a bit lumpy. So, we headed up river!

    Here\’s where the fun begins. We pass what was listed as an aboriginal community on the shore and see one shack! That\’s it! Nikki thought she might have seen some additional infrastructure behind the mangroves. I didn\’t. We did soon however find what we thought would be a nice 20 foot spot to anchor. Every time we were convinced we\’d found \”the spot\”, the water would suddenly be 70 feet deep! The current was running at a knot and a half against the wind, not uncomfortable, but it made the direction to set the anchor not as obvious.

    We struggled this way for an hour and a half. The problem of course is TIDE. We had a 6 foot plus tide, but at 0233 tomorrow morning, we\’ll have a 0 foot tide. This means that wherever we anchor, we need to watch for the tide which will give us 6 feet less water in the middle of the night.

    NEXT, as we were about to make our pass for \”the spot\”, I lost the starboard engine! It was overheating and I quickly diagnosed a broken impeller. We did get the anchor down on one engine (imagine that my monohull friends!) and a good thing as the river current was running at nearly 2 knots by now. After we finally got settled, I was able to quickly change the impeller and the engine is back in action, beautifully pumping water away. I have a special \”speed seal\” cover for it and it removes and replaces in about a minute.

    Unbelievably, we have good internet here as the Aussie infrastructure makes sure that outlying communities have wireless phone and internet. Our phones don\’t work, but the internet does! In the time it\’s taken me to write this, the tide has risen 3 feet and will be 16 feet positive at 7:30 tonight. The excitement then is to watch our bottom and make sure we\’ve at least 3 feet below the depth sounder mounted at the bottom of the hull. I think we\’ll be in 5-6 feet of water at low tide. Currently, we\’re in 16 feet.

    So with a full moon in the estuary, no sign of anyone, we hope to be off out of this jungle cruise tomorrow, heading for Junction Bay and getting closer to Darwin by the day.

    KIT, more soon, Scott and Nikki

  • Wessel Group……

    3 July 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    Last night, we anchored in 15 feet of water and did indeed check the tide at Refuge Bay. With the full moon, they are pretty big here. So we estimated that we\’d get down to 5 feet at around 1:30 a.m. Well, maybe my math  was off just a bit. We got down to 4.4 feet and did the mid night \”anchor drill\” with 20+ knots. Merely letting out some more chain to see if that would get us into deeper water. Well maybe it got us an additional  6 inches! So I watched to make sure we wouldn\’t touch (not good for sleep!) and we didn\’t! We did see 3.7 feet for a moment and then literally…..\”the tide turned\”. Just another sea story.

    This morning, we left \”Refuge Bay\” (which was a refuge from the big winds) and headed for Howard Island where we knew from email our friends Paula and John aboard \”Mr. John VI\” would be.   As we lost our main circuit breaker on the generators electrical system yesterday, we\’ve been charging the batteries with the engines. So making water, doing the wash and charging were on the morning agenda.   We motored very close to the shore to keep away from the building seas in 25- 30 knots of wind and finally got to where the land blocked the wind better; \”setting sail\”.  I t was only blowing 20+ knots and with a double reefed main and staysail we had a nice three hour sail arriving here at Howard Bay with \”Mr. John VI\” and \”Silvergirl\” already at anchor. The tide tonight will be 16 feet! So, we had to do the calculations to make sure we don\’t find the bottom tonight (on the full moon). We should never get shallower than 7 feet tonight, it is currently 22 feet at high tide.

    Despite the big wind forecast for tomorrow, (this anchorage is the calmest we\’ve seen since Gove), we\’ll most likely move on toward Darwin along the NT coast. We have also positioned ourselves nicely for the next sail to Yabooma Island which is effectively directly downwind and only 30 miles. So as \”Beach House\” loves 25+ on the stern, we\’ll most likely head off tomorrow on our planned 6-7 day tripping to Darwin. We do have some maintenance and repairs to attend to (as always!) and don\’t want > to be rushed for time when we arrive.  Stay tuned, more soon…

    KIT, Scott and Nikki (Howard Island Anchorage)….nice and calm, full moon, cloudless skies.

  • Hole in the Wall….

    01 July 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    We felt in no rush to leave Gove today as we decided to just go to Elizabeth Bay and stay the night, planning to arrive at Hole in the Wall at the morning slack low tide. We got the expected wind however and decided to press on to catch the late afternoon slack at 5:30 p.m. This is not a preferred time for me NOT to be anchored in dubiously charted and unknown areas to Skipper Scott. However, everyone advised us that the anchorage at Raragala (where I am writing from) was a very easy entry which it was. Also, the winds which are 20-25 knots now are predicted to be up to 25-30 tomorrow. Better to get through \”The Hole\” before the wind really kicks up. One nice thing is that the islands we are in, the Wessel Group, knocks out the sea, so no big waves and not too uncomfortable at all.

    The Gugari Rip: (AKA: The Hole In the Wall) The Rip is known locally as \”The Hole In the Wall\” and truly has an side cut (the actual HOLE) in the side of the wall where it looked extremely calm. The rip is between two islands, Raragala and Guluwuru (Aboriginal names). These are both required to have a permit to go ashore as they are Aboriginal lands. We can see no one anywhere along the coast, fyi. I doubt that more than a handful of people live on either island (if any!) and they are each about 7 miles long.

    The flood tide goes from west to east and we were sailing east to west with 22-25 knots of wind right behind us as we entered the mile and half long by 150 foot wide channel. At about 3 miles from the entrance, the ripping current going against the wind was causing very steep waves and I was a bit trepidous of what might lie ahead. Once commited to this trip, there is no \”plan B\”. You\’d have to go 7 miles with a beam sea on a lee shore to get around the islands. NO FUN as the seas against the windward side of the islands looked like the North Sea to Nikki.

    As we timed it to arrive JUST BEFORE the high slack tide, only the entrance was a bit boisterous, the rest of it not bad at all. We briefly saw a 4 knot head current, but it average about 2-3 knots against us. Our timing was pretty good. Apparently, the current has been clocked at 9 knots in a full flood on spring tides. Our tide was only 6 feet (2 meters), so \”not so bad\”. The entire trip through the rip took 15 minutes. It\’s kind of like a Disneyland ride.

    We got spit out of the west end and came into the windy but calm anchorage here at Raragala. Anchored next to \”Obsession II\” who went all the way around the island.

    We think we\’ll \”day hop\” from here to Darwin as I feel comfortable about the lightly surveyed, but adequate charts. Most cruising areas have pretty thorough \”guides\”, this area does not. \”Mr. John VI\” gave us a copy of some information that makes it look like a nice adventure. This should be interesting as truly, this is perhaps the most remote area in all of Australia.

    More tomorrow, KIT, Scott and Nikki

  • Hole in the Wall….

    01 July 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    We felt in no rush to leave Gove today as we decided to just go to Elizabeth Bay and stay the night, planning to arrive at Hole in the Wall at the morning slack low tide. We got the expected wind however and decided to press on to catch the late afternoon slack at 5:30 p.m. This is not a preferred time for me NOT to be anchored in dubiously charted and unknown areas to Skipper Scott. However, everyone advised us that the anchorage at Raragala (where I am writing from) was a very easy entry which it was. Also, the winds which are 20-25 knots now are predicted to be up to 25-30 tomorrow. Better to get through \”The Hole\” before the wind really kicks up. One nice thing is that the islands we are in, the Wessel Group, knocks out the sea, so no big waves and not too uncomfortable at all.

    The Gugari Rip: (AKA: The Hole In the Wall) The Rip is known locally as \”The Hole In the Wall\” and truly has an side cut (the actual HOLE) in the side of the wall where it looked extremely calm. The rip is between two islands, Raragala and Guluwuru (Aboriginal names). These are both required to have a permit to go ashore as they are Aboriginal lands. We can see no one anywhere along the coast, fyi. I doubt that more than a handful of people live on either island (if any!) and they are each about 7 miles long.

    The flood tide goes from west to east and we were sailing east to west with 22-25 knots of wind right behind us as we entered the mile and half long by 150 foot wide channel. At about 3 miles from the entrance, the ripping current going against the wind was causing very steep waves and I was a bit trepidous of what might lie ahead. Once commited to this trip, there is no \”plan B\”. You\’d have to go 7 miles with a beam sea on a lee shore to get around the islands. NO FUN as the seas against the windward side of the islands looked like the North Sea to Nikki.

    As we timed it to arrive JUST BEFORE the high slack tide, only the entrance was a bit boisterous, the rest of it not bad at all. We briefly saw a 4 knot head current, but it average about 2-3 knots against us. Our timing was pretty good. Apparently, the current has been clocked at 9 knots in a full flood on spring tides. Our tide was only 6 feet (2 meters), so \”not so bad\”. The entire trip through the rip took 15 minutes. It\’s kind of like a Disneyland ride.

    We got spit out of the west end and came into the windy but calm anchorage here at Raragala. Anchored next to \”Obsession II\” who went all the way around the island.

    We think we\’ll \”day hop\” from here to Darwin as I feel comfortable about the lightly surveyed, but adequate charts. Most cruising areas have pretty thorough \”guides\”, this area does not. \”Mr. John VI\” gave us a copy of some information that makes it look like a nice adventure. This should be interesting as truly, this is perhaps the most remote area in all of Australia.

    More tomorrow, KIT, Scott and Nikki

  • Gove tour and Aboriginal Art Center….

    30 June 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

    Dear F&F,

    Today we were able to get a \”hire car\” as they are called here. A beat up Toyota Hilux. These types of vehicles are referred to in \”OZ\” as \”Utes\”. That\’s for Utility Vehicle. Ours wasn\’t a \”Mine Spec UTE\” according to Nikki (actually is was a beater!), but it sufficed for our needs for the day. Cars here aren\’t cheap. 100.00 cash (and oh btw), we weren\’t even required to fill out a single piece of paper work. I didn\’t even show anyone my license.

    So off we went. First stop, the town. Population around 3,000. I think it\’s the second most populated city in the entire northern tier of Australia. Darwin has some 30,000 people. Here, for the first time, we were in the distinct minority amidst the local aboriginal communities to whom of course this is \”home\”. We went to the local petrol station, got a map and found directions to the local Aboriginal Art Center. Nikki bought a few nice carvings and I got a good deal on a genuine, Arnhemland \”Yadaki\”. Up here, a Didgeridoo is known as a Yadaki. I\’ve been taken with these and only buy \”concert quality\” instruments. This one was 225.00 plus 80 shipping to the US! Nice! I now have 7! Yes, I\’m learning to play.

    We learned a fair amount about the local Yaraki Village and that the Aboriginal peoples are actually very different around Australia. These people are not nomadic, and call themselves the people of the saltwater. The ocean is as important to them as the land. Some of the artwork was gorgeous, but amazingly at art gallery prices in the big city. We also learned a great deal about how the land as late as the 1970\’s was simply taken for use by European descended Aussies without the slightest bit of consultation from the locals. This has turned around 180 degrees and now the government goes the way extra mile to make sure that Aboriginal lands are protected and property rights respected.

    Afterward, we tried to find out about a tour of the Bauxite mine which is owned by Alcan (Rio Tinto), but they no longer do the tours.

    We also went to a very nice beach with the crocodile warning signs and a beautiful lookout from a ceremonial area that is allowed to be visited. We later learned, that we were supposed to have a permit to wander about, but no one seemed to care and we left without a trace.

    At night, we went to listen to the band at the Gove Yacht Club (pretty good, but they need a vocalist) and had dinner there. Tomorrow, we\’ll be off for either Elizabeth Bay or directly to Raragla Island going through the famous \”Hole In The Wall\” at Gugari Rip! It\’s a ripper mate! From here to Darwin is perhaps the most remote area in all of Australia.

    KIT, more soon, Scott and Nikki