Category: 2012 June Blog

29 June 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

We just arrived in Gove, Northern Territory. The \”NT\” is so remote, it\’s not yet a state! (They\’re working on it!). We are truly in the \”B of B\” (back of beyond) up here. I suspect there are less than 30,000 people (except for Darwin which has 30,000 people) in the entire northern 1/4th of the country. Think if only 60,000 people lived in a line between Boston, Massachusetts and Portland, Oregon north to the Canadian border!

The aside small world story is that as we arrived, we saw six boats heading out, most of whom are in the \”Sail Indonesia Rally\” leaving from Darwin in three weeks. One of them hailed me and told me he was a former patient! Amazing!

Most of the land here is \”Aboriginal Lands\” and cannot be legally gone onto with prior permission. It\’s so remote, I\’m not sure how many visit stops I\’d want to make in any event. The entirety of Australia from 150 miles north of Brisbane all the way past Darwin for several hundred miles is crocodile country. That\’s like from Washington D.C. to Washington State, OVER the top of the USA! You can\’t really swim and so far, the water in the entire GBR (Great Barrier Reef) has been pretty murky.

I have internet for the moment, so I\’m taking advantage of it.

Gove is a bauxite mining town. It\’s the basic material for Aluminum. There are possibly 3,000 people here and this is one of the largest towns in the NT. It may even be the second largest to only Darwin!

It\’s hot and lovely, the crossing was bumpy which was expected across the Gulf of Carpinteria (Yep, same name as the Beach House). We were \”buzzed\” by Aussie Customs and they radioed us by name. They are constantly on the lookout for people from Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea trying to enter the country illegally. Drugs too I suspect.

The AIS system we have is like an airplane transponder and gives details to those with a receiver about our boat. It\’s especially handy for identifying big ships so we don\’t go \”bump in the night\”….:-)

Next we\’ll report our shoreside endeavors and soon we\’ll head to the famous \”Hole in the Wall\” experience; a very narrow pass with lots of current that gets us from one side of the Wessel Islands to the other. As we were given a pretty good copy of a cruising guide for the \”NT\”, we may do some day trips to Darwin instead of just sailing on through. The rally doesn\’t leave till the 28th of July, so we have plenty of time.

The tides and currents up here can be huge. Second only in range to the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. Darwin can see 7.5 meter (24 foot!) tidal ranges. Fortunately, looking ahead only shows 3-5 meter tides. That\’s still 10 to 16 feet. It will make anchoring out and dinghy-ing in quite a challenge.

Stay tuned, more soon… Scott and Nikki

25 June 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

The Torres Strait Islands are a group of islands, (a few dozen) of which 18 are inhabited. They lie between just a few miles from Papua New Guinea in the north and Australia in the south. They are the islands which differentiate the \”Pacific\” from the Arafura Sea; gateway to the Indian Ocean.

The uniqueness of these islands is the both their geography and the make up of the peoples who have inhabited them for over 40,000 years. Genetically, they are Melanisians who may have arrived originally from India. Their culture is a hybrid between the peoples of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Aboriginals of Northern Australia. Those in the north have language characteristics like PNG and those in the south more like the Northern Aboriginals of Australia.

The Torres Strait was first sailed by the Spanish Explorer Torres in 1606. The locals of this area were anything from friendly to down right head hunters depending on the island. The sea here, like the entire inside of Australia\’s Great Barrier Reef, is extremely shallow by ocean standards. Depths rarely exceed 200 feet and often are under 50 feet. Due to the extensive reef systems and until recently very poor charting, these waters have been home to many ship wrecks over the centuries. Even today, many areas on our charts (especially from here west), say \”Inadequately Surveyed\” or worse, \”Unsurveyed\”.

Today, we took the one hour ferry ride from Sesia where we are anchored to Thursday Island. Thursday is the main center of the Torres Strait Islands and is only 20 miles north of the Australian continent. Tourism and Government Offices are it\’s livelihood today, but in years past, it was the Pearl Shell trade. During WW2, Horn Island, just 2 miles from Thursday was the second most attacked part of Australia after Darwin by the Japanese. We visited the Japanese Diver\’s cemetery where hundreds of peal divers were laid to rest, victims of then poorly understood \”bends\”. We visited the most northern pub (bar) in Australia, the \”Quetta\” church (dedicated to those lost in a famous shipwreck here in 1890) and other historic places.

The ride was fun and we saw old friends, s/v \”Uliad\” at anchor on their recent arrival from the Solomon Islands en-route to join the Sail Indonesia Rally with us (and over 110 other boats). We unfortunately couldn\’t make contact with them but will catch up when we get to Darwin.

The day was long and fun, we came back, went to the local market and thoroughly enjoyed the day.

We\’ll have a maintenance, clean up and get ready to go day tomorrow. Our next sail will be Nikki\’s first overnighter on \”Beach House\”. A planned 3 day, 2 night sail across the Gulf of Carpintaria to the Aluminum mining town of Gove.

KIT, Scott and Nikki

24 June 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

Today we went ashore at Cape York and did the vigil to \”The Top\” sign at the very tip of Cape York (The MOST northern piece of land on the Australian Continent). Interestingly, we did this with about 100 of our \”closest friends\”!…:-) It turns out, this is a great \”bucket list\” item for Australians. All ages, all types. Many are veterans of other geographic extremes. The southern most, the eastern most, etc.

After we did the walk, we took the dinghy to York Island (an entire 100 yards) across from the continental tip. From there we motored around Possession Island (Where Captain Cook formally took possession of Australia for England) and came to the small harbor of Seisa. Seisa was named after the ship that brought five brothers here from the Torres Islands in the mid 1800\’s. The wharf here has a ferry which travels daily from Seisia to Thursday Island which we will try and do tomorrow….SPACE AVAILABLE! It\’s currently sold out with all those Aussie tourists who were at the tip of Cape York with us today! So we\’ll try \”stand by\”.

We hope to be off from here on our first overnight together on Wednesday to Gove on the opposite side of the Gulf of Carpinteria. (More on that later).

We are at a nice calm anchorage with only s/v \”Mr. John VI\” (John and Paula) next to us.

KIT, we\’ll keep you posted. Scott and Nikki

23 June 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

Today was quite a day for the crew of good ship \”Beach House\”. We were hailed and invited by Bronwyn and Rusty of \”Torres Strait Pearls\” off their residence at the Escape River. After a coffee and some chat, Nikki and I took a serious look at some lovely pearls. Nuff said on that for now.

We also got a few photos of the two 8 foot crocodiles that live RIGHT NEXT TO THEIR HOUSE! They further told us there is a 13 footer around the corner and that we shouldn\’t hang anything important over the side of the boat….Like our feet!

A late start with the morning excitement got us off toward Cape York, the very tippy top of \”OZ\”. We rounded late in the day and anchored with \”Obsession\”, \”Tin Tin\” and \”Delight\”. We also sailed by old friend \”Mr. John VI\” and radioed our hellos.

Tomorrow, we will try and go ashore and literally stand at the very tip of Australia. It\’s a beautiful setting. Like always, \”photos someday\”…:-)

KIT, Scott and Nikki

23 June 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

Today was quite a day for the crew of good ship \”Beach House\”. We were hailed and invited by Bronwyn and Rusty of \”Torres Strait Pearls\” off their residence at the Escape River. After a coffee and some chat, Nikki and I took a serious look at some lovely pearls. Nuff said on that for now.

We also got a few photos of the two 8 foot crocodiles that live RIGHT NEXT TO THEIR HOUSE! They further told us there is a 13 footer around the corner and that we shouldn\’t hang anything important over the side of the boat….Like our feet!

A late start with the morning excitement got us off toward Cape York, the very tippy top of \”OZ\”. We rounded late in the day and anchored with \”Obsession\”, \”Tin Tin\” and \”Delight\”. We also sailed by old friend \”Mr. John VI\” and radioed our hellos.

Tomorrow, we will try and go ashore and literally stand at the very tip of Australia. It\’s a beautiful setting. Like always, \”photos someday\”…:-)

KIT, Scott and Nikki

22 June 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

We traveled 71 miles today having left Cape Grenville at 0645 local time. The first 15 miles we motor sailed in what was the lightest wind day we\’ve seen. After that, we had a brilliant 40 mile spinnaker run with 13-19 knots of wind almost directly astern. When hoisting the spinnaker, Nikki had a quick time out to take the cake she was baking out of the oven!… We had 6 boats in our little flotilla today stretched out over 10 miles. New friends Zulu and Miri on s/v \”Shapirit\”, \”Kakadu\”, \”Obsession\”, \”Tin Tin\” and one other whose name we haven\’t yet heard.

We sighted Adolphus Island as we entered the Escape River (where we may head tomorrow?) and it is north of \”The Top\”.

We had a bit of a tricky time finding a good anchorage in here and the local pearl farmer and his wife came on the radio and gave us some nice advice. They also told us that there are two 12 foot crocodiles that live on the sand bar right in front of the boat!…

We asked the locals over the radio why this is the Escape River? They told us the famous cartographer, Matthew Flinders was stuck on a sand bank in the river and was glad to \”escape\” without much problem. Hence the name.

Jeanne Socrates aboard s/v \”Nerieda\” (single handed sailor) sent an email recommending we go to Adolphus Island and we\’re ahead of schedule, so we may do just that tomorrow which will be our shortest sail since we left Brisbane. \”Shapirit\” and \”Kakadu\” kept going to get there by dark, but I like to start dropping the anchor around 3:30-4pm in case of difficulties finding a nice spot. It took us till almost 5 pm today to get settled.

So KIT, Escaping the river tomorrow…:-)…. Scott and Nikki

20 June 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

We found the \”divers grave\” on Morris Island. Unfortunately in great disrepair. As there was apparently once a crocodile sighted here, we did not venture into the scrub. Unfortunately, an incredible amount of plastic flip flops and bottles are littered everywhere on these otherwise pristine sand islets throughout the Great Barrier Reef.

We had 33 knot gust last night at Morris, but were very protected behind the small sand island and it\’s very large reef system. When the tide was high, we \”rocked and rolled\”! Otherwise, a comfy evening.

Today was a windy then gray and drizzly day. But 25 knots right on the stern all the way from Morris Island to Portland Roads. Last night after dark, s/v \”Kakadu\” pulled into Morris Island and we sailed up here today with them. Anchored now at Portland Roads, Cape Grenville tomorrow….

KIT, Scott and Nikki

20 June 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

We found the \”divers grave\” on Morris Island. Unfortunately in great disrepair. As there was apparently once a crocodile sighted here, we did not venture into the scrub. Unfortunately, an incredible amount of plastic flip flops and bottles are littered everywhere on these otherwise pristine sand islets throughout the Great Barrier Reef.

We had 33 knot gust last night at Morris, but were very protected behind the small sand island and it\’s very large reef system. When the tide was high, we \”rocked and rolled\”! Otherwise, a comfy evening.

Today was a windy then gray and drizzly day. But 25 knots right on the stern all the way from Morris Island to Portland Roads. Last night after dark, s/v \”Kakadu\” pulled into Morris Island and we sailed up here today with them. Anchored now at Portland Roads, Cape Grenville tomorrow….

KIT, Scott and Nikki

June 19, 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

One hour before we arrived, the wind went from zero to 25 out of the ESE. We are snuggly anchored behind Morris Island with a 200 foot Tug boat behind us. We may go ashore for a quick visit to this very small sand island with one palm tree and a \”divers grave\” from a pearl diver buried here long ago (per the guide book). We\’re about 4 days from \”The Top\”…. Nice sandy beach….

KIT, Scott and Nikki