Day 48, Year 3: Day 2 – Passage to Gove, Northern Territory
Date: Thursday, June 26, 2008
Weather: Beautiful Day; Winds SE 25/Higher Gusts; 2 -3 Meter Seas
Latitude: 11 degrees 27.962 minutes S
Longitude: 139 degrees 06.677 minutes E
Location: Crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria, East to West
Miles to Go: 161 nautical miles

Interesting twenty-four hours . . . as I write this log entry in the late afternoon sunshine, the conditions are much as they were yesterday. But in the interim we had some very gusty winds and rougher seas. Just before sunset last night, a seabird (some sort of tern) landed on our deck and I knew that meant rough weather ahead. The birds never land on the boat unless they are very tired from fighting extremely windy weather. Just after our bird friend flew away, the winds picked up, as did
the seas. We double-reefed the main to get ready for the night. When I was on watch from 11 PM to 2:30 AM, the average wind speed was thirty knots. When I came back on at 5 AM, the winds were still high and the seas were rougher. Mark had reefed the headsail that was held out by the pole, so even though it was a boisterous sail, everything seemed safe enough. Then around 5:30 AM I heard the headsail flapping in the wind and realized that the sheet (line) attached to the clue of the sail had
broken. I called Mark and he winched in the flogging sail and we sailed on with just the reefed main. When Mark got up around 8 AM, we assessed the damages in the light. The line had frayed though where it went through the eye in the end of the pole. The clue of the sail was fine, so we took the line from the port side of the boat and are now using it on the starboard side. As long that that line doesn’t break, we should be fine. And we are no longer using the pole, so there should be no reason
for the line to fray and break.

But just after we got the first problem in control, another challenge was sent our way. Our not so old VHF radio just stopped working. Power is getting to it, but it is not responding. The VHF radio is the one you leave on 24/7 so that other cruisers in the vicinity can call and talk with you. It is also the one you would use to contact others in the case of an emergency. We have the VHF constantly scanning channel 16 for communication with ships or the coast guard. And in fact, Australian
Coast Watch seems to do daily late afternoon fly-bys in this part of the world and they often ask for your identifying information. Australian warships ply through these waters and they also call to check you out. We are very close to Papua New Guinea so the border is patrolled constantly. Anyway, until we can get a new radio, the only way we have to contact ships or for Coast Watch to contact us is our relatively low power hand-held VHF. If they try and Scot Free II hears them, they will let
them know we have a radio problem. So for now we need to stay close enough to Scot Free so that we can reach them on our handheld VHF. It only has a range of 1-2 miles versus about 30 miles for the main VHF, but it is better than nothing. As soon as we get to Gove we will decide what to do about the radio. I think we are going to have to try and make it Darwin without one and have West Marine in the US send us one. There might be a local solution in Darwin, but we can’t wait until we get there
to make a decision as there wouldn’t be time for one to be sent from the US. Decisions, decisions.

And now our third dilemma of the day has arisen. If we continue sailing at the current speed of about 6.5 knots, we will reach Gove after dark tomorrow night. In these winds, it will be hard to slow down enough to arrange to reach Gove the next morning during daylight. One way or the other we arrive in the dark if we sail and we will probably have to get close and heave to and wait for sunrise. Or we can motor assist the next 24 hours and reach Gove just before sunset. It seems crazy to be running
a motor when you have 25 knot winds, but motoring could keep us from spending another night out here in this not so hospitable gulf. Of course, if we motor assist and the winds die down, we still might not make it and have to heave to and wait anyway. So in the next couple of hours we need to make a final decision on what we are going to do. Right now, we are motor sailing. Just another decision.

Today’s “challenges” are reminding me that sailing is not for the faint-hearted. We are not in danger, but when lines break and communication systems go down, the danger signals flare. This sail is boisterous and not particularly relaxing. You have to constantly be watching. The six to nine foot waves come at us on our port quarter and lift us into the air and then that wave rushes out under the starboard side of the boat. Just as we get into that rhythm, Windbird turns a little and we get one
of those waves right on the side. That then throws us over and that is not so comfortable. The waves are slowly getting smaller, but if sunset has the same effect that it did last night, we might have rougher seas ahead. We’ll hope for consistent winds and arrival late tomorrow afternoon. That sounds like the best scenario at this point. So it is time to send this log and get ready for sundown and whatever weather that might bring.