by Judy Handley | Jul 7, 2008 | Australia Darwin and Area, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 59, Year 3: Happy Birthday to Mark!
Date: Monday, July 7, 2008
Weather: Change in the Weather-Cloudy Day
Location: Fannie Bay, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Mark celebrated his 66th birthday today. We went into Darwin and checked-in with Customs and applied for our Indonesian visa. We then bought a new Hewlett-Packard printer (our old one just bit the dust) and went to Go Sushi! for lunch. Mark enjoyed his sushi lunch with a Sapporo beer (brewed in Canada not Japan, we discovered) and then we headed back to the marina to meet with Lydia from Sail Indonesia. But we had a few extra minutes and made a stop in the Yacht Shop next to the Sailing Club. This was the birthday present stop. We bought a pair of dinghy wheels to help with the struggle of getting the dinghy to and from the water in places with huge tides that we are experiencing these days. The present I wanted to buy for Mark was an electric winch for raising the main sail, but that is just way too expensive. So I guess he will just have to keep building those muscles while raising that sail. We then went to the Sailing Club and got our information packet from Sail Indonesia. We talked with other cruisers and when Tim of Rendezvous Cay arrived, he broke into an impromptu “Happy Birthday” tune. It is the little things in life that make it so enjoyable and Tim’s little birthday tribute was much appreciated. When we got back to Windbird, Donna and Gerry of Scot Free II came over to bring Mark a birthday gift packet and a special candle that was supposed to sing “Happy Birthday.” The candle didn’t work, but again, it was the thought that was so much appreciated. After Donna and Gerry left, I checked email. There were birthday greetings from both of our kids and from my sister Patsy and our grandson Sam wrote his granddad a special email birthday message. Evidently Sam also sent some other messages today. He had always been obsessed with telephones and today he managed to call 911. It was early morning and Heather was out on the deck when a very large policeman knocked on the front door. He explained that there had been a 911 call from their address and then the phone was off the hook. Sure enough, Sam had managed to dial 911. Now what is the statistic for that one? We also got an email from a friend of our daughter-in-law Jo who lives here in Darwin. Her name is Jane and she is going to come meet us in the morning at the Sailing Club. So we are quickly becoming acquainted with Darwin and starting to think about exploring the Northern Territory beyond the Darwin borders.
by Judy Handley | Jul 6, 2008 | Australia Darwin and Area, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 58, Year 3: Getting to Know Fannie Bay
Date: Sunday, July 6, 2008
Weather: Another Beautiful Day
Location: Fannie Bay, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Darwin has a population of about 70,000 people. It is a city, not just an outpost in the Northern Territory. There are three main bays where yachts can anchor-Fannie Bay, Cullen Bay, and Francis Bay. Fannie Bay is further from downtown than the other two, but it is the home of the Darwin Sailing Club which is very welcoming to yachties. So Fannie Bay will be Windbird’s home for the next three weeks and we started to get to know the area today. The weather here is just spectacular. The sky is robin egg blue with no clouds and the water is an azure blue and very calm. The sun shines constantly but the air temperature is in the mid-70’s. In the sun it feels MUCH hotter, but we put up Windbird’s cockpit sun screens that Mark made in Panama and we could enjoy the views while staying cool. At 1 pm there was a sailboat race in the outer reaches of the anchorage. The boats were small racing catamarans. They were fun to watch as they sped between the boats at anchor with great agility. Then at 4 pm we went to shore with Donna and Gerry of Scot Free II and walked about a mile to Mindil Beach to the Sunday night market. We had promised ourselves we would do nothing today, but when we read in the Lonely Planet that there was a Sunday night market that just shouldn’t be missed we couldn’t resist. This market happens every Sunday night and there were loads of people there. Vendors put up their tents and sell just about everything. There were stalls selling locally made clothing, Aboriginal art and didgeridoos, jewelry of all sorts, specialty soaps, and on and on. There were many food vendors offering everything from pizza and burritos to curries and stir fry. And then there was the entertainment. There were inflatable climbing play areas for the children, trampolines, live music, and a juggler who juggled everything from fire to tennis balls. It was all quite a show. Next Sunday we will return to Mindil Beach for the night market but also for the Darwin Beer Can Regatta. Boats are constructed from beer cans and race in the bay. Now that should be quite a show.
Tomorrow we will begin our explorations of downtown Darwin. We have to find the Custom’s office and check in and get our duty-free permit. We then go to the Indonesian consulate and apply for our visa. Tomorrow is Mark’s birthday, so I’m hoping to take him to Go Sushi for lunch. This is one of those sushi bars that have a sushi train going past you and you just take what you want-for the right price, of course. We’ll try to be back at the Darwin Sailing Club by 4 pm to talk with a Sail Indonesia
representative. It will be a busy day.
by Judy Handley | Jul 5, 2008 | Australia Darwin and Area, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 57, Year 3: Darwin At Last
Date: Saturday, July 5, 2008
Weather: Another Beautiful Day; Winds 15-20 ESE
Air and Water Temperature: 75 degrees F
Latitude: 12 degrees 25.636 minutes S
Longitude: 130 degrees 49.229 minutes E
Location: Fannie Bay, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Another milestone. We have made it to the “Top End” of Australia, completing our 2,000 mile trek up the east coast and across the top. The actual number of nautical miles logged since Bundaberg is 2,060.28. It took Windbird 347 hours of sailing for an average speed of 5.94 knots. Those are the statistics, but they certainly don’t express the beauty of this journey. Getting to see coastal Australia and her out islands over the last two months made this a wonderful trek. But both Mark and I must admit that we are glad to be here. We constantly had to be on the move and it is time for a bit of a rest before we head to Indonesia. Of course, there is much to be done here, but we are hoping for a few days of rest and another few days for land exploration.
Today Windbird broke all kinds of records. Our top speed was 11.7 knots. Of course that was with six knots of current. All of our research paid off today. We timed the different tides and currents in the various straits we had to negotiate just right. We made the 100 mile trip from Cape Dom in 14 hours. Our average speed today was 6.8 knots. Unfortunately, in order to keep that speed going we had to motor sail the whole way. Our trusty Yanmar engine chugged away all day, but she got us here by 5 pm instead of after dark (which we were dreading). Our sailing catamaran friends went even faster and got here by mid-afternoon, and Oscar Blue, a motor cat arrived at noon. It only took them nine hours. But I wouldn’t trade Windbird for all the faster boats in the world. She is dependable and comfortable and always gets us there safely.
I thought I should mention the weather that I report with the log each day. It has been like a broken record. Mark swears that our thermometer is broken as it always reads either ’74 or 75 degrees F’. And for days now I have reported just “another beautiful day” with ESE winds 15-20 knots. I just wanted you to know that I’m not forgetting to change the weather report. It just always seems to be the same up here on the “Top End.” No complaints, mate.
