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.

080705 Day 57 Alcaro Bay (Cape Don) to Darwin