We finally left Cairns behind on Wednesday 4 September on a cold wet stormy morning, but the sailing was fast and furious, the wind gusting up to 40 knots. We were in tandem with Crazy Daisy with the skippers sharing plans over the VHF, and it was decided to do a night stop over at Lizard Island - anchoring off in the dark at 04:00 in the morning in 30 knots of wind, the anchor held first time. Not a place to stay, though, with no chance of launching M and Amelie straining on her leash. We left at first light the next morning and had a fabulous sail to Flinders Island, arriving before sunset in a much quieter anchorage. Sadly we left at first light the next day - a place to remember when we’re in this neck of the woods, next time around.
From Flinders onwards we were sailing within the confines of what makes up the Great Barrier Reef as it narrows towards the Australian mainland - night watches were more intense than normal as we weaved our way through the shallows. We were covering the ground at 8 to 9 knots so progress was swift for Amelie.
We entered the Torres Straits on Sunday, saying goodbye to the Pacific where we had been sailing since 17 February. We quickly sailed through with a fair tide entering the Endeavour Strait later that day. The exit from the Strait was through some very shallow water and we were certainly relieved when our navigation worked as planned - we were still only a couple of miles away from Crazy Daisy. The Arafura Sea runs along the top of Australia and we were now crossing the Bay of Carpentaria which we completed by Tuesday 10 September. We celebrated our Wedding Anniversary with a champagne and Gravadlax breakfast followed later that day with a Roast Chicken and Roast Potato late lunch - finishing off the champagne in the process. The wind was now to slacken off considerably and we spent three days sailing gently before finally conceding defeat and motoring for the last 27 hours into Darwin. The attached photo was our sunrise just before our arrival. We anchored in Fannie Bay, Darwin, on the Saturday. We were quickly visited by the specialist Fishery Department’s diving team who squirted something nasty into our seawater inlets, a precursor to being allowed into the marina. We were not allowed to move for 10 hours whilst whatever it was did its disinfecting work.
We entered Tipperary Marina through their lock on the Sunday. Keith was the lockmaster and marina manager and we have yet to meet anyone so friendly and helpful in any other marina.
Darwin here we are.