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| Dive site on the Great Barrier Reef |
Over the past two weeks I have, for the most part, "day-sailed" up the East coast of Australia from Cairns to Thursday Island in the Torres Straits. Day-sailing is when you sail by day and anchor at night. Sailing inside the Great Barrier Reef is much more intricate than sailing in the open ocean. There is a very narrow shipping lane which threads it's way between the reefs and the mainland. At night one must navigate constantly and keep a lookout. This makes sleep out of the question. Some anchorages were 65 nm apart which necessitated a 0200 departure... all part of the adventure.
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| A giant anglefish |
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| The anchorage at beautiful Hope Island |
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Morris Island
I departed Thursday Island on June 17th for the 680 nm sail across the "top" of Australia. It is a mostly uninhabited coastline called Arnhem Land and all Aboriginal. I stopped for just one night on this leg to Darwin in the Wessel Islands at Two Island Bay... probably the most remote anchorage of the journey so far.
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| Downwind |
I arrived in Darwin on the 22nd. I will re-provision here, top up on fuel and water and complete the departure formalities - then set a westerly course for Ashmore Reef and the Indian Ocean. It is 750 nm to Ashmore then 1600 nm to Cocos Keeling Island. I will bypass Christmas Island (also an Australian possession) as this where the "boat people" from Indonesia try to land and the Aussie's have their hands full.
By the way "nm" stands for nautical mile the length of which is 6076 feet. One degree of latitude is equal to 60 nm, so one minute of latitude equals one nm.
Internet will be even more difficult in the Indian Ocean but I will do my best to keep you updated.
