Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

No explanation necessary

We came to Darwin only because it was convenient to join the Sail Indonesia Rally and get our Visas from the Indonesian Consulate there.

The skyline of Darwin

What we found was a new town that we could have spent much more time exploring.  We did get the feel, flavor, and layout of Darwin figured out pretty well during our 5 days there and thoroughly enjoyed the place.

The bombing of Darwin

Darwin had two significant events in it's history.  It was the only city in Australia that was attacked by the Japanese in World War II and Cyclone Tracy in 1974 completely destroyed the town.

4" gun from the USS PEARY sunk in the first attack

USS Preble passed us inbound for their port call

The Japanese fleet bombed the city 62 times during World War II.  The first attack was two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.   

Underground fuel tank (tunnel)

 The Japanese kept blowing up the oil storage tanks so underground tanks, that were more like long tunnels, were built but never used because the war ended.  The US had a strong military presence there before and after the war and still to today.  We're still even 'The Yanks'.

Tunnel viewing port

Fuel Tunnel concrete wall

Grounds of the Darwin Sailing Club

We anchored in Fannie Bay in front of the Darwin Sailing Club and got a temporary membership to use their facilities.  We met many of our future friends there who were also using the dinghy ramp and club.  The Rally was able to get us a two day turnaround on our Visas from the normal four day processing time.  We had presentations about Indonesia and a follow on Rally from Singapore through Malaysia that we will also be doing.   

A 'Cape' class Coastal Boarder Patrol boat

Australian Customs (now called Border Force) did an outstanding job of processing us out and even knew all about us aboard their coastal patrol plane that flew over us as we sailed out of Australian waters at the 200 mile EEZ (Economic Exclusion Zone)

This is how some people launch boats in Darwin

The bus system was great and widely used.  We were able to do some good provisioning at the markets and supermarkets, exchange Dollars for Rupiah, obtain clean diesel, petrol, water, and propane.  These are the things that our lives revolve around.  In some places, they are difficult but possible.  In Darwin, as the Aussies say "Too Easy".  

Thanks Darwin.

Restored to original after bombing and cyclone

Unrestored Historical Site

Fannie Bay anchorage in front of the Sailing Club

farkwar

On our 'Where Are We" page we update 4 different tracking sites.  Yotreps, Winlink, Skipr.net, and farkwar. 

Tucker Bradford, an American cruiser saw a need for a more user friendly website tracking options available, so he designed his own site to better meet the his needs and hopefully others in the cruising community. 

farkwar is the only website that will send emails showing a boat position.

Everytime we update our position, farkwar send an email.  This way you can do things you want to do like watch TV and not have to continually keep checking this website to see where the boat is, or if it has moved.  farkwar will also update social media sites like Twitter and Facebook but we don't use these. 

This is what the email that you receive looks like:

To receive these emails you do not have to have a boat, just:

1)  Sign Up: www.farkwar.com

2)  Verify your email address (farkwar will send you an email)

3)  Login to farkwar

4)  Search for the Boat Name you want to find

5)  Slide the "Follow" button for that boat.

If you actually have a boat, you can enter your boat information and start tracking your position also.  To update our position in farkwar, we just send an email.  Too easy, and this can be done from Tortuguita by Sailmail or HAM on the SSB radio, anywhere in the world, without the need for internet access.

When Tucker made this website a year ago, it was very rough and basic but worked.  He made it just for his own use and to see if there was any interest from others in the cruising community.  A couple of months ago, he must have had some free time because he fixed the rough spots and now has a world class tracking tool.  We signed up early on to see how it worked and have been using it to not only report our own position but now we are following 7 other boats.

1)  Convivia

2)  Ceilydh

3)  Totem

4)  Obelisk

5)  Virgos Child

6)  Peregrine 
7)  Zenitude

In the past year, farkwar has grown to cover hundreds of boats.  Not too bad for a spare time project. Good job Tucker!

Delivery Mode

A beautiful day of Spinnaker and Genoa sailing

One of the many reef lighthouses, complete with helicpoter pad

Our cruising lifestyle allows us to stop and explore the places we visit for as little or long as we want.  We don't really have a schedule, and mostly don't even have a plan.  At least one that actually matters.  Our normal cruising pattern is to day hop from island to island or bay to bay, staying until it feels right to move on.

A great day with full sails

Restoration Island. Capt Bligh landed here for rest after the mutiny

A part of the navigation necessary through the Barrier Reef

Another reef light.  No helicopter pad for this one

Getting to Darwin for the Indonesia Rally has been our goal for the past month.  Since leaving the Gold Coast 28 days ago, we covered 2100 nautical miles.  Some of this was ground we had already covered last year.  It would have been nice to get back in to Cruising Mode once we got north of Townsville but we were now mission oriented.  Aviation has trained us well about the insidious tendency of  'Get Home Itis'.  We refuse to be pushed by a schedule into doing anything reckless.  Enough bad stuff already happens by itself.

A beautiful morning leaving Cape York

Coastal Cruising is easier to control than Blue Water passage making since you can choose the length of the passages and you can usually find a nice place to hide from the elements when things get tough.  Since we left the Gold Coast we have been Coastal Cruising doing 36 hours on and 12 hours off.  A few times we went 60 on and 36 off.  This let us do essentially a "Redeye", then recover the following night, and then do it all again.  That gave us a good 200+ mile range every two days. 

Fatigue is the biggest enemy while coastal cruising.  Falling asleep on watch, missing a turn in the well marked but winding ship channel, would have put us up hard on to one of the thousands of barrier reefs.  That was a risk not worth taking and with a two person crew, sleep is a precious commodity, 

Crazy Seas in the Gulf of Carpentaria

Bluewater passage making has it's own dangers since you are exposed to the weather for the entire voyage and there is nowhere to tuck in to sleep or get out of the elements.  We had our share of that also for the 700 mile leg from Cape York to Darwin.  The Gulf of Carpentaria is about 300 by 300 miles and is very shallow.  When the wind gets blowing across the 300 miles of shallow sea, the waves get crazy. 

The washing machine swell

We had 2 good days of sailing from  

 Cape York with the wind behind us and fairly comfortable seas.  Then the wind shifted from the south and we were getting slammed by perpendicular 3 meter waves from behind and the side with no option except to head north to New Guinea or just accept the beating.  Tortuguita held up better than we did and the following day we clawed our way toward the coast to reduce the amount of distance that the waves could build.  

The beach in front of our spot on Croker Island.

That tactic did work and even though we were still 50 miles from the coast, we were able to get a few hours sleep that night compared to nothing the night before.  We really really needed sleep so our goal was to find a place to anchor on the coast, or an offshore island.  The wind direction and strength kept us from making the mainland but Croker Island was just what the doctor ordered.  We dropped anchor at 4PM in a beautiful sandy bay and slept for over 10 hours.  The next morning we awoke refreshed and 24 hours later we were in Darwin.

The wharf at Seisia

We saw some of the nicest areas along our route north of Townsville and across the Arafura Sea but time didn't allow us to 'stop and smell the roses'.  The unexplored and uninhabited areas of the Inner Passage of the Great Barrier Reef deserved at least a few months. 

Arnhem_Land, the northern section of the state of the Northern Territory, had some of the best coastline we have seen in Australia.  It is an Aboriginal settlement area and permission is needed to visit, but would be well worth it to do that and spend a few months on that coast also.

We keep justifying it by saying that 'You can't see everything'.  Yes, but that doesn't quite do it.  That's how we ended up missing Vanuatu in the first place, and the winds won't take us back this way once we leave.