Diary for Sailng on Windwanderer.


Wednesday 27th August 2014

2014-08-27

Wednesday 27th August 2014

Well  here we are, back out in the big blue, but only just, it's my watch and it's around 9.30pm.

We got off to a really late start, nothing ever goes to plan, by the time we were ready to up anchor and get some fuel it was already 11am.
We had a bit of an issue getting to the fuel dock, with shallow water and very tight turns to get in there, with one very sharp turn around a buoy with a sand bank on one side and rocks and cliffs on the other, and of cause the charming depth sounder playing up once again, it was starting to flash and not reading the correct depth at all, and Murphy's law, it was just when we were coming into extremely shallow waters, talk about stress over load.

We finally made it to the dock and were faced with another boat already there, now the fun really began, this fuel dock is a really strange set up, it's in a really small area with a rock wall on one side and a Clift on the other.
We had to try and stop the boat, move out of the way and not run aground or hit any walls or the other boat.

It was all a bit too much for me I tell you, with nerves pushed to the limit, we managed to keep it all together and finally the other boat left and we came into the dock.
Without hitting, damaging, or running aground, it was a sheer miracle.
With pale faces, shaking hands and weak at the knees, we fuelled up let go of the lines and had to get ourselves back off the dock, it sure was a struggle, with no depth sounder working, we managed to get out of there and back into deeper water, and yeap the depth sounder started to work again.

We decided to set the anchor once again, more I think for the pair of us to settle a bit, and then do the last few things before we set off for real, there's always is a mental amount of stuff to get through before you set off on a big crossing, it always seem to take us by surprise.

So we actually didn't get going till around 3.30pm right on the dot of when we had to leave.
Yesterday we made an appointment for the third time with customs to check out, we had decided to catch the bus into town, but either we missed  it or it was running late we will never know, but with time running out we managed to flag down a passing taxi, jumped in and just made it in time.
After we filled in what seemed like a million and one papers they set us free, with strict instructions that we have to leave within 24 hours.
We grabbed a few last minute groceries and jumped on a bus back to the dingy, we were sent off from Darwin with not such a good memory.

A group of 8 or ten aborigines jumped on the bus, they were as drunk as skunks, and smelt so bad, it almost made us sick, and talk about acting up, man they were yelling, swearing fighting you name it, several times the bus driver told them to settle down, this  just made them worse, thanks guys for  making a charming ( NOT ) last impression of the local life  in Darwin for us.

So we walked back to the dingy, just a little bit sad, I think it was more just knowing that this was the last time in a long while that we will set foot on Australian soil and leaving all our family and friends behind.

We saw the last bit of Australian land just over a few hours ago, and now the new journey begins again, Cocos Keeling here we come, it should take about 14 days and about 2,000nm.

I just had a tug pass us by, and am looking at three other ships coming onto the radar, so I better leave this for now and get back to work...haha.

Well tomorrow is another day.