We finally left Darwin on the evening of the 12th. We were cleared by customs at about 11:00 am but had to wait for the tide to go out. Six-meter tide, don’t want to go against it. Because of these big tides, all marinas here have locks to get in – pretty expensive propositions.
Darwin is moving into its wet season. Hot and humid with some tremendous thunder and lightning storms. A local skipper told me that Darwin gets more thunder and lightning than any other city in the world.
We left on an NNW course to get to open sea, and the idea was to veer off onto a due west course, after we cleared land, towards Christmas Island, probably our next stop. And that’s when the wind stopped. We motored on and off for about 24 hours, but still nothing more than a twenty-minute breeze at the end of that tunnel.
The boat is a Caliber 40 lrc (40 feet long range cruiser). Not particularly fast, but very seaworthy, at least I hope so. Three of us on the boat. Steve, the captain, a 75-year-old from Seattle who has been sailing this boat all over the north and South Pacific and got stranded in Australia at the outbreak of Covid. He bought the boat new in 2001 and mainly sailed with his wife, who decided she didn’t want to continue their journey around the world. There are some medical reasons involved here.
I have yet to learn much about Marco, a 51-year-old from the Netherlands. And, of course, there is me.
In a big outline, the idea is to sail around the Cape of Good Hope. I’d like to think we’re in South Africa for Christmas, across the Atlantic to perhaps Brazil, through the Panama Canal towards Hawaii, and Seattle from there. But that all can change. Right now, we’re not moving an inch, and we don’t really want to motor. Motoring is expensive and noisy.
I get weather predictions/forecasts through the satellite straight onto my tablet, but that’s precisely what they are, predictions. According to the latest, we should be sailing right now, and we sure are not. We are currently in the early hours of the 16th and have about 200 nm under our belt since departing Darwin. Mainly by engine. On a long-term average, we should be getting around 110 nm daily with this boat. I’m very much looking forward to getting to that number.
I did get the question of why everything is in nautical miles rather than your regular type or kilometers. The length of a nautical mile makes sense. Pole to pole is 180 degrees, 60 minutes in a degree. And one minute equals a nautical mile. Nautical miles are always used for air and sea navigation. 1 nm = 1.852 km = 1.151 statutory mile.
I mentioned we have satellite. Each of us has an email address which is only accessible through one’s phone. This phone goes in the water, and I’m done. There’s no internet through the satellite connection, just your very basic email, no pictures. We can text, but that goes to one place for all to see. And phoning is also possible, but I have yet to learn at what price. I plan to send a regular progress email to Sheena now and then.
