Oz Circumnavigation
Sunday 31st May, 2009 - Prep time Melbourne
Having some respite at home on dry land for a month has given me lots of free time for planning stage 3 for the circumnavigation.
This is the time that I can look at various legs in detail such as travel time duration, appropriate anchorages, and any contingency plans.
Working on this as well is my friend Tony Peach (N40 0wner) who will be with me on the trip all the way to Darwin, arriving mid September.
Tony has just bought a cruising guide that I have on the boat "Cruising Western Australia" which is an excellent planning resource, and produced by the Fremantle Sailing Club where SKIE is currently berthed.
Tony lives in Hobart and will be overseas on business until we take off at the end of the month, but is sure to have the guide with him all the time knowing his astuteness to detail.
Our plan is to go much slower than the first two legs to explore the wonders we have in front of us, and try to do shorter day hops and finding secure and safe anchorages each night.
We schedule arrival around 1600 hrs each day, and earlier in the coral reefs, being the prudent time to drop the pick, and always allowing sufficient time leeway for any unexpected circumstances.
We also plan to spend a number of days in a couple of specific regions, namely the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, and the Montebello Group before arriving in Broome where we will be met by my Margaret and Tony's wife Lyn, before moving up north and exploring the exciting Kimberley region for a month.
Stage 3, Perth, Western Australia to Darwin, Northern Territory
Cruising buddies, Rick & Dianne MacClure have also been invited, but yet to confirm. Rick is a professional diver and film maker and trained as a Diesel Mechanic years ago, but only drinks light beer which is somewhat uncharacteristic for guests on the good ship SKIE.
I had a brain wave yesterday when contemplating what got my passion going on the Kimberley. About 4 years ago Marg and I had a holiday in Broome, and attended the Melbourne Cup Luncheon at the Cable Beach Resort. There we were kindly invited to join a table of local friends by a couple, Gay Potter and Graham Bulford, and had a great time.
Gay and Graham charter their boat "Red Sky at Night" out to guests for Kimberley trips, and had been doing this for years. We almost signed up on the spot with the amazing stories they told of their adventures. However the SKIE dream intervened when we ordered the boat to be built, which meant that we didn't go ahead with Gay & Graham, but vowed we would see this place one day.
I have just e-mailed them both to tell them of our forthcoming trip, and although having a break themselves for a while from their business, seemed clearly pleased we were going to finally get to the place that they inflamed us with their passion. They also said they would like us to meet Dennis and Annette Ford which have a website which is the bible of cruising the Kimberley.
I wrote to Dennis recently asking him a couple of questions about crocs, and particularly about inflatables. He sent me a pic of one monster that had half his tail missing. If it was done by another croc the imagination shudders how big it was.
I am purchasing a dive tank compressor in Fremantle so we can fill our own tanks whilst at sea. However everything gets locked away when we head into white pointer and croc territory further up north. I sent out a signal to the members of the website I created for all of the N55 owners, and received some highly qualified answers/suggestions about model, size, and installation location, tips, etc. This Blog has been a godsend for a lot of us as we can share so much about our boats, having just passed 3000 posting/contributions in two years.
Recently received two new watermaker master circuit boards from the US, but must ensure that what has blown two boards in the past is just a power spike coming from the Genset, and must be rectified with the help of a marine sparkie. It is essential that out RO unit works well or we will be forced to take our showers under waterfalls all around the Kimberley.
Damn, no soap shelf, towel rail, or modesty screen!
Onwards, and upwards.