Passage across the Gulf of Carpentaria – June 2015

Day 2

Poled out all day in a 13-16 kt breeze with the swell from the south/south-east making it a bit lumpy but not too bad.  In the morning we passed a fleet of fishing boats out to our north – they all seemed to be fishing around the same area.  When we checked the chart we could see the demarcation zones for the Papua New Guinea/ Indonesia/Australia fishing areas – looked like all the Papua New Guineans were fishing in the remotest corner of their zone -  maybe with underwater speakers calling into the Australian zone ‘here fishy, fishy…’! (Bit like the Swiss cows with the long necks).  You might have to think about that one!

The gribs showed that the wind was going to the south east at around 10pm and sure enough we were able to un-pole the genoa and sail on a beam reach for the rest of the night.  Almost perfect conditions with the wind blowing a steady 15 knots all night.  The moon was up early giving us a lovely light night and as the moon went down the stars glowed bright until the rising of the sun made them fade in the sky with only Canopus twinkling in the south for a while later – oh I feel almost poetic (or should that be pathetic!)

We had set off from Possession island with friends Sue and Andy on Spruce and 2 more boats (a German couple we know on Lazy Lady and an Australian couple on Riona who are circumnavigating Australia) had set off from a bit further south – we were in sight of them most of the first day but soon lost them but are still in VHF contact.  No sea creatures spotted and once the plethora of PNG fishing boats faded into the distance there were no other boats to be seen.  A few flying fish and brown boobies were the sum total of our sightings.

We have about 13 miles to go to get to Cape Wessel and then a few more miles into an anchorage.

24 hours: 170 miles

Position at 0700 local 30 June: S10:58:67 E136:57:148