Darwin

Arriving
We arrived in Darwin the day before Amy's birthday on a Sunday at about 2am. She wanted to be in town for her birthday so we got here a little earlier than we would have otherwise, which is good because this will be our last stop before we head offshore so we have spent a bit of time getting the boat ready. Being a Sunday meant that the Mindil Beach Night Markets were on and we went along to enjoy the food and just being on land and around other people.



First fresh food for a long time

 At sunset hundreds of people move from the markets to the beach to watch the sky glow


Oh yeah, there could be crocs in there!

The first thing you soon have to get used to is the huge tidal range. Just around the corner the tidal range was around 2 meters but here it is over 7. This means that there is a long haul to take the dingy to the waters edge at low tide and a big dingy ride back to the boat, especially on spring tides.

getting down and dirty

Downer and dirtier

Jobs to be done
One of the many jobs the we have done is to re-antifoul the bottom. This was done on the careening poles out the front of the Fannie Bay Yacht Club where we have been anchored. We had to bring the boat up to the poles at high tide and as the tide goes out the boat will rest upright. We were nervous that she would fall over but all went well and Saltheart has a nice clean bum.

As the tide receded we brushed off the growth

This is about 2 months growth

Cleaned

One of the workers

And painted

Another worker

Another job was to install a new anchor light combined tri-navigation light at the top off the mast. The old anchor light was barely visible and drawing 5 times more power. I'm not normally scared of heights but the mast steps are lose as one came off the bottom as I was climbing I began to worry a little. All was well and we now have the brightness anchor in the hundred strong fleet anchored here at Fannie Bay.

Don't look down, don't look down

We are booked in to see customs on Tuesday and that's when we'll leave. I'll post another blog of Darwin before we leave as we have been really busy here.




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