CRUISING LOG
Darwin, Australia’s ‘top-end’ city and port, is famous for its spectacular sunsets, infamous for its vicious monsoon weather and is well known for the region’s huge tidal ranges. This is all part of the fun for Robert Weatherburn in his friend’s 17ft trailer sailer
The Kimberly Coast of Northern Australia has the largest tidal range in the southern hemisphere. In Derby, to the west of Darwin, the tidal range has registered as much as 11.8 metres.
This range is tricky for trailer-sailors like ourselves: you must have a good grasp of how and when to launch in order to retrieve the boats as the tide moves quickly – get it wrong, and you could be stuck out there, floating around for another 12 hours.
Sailors must know the weather patterns, check all weather reports and forecasts, be aware that the online radar pictures show the weather as it is currently and, most importantly, never be complacent.
The waters are tricky, too. They are home to some of the sea’s most dangerous predators and ‘nasties’, such as: crocodiles, sharks, box jellyfish, stonefish and sea-snakes. (‘Did you see how the log near those rocks just turned and slithered away?’)
I was on a promise of a few days sailing at Australia’s top end with my mate Jake Gray. He met me at Darwin airport. ‘Grab your bag and let’s go! The boat is on the trailer on the ramp, food and water aboard. Wes is there already, and he’s coming with us.’
Jake’s boat, Farr Farr Away, is a Bruce Farr 5000 design – a beamy 2.5m-wide boat with the beam carrying well aft towards the wide stern, where the average crew will spend most of their time in the cockpit.
It has an overall length of 5.09m, and a waterline length of 4.62m. Farr Farr Away slipped easily into the water.
RISK AVERSE
It was early February, and I couldn’t help but notice that there were no yachts out sailing, nor any others lying to moorings. I asked Jake why not, and he explained that during this monsoon season, one has to be sure there won’t be thunderstorms around. Because of the storms, many club members won’t risk getting caught out by vicious squalls or violent electrical storms, and nearly all their yachts were either ashore or on safe moorings elsewhere.
I was the last one over the transom
