Our current position is 10 59.720S and 134 31.064E crossing over the Arafura Sea.
One great thing about this lifestyle is that it's like constantly living in a geography lesson; the new places we pass through that we'd never heard of before. How many of you knew where the Arafura Sea was? I didn't until now.
We had a wonderfully social time during our stay at Two Island Bay with the final evening being Canada Day. There was a get-together aboard Inspiration Lady, a Canadian boat, where we celebrated with the most amazing turkey dinner and all the trimmings. What a feast.
It hadn't been our intention to stay that long but the wind picked up viciously so there wasn't much point in heading out into those conditions. We left this morning with predictions of lighter winds but no such luck - they've been constantly around the high 20's and into the 30 knot range all day. The high winds aren't so much of an issue as the huge seas; the waves and swells have been unbelievable at times. Trouble is now, predictions indicate no wind in a couple of days so we had to make the most of what we have while it's there. Let's see how these predictions pan out. The only thing that is usually really predictable is how wrong the weatherman can be.
We had a relayed message from Pete on Troutbridge to say that he'd collected and fitted his new fan belt and, at the time, was passing just north of Cape Wessels where we were anchored but he couldn't get down the western coast to join us - he wasn't able to motor against the winds. Therefore, his plan was to just carry on to Darwin perhaps stopping once at Cape Don if he could manage it. He must have had a pretty tough time crossing the Gulf though.
If all goes well, we should be in Darwin before the weekend.
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