Delightful Darwin

The anchorage from the DSC

Darwin is great. We love the town with the anchorage here in Fannie Bay outside the Darwin Sailing Club.  It's a beautiful setting overlooking the vast bay with a couple of hundred yachts anchored out there - marvellous.

It may not be the cultural centre of the world but Darwin offers a host of activities in sports, arts, museums, libraries, culture and many additional activities – a surprising number for such a small city. There are many terrific markets each week with great fresh produce, arts & crafts and food stalls from dozens of different nations, all with some form of local entertainment.

Right here at the Club, it's been a hive of activity with the Minnow sailing nationals for the kids as well as any number of tiny racing boats including Lasers, HobiCats and a couple of fascinating speed craft I think called Moths.

On our first weekend we went down to watch the annual beer tin boat races – each entrant was a boat made solely out of beer tins (only in Oz). Good fun with a fabulous market to boot.

Most of our time has been rushing around trying to get provisions, boat parts that needed fixing and spares that we know we won't be able to obtain over the next 5 months.

As Indonesia is predominantly a Muslim country, wine is going to be unobtainable so we thought we'd take a few casks with us but that is not as simple as it sounds. Firstly, they have a serious social problem here due to the excessive drinking habits of the Aboriginal population so they have strict laws on what they can sell, how much and where. We discovered that in down town Darwin, they are not allowed to sell sherry or port at all. Just outside of the city, they are not allowed sell more than a two litre box of wine at a time so getting a reasonable supply without multiple trips to both ends of the city is nigh impossible.  The logistics of carrying that weight along with our groceries makes it impossible to stock up.  I've been trying to do this part myself as Paul, my usual pack horse, has been so busy with a myriad of other chores. I fear wine will be off the menu before too long.

We're told that beer is plentiful and cheap in Indonesia but, sadly, I'm not a beer drinker and have no great desire to become one. Perhaps an odd sip in the heat of the day will just have to be my 'spot' for the day.

PHOTO GALLERY:

The 'Wimbeertin' raft

The croc canoe

Anyone for a didgeridoo?

The obligatory sunset shot

The Minnow nationals

Sundowners at the club