We've arrived in Darwin!

 

Arriving in Darwin

Two o'clock Friday afternoon, July 5th, we made it!

The trip into Darwin took us down from Cape Don through the Dundas Straits and on into the van Dieman Gulf, then on through the Howard Channel before turning southwards to head into the Darwin anchorages. 

We had heard some horror stories of conditions within the van Dieman Gulf; churning eddies and whirlpools, severe reverse currents and how we had to be sure to get the tides just right in order to make the passage safely without bashing into heavy seas and adverse currents.

Well, we must have done something right as it was an absolute dream of a trip.  For a very short while this morning, we had a current against us but it was a mere half knot, the rest of the time we had almost two knots with us.  It was sunny, fairly windless and turned into a really pleasant couple of days. 

Sunrise in the van Dieman Gulf

So we're here!  Now first we'll just relax and clean some of the thick salt deposits off the boat, catch up on some desperately needed sleep and then we'll go into wherever we need to go to check up on the happenings and information concerning the rally and get our visas for Indonesia.

And now that we're finally back with an internet connection, I'll be adding a few photos to some of the past entries, something I wasn't able to do using the ship's email services.