A last night at anchor in Darwin,
and the approximate/planned route ahead to South Australia
Timing our trip south was a bit of a balancing act. The best time to leave Darwin with tailwinds down the coast is probably no later than late August. That works until about Perth. The next problem is getting around the corner at Cape Leewin into the Great Australian Bight. August is deep in wintertime there, so it would ideally be better to wait as long as possible for Spring or Summer to take hold before doing that leg. That's why hopping down the coast would have been so perfect. As it was, the chance of headwinds were increasing by the day, so we were trying to go as late as possible in Winter to transition to the southern leg as early as possible in Spring. That left us with early September as the best time to leave, but of course we were waiting for our new propeller, so that date came and went as well.
By the time we finally did leave in late September, both the northwest monsoon and the southeast trade winds (which bend to northeast along this part of the coast) were canceling each other out as they filled up a big high-pressure area to the northwest of the continent. Our best strategy for dealing with both the calms and the headwinds further down the coast was to head straight away from land until we were way offshore to the northwest at about 11°S. There, we would exit the lee of Melville Island and could skirt the edge of the calms as we headed west to avoid the headwind squash zone along the coast. At some point, we would either turn southwest to pass around the headwind zone or, worst case, to avoid getting too close to Timor. We knew the Australian Border Force would be monitoring us. We were technically supposed to be on a domestic sail, albeit a long one. We didn't want to arouse any concern by skirting too close to another country's borders.
So, to take advantage of the nightly land breeze (as in: from the land), we left Darwin well before sunrise. In eleven hours, we managed to crawl thirty miles from our anchorage before the land behind heated up enough to reverse the land breeze into a sea breeze. We bobbed around for an hour before the stronger sea breeze bent our course to the west until the land breeze returned once again.
Hitchhiker at sea - a Brown Noddy (I think)
By late the second day, we made it to 11° south, and were far enough offshore to be out of the sea breeze/land breeze cycle. Our westbound turn brought the wind far enough aft that we could switch from our white sails to our brand-new spinnaker. It stayed up for the next two days, propelling us slowly but surely as the wind varied between just enough to keep the sail filled and nothing at all. Late on one of Maryanne's night watches, she got tired of watching the sail draping limply over our rigging and just brought it down altogether. When she woke me, I planned to 'fix' it and get us moving again. Most of these things pass in an hour or so.
It wasn't until 3:30 that I finally thought it might be worth putting back up. I unfurled it, which as super easy because there was no wind at all to fight me. The spinnaker hung straight down about two-thirds of the time. The other third, the tiniest of puffs would slowly inflate it into a nice balloon shape. We would then accelerate ever so slightly to catch up with the wind, leaving us with nothing moving over the deck. The sail would collapse, we would coast to a stop and then the whole cycle would repeat again. In this manner, I was able to clock almost a third of a mile in the next half hour. Subsequent hours were mostly better, but by the end of the day, our midnight-to-midnight run was only thirty-three miles. That is pretty tedious.
The weather system we were taking pains to avoid was approaching from the southwest and strengthening. We knew our period of calms and slow progress would not last forever, so we were trying to remind ourselves to enjoy the stress-free conditions while we could. Soon enough, we might be pining for the days when Begonia was gliding smoothly over a sea that looked like a freshly laid out bolt of blue silk. The lack of any real wind made it too hot in the daytime. The sun didn't so much shine as buzzed like a low-hung heat lamp. Our only respite was to cower from its rays in the shade of the bimini. The nights were glorious and cloud-free and perfect t-shirt temperature. With no light pollution and a mirror sea, it sometimes looked like we were floating in space.
Flying the new Spinnaker,
and our daily visit from Australian Border Force Planes
Once a day, just to spice things up, we were given a low altitude flyby by a Border Force plane, followed by a radio call to confirm that we're still doing what we told them we would do. If they had any skepticism about our story based on our heading smartly further from the continent and almost exactly the opposite direction for our stated destination in South Australia, they kept it to themselves. They were always polite and signed off by wishing us a good voyage.
At the end of Day Four, an AIS target popped up ahead of us. It was from gas well complex straddling the eleventh parallel. It was surrounded by a prohibited zone that we would have to avoid. Our best and shortest option would be to go north of it, but I was worried that if we lost the wind there, the current would push us into the prohibited area, so we elected to take the longer southern route.
Wouldn't you know it, almost as soon as we passed the point where we would be able to change our minds and go the other way, the wind shifted, pushing us into the complex. I held out as long as I could, but then had to start an engine to get us around the corner. There, I found a nice breeze, which had us skipping along at five and a half knots for exactly the time it took me to deploy and trim the sails. Then it died back again to nothing. That and our bit of motoring gave us our fastest hour of the day: 4.83 knots. Ten of the other twenty-three were less than one knot, including one six-hour stretch of 0.00nm. Ugh! At least the current was going our way. It was accounting for over half of our westbound progress.
Some amazingly flat calm weather
At sunrise, as we were abeam the center of the gas complex, we received what I thought was a rather testy call from the processing ship within.
”Sailboat approaching the Bayu-Undan gas field, this is Libertade!”
I had a quick look around, because we were clearly, 'Stationary sailboat in the vicinity of...' I could see no other boats, so I answered. It was strange he didn't address us by name like other AIS-equipped vessels did.
”You must immediately proceed to and keep a distance of ten miles from the complex!”
No I mustn't. The charted Prohibited Zone consisted of three circles, each with a three-mile radius, connected by tangents to make a triangle with rounded corners. If they wanted us to stay ten miles away, they should have put a ten-mile ring around the place. This used to drive us nuts about the U.S. Navy. They put up a barrier saying “Do Not Cross!!” and then yell at you for even looking in its direction. If the line you really don't want us to cross is 200 meters from the barrier, then move the damn barrier!
“Okay. We don't have any wind at the moment, but when we do get moving, we'll stay clear of the Prohibited Zone.”
There was a long pause and then, “Roger”
I suspect that what happened was the guy got up, looked out the window and saw an unexpected vessel in his kingdom and as a gut reaction, he demanded that we retreat to a distance that is conveniently one which would put us back over the horizon out of sight. Had anyone bothered to look at their AIS display, they would have seen us creeping up eighteen hours ago, make a noticeable course change to creep around and then continue on a course that was clearly intended to creep away. Even if we had been headed straight at them, it would have taken us something like nine hours to get within match-throwing range.
We spent our slowest day within sight of each other. Occasionally, wind and current would conspire to push us sideways into the complex at 0.2 knots or something. They never called us back to complain, but I felt like I could feel them staring at us. It made me much less sanguine about not being able to control where we are going. Of course, we had a motor or two, which I'm sure they knew, but they never insisted on us resorting to their use. I wasn't about to offer because we may need that fuel later for something way more important than driving out of the imaginary buffer zone of a real buffer zone so we can bob around over there instead.
We had to get around The Bayu-Undan gas field
Pictures taken using a good zoom
Late that night, on Maryanne's watch, some reliable wind arrived and we were able to slowly resume our progress westbound. I was especially pleased to watch the gas complex recede over the horizon because it was really bright and it washed out all of the stars.
We were not the only thing floating around out here, The boat seemed to be 'anchored' in over 1000m of ocean depth
By Day Seven, we had made it to within fifty miles of the island of Timor. It was finally time to turn left to parallel the Australian coast, just under five hundred miles away. The wind veered clockwise from northeast to east and then southeast. We doused the spinnaker and switched back to working sail. We were now sailing across the wind. It was forecast to move even further forward and strengthen soon. Our days of easy sailing and gentle motion would be coming to an end.
Poor Maryanne. Twice a day after poring over the weather, I would modify our route to reflect my best estimate for where we needed to sail. The system building along the coast was increasing in ferocity. To avoid it, we would have to swing wider and wider to get around the worst of it. First, it looked like we would have to go to 110°E. Then it was 108°. Then it was 106°30' or maybe 105°15'.
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