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American Spirit II - Day 226; Lot of Ship Traffic As We Make Our Way to Cape York and the Torres Strait at the Top of Australia; Tuesday, August 19, 2014



At 3:40 AM the auto pilot released itself from 'track' mode and jibed the boat. First time in a long time that that had happened. Jeanine was on watch.

I got up at 5:25 AM. Shower, shave and coffee.

At 5:54 PM I noticed the Rally boat Polaris coming up behind us at 1.75 miles,wing on wing with a reefed mainsail. The wind was 14 knots, and our speed 5.0 knots. Our movement thru the water was 3,9 knots, so we had a helping current of 1.1 knots.

I spent some time going over the navigation chart plotter with Jeanine by having her stop and then put in new waypoints.

At 7:08 AM the Ghena, a 623 cargo ship, was heading our way, 5.4 miles away. Its CPA (Closest Point of Approach) was .2 mile. Too close for comfort. At 7:13 AM I called the Ghena on VHF channel 16, and we agreed that we would pass each other 'port to port', or 'red to red.' At 7:28 AM Ghena passed us to port.

At 7:29 AM the Twinluck Swan, a 574 foot cargo ship, was picked up by our AIS, on a collision course heading towards us at 5.4 miles away. At 7:30 AM I called the Twinluck Swan and we both agreed on a port to port passing. At 7:48 AM the ship passed .37 miles to port. The wind was 10/11 knots and our boat speed was 4.3 knots.

Jeanine went to bed at 8:30 AM. She had stood the 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM watch and was due some time off.

At 9:06 AM the Newcastle Bay was picked up by our AIS 9.3 miles away. The wind was 13 knots and our speed with mainsail only was 4.4 knots.

At 9:11 AM I called the Newcastle Bay and we both agreed on a port to port passing in the narrow passage between Inset Reef and Piper Reef. We should pass in 24 minutes. I advised the ship that Polaris, ahead of us, did not have a working VHF radio.

At 9:19 AM the wind was 11/12 knots and our speed 4.5/4.6 knots. The wind was almost dead astern on our starboard aft quarter. The sea temperature was 79.3.

At 9:38 AM the Newcastle Bay passed us port to port.

I put in the canvas insert between the dodger and bimini at 9:46 AM to cut down on the sun's heat; and at 9:50 AM rolled the jib out. Our speed increased from 4.6 to 6.0 knots.

Joel got up at around 10:00 AM and I cooked breakfast: scrambled eggs, cut up potato and chilled fruit cocktail. I'd spiced up the potatoes too much so they were quite 'hot.' Oops.

At 12:25 PM we passed thru the channel connected to Cape Grenville.

At 1:05 PM we put the pole up and were sailing wing on wing.

I napped from 1:15 PM to 3:15 PM.

At 3:32 PM the Da Wei Shan, a 331 foot cargo ship, was heading our way 6.8 miles away. The wind was 18 knots and our speed 7.5 knots.

We altered course 13 degrees to starboard until the ship passed, which it did at 4:01 PM, port to port, at .55 miles away. We could hear the ship's engines quite clearly as it passed.

At 5:03 PM the sea temperature had increased to 80.2. First time we've had a reading over 80 in a couple of months.

We took down the whisker pole at 5:16 PM.

Dinner was at 5:45 PM and consisted of blackened and grilled port chops, sweet potato cooked in the micro wave, chilled fruit cocktail and garlic bread cooked in the oven. Jeanine rated the garlic bread the second best she'd had on the trip, with the garlic bread we had at the MacKay Yacht Club the best so far.

At 6:20 PM the warship HMS Stewart was seen on the horizon and identified on our AIS. I was surprised that they were on AIS. In the US our warships are not.

After dinner I napped from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM, then assumed watch from 9:00 PM to 1:30 AM. An extended watch tonight as Joel and I were splitting the night due to the critical and tight navigating required to round the York Peninsula at night. He was standing watch from 1:30 AM to 6:00 AM.

During my watch the wind was often 20 knots and our boat speed 6.0 knots. Joel had gusts of 25 knots earlier in the night. On a broad reach. We had 2 reefs in the mainsail and a reefed jib. The boat motion was very rough, making it almost impossible to sleep during my nap earlier due to constantly being thrown around my bed in the aft cabin.

At 9:41 PM the wind was 15/16 and our speed thru the water 4.7 knots, but over the ground we were doing 5.6 knots with a .9 helping current. Low overcast clouds with a few stars showing.

At 11:05 PM the Kota Lumayan, a 853 foot cargo ship making 17 knots, was picked up on AIS, heading towards us, head to head.

By 11:30 PM it was starting to clear, with 50% of the sky now full of stars. A morale booster. Around this time I had a 'mother ship' fishing boat circling around, all lit up like a baseball stadium at night. The Kota Lumayan passed by, port to port, 2 miles away, at 11:39 PM. There were only 3 lights visible on this 893 foot ship - 2 white range lights, one fore and one aft; and a red light on the port bow. Impressive.

Joel relieved me at 1:30 AM as we were just north of Albany Island in the passage at the top of the York Peninsula.

Australian slang for the day: 'brick short of a wall.' Used to describe a simple person. Not a compliment.

Brian Fox


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