Luna Quest - Friday, 21st August, 2015

Noon Position: 11.15S 131.42E

Daily logged run: 137 miles

At 4am this morning we changed our westerly course for Darwin. Soon we found ourselves amongst the islands, whose passages we have to navigate to get ourselves into the approaches to the Port of Darwin. The islands form narrow channels with reefs dotted around. One should not stray off too far from the recommended route in case of part or engine failure. Among the islands there are fierce tidal streams and when the wind failed at midday today, we found that even the engine had difficulty giving us a steady heading despite its 2000 revs. There are many overfalls and vortexes and at one point we thought Luna Quest had picked something up round the propellor as she was only achieving a speed of just under 1 knot. At the same time the Autopilot would not hold its course, such was the influence of the tidal streams. There are only 80 miles to go to Darwin, which means having to find a place to anchor in Fannie Bay in the pitch black…

Eric