Misto - August 23-September 2 2018: Seisia, Darwin and Kakadu

We spent a night at the small settlement of Seisia and then sailed on towards Darwin. Unfortunately the wind was not terribly cooperative and so for the next 5 days we motored, motor-sailed and sailed only a little! We timed our arrival in Van Dieman’s pass very well exactly 4 hours before Darwin high tide and so we had favorable current with us, at a maximum of 3.9 knots.

We arrived at Cullen Bay at first light on September 28, having caught some Spanish Mackerel (completely the unlike the fish of the same name caught in North Carolina) and some tuna. Here Misto had to have a biocide treatment in all the through hulls as they are trying to keep green lipped mussels out. Cullen Bay marina has a locked entrance as the tides are so large here (around 7m) that they do not want all the water draining out of the marina. We finally refueled in the early evening and locked through around 7.30 pm, after waiting the obligatory 10 hours for the biocide to work.

Over the next few days we enjoyed a could of fun social events. The optional crew dinner was great and we enjoyed the huge seafood buffet at a local restaurant, as well as seeing Anita and Steve from Timshel for the first time in a year. We had fun on the WARC trip to the Jumping Crocodiles, seeing more, and larger, crocs than on a similar excursion when we were here in April.

This weekend we hired a car and returned to Kakadu National Park. We stay stayed at Cooinda Lodge in their Flashcamp - a Glamping option as the hotel was full. The bed was comfortable and the shared facilities were new and very adequate. We spent the whole of Saturday on a 4x4 tour to JimJim falls and Maguk Gorge. The former was a strenuous walk over boulder strewn paths to a pretty beach setting at the base of the fall, but no water actually falls at this time of the year. Maguk was more picturesque and with the waterfall still running we enjoyed a refreshing swim - theoretically the boulder strewn paths leading to the pool prevent the passage of crocodiles this far up the gorge!

On Sunday morning we went Baramundi fishing. With a wonderful guide and teacher called Greg, and only 4 on the boat, it was a superb experience. It was made even better as we caught and released around 12 fish. Ros caught one large enough to keep (66cm) as did one of the other folks on the boat. The bag limit is only 2 fish per boat so we did really well. Now it’s back to Darwin to make final preparations for the leg to Indonesia.