August 29 - September 10
Darwin is in the Northern Territory of Australia, referred to as the Top End. It is a friendly cosmopolitan city on the doorstep of World Heritage Wilderness areas. Darwin’s cultural heritage is a unique blend of ancient Aboriginal custom, European pioneering legacy, WWII history and fresh Asian influence.
There is a 21 foot tide in Darwin so there was a lock to get in and out of Cullen Bay Marina where we docked. We spent a full two weeks in Darwin, the longest we have been in one place since December, we needed to replace the engine that Boabab Marine worked on in Fiji. They put the engine together improperly causing the crank shaft to break in half.
There is a lot to see and do in this beautiful tropical city and surrounding area, unfortunately most of our time was spent finding out how bad the engine was damaged and what to do about it. Nafea the mechanic working for Darwin Shipstores was excellent, he pointed out the numerous errors he found from the previous work on the engine, then tried to find a rebuilt engine and eventually ordered a new one. While waiting for the new engine, we worked on our to do lists. I renewed our Documentation, insurance, business license, worked on financing for the new engine, made some reservations for future stops and notified Yanmar Corporate of our situation as per Nafea’ s recommendation. In between helping remove and reinstall the engines, Dan completed his to do list. With the World ARC fleet gone, we met some wonderful cruisers to keep us company and share drinks with. We took some time to do some exploring, including the World ARC Tour to Adelaide River to see jumping crocodiles in the wild, Litchfield National Park, the Mindle Beach Sunset Market, the Darwin Waterfront and Berry Springs National Park.
Crocodiles were one of the unchecked boxes on our wildlife encounters list and we got very close views during the jumping crocodile tour. Cruising an uninhabited portion of the Adelaide River in a pontoon boat we saw numerous crocodiles ranging in size from 6’ to 18’ and up to 90 years old. The tour operator hung a piece of meat from a pole off the sides of the pontoon and the crocodiles lunged out of the water for the meat. “Tracker Dan” (as he has been aptly named by Neen from “Mischief”) also pointed out a water buffalo on the river bank.
On September 4, the World ARC fleet left Darwin for Lombok; I will miss the comfort of cruising in company and the comradery of the fleet. A crew person joined us in Darwin who was planning to sail with us for six weeks to Mauritius but his girlfriend fractured her hip so he also left today to return to the US. I do not relish the idea of sailing the 2300 nautical miles across the dreaded Indian Ocean with just the two of us. We also left for the day to tour Litchfield National Park which is historically home to the Aboriginal Wagait People. Our first stop in the park was to view the intriguing Magnetic and Cathedral termite mounds. They stand up to six feet tall in a north –south orientation throughout the floodplains and savannah open woodlands. Next we visited several; lunge pools and waterfalls to do some bushwalking on the trails, swimming and sightseeing. First was the Buley Rockhole with a series of small waterfalls and rock holes in a beautiful tropical setting. The Florence Creek Bushwalk led us from Buley Rockhole through the monsoon rainforest to Florence falls, a spectacular double waterfall with a large plunge pool. The water was cool and Dan enjoyed a refreshing swim while I waded amongst the rocks. Next were the Tolmer Falls lookout and then the Wangi Falls with a very large swimming area and small café where we had lunch. I was surprised to see so many cascading waterfalls in the very dry, hot climate. The Tabeltop Range is a sandstone Plateau that absorbs enough water during the wet season to feed the falls all year long. Our last stop was the Bamboo Creek Tin Mine to visit some interesting ruins of a small scale old tin mine.
The Mindle Beach Sunset Market hosts over 200 stalls with food, art and handcrafted souvenirs. We waked there on two occasions and tried a variety of food. The Darwin waterfront is an entertainment and dining hub on Darwin’s seafront promenade with a wave lagoon. We enjoyed a nice dinner here one evening with crew from several ARC boats. Berry Springs Nature Park was one of my favorite stops in the Northern Territory. It has two large spring fed pools and a small waterfall fringed by Pandanus and Monsoon Rainforest. After a lovely loop walk through two habitats, the Monsoon Forest and Woodlands we went for a refreshing swim in the clear water of the shady pools along Berry Creek.
The shiny new engine arrived late Monday morning September 10 and apart from an extension cable to the helm, was completely installed by evening. The cable was supposed to arrive Tuesday morning but did not get put in the airmail package. This was depressing news for us as waiting one more day meant catching up with the World ARC fleet in Christmas Island would be difficult.
God had a plan and our silver lining was Sean. Another cruiser (Alasdair) docked at Cullen Bay Marina, who was a friend of one of the ARC boats (Emily Morgan) just had new crew arrive from Ireland (Sean). Alasdair was planning to sail to South Africa taking the same route as us, but had to fly home due to family matters. Wednesday morning while waiting for our cable to arrive and just a few hours before our departure, Alasdair tells us of his dilemma including not wanting to let his crew down. We offer to take one of his crew and Sean agrees to join us.
It was an intense morning; we were anxious to leave, our new documentation was emailed and needed to be downloaded while we still had internet and we needed to contact customs to have Sean added as crew. It all worked out. By noon we were going out the marina lock to so a sea trial on the new engine with Nafea and by 12:30 Dan, Sean and I were heading west.
Agnes Long