We arrived in Darwin at lunch today and harbour furled the sails and had some end of voyage discussions and reflected on our Voyage from Weipa to Darwin.
Our final night at sea for this Voyage approaches as the sun sets. It's been a long and memorable one and the YC have been great shipmates and true Tall Ship sailors.
Today was HUGE. The YC's aim was to sail into the wind and pass through the narrow Hole-in-the-Wall. We tacked a bazillion times - well about 14 times and transited the straight mid-afternoon.
Overnight we cracked 10.4 knots as 35-knot winds hit us around midnight. The Whities furled all the squares and we made ground towards tonight's anchorage, in this seldom visited part of Australia.
We left Gove this morning at 0700 and set all our sails for a great day of smoking-high speed toward the north. It's a little rough but the YC are now salty sea dogs and used to the motion.