Year 2 17 July 2025 –Great Barrier Reef – Indonesia – up the inside shipping lane channels
Adam and I were on the 8.00pm –11.00pm and 2.00am to 5.00am slots. We were now well into the shipping channels which are marked out and guide ships through the Great Barrier Reef. We had to dodge and keep out of the way of a number of cargo ships coming down the channels and often I would call them up on the VHF radio to check they had seen us and were we ok to maintain our course? This enables me to check they have seen us and to ensure they alter their course to provide a suitable distance as they pass. The thing is that I normally like to have at least a mile space but with the narrowness of the channel I had to accept 0.5nm or even 0.3nm on occasions. They look quite close at that distance. The shifts pass quite quickly when you are busy doing this.
We were able to sail some of the time and on other occasions due to lack of wind or angle we had to motor. We went to bed at 5.00am feeling quite tired. As we were coming off watch it started to drizzle. We were then on again at 8.00am.
We passed Cooktown which is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs in 1770. Both the town and Mount Cook (431 metres or 1,415 feet) which rises up behind the town were named after James Cook.
It was a rather grey day and rain threatened but it never actually came and we sailed for a while and then had to use the engine before sailing again. Our 12.00 noon run was 171 nm which was not bad as we had a combination of motoring and sailing in lightish winds. We had lunch and then in the afternoon the wind began to increase. We had a series of cargo ships coming down which we had to be alert for and we had to adjust wind angles as the channels went left and right as they meandered through the reefs.
As the afternoon wore on the wind increased to at times between 20-24 kts with the occasional gust of 29kts. This meant we reefed the main and used the staysail which meant we were more in control. I cooked a chicken curry with cauliflower which seemed to go down well. We settled in for our night shifts with more dodging of cargo ships and reefs as we continued to navigate through them. The wind remained in the area of 20 kts and we continued to sail with a reefed main and staysail. We regularly had to look out for and identify the many navigation lights which marked the channels and the reefs. We were now getting into a little routine and becoming more used to the rhythm.
The picture of the day is a typical tanker we had to navigate around.
Need/Opportunity Year Three
In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK. I am looking for crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town and from Cape Town to the UK. If of any interest do email me.
The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com