Darwin

The next morning we fueled up with 207lts of diesel, before we entered Cullen Bay Marina as the fuel pumps were astern of us, on the same pontoon ,we had spent the night.

There is a one off cost for the lock, after which you may come and go as often as you wish. With the huge tide range in Darwin , the lock makes sense as some of the other options for berths in Darwin, can only be worked on the tides.

this photo taken from the Cullen Bay Marina website shows the approach at a zero tide
Definitely pays to follow the leads!

We locked in, effortlessly, for those who have been on the canals in the UK with me, there is not a paddle to be wound, its all done by the friendly lockkeeper. As it was the top of the tide, it was only a small rise in any case, not the massive 7m rise encountered on a zero tide.


Once through the lock we made our way to our berth. This would be home until I had either been granted permission by Border Force to continue to the East Coast and there complete my importation , or not.
It is not usual to be granted this request , however all I could do was explain my circumstances and see if my request would be granted.

Meanwhile, mundane stuff like washing down the boat , refilling the gas bottles, trying to find someone capable of fixing the now totally defunct HF radio, occupied our time.
Peter went exploring Darwin by bus to try to find some vital bits and pieces , and was partially successful.
The repair to the HF radio, not quite so.The fault appears not to be the regular one with the capacitor, which apparently this particular model has suffered from. Having replaced the capacitor , when the radio came back, it still didn't work. There has been an issue with this HF since we picked up K'Gari in  Vietnam, but I wasn't prepared to part company with it, in that part of the world.

Friday:Border Force  granted  permission to continue to the east coast, so we made preparations to sail. Re stocking the fridges, after the AQIS clean out, was required. I also needed to sign appropriate paperwork with Border Force,( Port to Port clearance) stating that I understood I was being granted permission to sail directly, ( no touring/cruising) to the east coast and there would complete the requirements of  importation.

Next ,morning we headed by bus into Darwin, its only six minutes, had a wander around, went to the library as I needed some internet coverage to try to figure out, via good old Youtube, how to change the fine fuel filters on the engines. I was stuck, as usual, pretty much at the first hurdle- the how to undo it without busting/mutilating/or generally destroying the filter bowls, in which  the  cartridges sit. It all looks so bloody simple. Watched a few videos from different sources and decided that it would be far easier to do upon arrival in Cairns- it wasn't desperate, and we were leaving Darwin  the following morning in any case, with many things yet to do.

Before leaving the library, I downloaded the first few of the fishing zone maps for the Great Barrier Reef. With our abysmal fishing record, it would add insult upon insult to be nabbed  for  trolling- for nothing- in a forbidden zone!

On the way to the supermarket , we passed National Flags, a  shop selling , yes correct guess, National Flags. Many , many different nations flags were on display. I needed an Australian flag in slightly better condition than the small one which has chugged many miles around the English canal system.
The very affable proprietor Ron, said he would search out the size  that I indicated I was looking for , and as we were on our way to reprovision  K'Gari, he would deliver us down to the marina when we had completed our shopping expedition, thus negating the problem of waiting for a taxi , with frozen goods starting to thaw. A much appreciated offer which we took up. So shopping and flag acquired, it was back to the marina

Meanwhile back in HF radio world- the solution to the non working HF, seems  to be to leave it in Darwin with Bob from  Navcom who will work on it and if he can't fix it, he will send it to ICOM in Melbourne.

Our last evening in Darwin we did what all good boaties would do, went for a 3 hour sunset cruise, onboard  Kuru , a Seawind, owned by Ecosailing Experiences , but designed purely for in harbour cruising. I was interested to see how it had been done, and I knew the delivery skipper who had brought her down  from Vietnam to Darwin. As it has no cabins and has been designed purely for maximum people on  the deck area to enjoy the cruise , it would have been an "interesting" delivery voyage through the equatorial downpours.

So that folks sums up the brief but busy visit to Darwin- time to move on and get to Cairns at least, so that Peter can go home.