The Cosmos Adventure - News
Darwin Report From Joe Dorr -- Received June 10, 2002 Cosmos6/10/02
Sailing from Thursday Island to Darwin was not the challenge we had anticipated. We made good time on fair winds. As we sailed west, the wind increased to forty knots from the south. That was fine for sailing west, but we didn't look forward to sailing south through Dugon Straight, Van Diemen Gulf or down the west coast of Australia to Darwin because if the strong southerlies held, we would have strong winds over the bow. Winds that are coming from our intended direction cause us to do a lot of tacking and/or powering into the six to ten foot waves using our diesels. Not good for the boat and not good for the sailors.
Something magic happened, though. We had the southerly winds, right up to the hour we turned south, and then the winds almost died, but what remained, came from the east. We did use our engines, but we got a fairly speedy and smooth ride the rest of the way to Darwin.
Even more magic happened on this part of our journey -- we were surrounded by whales. They swam along side us, jumped out of the water, and even swam in our bow wave within inches of the boat. There is some debate among the crew members about what species they were. They were either false killer whales or pilot whales. The two look very similar and travel in large numbers. I figure that there were at least one hundred whales around us. Before you look them up in a book, I will tell you that they were small compared to what we generally imagine whales to be (about 15 feet). They look like very large dolphins. Of course the crew was jumping up and down with excitement. We got at least one reasonable picture and will send that for posting.
Other than these two highlights, the trip to Darwin was routine. Everyone took turns standing watches during the three 4-hour watches from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM and the four 3-hour watches from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM.
We arrived in Darwin at 2:30 AM on May 31. The anchorage is on Fanny Bay, which is a wide-open bay protected only from prevailing easterly winds. The bottom comes up very slowly, so there was no problem getting anchored and settling in for the rest of the night. Most of the crew slept and only two of us were required to navigate to our selected place and set the anchor.
Our cruising guidebook indicates that Darwin is not a good port because of 21-foot tides and the absence of a dinghy dock. Those facts proved to be true, but the inconveniences they created seemed insignificant compared to all that Darwin has provided us.
The Darwin Sailing Club is the best we've seen. Facilities are great. The welcome is great. Membership is free for one month. We get to use all the equipment, including trolleys to haul our dinghy from the water to above the high tide mark. The club offers fine and inexpensive food. They have been great also at receiving shipments for Cosmos. If we want, someone will even take us sailing on Sunday at no cost. Aussie hospitality is wonderful!
Darwin is a frontier tourist town. About 80,000 people live in and around the town. Well over 200,000 people visit every year. The town lies thousands of kilometers from any other town with over 50,000 people. We took advantage of the many tours to choose from.
The Cosmos crew broke into two groups. Anders and Steve rented a car and went camping on their own in Litchfield Park, while Hilary, George and I took a 2-day tour to Kakadu National Park. Steve and Anders had an excellent time. Our tour was brilliant.
Our first tour-stop was at Fog Dam where we saw beautiful flora, and a couple of 2-foot long sand goanna (at type of monitor lizard). Actually, one of the lizards was only about 16 inches; the last six-inch piece of him was missing, perhaps bitten off by a crocodile.
Next we took a boat ride on the Rock Hole Billabong on the Alligator River. A billabong is a water hole in a dried up riverbed. During the rainy season, the Alligator River is as wide as the eye can see (perhaps 4 to 10 miles in various places). We visited the Alligator River at the beginning of the dry season, and the remaining billabong was about 200 yards wide. All the wildlife that lives and feeds on the huge river during the wet season was concentrated in this one three mile long, by 200 yard wide water hole.
We hoped to see some crocodiles and did see many. The saltwater crocodiles (salties) were longer than 20 feet. They slept along the riverbank, or swam slowly in the water. When our boat got closer than a croc wanted us to be (we got to within 10 feet of a couple of them), the croc would launch itself into the water leaving only spray and a lingering trail of muddy water. The salties grow up to 21 feet and can sprint up to 30 miles per hour. Salties can be traced back 65 million years, but they nearly became extinct from over-hunting. Thanks to protective laws, they are no longer in danger of extinction; in fact, many now consider the salties pests and threats because they have no fear of humans and consider us to be excellent food.
We also saw many of the smaller freshwater crocodiles. They grow only up to 12 feet and are shy. Freshwater crocodiles live only in fresh water, while salties live in both fresh and saltwater. Salties have been seen in Fanny Bay, where Cosmos is moored, and where we occasionally have gone swimming.
On the billabong, we also saw little egrets, marsh terns, raga shell ducks, royal spoonbills, jabirus, whistling ducks, paperbacks (also called mallolucus), bustards, blue winged coccaborro, wedge tailed eagles, white-belly sea eagles, black cockatoos, water buffaloes, dingo, pacific herons, little corellas, pied herons, darters, dab chicks, glossy ibis, jacana, green pigmy geese, magpie geese, night herons, whistling and black kites, a kingfisher and more. While I tried to write all the species that the guide pointed out, I'm sure I missed some.
Next we went to Ubir, a site of fascinating rock formations and rock paintings created by the aboriginal people who have been in Australia for over 20,000 years. Most scholars believe they crossed over from Asia when much of the earth's water was frozen in ice closer to the polar regions causing the oceans near the equator to be up to 170 feet lower than they are today. They call this the pre-estuarine (before the waters) period for the aboriginal people. It was impossible to decide which was more awesome: 20,000 years of accumulated rock art, or the amazing rock formations themselves.
The rock art almost always tells a story, and the stories are often directed at children, an aboriginal equivalent of a Grimm's fairy tale. The art is divided into three distinct periods. The pre-estuarine period does not include many of the animals that came only after the last ice age, when the water reentered the region. The post-estuarine period includes fish and crocodiles. The post-visitation period includes pictures of Europeans and their boats. All three periods were represented in the paintings that we saw at Ubir.
Finally, we visited Twin Falls, which is not an easy place to visit. Because there is no path, visitors are required to swim over one-half mile up river, in very cold water over both deep and shallow rocks. Needless to say, all three of us made it and the views were spectacular. We took several photos that should be on the web site by now.
After our return to Cosmos from our two-day tour, most of my time was occupied in getting ready to continue our journey at sea. We have been here for nine days, and plan to leave tomorrow.
Here is a little information about the tide in Darwin before our departure. The new moon is two days from now, so we are experiencing spring tides. Each day, in most parts of the world, there are two high tides and two low tides (some days there are only three tides total, since there are more than six hours between each high and low). The gravitational pull of the moon and the sun cause the tides by pulling the earth's water toward them. When the moon and the sun are lined up at the new moon and the full moon, we experience the highest and lowest tides. When the moon and sun are perpendicular to each other, relative to the earth, then they pull the water in opposite directions, spreading the water more evenly over the earth's surface and causing less extreme tides.
When we arrived in Darwin, we anchored in water that was 11 feet deep at low tide, and 23 feet deep at high tide. We are still anchored in the same place, but with the new moon coming (and spring tide) the water is 4 feet deep at low tide and 29 feet deep at high tide. Last night, Cosmos was tapping the bottom as she rose and fell with waves and finally settled on the bottom for about fifteen minutes before the rising tide lifted her.
Our plans to leave tomorrow will have to accommodate the tides. We can't leave at low tide because Cosmos will be sitting on hard ground then.
When we leave tomorrow, we will be heading for the Kimberly Coast. This part of Australia is even less populated than the Northern Territory. Many places on our charts are marked "Warning, Not Adequately Surveyed." Because of that warning, the extreme tides (over 30 feet), and the many hazards that appear on our "not adequately surveyed" charts, we will be going close to shore only during the daylight hours. The problem is that some of the hazards extend 60 miles out into the ocean. We will choose our way very carefully; I feel a bit like an explorer entering unknown, uninhabited, uncharted territory.
We were going to leave Australia from Darwin, but because we've caught up to our schedule, we feel compelled to visit some amazing parts of the world that very few people see. Kimberly Coast is calling us. Our last port of call in Australia is now planned to be Broom, further down the Kimberly Coast.
Best regards,
Joe Dorr, Captain of the Cosmos
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