First a very big thank you to all of you who have sent us emails keeping us up to date with your news. We really do appreciate getting your emails and hearing what’s happening in your part of the world, so again a big thank you.
Our two weeks in Darwin passed very quickly with really only one day off for a little R & R. That was a site seeing walking trip around Darwin with Alec as the guide in temperatures in their mid to late 30s!! At one point he took us through a park where we were dive bombed by birds who must have been nesting very close by. That was a case of ‘run for it girls’. Oh yeah right - in this heat. That was a Sunday and we visited the Museum which had a nice restaurant overlooking Fannie Bay. We did take a cab there! Brigitte had joined us the day before so it was lovely to catch up with all her news. For our first couple of days we stayed anchored in Fannie Bay where we had Quarantine come to the boat and put a disinfectant into our salt water inlets to kill off any unwanted marine growth we may have picked up in our travels. This then allows one to use the marinas there. Then the following day we beached SHAMAL so Alec could change the sail drive oils in each engine and I gave both hulls a good scrub down. We had her grounded by 1100 and then waited till the tide receded enough to start work. I started while there was still water around the boat so had my eyes peeled in all directions as a croc had been sighted in the Bay about four days previous!! We worked like bees as we only had the hours of the low tide, so did not stop until we had finished which was as the water was lapping the hulls again on the incoming tide. We had time for dinner at the Fannie Bay Yacht Club watching the tide coming in, then just after 2100 SHAMAL was floating again – thank goodness.
