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Friday, 24 August 2012

Portland Roads

Hi Everyone,

Well, here we are at the little settlement of Portland Roads. 
12 Deg. 35’.601S,  143 deg. 24’.425 E.

There are about 15 houses here, a few little boats on a beach which is fringed with palm trees and we are anchored between two decrepit fishing trawlers, one of them which seems to be working, the other probably abandoned.  There are no other pleasure boats here, most of them seeming to go as far as Lizard Island, except for the circumnavigators.

The area is very pretty and we have come around two picture-book little islands to get into the bay.  We cannot see anyone on the shore but can hear a rooster crowing, so I guess there are people around.  It is probably siesta time as it is almost 1pm.

The last 36 hour sail was uneventful except that we passed and were overtaken by quite a few large tankers, around 750ft. long.  That meant that we had to keep a careful watch.  The nav. gear has been fabulous and reliable and so far has kept us off the myriad of reefs we have passed.   The shipping channel up here is very narrow so all the ships are concentrated along a small route.  We are keeping to the same route and I work on the presumption that the marked shipping route is the safe one as far as reefs are concerned.

The sailing all  up the East Coast is fantastic as the reef shelters us from the main sea swell.  All along the swell has only been 1.5m and the sea about 1m. – i.e. almost like in Sydney Harbour!


We have not seen much animal life at all, no dolphins, whales, turtles etc.  We  have only seen a few birds and heard a few in the night.

Arti & Dimitri

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