Wednesday 8 May 2013

Weather and email tribulations

We are still at Bluewater, Cairns. Although we haven't had the very strong winds that have been forecast, it is very difficult to assess that as the marina is very sheltered and bears no relation to what is happening out on the reef. However, we have been having quite a bit of rain so we feel we made the right decision to delay. In fact it seems that all of a sudden in what is supposed to be the dry season we are getting more rain than in the wet season! They certainly need the rain here and especially up on the Tablelands so we hope that they have received some of this.
We sold our airconditioner 2 weeks ago but haven't missed it because the temperatures are well down. Almost a need for a blanket in the early hours! Don't know whether that's due to our thinner blood or that the temperatures are in fact well down. Bit of both probably.
We are feeling very frustrated and conscious of the fact that with every day's delay we then have less time to get to Darwin.
We've been tweaking our passage plan to reflect the many pieces of advice we have been receiving. The main change is that after rounding Cape York we will first call in to Seisia (Bamaga) for fuel and supplies and then head south along the eastern Gulf of Carpentaria coast for about 100 miles before turning westwards and sailing to Gove on the other side in the Northern Territory. The advice for doing this is a bit conflicting but often very confused tidal effects can be experienced further north where the Arafura and Coral Seas meet. So, as long as we get away in the next 3 days or so we shouldn't compromise our plans too much.
On top of the pesky weather, we have had our "land" based Yahoo email hacked into and a scam email purporting to be from us sent out saying that we have been robbed in the Philippines and requesting that money be sent so that we could get home! We sent out a warning email to as many people as we could contact but we hope that no-one else was taken in and actually sent any money because of course that's what these scammers are after.
Capt. Cook was probably right when he named the Cape just north of here as Cape Tribulation!! As always watch this space.
Love from us...........

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