Since leaving Cairns, we have been inside the Great Barrier Reef marine park.  Actually, we have been in it prior to Cairns, however the passages through the reef don’t get ‘interesting’ until north of Cairns.  Here the recommended routes take us through narrower passages and consequently, continuous varying courses.  We have a compulsory GBR pilot with us.  Any vessel over 70m in length has to have one and having joined us in Sydney, Gerritt will leave us in Darwin tomorrow, his work done. 

This will be a relatively short post, its purpose is to give you some idea of what the east coast of Australia looks like.  Most of the coast is devoid of any towns, excepting some ports.  Along with photos of the landscape, there are some of the Electronic Chart display and radar, this, I hope, will give you a ‘flavour’ of what is involved.  The video contains clips from various sections of our route; from south to north, finishing in the Torres Strait, this is off the north coast and in the Coral Sea.

A small-scale map of part of our route

A photo of our Electronic chart. The intended track is in the centre of our ‘corridor’, we stay inside the corridor, which is pre-planned, where we know it is safe. To the left is the coast of Queensland, the light blue is reefs and shallows, as is the light green.  The magenta lines and arrows mark the recommended route

Now a radar picture, with the EC imposed on it. Land to the left and light blue and green, reefs; the dotted magenta, recommended route.

Similarly, this is part of our route through the Torres Strait, very shallow, we have, at times, no more than 25 feet/7 metres under our keel.

Now some photographs:-

Queensland’s coastline

One of the many reefs which are above sea-level

In the Torres Strait. We follow a Bulk-Carrier, matching its speed for a while, we are waiting for a Container ship to clear a particularly narrow section of the channel. Had we kept up our speed, all 3 of us would have met in that narrow section, not a good idea!

She passes us, the ‘Johannes Maersk’ heading south. (Maersk Line has the largest Container ship fleet in the world).

Not much, I know, however I’ll write again after we have left Darwin, providing of course that I can find time between Captain’s Dinners, the Bridge-work and the paperwork!