Through out the planning for this trip, there was quite a bit of chat around crocodiles and all the wonderful Australian creatures that can hurt you whilst in and around the water.  After sailing over 1300 nautical miles from Cairns, I’m yet to see a live crocodile!

Todays mission was to venture as near as we could up to the entrance of the Adelaide River which flows from the Litchfield National Park down to Adam Bay, picking up 8 tributaries as it goes.  The river is renowned for salt water crocs, and is described as having a high concentration of them.  The search was on!

The charts suggested there “should” be plenty of water weaving our way around some shallows to anchor in a nice little deep spot as close as we dared to go.  Silver Fern led the way and it wasn’t long before the first phone call came through that there was less water then planned.  4m of clearance became 0.2m of clearance as we stopped the boat and backed up to find a way around.  50m further to starboard gave us over 2m of clearance and we were back in action.

We anchored Salt Lines in an idyllic little hole near Silver Fern and waited….. and waited… and the nearest thing to a croc we saw all day was my footwear.  I’m starting to wonder if this is all a rouse.  Still no crocs!

The afternoon was very pleasant with the crew catching up on some rest, reading and generally relaxing after a busy 12 days.  We were spoilt this evening with a stunning sunset, which was very quickly followed by the raising of the Blue Moon which was a beautiful orange colour from all the fires up here.  A Blue Moon comes about when there are two full moons in a month and it has been brightening up the sky for the entire trip.

The final 50 odd nautical miles to Darwin required some more tidal planning to ensure a smooth passage, so we got underway at 8.30pm surrounded by smoke and the Blue Moon, it was quite eerie. 

It’s flat calm tonight, no wind and we are motoring along with the tide.  The Silver Fern has assisted a vessel that has engine trouble and we have nearly caught them up.  Due to the calmness the fridge is safe to access at all times, and the Crew vs Fridge score card is rapidly going in favour of the crew.

With a whopping total of 1400 miles into Darwin, this brings to a close my time as Skipper of Salt Lines.  It’s been epic and we really have had a great leg.  - (Stand in) Skipper Phil.