The 330nm sail across the Gulf of Carpenteria from Thursday Island to Gove was spectacular. The (boringly, wonderful) repetitive, warm SE winds that have created day after day, of downwind sailing, have made life on board so much easier than it could have been. The prevailing winds make for easy sailing and that continued, after we departed Thursday Island.

One departure from Thursday Island, the 25-30 knot winds were determined to blow us out the back door and conspired with the 3-4 knot outgoing tide, to push us along at 11-12 knots over ground, as we headed out the western channel. We departed Thursday Island and motored into the lee of Friday Island (it really is named Friday) to hoist the mainsail.

With 20-25+ knots forecast, we hoisted the mainsail with 2 reefs and the staysail and set off on a westerly heading of 252 degrees, across the Gulf. It was surprisingly shallow with 10-12m depth and random rocks for the first 40nm. By midnight we were out into the Gulf and the depth increased to 50-60m. The Gulf is around 360nm from north to south and the same from east to west. It’s almost the same distance from the Gold Coast to Sydney, so its a big body of water.

We sailed into Gove Harbour at midday on the 26th of August after rounding the 1950’s industrial backdrop of the Rio Tinto ship loading port. With a conveyor belt that moves bauxite (used for making aluminium) from the inland mine directly to the ships, its an impressive sight.

We entered the harbour and worked our way across the shallow water, to find a spot to anchor in 5m opposite the Gove Boat Club. Being in croc country, we all cast a nervous glance around us for those beady little eyes on a regular basis, especially when jumping into the RIB. The Gove Boat Club was the only game in town, on this isolated peninsula, so we headed ashore in 2 RIB loads and piled in there for a late lunch. The wind was ripping through the anchorage at 20 knots, so we got a bit of a drenching from the spray over the bow on the way in.

By now it was 1:50pm and the kitchen was 10 minutes from closing, so we were lucky to get our orders in before cut off. The meals were generous and sea food delicious and the Salt Lines crew, who had sailed in an hour after us, joined us at the club by 4pm. Ken and I had phoned around to hatch a bit of a plan for sight seeing and cultural experiences the following day, but we were surprised to find out that they shut up shop at midday on Saturday and the cool tourist stuff was closed on Sundays. So it was “Not Today, Not Tomorrow” in NT for us!

Plan B became a night out in the metropolis of Gove, with a departure planned for the following morning instead. With so many stopover options on the way to Darwin, we have to be ruthless and move on when there is nothing nearby to see. We took a punt and booked a combined crew dinner at the Walkabout Lodge. With mixed reviews, I was not sure what to expect. We booked two maxi-taxis and they arrived within 15 minutes. The $50 fares to Downtown Gove, took us down a well sealed highway, though a red, scrub laden landscape. It was easy to imagine how different it would be here in wet season.

We pulled up to to the dated 1970’s building, with 19 of us piling in the front entrance to our reserved table in the courtyard. Within 45 minutes our main meals arrived and the food was spectacular. Delicious, well presented and combined with great service, it was an excellent meal. One of the crew found out that a cultural music festival was playing in the park from 4pm to midnight, so we decided to wander the three blocks in the warm night air and check it out.

Titled ‘Live in East Arnhem 2023’, it was packed with great acts that changed every 20-40 minutes. We rolled in at 8pm, as the well known Andrew Gurruwiwi band, took the stage. The Aboriginal / Jamaican style music had a real relaxed vibe to it and thousands of locals young and old were on the town oval, having a great time.

Most of our crew hit the ‘mosh pit’ together for some dancing and a few slunk away into the shadows, hoping to avoid being dragged into the spotlight. The musicians were excellent and we watched 2 different bands in our 90 minutes at the festival, before jumping into 2 maxi-taxis to head back to the Boat Club.

All was going well, until we walked back down to the floating pontoon, we had tied our two RIB’s to. The tide had now gone out and they were high and dry on the mud. By now it was 10:30pm and we had to get back to Silver Fern and Salt Lines, to head to bed. Faced with the fear of walking into knee deep, muddy water in crocodile territory at night, there was much debate about what to do and how big the risk was. We decided the solution was to move quickly and we were also nowhere near an estuary or mangroves.

Eventually several crew (the brave ones), grabbed the RIB’s and re-floated them at the waters edge, so we could all climb in and head back to the yachts. With 19 crew back onboard, complete with arms and legs, it had been a great stop. Tomorrow required us to depart by 8am to time our passage for immediately after high tide for the Gugari Rip.

David