After a peaceful night at anchor and plenty of sleep we were up and away by 8:30am and headed for a rendezvous with high tide at the Gugari Rip at 4:19pm. This 1.4nm (2.5km) channel between islands has naturally been eroded out of the rock over millions of years.

When the tide is in full flight it can run at 8-12 knots and with the skinny canal thats 20-30m deep in the middle and shallow on the edges, it would be dangerous to enter in full tidal flow, especially with a 9m long keel. With big tides, the water at one end can be 5m higher than the other end, due to the water not being able to drain through the gap fast enough.

For the balance of the passage to Darwin, Sharon was formally appointed as Skipper with Lena as Chief Mate. This leg from Cairns to Darwin is Sharon’s first training and familiarisation leg on Silver Fern before returning for Leg 5 as Skipper. Lena has completed 3 Sydney Hobart Races with me, along with a Tasman Crossing and our winning Brisbane to Hamilton Island Race entry in 2019. For a bit of fun we had swapped two crew for the day with Salt Lines, sending Paul and Jerzy their way, while having Baz and Karen join our crew.

Sharon talked through the plan with Lena and the crew and we got underway with two reefs in the main and staysail in 20-25 knots of breeze. We had a great 45nm sail in the fresh conditions, arriving at the approach to the channel an hour ahead of schedule with Salt Lines on our hip. We reached back and forth, 1.5 nm off the channel entrance, patiently waiting for the high tide to peak and turn in our favour.

We entered the channel, with Salt Lines astern of us, right on 4:30pm. The tide was already hitting us beam on at 1.9 knots as we approached the entrance. Aggressive helming was required at times to correct 10-20 degrees of cross-current variation.

As we entered the channel and the tide swung round behind us at 1.4 knots, increasing to 1.7 as we exited to the north, 12 minutes later. Thats how quickly the tide had turned in the opposite direction and already built to 1.7 knots - just 23 minutes.

The channel was an amazing piece of water to motor-sail through. The rock shape and colours were fascinating on these super remote islands. We found a sheltered bay for the night and anchored to watch the sun set on the ocean to the west.