Alcaro Bay Cape Don

Thursday 1^st November 2012

Alcaro Bay

Alcaro Bay Cape Don
11’17.049S – 131’47.483E

Army barge pssing

All our chart work and tidal planning had to pay off was all I could think beside how nice it had been at the resort, as MrJ and I weighed anchor to leave Seven Spirit bay, Coral Bay and Port Essington. I did try calling the resort and the ranger’s station on the radio to thank them for all their assistance and friendship over the couple of day that we did have in their area but no answer was all I got. Everybody must have been out of the office at mid-morning time, busy with work or on a coffee break. You never know, someone may read this and find out how appreciative MrJ and I are.

Ok, the good book, John Knight’s Northern Territory Coast Cruising Guide, say that we have to leave Port Essington at 4 ½ hrs before high water at Darwin to catch the first of the westerly flood tide through to Alcaro Bay Cape Don, our anchorage for this night. We had planned to catch the last of the outgoing tide in Port Essington to hook up with the westerly flooding tide.

Cape Don lighthouse

Heading out of the Port was a good run, sailing in hot humid condition with light winds and we seemed to hook up with the west flooding tide as planned. AR was doing up to 8 ½ kts at times and we only need to start one engine in the last quarter of our passage, anchoring in Alcaro Bay before 1600hrs. You guessed it the first thing was to drop the covers and open the hatches.