Eventually we made it to Albany Island, where we took a mad midday hike across the island to the resort for lunch, but managed to get a beach buggy ride back to the boat in the afternoon. Then onto the iconic Cape York where one has to have one’s photo taken at the very northern tippy point of Australia! Our final crew change, before Darwin, took place at Horn / Thursday Island in the Torres Strait, before our two-day, three-night crossing of the Gulf of Carpentaria. We took off in some pretty horrible weather, but as we approached Gove, we were motoring in glass-out conditions. The Gove Boat Club is the place to go and we were anchored right outside, but if you are ever in this neck of the woods the indigenous art centre in Yirrkala is well worth a visit. The Wessel Islands are spectacular and having passed through the ‘Hole in the Wall’ (a very narrow passageway with strong currents), we had some lovely sailing conditions as we explored the length of these islands that stick out so prominently from the mainland. We had seen a few crocs on our trip north, but our closest was outside Galiwin’ku, on Elcho Island, where it amazed us that the locals were still swimming and fishing in the waters with these monsters around! Sailing across the Top End was uneventful but, with Summer coming on and water temperatures already in the +30°C range, we were keen to get to Darwin as soon as possible. On the Cobourg Peninsula we did pop into Port Essington to visit the ruins of the Victoria Settlement, a failed attempt by the British to establish a trading post (see postscript sidebox next page). We made it into Darwin, after making a final big push across Van Diemen’s Gulf, at the end of October, having covered 2,600nm in 140 days. Three weeks later, Cyclone Fina missed Darwin by just 50km, but by then Lalapanzi was safely tucked away in Cullen Bay Marina. Join us for Part 2 of our circumnavigation after we leave Darwin in May 2026 to complete the lap of the “big island” … ALL PICS: supplied by Quentin Granger LALAPANZI Update #1 Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Yearbook Mainsheet 2026 63
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mzg4Mjk=