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| Day 111 |
27 July 2000 |
| Gove |
| "Riding out the wind at Gove" |
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The weather was kind to us yesterday, but it makes up for lost
time today. The wind picks up all morning and just as we are
about to take on fuel it starts blowing a hooley. The Duyfken
starts nudging harder and harder up against the wharf and, as
the wind continues to freshen, eventually she is belting against
the fenders with such force that we are sure to bend our
chain-plates (metal rods that attach the rigging to the hull,
effectively holding the masts up). Ships like this were never
built to lie alongside a wharf in any kind of wind. We have to
get away from the wharf before we damage something.
Our problem is that the wind is blowing us directly onto the
wharf. How will we get off? Several offers of assistance are
forthcoming over the radio, but I have a hunch Duyfken will be
able to manage under her own power. We move the ship up the
wharf until the bow overhangs the corner and run a spring (a
line from the bow leading aft). Using the motors, one full ahead
and the other full astern, the stern of the ship slowly moves
off the wharf and the bow pivots around the corner. Eventually
we are in a position where we can reverse out, clear of the
wharf.
We head out into the bay and tie up to a mooring buoy put there
for the Gove tugs in the event of a cyclone. The mooring is huge
for a vessel of this size, but at least we know we will not drag
it. We will have to refuel at some later stage when the weather
improves. It could blow for days which will make getting to
Pennefather River on time difficult. But there is no point us
being at sea in this kind of weather because we would be using
up all our precious fuel just to stay in the same spot. If fuel
is precious, so is time. Another tense voyage is developing
already, and we haven't even left.
Jane and Sue, who have been at the supermarket in Nhulunbuy
filling an isle-jamming fleet of trolleys, return to the wharf
to find the ship unexpectedly not there. If they take the stores
out to the ship using the dinghy in this wind they will all get
soaked. They ask one more favour of Jan, the kind woman who has
been driving them around the shops and is now helping delivery
of dozens of shopping bags full of groceries. Jan obliges. Yes,
we can store our stuff at her brother's house, where she is
staying, until the ship comes back to the wharf.. Why are people
so generous to us with their time and resources? There is
something about Duyfken that inspires benevolence.
Every couple of weeks I pull the portable printer out from under
my bunk, set it up on the deck in the cabin and print off a copy
of this journal for the crew to read. In their words, this is
when they can 'find out what we have been up to.' And I get to
find out my mistakes, albeit some days after they have gone
public.
Errata: Gary has spent 90 hours ashore, not 31 as asserted on
day 100; and John was disqualified from the Standing-On-One-Leg
event (day 109) for holding onto the rigging, forfeiting the
gold medal to Jane.
I am obviously losing touch with the crew and will have to get
out of my cabin more.
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Peter Manthorpe
Master
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