In 2016 we had a 31 foot sailboat named Sonrisa, and a home built plywood dinghy named Willis.  At age 5 West made the following observation to Sarah, which we recorded for posterity:

“Mom, Sonrisa and Willis are like you and me.  A big lady, and a little boy.”

How things have changed!  West is now taller than Sarah.  Sonrisa and Willis have been replaced by Mandolyn and Portimer.  

Mandolyn is beautiful and strong, she’s carried us halfway around the world in style.  Our dinghy Portimer on the other hand is not beautiful in the classic sense.  It’s called a Porta-bote, and they are said to be theft proof, as thieves can be quite judgey about what they’re willing to steal.

We bought Portimer in part because of a YouTube review from an Australian cruising couple, who happened to mention that it should be crocodile proof, or at least crocodile resistant.  I made a mental note at the time never to sail to Australia.

And here we are!  Sailing inside the Great Barrier Reef between Cairns and Darwin.  North Queensland and the Northern Territory:  Crocodile country!

There’s thought to be sixty thousand years of human history in this area, but a lot of the monuments celebrate a few months in 1770 when Captain Cook explored this section of coast in his ship the Endeavour. 

We followed in his wake past Endeavour Reef where he famously went aground.  We stopped at Cooktown where his crew repaired the damage, and we hiked to  Cooks Lookout, where he would study the reefs from up high looking for an escape.  

We paid our respects to the Endeavour by accidentally running aground ourselves in Cooktown.  Just a tiny bit.  No big deal. Your grandchildren are safe Mom.

We were always on the lookout for crocodiles.  The week before we arrived in Cooktown a man fell into the river and was tragically killed.  During our visit to Thursday Island a dog was taken off the beach.  Despite the heat we avoided swimming in the ocean out of fearful respect, as there were said to be crocodiles everywhere.

They were everywhere, but also nowhere.  We never saw a single one.  They must have seen our croc resistant dinghy and just swam dejectedly in the other direction.  Crocodile tears sliding down scaly cheeks.

Our last stop in Australia was Darwin which is a pretty unique place.  It’s Australia’s only city in the tropics.  It’s very remote, with a 29 hour drive to the nearest neighbouring city.  

The tidal range in Darwin is over thirty feet and the beach at the anchorage is quite flat.  You might leave your dinghy at shore at high tide, only to find the ocean five hundred meters away a few hours later.  Or the opposite, which is arguably worse given the crocodile situation.

We took advantage of these tides to beach Mandolyn (on purpose) to take care of a few tasks below the waterline.  We all felt quite little next to this big lady out of her element.

Next stop: Indonesia!

Some photos: