“Pilgrim, this is Warship Melville, do you read?”

20th Aug 2010

Up at 05:00 and underway by 06:00 we motored out of Low Isle in calm conditions and waited for the sun to rise. The trip was largely uneventful as conditions were ideal for driving south but on arrival we were faced with a low tide at Cairns and, as it turned out, traffic in the form of the Navy Vessel HMAS Melville, a 2550 tonnes hydrographical ship.

We saw it coming up the channel behind us so it was little surprise when I heard the call on VHF “ Sailing Vessel Pilgrim, this is Warship Melville, may we pass you on your starboard side?”. You see we had right of way being the overtaken vessel but what was I to say?

We will sit here and wait for the next weather window before heading off back to magnetic Island but in any case I have a number of jobs including a periodic service on the engine, a task that will be simple second time around but tough this first time as I will be doing it myself. At this stage, I expect to replenish fod, fuel, water gas etc and will probably hit the road Monday.