Wednesday 3 July Hole in the Wall or Gulgari Rip

After sitting very comfortably in Gove harbour for four days while the wind blew a houlie outside we lifter anchor after breakfast and headed out with a small flotilla to make passage to the Gulgari Rip, or Hole-in-the-wall, a narrow pass between two islands of the Wessels group. There's lots of advice available for the best time enter the channel because it is narrow (100m) and the current can reach 12 knots with eddies along the side walls. It may be narrow but it is only short, less than a mile from exit to entry. Following high water slack the current sets west which is the way we were going. The skill is to judge your arrival after 40 miles to be at slack, or just after when the water's going your way.

For once our speed over ground was too fast and we had to keep reducing sail to slow down. In the end we were there just at the end of the east setting flood and went through with reefed twin headsails (wind directly from behind), motor on and 1 knot of current against us. The advantage on this is a faster flow of water over the rudder which gives better steerage than travelling with a body of water. David was on helm keeping us centre channel. I was by the instruments relaying depth and to advise if we were heading towards shallower areas which were likely to have more turbulence.

entering Hole in the Wall

It was a wonderful passage both in terms of sailing through and the pass itself quite magical; a low block of rock to each side of us, soft sandstone with this one fault which has been eroded over time to leave a perfect short cut from Gove across to Darwin. If a boat opts to go around the north island it adds about 35 miles to a trip.

Through the pass we anchored of Raragala island (love the names) for a quiet night alongside Beyond, Far Star, Hokule'a, Julianna II, Kite and Saltheart.

Looking back

sunrise next morning