Kumai River (almost)

Hi everyone,
Tonight we are anchored north of Cape Puting, at the SE corner of the bay at the mouth of the Kumai River. We anchored here after a faster than expected passage left us with no light to cross the bar and head upriver to the town of Kumai. We are anchored at 03 23.324S 111 47.903E in 6m over mud.

Zen Again Track

We covered 163nm in 28 hours, for an average speed of 5.8 knots. Not bad at all in winds mainly in the 10 to 15 knot range, on or behind the beam. We had expected a 36 hour passage, which would have put us off the river bar at dawn. Instead we would have arrived at midnight if we hadn't diverted to anchor.

As usual we had to dodge ships and many fishing vessels. Not major incidents though. Kakadu stayed ahead of us and found the spit NW of Cape Puting extends further than charted and is shallower. They gave us a waypoint of 03 24.3S 111 38.8E, where we found at least 5.5m of water. We approached the waypoint from the SSW and departed E towards the anchorage.

Tomorrow we'll head on up the Kumai River, arriving only a few hours later than expected but having had a good night's sleep on anchor!