I had never heard of the Arafura Sea until yesterday, but that’s where I am. This is the third of our three days at sea before we reach Darwin, Australia tomorrow. For a day and a half after sailing from Cairns we sailed through the Coral Sea which lies between the northeastern part of Australia (Queensland) and the Great Barrier Reef. The Reef was off to our starboard and at times I could easily see the contrasting colors of the reef in the distance. An occasional small island or an atoll would appear in the midst of the teal water. The sea there is quite shallow and we had a reef pilot with us for the entire transit.
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| That blue area is where we are sailing today |
For the last several mornings I’ve been joined at the table where I eat breakfast by two bridge officers who get off duty around 9 AM. One is the first officer and the other is more junior. Since I’m interested in all things maritime, they have been teaching me a lot about the passage of the ship through these waters. This morning they brought me the tables that the Australian Reef Pilot used for our transit by the reef. At times we had only 5 or 6 meters under the keel which surprised me and also hit home how important it is for us to stay in the channel. We wouldn’t want a Costa Concordia moment.
To get from the Coral Sea to the Arafura Sea we passed through the Torres Strait, a narrow body of water between the northernmost tip of Australia and New Guinea. While the strait is fairly wide and an important sea lane, it’s very shallow – between 23 and 49 feet. Our ship draws about 21 feet so there isn’t a lot of margin for error. This sea is also not very deep. Evidently during one of the last glacial eras when sea levels were fairly shallow this area formed a land bridge enabling migration of humans from Asia into Australia. In the last six weeks I’ve sailed through more seas than I had any idea existed. This has really been a learning experience and “voyage for discovery” for me.
2 comments:
Wow, that’s amazing - just 2 feet of clearance for the ship! The detail with which it must be mapped and the precision that goes into piloting the ship are really neat. Thanks for sharing the nautical details!
I, too, so enjoyed learning about the water passages and how important that pilot is to your safety. How impressive that the officers took the time at the end of their shift to share such interesting information with you.
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