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Saltybum · 20-05-2025, 19:39

I’m currently in Vanuatu and am trying to get hold of a guide to the Torres Strait. I’m aware of the Ken Hellewell guide - does anyone know of a digital version of this? I’m unlikely to be able to get a hard copy before my passage as I will not be entering Australia and will be starting from Port Moresby. Thanks in advance P.S. please don’t tell me the routes you would recommend as I need a guide to identify them!

**skipperpete** · 20-05-2025, 20:22

Amazon has as a digital file for Kindle, with that , the charts and the tide tables you should be good to go.

Alan Mighty · 21-05-2025, 00:37

You've read the thread from 2016?

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...es-161185.html

Saltybum · 21-05-2025, 02:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

You've read the thread from 2016?

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...es-161185.html

Yes - the guide is mentioned - is there an online version since then?

Alan Mighty · 21-05-2025, 03:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saltybum

Yes - the guide is mentioned - is there an online version since then?

Every cruiser I know respects the work done by Ken Hellewell, researching and documenting that route. So no free online version.

Mr Bezos's company is the only source known to me of on-line copies of Ken's Passage Guide.

You might find free on-line scanned pdf copies of Passage Planning Guide: Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait, published by Witherby Publishing Group.

That work has tables of waypoints, course, distance for each of three draught categories (shoal, moderate, and deep); chartlets showing the moderate and deep draught shipping lanes; and chartlets for traffic hotspots. With notes for the legs. Great photos of the navaids too.

Alan Mighty · 21-05-2025, 06:02

AMSA (Australian Maritime Safety Authority) has published planning chartlets of the shipping routes of the Great NE Channel through Torres Strait (ordered as if making the passage from the Arafura to the Coral Sea). See:

https://www.amsa.gov.au/sites/defaul..._chartlets.pdf (an overview of the chartlets)

https://www.amsa.gov.au/sites/defaul...ec-59-67_0.pdf (the chartlets)

barnakiel · 21-05-2025, 11:21

The continental side is covered party by Lucas too.

barnakiel

wholybee · 21-05-2025, 16:31

I did this in 2019 also from Port Moresby. I followed the main channel as shown on CM93 charts in OpenCPN. I stayed to the edge or just outside the shipping lanes and had no problems. I planned for the tides so that it was mostly slack or west flowing going through the actually straight. That is the toughest part.

I have used guides for other areas, but this was pretty straight forward if not stopping and just going through. Unless stopping at the several islands, I'm not sure what to even use a guide for. The channels and routes are well marked on charts. Plot the course on your chartplotter, keep a good lookout, and follow the course.

Also, you will be among others doing the same when you stop in Port Moresby. Boats tended to leave and make the passage together.

Unrelated, we got our Indonesian VISAs at Port Moresby. Easy, no need for agents or sponsors or other BS. There were some forms we had to fill out online that did not work on Apple devices so I had to lend my android to other boats to do their paperwork. Wear long pants. Our VISA was processed in 24hours, but a more casual boat that went to the embassy in shorts didn't get so good service. This was all pre-covid, so not sure how that has changed.

Alan Mighty · 21-05-2025, 18:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by wholybee

Unrelated, we got our Indonesian VISAs at Port Moresby. Easy, no need for agents or sponsors or other BS. There were some forms we had to fill out online that did not work on Apple devices so I had to lend my android to other boats to do their paperwork. Wear long pants. Our VISA was processed in 24hours, but a more casual boat that went to the embassy in shorts didn't get so good service. This was all pre-covid, so not sure how that has changed.

That's what you expect at any consular or embassy post of Republik Indonesia. In a few such offices, Indonesian staff will provide (or rent to you) a sarong or similar so that the impolite, uncultured, and unsocialised can look respectable (at least temporarily while on Indonesia territory or in Indonesian office space).

What's new? Show up dressed as a child (t-shirt, shorts, sandals or even barefooted in bikini) at an Australian, USA, PRC, or UK embassy, consular office, or border post and expect not to be treated like a small child?

Alan Mighty · 21-05-2025, 18:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by wholybee

I stayed to the edge or just outside the shipping lanes and had no problems. I planned for the tides so that it was mostly slack or west flowing going through the actually straight. That is the toughest part.

Agreed. Dealing with the tide and keeping on the edge or outside the shipping lanes are two crucial points.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wholybee

I have used guides for other areas, but this was pretty straight forward if not stopping and just going through. Unless stopping at the several islands, I'm not sure what to even use a guide for. The channels and routes are well marked on charts. Plot the course on your chartplotter, keep a good lookout, and follow the course.

The unique selling points of each of Ken Hellewell's Ken's Torres Strait passage guide: A charted shortcut to the GBR and the Torres Strait and the 'shallow draught' route described in the Witherby Publishing Passage Planning Guide to GBR and Torres Strait are a passage that is:
(1) shorter than the shipping channel for moderate and deep keel ships; and
(2) away from the traffic hotspots of the shipping channels.

Amazon sells its Kindle version of Ken Hellewell's work for USD 10. The hardcopy of the latest edition of the Witherby Publishing work is over GBP300.

Saltybum · 21-05-2025, 19:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

Amazon sells its Kindle version of Ken Hellewell's work for USD 10. The hardcopy of the latest edition of the Witherby Publishing work is over GBP300.

Sadly, the US Kindle version is not available since I have a UK Kindle account

Saltybum · 21-05-2025, 19:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by wholybee

I did this in 2019 also from Port Moresby. I followed the main channel as shown on CM93 charts in OpenCPN. I stayed to the edge or just outside the shipping lanes and had no problems. I planned for the tides so that it was mostly slack or west flowing going through the actually straight. That is the toughest part.

I have used guides for other areas, but this was pretty straight forward if not stopping and just going through. Unless stopping at the several islands, I'm not sure what to even use a guide for. The channels and routes are well marked on charts. Plot the course on your chartplotter, keep a good lookout, and follow the course.

Also, you will be among others doing the same when you stop in Port Moresby. Boats tended to leave and make the passage together.

Unrelated, we got our Indonesian VISAs at Port Moresby. Easy, no need for agents or sponsors or other BS. There were some forms we had to fill out online that did not work on Apple devices so I had to lend my android to other boats to do their paperwork. Wear long pants. Our VISA was processed in 24hours, but a more casual boat that went to the embassy in shorts didn't get so good service. This was all pre-covid, so not sure how that has changed.

Thank you your comments are helpful and reassuring - my fall back plan is certainly to talk to others at Port Moresby. However, I’d still like to do my own research and am still looking for online sources. (Of course I’ve already seen what the Australian government offers but I was looking for more cruiser friendly sources)

Alan Mighty · 21-05-2025, 19:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

The unique selling points of each of Ken Hellewell's Ken's Torres Strait passage guide: A charted shortcut to the GBR and the Torres Strait and the 'shallow draught' route described in the Witherby Publishing Passage Planning Guide to GBR and Torres Strait are a passage that is:
(1) shorter than the shipping channel for moderate and deep keel ships; and
(2) away from the traffic hotspots of the shipping channels.

Measured waypoint to waypoint from the pilot boarding ground near Dalrymple Island to the Pilot Boarding Ground near Booby Island, and sailing to the SW:
* the deep draught shipping route is about 122 nm
* the moderate draught shipping route is about 120 nm; and
* the shallow draught shipping route is about 105 nm.

Depends on your cruising speed. Is a shortcut that saves more than 10 per cent worth taking? That's likely 10 per less time focusing on navaids, depth sounder, tidal stream, and shipping.