Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Darwin to Timor - Day 4

Position at 11:00pm Darwin time: South 10*51'410 East 125*01'077
Nautical Miles to go: 97

Today we finally got to turn the engine off and with about 10 knots of wind we hoisted up the spinnaker and started sailing with an average speed of about 3 knots. We've done our calculations and realize it will take an extra night for us to get to Kupang in the day light. The rally has warned us that it can be dangerous arriving at night due to misplaced navigation aids and local fishing boats and nets. This means that we can go slow and don't have to worry about getting in before night fall tomorrow. There are about seven other yachts with the same plan as us as we are now the back group in the fleet.....if only we had a 50ft catamaran we'd already be there!! We can't complain though as we've spent the day pretty relaxed and getting a few jobs done on the boat. In Darwin we brought a set of 54 photocopied charts for AUS$250 to take us all the way through to Thailand so I've been cutting and folding them and trying to figure out when we'll need them! Jimmy on the other hand has been trying to find space to cram the last of our Darwin supplies, the bilges are now full of diet cokes and all the cabinets are bursting but at least the boat looks 'reasonably' organized now!

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Monday, July 28, 2008

Darwin to Timor- Day 3.....Still motoring!

Position at 9:00pm Darwin time: South 11*21'014 East 126*39'499
215 nautical miles to go.

The wind still hasn't picked up and we're motoring along at 4.5 knots with main and mizzen sails up to keep us from rolling on the glassy ocean. We stopped the boat this morning so Jimmy could jump over the side to check the bottom and he found a lot of weed caught around the prop. He didn't stay in long so as not to become shark bait which was lucky as our friends on 'Antares' caught a 1.5m shark off the back of their boat this afternoon!! The good news is that we've picked up half a knot in speed since he cleaned it off so it was well worth the effort. It's now dark outside and we're getting close to some shallow shoals where a lot of boats ahead have reported seeing Indonesian fishing boats and long nets so we have to keep a really good look out even though it's so dark it will be hard to see anything. This is something we'll have to get used to as Indonesians over fish their seas and their nets can often stretch out for a couple of miles so pretty hard to avoid. They also use large bamboo fish traps that can do a lot of damage to our fiberglass hull and no lights on their canoes means we could also do a lot of damage to them.....so no sleep tonight!!

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Sunday, July 27, 2008

Darwin to Timor - Day 2.

Position at 8:45pm Darwin time: South 11*47'672 East 128*26'011
Course: 285*True Speed:3.1 knots

It's been a really frustrating day today as we've been motoring for the last 24hrs, the wind is pretty much non-existent and even though we've tried lots of different sail configurations we can't get anything to work, not even the spinnaker. We're still around the back of the fleet although we did overtake a few yachts last night who were still trying to sail and not really getting anywhere. Our friends on 'Antares','Helen Kate' and 'Silene' are all close by so we can talk on the VHF radio. They're all doing a little better than us at being able to turn off their engines and sail now and then to keep the fuel consumption down. Jimmy is thinking of jumping over the side tomorrow to take a look at the hull and make sure we don't have weed caught around the propeller or rudder and maybe give it a bit of a scrub to see if that speeds us up! For now we'll keep chugging along in the hope that the wind will pick up just enough to keep the sails full. The good thing about motoring is that the batteries are fully charged and we can watch DVD's as much as we like....we're currently hooked on the series 'Lost' so two more episodes tonight!!

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Saturday, July 26, 2008

Underway to Kupang, Western Timor- Day 1 of the Rally

Position at 8pm local time: South 12*14.7 East 130*.12.0
Course:285*T with 450 nautical miles to go.

Today is the big day and we are finally underway to the city of Kupang, Western Timor in Indonesia. The last three weeks have been crammed with provisioning and fixing the boat so it feels great to get back to sea where hopefully we can relax a little! The rally began at 11am giving us just enough time to run ashore for our last hot shower & to top up our water cans then get back to Bluemoon to hoist the dinghy on deck and pull the anchor. With over 100 other boats the start line just outside Fannie Bay anchorage was packed full with everyone trying to put up spinnakers and avoid running into each other! It was a beautiful sight & luckily all went smoothly even though we are now one of the last yachts in the group, with so many Catamaran's it's impossible to keep up especially as we haven't scrubbed our bottom for a while (due to the local crocodile inhabitants) so we're probably dragging a carpet underneath us!!

We had a great sail earlier with 15 knots of wind, flying the spinnaker at 5 knots but now that the sun has set the wind has died and we're motoring against the current at 2 knots. Jimmy is getting frustrated but it might not be a bad thing as it looks like a city ahead of us with all the mast lights so at least we'll avoid any close encounters being so far behind!

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Monday, July 7, 2008

Darwin....At Last!!

Position - South 12*25'742 East 130849'325
Fannie Bay, Darwin

We have finally made it to Darwin and are now very happily anchored in Fannie Bay just off the yacht club. We arrived yesterday morning around 8am after an overnight trip from Alcorro Bay on Cape don and the night before that we were anchored off Croker Island. Timing the trip from Cape Don was a pretty complicated operation as we had to make sure to catch three different currents in our favour along the way. Luckily Joern off of 's/v Silene' made some detailed calculations and we had a perfect run leaving Cape Don at 2pm which was five and a half hours before high tide in Darwin. Unfortunately the winds weren't so kind and we ended up motoring the whole way starting with 20knots against us for the first four hours and then dropping off to nothing the rest of the way. Jimmy had a bit of a panic when he noticed the engine was seriously overheating and had to take it apart to try and find the problem. We ended up removing the thermostat completely which seemed to work for a while until the temperature gauge was showing it over heating again. However, the engine didn't feel hot so luckily he decided to check the gauge itself and low and behold there was a loose connection!.....at least the engine got a full service in the process.

Anyway we're really excited to be here even though we do have to anchor a mile off the beach due to the 20ft tidal changes. We visited the Mindil Beach Market last night and ate Chinese food listening to live music while watching the sunset and today we've been doing all the fun cruiser things like checking in with customs and applying for our Indonesian Visas. We've even started doing more provisioning at the Coles and Woolworths supermarket lugging huge backpacks and armfuls of shopping onto the bus back to the yacht club....ten more runs like that and we should be ready!!

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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Mullet Bay-North Gouldburn Island.

Position at 16:00 - South 11*30'887 East 133*23'578

After a great down wind sail over night last night with 15-20 knots of wind out of the East-south East we decided to pull in to the northern of the two Gouldburn Islands. The Bureau of Meteorology have put out a strong wind warning for this area so we decided to avoid the big seas, get a good nights sleep and start up again tomorrow. We anchored in Mullet bay on the western side of the island in about 20ft of water just off the long sandy beach. There is an Aboriginal community here who are supposed to be very welcoming to visitors but the effort to pump up and drop the dinghy was a little to much after a sleepless night last night. The islands are pretty flat and covered in vegetation and the only sign of inhabitants is the satellite dish sticking out above the trees just of the beach!!
Now we'll enjoy another great sunset, have some dinner and watch a movie before getting an early night. We have to start up at 6 am tomorrow morning to head 50nm along the coast to David point at the beginning of the Bowen straights.

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Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Wessels to Port Essington.

Our position at 18:15 - South 11*32'034 East 135*11'877

Yesterday we ended up moving roughly 45nm further south to Refuge Bay on Elcho island in the Wessel chain to get a better angle for today's trip. Jay, Jody, Jason and Loretta on 's/v Makali Kai picked us up along with Silene and the couple on 's/v Galliano' in their dinghy so that we could all stretch our legs on the long sandy beach once we'd arrived. We are now in a part of the Northern Territory called 'Arnheim Land' which is owned by the Aboriginals and to go ashore a permit is required. Here however there was a settlement but no sign of any people so everyone either played touch rugby or went for a long walk before heading back to the boat for a great nights sleep.

Today we upped anchor after listening to the Darwin net on the SSB radio around 9am and have had a very slow passage so far! We've been flying the spinnaker all day and only averaging around 3-4knots with light winds from the east. Still a beautiful day with clear sunny skies and with fresh fish for lunch we really can't complain. The sun is about to set and we've just dropped the spinnaker to replace it with the head sail for the night. The winds have started to pick up and we have 107nm to go to North Gouldburn island or 197nm to Port Essington if we decide to keep going. For now we'll watch the sunset and worry about destinations later!!

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