Back in Phuket and still in Darwin

Late on Monday morning Liz and the girls flew back to Phuket so Liz could be there to start work on Tuesday. Reflections is tied up in the fishing fleet basin which is basic in facilities, but remarkably quiet, and the most convenient place for a boat.

I am chipping away on some boat jobs and looking at work options here in Darwin and afar.

The trip to take Reflections onward to the east coast would start mid October.

Love to hear from anyone - it's pretty quiet here without the girls aboard!

In Darwin

Terrible rough weather for last 12 hours with 30+ knots of wind as we motored into Darwin Harbour. Now tied up on quarantine jetty and need to leave boat here as they have put biocides into our water inlets. Tomorrow will move to a marina.

Customs and Quarantine were very friendly and relazed, and only asked questions and had a cursory look around. Took only the very minimum of food from us. Nice to be stopped.

Time to go to town and check out Darwin. Very pleased with ourselves after completing a 2000 mile passage with few problems and only the occasional family spat aboard.

Calms and a final blow, as we into slip through the net into Darwin

It's 3am and we are 20 miles from Darwin. The last two days have been a mixture of calm motoring and light sailing. So yesterday I think we all thought that the trip was over and the last few miles would pass easily, but slowly in anticipation of arriving.

Sure....

Around 10pm the South East kicked in again and has built to be 25-30 knots and is right in our face. The six metre tide has been running out against us. So we are motoring with all sails down and punching and bouncing along, sometimes at 2.5 knots. Our ETA of 8am is slipping away...

But there is hope. The tide has just turned and soon the current will be with us, and we should start accelerating soon. On the earler 'flood tide' today we were doing 10 knots.

And it appears that if we hadn't told them we were coming, they wouldn't have known. On previous departure/arrivals into Aus we have been regularly buzzed by maritime surveillance aircraft who call us and request our details. This time we saw or heard no-one. But we know the rules and dutifully we emailed our arrival detail 4 days in advance and today called Customs and told one of the aircraft where we where and what time we'd get in.

We did hear other boats being called, and on one occasion, after asking "Do you have any plants or animals aboard?", the reply must have been no. Moments later the aircraft then asked "So I assume you are going to toss those pot plants on your stern over the side soon?". Best to tell the truth when someone's watching.

We've been pigging out on all the remaining food that we assume Customs will take off us. Our last experience with them was simple and no fuss. Let's hope Darwin is the same.

Sliding past the Taninbar Islands

We are now on our downhill run. Heading south towards Darwin. The weather has improved and we are not getting so many squalls, but still holding 15+ knots of wind most of the time, but from a more easterly direction which is allowing us to pretty make our course to Darwin.

Yesterday we past on the western side of the Aru islands and enjoyed 50 odd miles of flat sea and with good wind, were able to sail along very smoothly. Now we are doing the same with the Tanimbar Islands, which are about 100 miles long and it's like sailing on the lake on a nice sea-breeze.

We are now 360 miles to Darwin and hope to be in on Friday or Saturday.

A turtle, a dolphin and a bonito

That's pretty well the wildlife count over the last few days. On the first day out from the dive resort we saw a large turtle right next to the boat. I don't think we bumped it. Yesterday a single dolphin ran along with us for a few minutes. Yesterday was also the calmest day in ages and we motored to gain some direct mileage and to charge the batteries. While going along in the calm I set up the fishing line and ten minutes later saw the lure break out of the water. Turned out we'd caught a small
bonito.

Last night the wind steadily strengthed and this morning it's grey, rainy and 20+ knots.

Punching on.

A turtle, a dolphin and a bonito

That's pretty well the wildlife count over the last few days. On the first day out from the dive resort we saw a large turtle right next to the boat. I don't think we bumped it. Yesterday a single dolphin ran along with us for a few minutes. Yesterday was also the calmest day in ages and we motored to gain some direct mileage and to charge the batteries. While going along in the calm I set up the fishing line and ten minutes later saw the lure break out of the water. Turned out we'd caught a small
bonito.

Last night the wind steadily strengthed and this morning it's grey, rainy and 20+ knots.

Punching on.

Beating into the Ceram Sea

Beating is the term used when sailing into the wind. It can, at times, be compared with beating your head against a wall. The progress can be frustrating slow, and often the journey is rough as the boat is heeled over and bashing into the waves.

So an obvious feature of a good cruising route is to not beat into the wind. But sometimes you just want to get somewhere, and this is what is required. Acceptance and making the best of it, are the keys. Except I've never been good at finding my keys!

We are three days out from the dive resorts and it's been 20-25 knots from the South East. So we tack away and try to balance moving fast, and having a tolerable life aboard. Five knots seems to be the go. The boat only occasionally bangs hard into a wave and the sound of 'splatt, whoosh' as a wave makes it to cockpit, is again, occasional.

Leaks present where none were thought to exist. The hatch on the back storage locker worked loose and a few hundred litres ended up there. The anchor chain demonstrates excellent capillary action and the front hatch, which has never sealed that well, brings a salty drippy ambience to the bow. But our bunks are mostly dry, the cockpit continues to keep the worst of the weather out, and life aboard is tolerable. A few time we've hoved-to which makes the boat lay quite still and slowly creeps backwards.
During these sessions Liz has made bread, pizza and things are tidied up.

The weather seems to be clearing as we head south with a brilliantly clear sky last night and sunshine this morning. The wind has dropped to 5knots this morning and we are motoring (in exactly the direction we want) while we charge the batteries. The forecasts state that the SE wind will stay at 20-25 knots for most of the trip.

We think we will now head for Darwin, instead of Gove.

From the Ceram Sea just off the Papuan coast, north of Ceram.

By the way, I post position reports more often than blog entries.

Colin

Stoppover in Papua

What originally was planned as quick stop in a town to get some fuel and food has turned out to be a truly memorable stay in an area as special as anywhere we've been before.

Ian and Robyn off Reeflections II passed me the name of a friend, Warwick (Wick), who would help us if we came into the town of Sorong(on the western tip of Papua or Irian Jaya). Wick contacted us and was very keen for us to call in. When we explained that we were transitting and had no cruising permit for Indonesia, he suggested we stop at Sorido / Kri dive resort at an island 40 miles NW of Sorong, where we would meet up with his supply boat, Helena, who would bring out our order.

So that's what we did. Arriving in grey skies and rain we struggled to find a suitable anchorage and eventually anchored in 40 metres of water just off the small eco-style resort of Kri. The resort comprises just six traditional style stilt huts built over the water and is totally focussed on diving. A few hundred metres around the point is the sister resort of Sorido which is more up-market. We went ashore and met the Dutch manager, Maya, who arranged for us to have lunch with the guests and made
us welcome. The supply ship Helena came in and our food and fuel was delivered to the resort jetty.

An issue developed about payment as we didn't know the exchange rate. The staff of the resort, straight away called their base to get a rate and then arranged to hold the payment for Wick. The guys operating the dive boats took the fuel out for us and overall just kept watching us to see if we needed anything. The owner and builder of the the two resorts, Max, came round to meet us (and more importantly oversee the transfer of a new desalinator unit.)

Max is Dutch and a long term ex-pat, and has an wonderful enthusiasm for the area and seems to have a deep love of sharing the area with others. Before building the resorts here he spent months travelling around the islands in a large Zodiac inflatable. With dive gear and compressor aboard he scouted for dive sites and eventually chose Mansuar / Kri islands. The recently built Sorido resort has modern units set just off the beach and are invisible from the water. He gave us a tour around and showed
how much of the furniture is made by themselves with locally milled timber and, all in all we gained the impression that the place is quality driven. Over dinner at Sorido we met some of the guests and the dive leader, James and his partner Helena.

Dinner talk covered our travels and of course, the diving. We were encouraged to come diving and again, they made this possible by offering for us to pay by bank transfer when we get to Australia. Max had earlier showed us the proofs of an article in National Geographic, who came out to do a story several months ago. Apparently this area as been declared the most bio-diverse area on the planet. This information coupled with looking at the stunning article photos, was more than enough encouragement
to stay another day and go for a dive.

The dive we chose was called Sardines, after the large schools of small fish that frequent the spot. A point in the reef protrudes into deeper water and the current passes either side and up into the shallows. We dropped in and went straight down to 25 metres, than finned against the considerable current to get to the point, where the current eased, and we were able to watch the fish life. It was a very good dive but hard maintaining position in the current. Courtney retired early, burnt out from
fighting the current. I ran out of air soon after and Liz and the rest followed shortly. The coral life was stunning and while not the massive schools of fish promised, there were large schools of 'sardines' and many large trevally cruising around. Others on the dive saw several white tip reef sharks and a turtle.

A combination of headaches and tiredness excluded Courtney and I from the next dive but Liz prevailed and came back with descriptions of larger schools of fish, more varsities, and all set in a wonderfully diverse coral garden.

The next day we did some washing and boat jobs to get ready to leave for Darwin or Gove?

Water, water everywhere

The last 12 hours have been a bit of an ordeal but finished with lots of water. The seas have calmed and rain set in, so the bucket with pump/filter is in position at the deck drain outlet and our tanks are now full and the girls are out washing/playing in the water.

Last night around midnight a big squall came over and blew 25-30 knots from the NW, which is opposite to all the other weather we've had on this trip. We laid hove-to to wait and see what was going to happen next, but after 30 minutes a 20 knot NW wind continued. Well this was pretty good news, so we set our sails to run downwind and had 4-5 hours of good boat speed with the boat sailing flat, as opposed to the last nine days of heeled over.

All good things come to an end and the wind died at dawn and the resultant sea was horrible! The NW had built up a metre sea and once the wind dropped away the Southerly swell gave a real washing machine action with peaks of water bouncing vertically a few metres. The boat just bounced and jarred and bobbed. Sail pumped and banged. Bugger this - on with the motor and try to get some stability. The sea started to settle after an hour and just when things were brightening the temperature alarm went
off. Luckily it settled down more while the engine covers came off and some breakfast was had. A smaller NW squall came through and allowed a steady sailing boat while I found the worn fan belt that caused the overheating and replaced it.

We are now on our way to a resort just off the tip of Irian Jaya, called Sorido. Ian and Robyn off Reeflections II told me how they worked for Wick at the town of Sorong and put us in contact. After initially planning to stop in Sorong, Wick suggested that we go to this resort and his crew would pick some supplies and meet us there as they were heading on a regular run there tomorrow (Sunday). Avoiding town and authorities is advisable for us as we don't have a cruising permit.

The heavy rain and grey skies mean we probably won't go in there today but tomorrow we hope to be at anchor. We are all intensely interested to see what there is at this dive resort, located so remotely.

The weather cleared enough for us to see shallows off the island so we snuck in and anchored, but not very soundly on a coral bottom. Hopefully we'll be OK but will need to maintain a watch on our position. Feels very nice to be still after 10 days on the move.

Molucca Sea is on the nose

Thursday 2nd Aug 8pm
Well the wind is. We passed between Halmahera Island and Morotai Island yesterday morning. It was nice to run between the two islands in relative calm. Took the opportunity to top up the fuel tank with the fuel containers we carry. 130 litres took us back to a fuel tank. We considered going ashore to get more fuel but the township/port wasn't obvious so we continued. We sailed on in variable winds and calm seas in the lee of the island.

Today the wind built quickly to 15-20 knots from the south and we have been punching into the wind as we do our best to head south east. We found our log, an impeller that measures boat speed, is leaking. The fitting has popped up when we've pounded hard. It pushes back down and seals OK but won't screw up any tighter as if an seal is missing. The blank does the same. Something to watch and try to fix when a calm spot emerges in daylight hours.

Today Courtney made cheesecake! A packet mix but still very nice. Three of the crew have now read the new Harry Potter book and now wait for Liz to finish books six, then seven, so conversations about can go on without being spoilers

Very little to see around us. We are out of sight of land again and virtually no fishing boats and haven't seen any large ships. Mary and Warren on Arawana made it to Manado in Suluwesi today. It's nice to talk to them each morning.

Now covered just over a 1000 of the 1800 miles to Gove.

Now too much wind in the Molucca Sea

As we passed the Sanghie Islands yesterday morning, we continued on the same course towards Halmahera and Morotai Islands. Steadily the wind picked up from the SSE, and we started to rocket along at 7+ knots, but diving into waves with lots of water on the deck. We reefed down and rolled up the headsail in favour of the cutter (smaller inner headsail) and conditions aboard were still lousy but the best conditions were going to allow.

So along we went with everyone feeling a bit under the weather. We hove-to for an hour before dark to have dinner and then batted on during night. While Liz was on watch I felt the hard bang of a solid wave hitting us then the rushing sound of water and then a "oh-no, you rotten...." the wave had kicked up a few buckets over the cockpit covers and poured in on the downwind side of the cockpit where she was sitting. It's a really horrible sensation to be brought out of the night watch daze with a
bucket of sea-water over your head.

This morning it's a little lighter at 15-17 knots and we are 50 miles from Morotai where we may stop and try to top up our fuel.