Timor

Well the wind was pretty light at times so we ended up sailing about 50% of the 465 miles..arriving at Kupang, Timor on Tuesday morning 0700am.  The immigration came to us pretty early as we were one of the first few boats to get there and we went ashore to clear Customs etc. It was a rumble down place, but had a certain charm about it. My crew of Jo and Earl and Murray and Lynn had not done three nights at sea and were, I think, pretty happy to have their feet on terra firma!!

A couple of Bintan beers and a nasi goring or two later all felt we had arrived!!

The weather was blue skies, 29 degrees and just great! We walked along potholed, dusty streets and talked a few words of broken English to people and loved it. The smells the smiling faces.. a good looking race, with good humour and broad smiles. It was very interesting. 350,000 people live in and around Kupang, that’s bigger than Wellington! Kupang is the capital of East Nusa Tenggara and was alive with bimos and motorcycles!

So we are here in Indonesia for a couple of months..so better try and learn a few words!!

 

 

 

 

A great feast has been organised, so looking forward to the smells and tastes of the "Spice Islands"..and the women! See the one that attacted most of the attention of the Salanjo crew!!

Everyone was at the feast...even Willie Nelson!!.  We went for a couple of nights on a neighbouring island, went for a walk. On the way back we had to rescue a local fisherrman who was miles out to sea, with a paddle, and exhausted tryinmg to paddle against a 4 knot current and a 20 knot wind! Didn't like his chances!!



Looks good Mike

Darwin to Timor, and Indonesia

So we arrived back on Salanjo on Tuesday 19^th early and set about getting ready for sea.

So the crew are Jo and Earl Meek, Lyn and Murray Patterson and Anna and I. Earl, Murray and Lynn have never been on an ocean leg so there was a bit of trepidation setting in as the time of departure drew nearer!! I think Earl made five separate trips to the pharmacy to get ever more different types of sea-sickness tablets and devices!

The weather in Darwin is truly great and it was no different as Saturday 26^th drew nearer. We enjoyed balmy evenings at the Darwin sailing Club and on the old Darwin Wharf...the way they have set up that eating and drinking facility is something Auckland could learn from!

So it’s now Saturday and we have on our uniforms, the girls in their brightly coloured cocktail dresses, and the boys in their white with blue stripes and dark shorts.. trying to win the $1,000 prize!! We had our Black NZ Fern flag flying and crossed the starting line first!! It was not a race, but old habits die hard!!  We may have been a few seconds early, but in fact I don’t think anyone knew where the other end of the line was!  We certainly didn’t. It was not where they told us it would be...so we will have to wait and see!

The weather was brilliant with light SE winds, which in fact died to 5 knots later in the afternoon. The first night out was interesting..sorting the watches and answering a thousand questions..we sailed most of the night with spinnaker and had only had to motor a little in the early hours.

So we will see how he rest of the trip goes...eta Kupang, Tuesday 26^th in the early hours..see you then!

Darwin

Darwin

It’s nearly 1,000 miles from Booby island to Darwin. Booby island is the western entrance to the Torres Straits. We had 18 to 20 knots for most of the 3 and a half days it took us to cross the Gulf of Carpentaria (that’s one mighty big water mass) and the north coast of Australia to reach Darwin. We had to motor the last day as the wind first turned a little to the north so it was a flat run...and everyone knows just how much a cat likes that!!..and then dropped to 8 knots from the aft quarter as we rounded first Melville then Bathurst Islands and headed into the channel that leads to Darwin harbour.

Monday 4^th dawned a beautiful clear day with a coolish breeze which soon became the beautiful ambient daily temperature of Darwin. We got alongside the Customs wharf by 0930 and were quickly sorted. Then before you can go into a marina, divers have to inject chemicals up each skin fitting intake..to kill what they say is black mussel. So by then we had missed the tide to get into the locks that let you into the marina. The tide rise and fall here is 18 to 20 feet. We anchored off Fannie bay and went ashore to the Darwin Sailing Club..and then into town.

I have to say that all of us were impressed with Darwin. The cleanliness, the newness and the weather all combine to make this a pretty special place. There is more here than we think!

After Jeremy had a good night at the casino, we saw Gordon off to catch his flight home. Jeremy, Brendan and I slept well that night! Next day, put Salanjo into the Duck Pond marina, what a dirty spot! We did the cleaning, fixing and reorganising of the boat ready for Anna who is returning for the Indonesian leg of the trip. Jeremy did a mighty fine job as laundry maid washing, drying and folding all the linen and washing. Brendan some engineering jobs, and Geoff did what he does best..organised the other two! That night after a not so successful night at the casino the boys all flew out making the end to a wonderful 2,000 mile voyage. That makes over 6,000 miles since leaving NZ in May.

Next leg....Indonesia, starting 23 July 2011. Can’t wait.

The Torres Channel

The Torres Channel

The channel (known also as the Great North Eastern Passage) is 120 miles long and runs roughly in a NE/SW direction. There were some pretty strong currents in places. We experienced over three knot currents as we passed through the Prince of Wales Passage at the Western end. It threads its way between numerous islands and submerged reefs. It feels quite open, like you are in the open sea, as most of the reefs are submerged.  It’s fairly narrow in places and shallow. There were places where the full depth was 13m, very narrow and we had large tankers passing through these narrow spots. It seems that they follow the current and as were going with it, in the narrows of the western end of the passage we did not meet any other vessels as they were all going our way. That was lucky.

We passed through the Blyth Entrance by the Bramble Cay at 0730 on Thursday 30 June and sailed all day in a good trade wind averaging about 10 knots. As got dark things became a bit more interesting as passed all these reefs and a few islands without being able to see them or check the accuracy of the navigation equipment. But surprise, surprise, all went well and we didn’t hit anything! An interesting aspect was observing all the activity and light ashore on the islands as we got closer to the Australian mainland. We didn’t see Thursday Island, but we passed pretty close to Wednesday Island and Hammond Island.  That all looked pretty busy as we passed by in the night.  We came within 15 miles of cape York as we passed down the Prince of Wales Passage about 2200 hours..and that looked a pretty busy little town or settlement. We passed through the narrows of the passage with over 3 knots of current under us and followed four or five big ships out into the Arafura Sea at midnight. It was a good experience and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. It was quite challenging navigationally with all the different lights and intersecting channels, the strong currents and small distances between various hazards! But we managed to come through unscathed! Talking of ships, we did not actually sight many ships..some we saw their lights, but we followed them all with the utmost interest as they approached us on our new AIS device which was fantastic. Radar did it as well, but the AIS was great. A very worthwhile investment!

Now out of the Torres, north of Booby Island and we are on our way across the Gulf of Carpentaria to Darwin, 720 miles away.  The wind is good trade SE breezes of 20 to 25 knots and we are eased sheets doing 10/11 knots. Great sailing.  Our expected time of arrival in Darwin is Monday morning the 4^th July. What a great leg of the trip this has been....loved it.