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!