12.12S 127.18E Saturday 4th October – Nefa put the engine back together with the help of Paul and the boys but assembling it in place has disturbed the shaft seal which is now leaking so badly it runs every two minutes.  We have bought a spare bilge pump (which we should carry anyway) in case ours fails from over use.  Not a dangerous situation, just a major irritation hearing the bilge pump constantly going off……..

Wednesday was a rollercoaster of preparations – food shopping for five, Customs clearance, collection of the new awning, stowing five people’s paraphernalia, photocopying all our documents ten times for Kupang officialdom, changing money for local Indonesian currency and taking the hire car back to the airport.  Then after all that a very sad Teri and Lee on Glendora (our ‘poddies’ for Kupang and the Spice Islands) came to tell us that they have inadvertently been missed off the list to go there!  So – all change at the 11^th hour – we two boats are now going to Bali – hopefully stopping off at Ashmore Reef on route which is meant to be a bit like Beveridge Reef – the one we never quite got into due to adverse weather conditions………we have been told there may be illegal immigrants camping on Ashmore hoping to find a backdoor route into Australia who could cause problems for us; we shall have to wait and see. We were exhausted by 2100 hrs so all had a wash and brush up before going out to dinner…..only to find nearly everything resembling an eatery shuts on the dot of 9.00pm in Darwin – just like Mackay!  We managed to persuade one Thai kitchen to reopen and practically ate lying down on their floor cushions……..very apt!

Thai Restaurant

Oscar convening with his Buda……..

If Wednesday was stressful, Thursday brought out the worst in me…..we hadn’t had time to take the car back after all so Oscar and I set off to do that at 7.00am – to be back in time for our 9.15am lock appointment.  We were busily disconnecting and tidying up the electrical line and water hose, refilling the water tanks and preparing for our lock exit, when Tipperary Marina radioed to say they were ahead of time could we come through now?  Where were Oscar, Vic and Clara? To cut an exasperated story short, we missed our lock slot, then we missed the second one and by the time we got through and around to the fuel pumps there were five yachts rafted up in front of us re-fuelling!

Rally yachts rafted up behind the fishing boats

Then came another anxious time: the tide (7 metres) was dropping like a stone and to make matters more difficult our bow thrusters threw a temporary wobbly (the switch in the cabin had been half knocked) which made it difficult to raft up next to the fishing boats.  Anyhow, Shaula III rafted on to us and Gaia on to them and at 10.30am we three finally started taking on fuel (five pumps but only one attendant so only one pipe!)

Shaula 3 rafting up beside us 

By this time we were not alongside the quay any longer, we were 6 metres below, straddling the heavy diesel pipe across three fishing boats to get to us.

Oscar on the fishing boats waiting for the fuel line 

By the time we had all filled our tanks and containers we had just fifteen minutes before our keel would hit the sand! So I leapfrogged over the boats, clambered up the 6 metre metal staircase totally encrusted with barnacles, ran down the pier, paid by credit card (duty free with the correct paperwork), waited for the other two to pay, ran back down the quay, clambered down the steps  (cut my hands) –jumped onto the fishing boats now as the tide was so low they were nowhere near the steps any longer, leapt back on our boat, freed ourselves from our raft mates, fired up the engine and managed to get out of the basin via a small channel before the tide hit its lowest point.

Barnacle staircase

See how the tide had dropped…..

Failure would have meant being stuck for another six hours and missing the outgoing tide and current which was currently in our favour………..well we did it with just a foot under the keel… but poor Clara – her first introduction to sea life - a blinding panic to get away!

Then a wonderful calm – anyone who has sailed oceans will know it – that wonderful feeling of escape from land pressures…..and we have run like clockwork.  The amazing thing is that the only boat Clara has ever been in is a pedallo in Spain but she has taken to it all like a duck to water – no sea sickness and she seems to love it (obviously helped by a calm first few days).  I do the 7 – 10 watch evening and morning, Vic and Clara are on the 10 – 1.00, Paul 1 – 4 and Oscar 4 – 7.  We all cook are own breakfast and lunch and I do a main evening meal around 1900 so it doesn’t really feel like a watch with all the company!  Radio net is at 10.00am and 1800 hrs as usual – just three boats heading for Bali at this time – Glendora, Jupiter (a new French arrival) and us – and we are pretty much in VHF radio range of each other.  There is absolutely no wind, a smooth glassy sea, fabulous sunsets and sun rises and yesterday we caught our first fish – life doesn’t get much better than this….. (although Paul would disagree on the wind front).

Fantastic sunsets

Glassy seas

And peaceful watches…….

We have played Rummy Cube and Boggle, Chess and Scrabble, read books, bantered and laughed so much and chatted for hours and hours catching up on our year apart; it feels very, very good to be a family again………