On passage again

Simanderal
Michael Hughes and Ger White
Sun 24 Jul 2011 01:33
We much enjoyed our 3 weeks+ in Darwin. Some work on the boat, provisioning etc., but also we hired a car for much of our stay, and spent a day in the Litchfield National Park and 4 days in the Kakadu National Park--seeing everything from wild crocs to ancient aboriginal rock paintings. And a lot of fun in Darwin, which has a lot going on at what, for them, is the best time of year--sun, not humid, no rain and not tooooo hot--well, everything's relative!
 
But time to move on--indeed time to leave Australia, having been there for almost a year!
 
So yesterday--Saturday--we set off with the Indonesia Rally at 1100 on passage to Kupang in West Timor. We had been warned to expect a lot of motoring--lack of wind--but so far not too bad. We motored for about 3 hours yesterday when the wind went flat and changed direction a couple of times. But since midnight we've carried a nice wind behind, initially on a broad reach and now directly behind us with the main on a preventer on Starboard and genoa poled out to port. And about 15 knots of wind against a forecast of 5. Hope it lasts--but we'll see.
 
Our current ETA Kupang is Wednesday morning--but as alwaqys it depends on the weather!!
 
All is well on board--the sun is shining--we're eating well--lots to read about Indonesia--Simanderal's rolling a bit in a beam swell which makes chores a bit difficult--but not as bad as the Atlantic!!
 
We look forward to the chaos of Indonesia after the discipline of Oz!!