Season Three - The Plan
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 22 Jan 2010 03:11
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We are back in Australia getting ready for our next
year of cruising and thought this would be a good time to update the
"plan". We aren't sure now whether we are on plan C, D or E as we have
changed it so many times. We are therefore making shorter plans going
forward.
The preparations for getting Harmonie back in the
water have for the most part been going well. That will be the subject of
another blog by Anne in the near future. We have had the pleasure of
living on Storyteller while Harmonie is on the hard. This is both very
nice accommodations and more convenient than living 12 feet up in the air
without any water usage.
We will be flying to Melbourne in early February to
meet Sue and John from Storyteller. They have a home there and will give
us a four week guided tour of Australia from Melbourne to Brisbane by car.
And yes, I expect that there could be a stop at a winery or two along the
way.
When we return, Harmonie will go back in the water
and the preparations for our trip north from here will continue. This will
include new batteries, a new, more efficient refrigerator, a new stove, some
engine repairs, re-galvanize of the anchor and chain, new LED mast head light,
and many other misc. jobs. The bulk of this should be completed for a
early April departure toward Darwin Australia.
The pace to Darwin will be slow as there is much to
see in this part of Australia. The Whitsunday Islands and the Great
Barrier Reef represent some of the most beautiful cruising areas of the
world. We expect to arrive in Darwin by the beginning of July. this
will give us time to prepare for our departure from Australia to
Indonesia.
Harmonie will be participating in the Sail Banda
and Sail Indonesia rally departing Australia on the third Saturday in
July. We will go to Banda first. Banda, part of Indonesia, is a
very small Island that isn't even shown on many maps. It was once the
world's major source of nutmeg. As a result, it has a long and interesting
history.
While these rallies have scheduled stops throughout
Indonesia, it is expected that the participants go their own way on their own
schedule. We like this very much as it will allow us to get away from the
crowd of yachts that will be participating. Almost all yachts that go
to Indonesia participate in a rally. The bureaucracy makes it difficult to
do otherwise. We will be in Indonesia for about three months before a
short stop in Singapore, and then on to Malaysia.
By mid-December, Harmonie should be in a location
where we can leave her for a few weeks to travel back to the US. That's
right, upstate New York in the winter again!
So that's the 2010 plan. We are very excited
to be getting underway again.
Don
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