Logs, lightning etc.

My Way
Mike Kopman
Fri 21 Nov 2008 08:17
Greetings from the Gulf of Papua!

Well, the sailing didn't last for long last night. About 6 hours after we wrote about how great it was we were pulling the sails down and starting the engine again! Now we're motor-sailing, currently about 45 miles south of Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, and about 360 miles from Thursday Island. We've been struggling against 2 to 3 knots of counter current for most of the day as we've made our way west along the PNG coast. To quote R.E.M., it's like pushing an elephant up the stairs. Funny thing is, every source we've looked at for current information says we should have POSITIVE current right now... ! This has messed up our arrival time a bit and, with all the motoring we've been doing, made our fuel consumption more of a concern. Hopefully, we're passed the worst of it.

About an hour ago (around sunset) we passed through an area with a number of big floaty things: mostly branches, some pretty big, and one very worryingly large tree. These things get washed out to see when it rains. Apart from keeping a good watch there isn't really anything you can do about them. A bit like the lightning storm that's just started up over the land to the north of us. We've watched huge thuner clouds forming all day and now the fireworks have just started. We've just got to sit here and watch and hope we don't get a strike! Makes you feel kinda insignificant really.

Bye for now, Mike & Sarah