After six weeks in Australia we have departed Darwin for the trip to Bali. So far there has been virtually no wind and the entire fleet has been motoring for hours-on-end, we're all tired of the endless drone of our engines! We are about halfway to Bali, expecting to arrive Wednesday morning if our fuel holds out or if the wind fills in.
Our stay in Australia was not nearly long enough to see the country, it is a vast territory with a relatively small population concentrated in a few coastal cities. We stopped in Mackay, Cairns and Darwin; Corinne and the girls spent a week in Sydney when Lew was back in the States for work. We experienced a nice balance of city sights, national parks and wildlife. Most of our time was spent in proximity of the Great Barrier Reef, a very large area to sail through! We saw one humpback whale broach right next to our boat, he (or she) put on a very good show and left with a deep snort. We also took an excursion to one of the many underwater parks on the GBR called Green Island, we took an underwater trip on a semi-submersible submarine and glass bottom boat. Although it was a rough day on the surface we saw many different fish underwater on the reef.
This leg to Bali is just under 1,000 miles; we will spend one week ashore exploring the temples and artisan areas for which Bali is famous. We also hope to do some snorkeling in what is reported to be some of the clearest waters in the Indian Ocean. Our brother-in-law Steve Jordan joined us in Darwin and will sail with us to Capetown. It is great to have him on board to help with sailing the boat and working on our never ending list of boat projects... Speaking of which, the most noteworthy project completed in Australia was the installation of our new stove and oven: a very nice Force 10 3-burner stove with thermostatically controlled oven and broiler. Unfortunately the gas fittings from our metric-sized boat did not match up to the SAE-sized stove contrary to the assurances from the salesman (Corinne and the girls purchased the stove at the Sydney Boat Show and had the unit shipped to our marina in Darwin). Steve took many taxi rides from store to store in Darwin trying to find the correct fittings needed. We delayed our departure by several hours behind everyone else in order to make sure the stove was working properly, which it is!