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Nexus - 320 miles to go...with unidentified floating objects!



Winds are still light, but we've transitioned from motoring, to motor sailing, to gennaker over the last several hours and it feels good to have the peace and quiet again! We've seen several other large pods of dolphin feeding on local fish, which is a spectacle we never get tired of. There are quite a few Indonesian freighters and fishing boats crossing around us as it appears to be an active area with no set shipping lanes. We've been contacted four times by Australian aircraft on this trip, they keep an active patrol over this area due to the high levels of illegal immigration across their vast northern border, as well as chronic illegal fishing around the protected reefs along this area. The Indonesian fishing boats are quite different, we passed one yesterday that was painted in a soft green color, and had the sheer line of a Chinese junk, with several cranes and structures fore and aft on deck, but was otherwise a steel fishing boat of about 120 feet. We have been alarmed by debris in the water over the last 24 hours, which turns out to be fishing equipment. It looks as though they set things adrift to attract fish underneath, then come back and fish by them later. These are large floating objects, one was the size of a telephone booth floating upright and covered in yellow and green paint, another was a large plastic drum about 25 feet long and 8 feet in diameter, and another was simply a raft of coolers and styrofoam bits contained in a net about the size of a small boat. They of course have no radar signature, but fortunately are few and far between. Ghost motored over to one and hooked a large Mahi Mahi next to it... I guess the technique works! It's always an adventure to be cruising on stranger tides!



Russ and Laurie on NEXUS at 11:00 9/6/2014 10 53.1'S;120 16.9'E

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