2 September 2010
Our final day in Darwin was the usual whirlwind of last minute shopping, stowing and socialising! After a skippers briefing we spent the rest of the evening with Olga and Srecko, treating us to a marvellous meal in a new Turkish restaurant, Alaturk, really the best food we have had during our stay in Australia. We raised our glasses in Nasdravias and Slaintes but not for the last time. We intend to introduce them to the delights of sailing in Scotland sometime in the future. The lock out went like clockwork, each yacht being given an allocated slot lasting 15minutes. It had to be completed by 10.15am before the water level dropped too low. We had had a quick coffee with Olga and Srecko and bade final tearful farewells on the pontoon.
Once outside we were lucky enough to pick up a mooring for the couple of hours wait before the start of Leg 14. One of twelve boats to cross the start line, once again we were 9 minutes late, not by design, we just did not give ourselves enough time for the three miles to get to the red buoy opposite the Coonawara Naval Base. Through the binoculars, Paul and Suzana, Olga and Srecko, tiny figures from the shore. It was an auspicious start too. The wind was lovely and more than the forecast, more than we had hoped for, 18knots from the east. On a close reach I wished I had prepared the lunch, my galley was on the tilt, but an hour later we settled on our true course of 280 degrees putting the wind on the beam.
Darwin and Australia was soon lost to us in the heat haze of the afternoon. Now we were in the Timor Sea. I felt suddenly exhausted, emotional farewells are draining, and David was feeling a little under the weather with a head cold. All that shopping centre air conditioning isn't good for us. We took turns to lie down but sleep could not come it was so hot. By 8pm the breeze had died away to nothing and comparing notes with other WARC boats we had to resort to motoring. After midnight it had filled in again and now we had the moon a perfect sliver of citrus to complete our ocean landscape. As the Southern Cross went down Orion's Belt began its ascent astern. By the early hours we were abeam of the first of many oil and gas fields.
Day two at sea and a slow day's sailing. Most of the fleet are south of us with the exception of Eowyn and Tucanon but we are only within VHF range of Eowyn. The morning was characterised by squalls. Fortunately the wind which preceeded them never exceeded 20knots. We really cannot be too surprised about the light winds, we are now no so far away from the Equator. Checking our log of four years ago we sailed only 44nm out of a passage of 468nm, so all in all we are really doing quite well! At 3o'clock in the afternoon we were overflown by a customs aircraft. They certainly maintain a vigilant watch and as far back as Mackay we were given a hotline number to report any suspicious craft. We were surprised at the range they were covering for we were now 170nm from the Australian coast. But we saw nothing all day save one ship like us travelling west. Like the previous evening as the light faded so the wind died away, signalling another long night of motoring ahead....
Blog Bounty!
The "blog" has brought me in contact with people in a most unusual way. Back in Cairns I heard from Dave Andrew who enthused with me over the one time Verdi's restaurant, sadly now no more. Now Monica who has just joined Lady Lisa for the leg to Bali comes by our boat with ten packets of cup a soups! She had read on my website of David's fondness for such things and of my difficulty in obtaining supplies in the Pacific. How very kind.
Susan Mackay