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Luna Quest - Friday, September 4th, 2015



Noon Position: 11.17S 125.15E

Daily run: 155 logged miles

An Australian Border Control aeroplane flew over low yesterday afternoon and perhaps they had been trying to contact us. We heard them talking to Wayward Wind, another participant yacht in the World ARC fleet of 14 yachts. I then discovered we did not have the VHF on dual watch, so I called them on Ch 16 to report our details.

Today we have motored out of the Australian territorial waters and into the Indonesian waters. The wind is still extremely light so that our engine has been working overtime. The forecast is for a little more wind once we reach the bottom end of East Timor, some 24 hours of motoring away. The sea is quite smooth enabling us to make good progress under engine. Sometimes there is a head swell and one finds oneself hacking into it slowing us down considerably. Last night we passed some oil rigs at some 15 miles distance and were impressed by the energy that seemed to be wasted by burning off the gas. The whole thing looked like a ball of red/orange fire.

We have not come across any merchant ships in the shallow Australian territorial waters, but now that we are out of them and the nearer we get to East Timor, the deeper the water and the more likely we shall experience traffic heading to and from the Torres Strait. Tidal flows will be stronger…

Eric

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