Hi
from Gail and Stephen,
We are underway again !! After a two year break in Australia, one year of which we spent looking after Gail’s father as he slowly succumbed to the ravages of Alzheimer’s Disease and the second year was spent working to replenish the coffers and giving Gone Troppo a well deserved and long overdue refit. We never did complete the refit, the inside is still a mess and a project .
Stephen got work as a marine security guard at the
Darwin Port and I worked for a firm of architects.
The year was extremely busy but
Stephen still managed to head off to Japan to
help some American friends sail their boat, Uhane Kai, from Osaka to Hawaii in a
marathon non stop voyage(41 days at sea). While he was at sea Gail's father
passed away. We are now both orphans.
Gone Troppo was stripped back to fibreglass from top to
bottom and repainted with the help of a lovely gentle friend and retired boat
builder ,Wally, who lent his time and skill and equipment to enable us to
achieve so much in so little time.
I
was in charge of window replacement and anti-foul and non-skid deck paint. Stephen and Wally handled painting the
rest of the boat, fitting a new main sheet track and car, repairing and
strengthening the rudder housings, fitting a new refrigeration system, repairs
to the duck board and replacement of broken ribs under the bridge deck,
replacement of standing rigging, and many other minor but seemingly costly and time consuming
tasks.
Then the really difficult bit - saying good-bye to
friends and relatives.
We
were both physically and mentally exhausted by the time we sailed out of Darwin
Harbour in near perfect conditions 10-15 knots on the beam. The boat seemed to know that this was
what she was made for as she skimmed over the waves. Wally and his beautiful boat “Nakara”
escorted us out past East Point before we pulled away and headed to the Vernon
Islands. Our passage through the
Vernons was typical - rough- with wind against tide and we had only progressed
to Escape Cliffs by sunset so we decided to anchor and make a few adjustments to
the rigging and sails, get a good night’s sleep and make for Cape Don the next
day. A quiet day’s motor sail to Alcara Bay the next day.
It
was necessary to do a number of jobs on the boat so we busied ourselves for a
day at Alcara Bay, watching the occasional yacht round Cape Don and head north
or north east, wondering where they were bound. Stephen thought he saw a shark
circling the boat but when I went up the mast tighten the diamond spreaders I
was able to watch a huge manta ray glide around the boat, the tips of his wings
just breaking the surface of the water every now and then -just
magic.
Motored off in the morning. As we left the land behind, the little
breeze we had died and so in calm, hot conditions we quietly chugged towards
East Timor or Timor Lestre. Made
Dili after two and a half days which was pretty slow
going.
Entered the harbour of Dili in the afternoon and were
able to compare the Cmap charts with reality and found that they were about 300m
out so entry in the dark was not an option. Alain off of “Malamock” came out in
dinghy to show us a suitable place to anchor in what is a tight, reef bound
anchorage. We anchored in 22m beside Sundowner 2 a Brazilian/Swiss owned yacht,
had an ale and wine or two before crashing. We still didn’t feel like we were
organised, the boat was not yet ship shape and we had not yet regained our
sea-legs nor our confidence in the boat or ourselves. But we had started and
that had to count for something.
Clearing into Dili the next day was simple and involved
a visit to Customs and then Immigration both of which were at the main
wharf. With information from Jim at
the Harbour View Café we refuelled from a mini tanker at the main wharf for
US$0.94/l.
Together with Alain , Veronique and Matilda from
“Malamock” we organised a tour of the hinter land behind Dili. It was worth it
just to escape the oppressive heat of the low land by travelling up steep
winding roads to cool dry temperatures. East Timor is a very poor country. The people seem happy and relaxed but
the presence of a wealthy international aid community who are supposedly there
to assist in the rebuilding process is incongruous. The currency is US dollars for paper
money and locally minted coins.
There are two prices for most services and local goods, a high one for
expats and a low one for locals.
The
Australian contingent have bravely set themselves up in a compound behind
an horrifically barbaric looking
perimeter fence made of vertical galvanised angle sections with sharpened
points. Not at all conducive to
fostering mutual friendship and trust between neighbouring countries. The town comprises fresh new or rebuilt
buildings standing amidst burnt and wrecked shells. Apparently there is a huge back log of
property ownership disputes which will take decades to resolve and which will
stall the rebuilding process.
The
harbour was a busy place with supply ships from Darwin calling in and Indonesian motorised praus coming
and going delivering contraband diesel and other goods and it is filthy with the
town sewerage and stormwater draining into it. Strong tidal movements help to
carry the rubbish out of the harbour.
We
tried to organise a cruising permit for Indonesia from here but it was the end
of Ramadan and it all was going to
take weeks so we tried to contact Bali Marina to see if it was possible to get
fuel there - with no success - but we thought we would head towards Singapore
anyway and see what could be arranged.
We took on 240l of fuel in Dili giving us 350l total for the light
conditions we were expecting on the way to Bali (600Nm)and/or
Singapore(1600Nm).
Our
first challenge was to get through the Strait above Dili before heading
west. We spent a very frustrating
night working against the current which at times exceeded 4 Kts. A curious
Indonesian boat came right up to our stern causing a bit of a stir but a shower
of rain and a bit of extra breeze quickly obscured us as we increased speed and put distance between
us.
The
next night the wind eased and then died before we found ourselves in the middle
of a violent thunderstorm. The rain was torrential and the lightning was
non-stop and all around us. How we did not get hit is a miracle. It didn’t seem to move and lasted 4
hours before exhausting itself and for much of the time we were blinded and
deafened by the flashes. In the
excitement and because we were out of practice we left the doors off for a while
during the storm and had a very wet boat to dry out the next day. If we never see anything like that again
we will be very happy.
The
current was against us as we inched our way westwards, the winds were fickle and
consisted mostly of sea and land
breezes which were short lived. We passed perfectly shaped volcanoes which
appeared one after another like silent sentries to our progress. One even spewed
steam. Pilot whales and dolphins were in plentiful supply in the beautiful clear
waters.
As
we approached the top of Bali island the wind strengthened to blow from the
south west and the current strengthened against us as we tried to head down to
BENOA. After many hours of little
progress we did a stocktake of our fuel supplies and food and decided to head
for Singapore.
At
first we flew along with the wind behind us but alas it was short lived and by
evening we were once again drifting but as we approached the gap at 7 degrees
south ( Karang) the current changed and gave us assistance and the wind
steadied. We sailed day and
night and even flew the spinnaker
for a while. Through Karimata Straits in reasonable winds to the China Sea just
as the barometer stared to fall and we had winds of 25Kts gusting to 35Kts which
changed direction and caused seas from different directions. So under a triple
reefed sail and a scrap of jib we bobbed along dodging ships until the winds
eased again and we made a dash for Singapore.
We
crossed the Singapore Straits at 5.00pm and reached the Eastern Anchorage at 8.30pm to await
clearance by Immigration. Crossing the Straits was like trying to cross a road
at peak hour, with first east bound ships one after the other and then west
bound ships and there we were trying to cut straight across with no right of
way. Next morning we went around to the Changi Sailing Club and a mooring. 19 days at sea. I shall not let Stephen
tell me again that I don’t need to take on extra provisions just in case. Whilst we had plenty on board we were
starting to run out of things and I had to make bread and cakes on a daily basis
to keep up with demand.
Singapore was a delight, so civilised, even at the
Sailing Club they had a pool and they provided the towels. The transport is
efficient and frequent and cheap.
We found boat equipment we wanted at a fraction of the price of
Australia. Food is cheap and the
shopping is unbelievable.
After two weks in Singapore on the 8 December we left
bound for Malaysia and Thailand via the Malacca Strait but not before we met an
American movie director Lewis somebody or other who made ‘Jewel of the
Nile’. We thought he said "Duel of the
Nile" and told him we had not heard of it. His friend seemed to think he was
important anyway and he thought Stephen looked exactly like Robert de Niro. So
Stephen has been copping flak ever since.
Day
sailing and anchoring in shallow water at night we made our way slowly up to
Pinang, Malaysia where we stopped at the new Tanjong City Marina. We will travel on to Langkawi for
Xmas.
We
wish you a Merry Xmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
G&S
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