Boring, boring, boring across the balmy sea

Sunday Dec 7
Cresswell here
Well we had a night of sailing last night! Nothing spectacular, but it was very welcome. Amazing as how just a wee bit of wind we would have sniffed at in the Pacific is now a bonanza! We sailed at 4 to 5 knots for 12 hours!

I took a hard look at the fuel remaining - roughly 400 miles of fuel and 550 NM to Bali so we have decided to motor past Kupan and go for Bali. Surely we can find enough wind in 5 days to sail 150 miles. So we are most likely to arrive in Bali Dec 13, touch wood. That's a Saturday, so we will may get stuck fueling on Monday then departing then.

It another 1000 miles to Singapore so who knows how long that will take. We have averaged 105 miles a day on this passage.... To be sure, I'll be home for Christmas......

But no wind today. Not a breath of wind all day, motoring still. By tomorrow am, this will be a total of FIVE days over which period we have sailed only 18 hours!
Matt is going to take up power boating.
Fi and Cliff are secretly planning a return to Rascal's air conditioning
Peter is just going to perish from heat stroke
And I am going to take up Suduko.
Touch wood, the diesel has performed well, needing a minimum of oil and a fan belt tightening or two.
We are now passing the southern tip of Timor Island. Wish us wind. Wish us luck!

Cress

PS NO other blog entries cause everyone is bored to death, Matt said so.

Belt Buckle Blues

Hi Dennis here

This story starts way back in Fiji where Jim had left in such a hurry that
he left a bunch of his clothes, sheets, head lamp and belt on the boat. No
problem we would take them back to Van for him. Anyway after we boarded the
boat, I wore only a pair of shorts for most of the trip to Darwin and left
my belt in the forward berth with all of the stuff for Jim. At Vanuatu,
Rita, Cress and I thought it would be a good gesture to donate a bunch of
clothes to the village at Port Providence so we gave what we didn't feel we
needed along with all of Jim's stuff less his belt. After we arrived in
Darwin, I couldn't find my belt but thought I would look more closely in the
boat as we cleaned it up. While wandering around with Cress and Irena, I
mentioned that my belt was missing and we should be reminded of taking Jim's
stuff back to Van. Cress said he had on Jim's belt and that he would
remember to give it to me. On close inspection I said he was wearing my belt
and Jim's was in my luggage. Cress gave out a sigh of relief and grinned
from ear to ear. Because we had been eating so well (thanks to Rita's
baking), drinking so much beer and with no exercise, he thought he had put a
few inches around his stomach. He was on the last notch of the belt he was
wearing and straining to get it done up whenever he put on his "going out"
shorts. For those of you who don't Jim or myself, his belt is a few sizes
larger (4") than my 36 waist so you can understand the sigh of relief when
he found out it was my belt and not Jim's he was wearing. Anyway we all had
a good laugh about it and know that Fiona cooking will further threaten the
crew's effort to stay in trim shape (Matt's beer belly and beard should be a
hit with all his girl friends in Singapore).

(no subject)

Friday morning, beginning of the third day.
Position 12 82 S, 127 32 E
C Cresswell here.
Wow, we are totally becalmed.
Its like doing a passage along the doldrums!
The sea is oily, featureless, and the horizon is a hard flat all around. It is so still, it is impossible to discern any movement. We seem to be suspended in space and time, even though we are motoring at 4.5 knots.
It was a beautiful sunrise, bright colours around the eastern quadrant of the horizon, coloured clouds.
It was a quiet, good night for sleeping away to the drone of the diesel.
It was a great dinner last night, when nachoes turned to burritos when we discovered the green bag was filled with potatoe chips, not corn chips.
But still, our lives will not be quite perfect until the wind fills in.
But
The forecast is for no wind today, no wind tomorrow, maybe the day after.... and even then it is forecast to be light and on the nose.

Having motored 32 hours already, we see fuel is going to be a problem. Bali is about 750 miles away and we are down about 200 liters of fuel, enough to run a little over three days or about 350 miles. Well before that, we will need to shut down to save fuel for charging and getting into harbour. Hope there is wind before then.......

Only 91 nautical miles yesterday. Second slowest day on this whole trip since San Francisco. This is going to be a very slow passage at this rate and it will now definitely end with a stop in Bali for fuel if not also Timor!

This is a good day for escaping into fiction.

C xiixixixixi

C is for Calm, as in BECALMED! -> Not!

Or is it C is for crazy?
When the wind holds it breath, nothing gets in my face more than my frustrated agenda.
'Gotta get there in 8 days.'
'Gotta not spend money on fuel.'
'Gotta get home.'

Or is it C is for Chaos?
When the wind holds its breath, nothing gets in my face more than being tossed out of my order of doing-ness.
'Gotta do something.'
'Gotta learn something.'
'Gotta not waste my time.'

When the wind holds its breath, nothing gets more in my face than my fear of not doing.

Okay, C is for surrender
I guess it will be what it will be.

C. Cresswell

(no subject)

Dec 4, Fiona on line.

Well, here we are! Have already racked up a couple of 'firsts' and have only been aboard for one day. Darwin's tidal fall is huge, so there's a lock system to get in and out of the marina. All good practice for the barge trip around the UK next year...

It's so HOT!!! We were all melting yesterday and I think today will be the same.

The sky last night was fantastic. Never seen so many stars, and when the moon finally peeked out from behind the cloud it was hiding behind, it was a clear, yellow crescent. Just enough lightning around the skyline to make the watch easier, but no storm activity near us.

Andy, heard a flamenco version of Crowded House's "Whenever I call out your name" this morning. Nice.

I'll get off here now, but will write again soon.

Ciao, Fi xox

Darwin to Singapore

Wednesday morning, first day out of Darwin en route to Singapore.
Cress here.

Well we have cleared Darwin harbour under zero wind conditions.
Why would we leave if there is no wind?
Good Question.
Its mostly because once the Australian wheels of process began to turn two days ago on our exiting out procedure, there really was no turning back unless we were prepared to re-engage the customs tar baby and start all over again.

You know they say Australian's make great wines but I say its nothing compared to my whine. Listen. Here goes. We made five man trips to the customs office downtown to enter into the country, and 8 man trips to leave. Three days before we even reached shore, we were buzzed twice - on two consecutive days - by the Australian Coast Watch aircraft, and immediately interrogated both times on the radio as to who we were, where we were going, and what we intended to do there. Not only that, they read out
a passage on the radio about what the law says about not being able touch down anywhere but at an official port of entry - after we had just told them that is where we were headed, to Darwin. On top of this, when we docked, five officials came on board, they took all our meat provisions, all of our vegetables and spices and made us fill out about 15 forms. They sent down two divers to decontaminate the boat and then we had to leave the boat for 14 hours because we could not use our plumbing. And
oh yes, because it was Sunday, they charged us $417 in overtime wages for the pleasure of their company. Gosh, when was the last time customs charged you at the airport when you flew in somewhere on a Sunday?

Am I done? Well no, not quite.

All the men and woman who conducted this process were unfailing polite and friendly, I guess because they we glad to have such a great job. They seemed to really like hanging around all day dreaming up more things for us to do. What fun it must be to come along in a nice crisp uniform, lay out the law and process for us and then to watch us do all the work, coming and going, filling out forms - mostly with the same information on each. One four page form I filled out twice. I even got to carry our
20 kilograms of meat and vegetables to their impound car, and to keep the taxi and car rental business happy as we made all the trips to their office.

So that's my great Australian Whine! Not bad ehh? I feel much better now for it, especially as I don't have to pay any taxes on it, and I don't have to fill out any more damn Australian Customs forms. I had the last laugh because they didn't notice I failed to make an extra trip downtown to get a mooring permit to tie up in a marina. Hah! Ha! HA!

Maybe I would be in better humor if there was some wind.
Hey, what's this? Looks like a nice Australian Merlot........

(no subject)