The Sail to Bali

After nearly 5 weeks in Dampier we were more than ready and eager to leave  on Wednesday 14th August.The weather forecast was for light winds for the next 2 to 3 days and then for E/SE winds 10 –15 knots…perfect.
It was 720 nautical miles ( as the crow flies ) so all going well we thought 6 days maybe 7. The first 3 days the motor was on more than off to help us along and all was well. On the 4th day Jerry noticed that the coolant had started syphoning back into the expansion tank indicating a problem with the cylinder head. So the motor was turned off and we just drifted for a few hours with not an ounce of wind to push us along. I had thoughts of never seeing land again and maybe lost at sea forever. But then I realised we had enough food onboard to last about 3 months and so in that time surely we would get wind. It was just a matter of patience while we waited.

We could not use the motor for fear of “cooking” it. So it was sail or bust. It was a very strange feeling no wind, no motor, 300 miles from land… I was feeling just a little anxious!
Eventually later on the 4th day a light SW´ly came in and we started sailing again. On the 5th day the high seas forecast said that the SE trade wind pattern was in and in our area we were to expect 15-20 SE winds for the next few days. Fortunately they were right and for the next 3 days we sailed that boat like we have never sailed it before!
We used every configuration of sail we could think of to keep the boat going at maximum speed and yet still comfortable. Too scared to let her slow down as the current from Lombok Straits would just push us back south. We had to keep pushing north as hard as we could to get there while we had wind.

We had heard stories of yachts in the Fremantle to Bali yacht race getting within 50 miles of the finish line only to be swept back out to sea due to lack of wind and strong currents. Not just the once but for several days until they finally got towed in or turned their motor on.
The last night neither of us really slept we just worked hard at sailing the boat as best we could trying to keep out of current but at the same time making landfall in just the right position.
Dawn on the 7th day the we saw the huge volcano on on Nusa Penida peaking through the clouds it was a lovely sight and then an hour or so later Bali. 20miles out the wind began to die and we had visions of being pushed back south but we had obviously sailed west enough to get out of the worst of the current and whilst the log said we were doing 6/ 7 knots the GPS showed our true speed of 2.5 knots but it was enough to keep us going. We hugged the coast to take us up to where we are now moored in Serangan Harbour.

Our friends Chris & Phil on Basanti arrived the day before us and they came out in their dinghy and we used that to motor us through the reef and into the harbour.
There were some very mixed feelings onboard when the motor packed up. But now we are here and a few Bingtangs later it feels really good to have finally got here and really this is where the new adventure begins.
The motor will be fixed and we will continue our journey.
We have been catching up on sleep and organising parts since we got here so I haven’t had time to look at photos yet. But I shall post again soon and put a few pics up.
We now have an Indonesian phone no +62 81238496700 and are on the internet, so please phone or email your news to us. We love to hear what everyone is up to.