Love is in the air …………….

Sitting in the cockpit last night enjoying a mandi (Balinese style shower) after a hot sticky day the phone rang.

Jerry shoved the phone at my ear, it was Ben. My first thoughts were gggrrr!Jerry you talk for a minute while I finish this shower. As I cleared the soap from my face Ben's excited voice said

" Hi Mum, Kate & I just got engaged"

Well, I nearly fell off the bucket! what a lovely surprise.

We are very happy for Ben , he could not have found a more beautiful, caring, loving partner and we wish them every happiness in the world.

Welcome to our family Kate!

 

 

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.

Tidepole Island

More commonly known as Sams Island sits in the middle of Dampier Harbour. The other day we filled the coffee flask and took morning tea over to the island to have a look around. It was quite amazing.


Sam Ostojich was an immigrant from Eastern Europe who found himself working in Karratha in 1965. Sam made a makeshift raft out of 44gal drums and on his days off he used to visit the island. He fell in love with the place and  on his days off he used to scavenge the islands around Dampier for rocks and driftwood and over the years he built himself a house on the island. 


At some stage Hammersly Iron granted him a 99 year Gentleman's lease. Fresh water was piped out to the island and that is where Sam lived for the rest of his life with his cat Tiger. He passed away in 2005 and he is buried alongside his cat on the island.

It is quite an amazing place to visit. There is some quite nice stonework decorated with shells Sam collected. A high wall around ‘the house’ protects it from the strong winds that blow here. An old bell sits at the front of the house where you land on the beach and I saw a sign which said “Please ring bell and wait”. What a peaceful  life Sam must have had on this island. I wonder just how many friends used to visit him of if by choice he had a solitary life.
We enjoyed sitting under the palms drinking our coffee, it was a very peaceful place. We could have been on a deserted island in the middle of an Ocean, except for the red earth beneath our feet.

Life in Dampier…..while we wait

 

Dampier has been quite a pleasant place to pass time while we wait for our visa date to arrive. Unfortunately though the bus driver changed and the new guy actually asked to see our concession cards !If we want to go into Karratha now it will cost us $11 each! Not a problem though as we are now considered locals and able to get a lift in with Matt who is a liveaboard here and getting his yacht ready to set sail, or we can borrow the yacht club ute, which is very kind of them.

A friend from FSC, John Bullock flew up here last weekend to see us and Chris & Phil on Basanti. Of course the first attraction we showed him was Friday night at the yacht club.

The following day we all jumped in Johns hire car and took the opportunity of having a look around.

Our day out took us out to the Burrup Peninsular and the North West Shelf Venture Visitors Centre but unfortunately it was closed on Saturdays! However we were able to see the massive Gas Terminal where the gas is piped ashore and loaded. The flare towers are burning constantly 24/7 which seems to me an awful lot of waste of energy  plus just what is it doing to our atmosphere?

Our next stop was the little settlement of Cossack. Originally settled in the 1850’s for the pearl diving industry. Recently restored the buildings are very quaint and we were lucky to be there at the same time as an art exhibition displaying some very nice paintings from local artists.

For lunch we went to Point Samson as we had heard the fish & chips were the best in the area. It surprised us how built up the place was and how busy too. I would assume that maybe the locals here are working at Port Lambert where the ships load iron ore?

Back at the anchorage in Dampier we have been busy socialising with other cruising yachts passing through. So it has meant happy hours have grown in size and it has been quite enjoyable sharing information over a drink or two.

We are just about ready to make our trip to Indonesia. The boat is restocked and refuelled. The storm sails are hanked on…. just incase. (I suppose its better they are on deck than under the bed!) Just the oil to change in the motor and all jobs are done. We have certainly seen the weather settle into more of a winter pattern in the few weeks we have been here and we are confident that we will get some nice weather when we leave. Our visa starts on the 19th  so we will be looking at weather pattern from next weekend and hopefully we may get away around 13/14th Aug.

Watch this space………..

It’s red dust time!

Those of you who have cruised through Dampier will understand my title. For those who haven’t well its very dusty here! Very fine red dust that doesn’t really show up at first but gets into everything and sticks like glue! By the time we leave here the boat will be quite pinkish looking! But that’s the penalty you pay if you stop off at Dampier. On the brighter side the reception we have received from the Yacht Club and locals has been very pleasant. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. We are able to anchor in the very safe anchorage with good holding – free of charge. We can use the yacht club facilities – free of charge. There is a community bus into Karratha twice a week and while it is not free the bus driver only charges us concession rates so we pay $4.80 return each instead of $11.00. I never realised cruising would age us so much! Plus he drops us off outside the yacht club gates with our shopping which means we can really load up on supplies and more important things…Hic!


We took 3 days to sail here from Onslow stopping off at some quite remote anchorages. The weather behaved a little better than on past passages but now we have to learn to work the tides and currents. We spent a while trying to pass Flinders Shoals where the log told us we were doing 6.5 knots but on the GPS our speed over ground was only 3 knots.
Fishing has been good, we have been catching school mackerel which are enough for 2 good meals but then I caught a whopper!

This Spanish Mackerel weighed in at 7kgs. Thank goodness for the cryovac machine and if I place the fish against the plate in the fridge it freezes. We have been eating this fish for the last 10 days.
Our passports have arrived so we now have our cruising permit (CAIT) and our visas for Indonesia. The CAIT does not start until 19th Aug so we will be here a few weeks yet before we set sail again.
As always, there is plenty to do while we wait.

The Old Girl is Still Cruising…..

And by that I don’t mean Jean! We sailed into Onslow yesterday and anchored next to our old boat Tigress. Yes, we were really imaginative when it came to naming Tigress Too! Tigress was purchased by Jerry in 1979 and fitted out by Jerry in Sydney. I can remember when I first met up with Jerry back in ’81 and we would spend every weekend working on the boat. It’s been like that ever since, or so it seems! Anyway we set sail from Sydney in 1983 and had an absolute ball sailing her over 4½ years from Sydney around the top of Australia to Perth. She was then sold and Tigress Too was built. It was such a surprise to see her here and even though she is in need of some TLC she has a very nice new owner Scott. Scott and his dog Tali are sailing to Darwin shortly and then hauling the old girl out for sandblasting & painting before the two of them head off to New Guinea. It is really great to see that she is still loved and at a grand old age of 41 years still afloat and cruising! We set sail from Carnarvon in the perfect weather forecast for sailing North but it didn’t last long. We had westerly winds, then northerly anything but what BOM forecast. But then maybe that’s what they mean when they say variables? The swell was up & the waves choppy so for two nights we hung in there just hoping that as we rounded NW Cape the swell would disappear and things would change for the better.
We got to the top of the Cape just as dawn was breaking so we could see our way around as we heading into “Oil Rig Straits”. Just as we had been told, within 5nm of rounding the Cape the swell died out and we had a great morning sail to Serrurier Island where we dropped the pick and fell into bed for much needed sleep. We stayed there for a couple of nights, the anchorage was a bit rolly but we had a whole island to just the 2 boats and a lovely beach to walk.                             
From there we had an even better sail into Onslow where we are now. We were even able to put the cockpit table up and eat a very pleasant lunch as we sailed along. It is extremely busy up here with offshore platforms and tender rigs and capped oil wells sticking out of the ocean so you have to keep a good watch. But that is no hardship when the weather is perfect and you can just sit back and enjoy the view or read a book in your new chair! We have been ashore and had a look at Onslow, even had a Sunday roast but it wasn’t as good as I had imagined. Onslow is full of workers building the new gas hub. Two hotel ships from the Barrier Reef sit in Beadon Creek, accommodation for the workers up here. Lots of developing going on, more accommodation blocks we here. It will take about 10 years to build the gas plant and once built the man power required to run it will not be the same as what it is taking to build it so there will be a lot of empty housing units when it’s all up & running. “It’s ruining the town” so a local told us. It looks like we have perfect weather for the next week so plan to leave tomorrow and day sail to Dampier.