Another Continent

We made it safely to South Africa a couple days ago. The passage here from Mauritius was slow but the weather was good for the most part. We're currently hanging out in a marina in Richards Bay. We've continued our streak of meeting wonderful people who volunteer to show us around by car. Our first few hours here we met Dale and Carol Hamman from Johannesburg. Yesterday they took us on a tour to a traditional African village and short jungle tour. As always, it's great to get to see some stuff inland and get to pick someone's brain about the local culture so, thank again Dale and Carol! We're planning on staying here in Richards Bay for a few more days to relax since we've spent considerably more time at sea than on land in the last two months. Then we'll be making our way south to Durban and eventually around the Cape.

All I want for Christmas. . .

Is to be on land and a steak dinner. Doesn't sound too unreasonable, does it? I'll have to settle for being at sea and pasta, with the possibility of fish. Two years ago I was at a typical family gathering with all the presents and kids and everything. Last year I was drunk on Margaritas and bowling in Mazatlan, Mexico. This year brings us 300 miles from South Africa sailing in the Indian Ocean and about to cross the oh-so-dangerous Agulhas current. If this keeps up, I am kind of scared to think of where I will be next year. Active volcano? Fighting Aliens?

Soooooooo Slow.

Well, we are still headed south to our waypoint that is about 180 miles South of the tip of Madagascar. Once there, we will turn back to the West and make our way to Richard's Bay, which is North of Durban. But, for the time being, we are ghosting along at around 4 knots, which puts us well under our daily average of 120 miles per day and also starts to wear on the patience. The sails tend to slap around a lot and can make a noise that starts to make you go just a tiny bit crazy. The good news is that we were all a tiny bit crazy to begin with, so it just blends right in. Jimi Hendrix is on the stereo and Zelda is the game of the day on the Game Boy. Baked Beans were lunch and I think Pringles are for dinner. That is all the news from here.

Goodbye Mauritius

We left Mauritius 3 days but I'm just now getting to write about some of our time there. A few hours after we got checked in to the country we met Jano and Odile Labat, a wonderfully nice couple who were both born and raised on Mauritius but have lived their last 40-some years in Zimbabwe. They had just recently moved back to Mauritius after having their house and farmed seized by the military in Zimbabwe. It's a tragic story but Jano and Odile are remarkably upbeat and planning to build a new home on their ancestral land and start a "Walk with Lions" attraction on Mauritius. It's essentially a petting zoo with lions and cheetahs. They showed us pictures from their partner's place in Zimbabwe, he's been doing the same thing for years. The lions are all under 17 months old but at 200-300 kilos, they're still impressive. Our second day on Mauritius Jano and Odile gave us a tour of the island that was better than anything we could have paid for. We hit most of the major tourist attractions, saw monkeys at one place, and a bunch of places that were favorites of Jano and Odile. In addition, we learned all about the history of the island from the Dutch discovering it to the evolution of the sugarcane plantations all the way up to current plans for promoting technology to lowering corporate tax. It was a great tour and we're very fortunate to have met the Labats. Thank you again Jano and Odile!

Land ho! Mauritius

Almost to Mauritius. Got here a little too late to check in Sunday evening. So we have to sail around in front of the harbor until 6 in the morning. Seems to always work out that way. Or we only notice the times we show up late and have to wait. There was a rally car race today on the island and we were hoping to get here yesterday and see some of the action, but it was not to be. Other than that the sailing has been good. A little slow and rolly but better than too much wind. A few days here then another day of sailing to Reunion. Caught a big Spearfish today on the handline. Probably drug it for a while since it didn't fight much. It was the largest fish we've caught to date. Had a little 10" tuna in its stomach. Not sure how heavy, but about 5' long when I held it up for the trophy shot.

An Eventful Day

We've had all kinds of excitement today. Jeff caught a wahoo, one of my favorite kinds of fish, early this morning. Then I saw TWO ships on my watch. One was a container ship about 5 miles away and the other was this shady looking stinkpot about 100ft long. The latter one looked like it was headed right for us. It was northbound, coming from the south and we're westbound as usual. It passed about a half mile behind us which seems a lot closer when the nearest land is 150 miles. Anyway, it was recently brought to our attention that we write about fish a lot here. Catching a fish is an exciting ordeal during a passage though. You've go the initial zing of the pole then you're trying to figure out what kind of fish and how big it is by how it fights. Then when or if you land it you get to bludgeon something with a club. Finally, there's the excitement of meat that didn't come from a can. That said, it occurs to me that much of the rest of the passage making process has become routine and seemingly not worth writing about. So, if any of you out there following the site have questions about what life is like for us during a passage or suggestions, shoot me an e-mail casey@svsohcahtoa.com.

Raj was a racecar driver

Well Raj never did kill us or try to sell us anything. At first I thought we might all die in a fiery car crash from Raj's driving. We be screaming down these narrow roads and hit these switchbacks with the tires bawling and the smell of burning rubber filling the car. All the while Raj is reprimanding Jeff whenever he tries to put on his seatbelt. I was thinking I'd write some facetious comment about how Raj raced rally cars in his spare time. That night over dinner Raj told us that he did in fact race rally cars in his spare time. He even showed us a video of him driving in a race in which he took second. It made our trip around the island look like a Sunday drive. The tour itself couldn't have been better. We'd drove around to all the main attractions, spending enough time to take it all in but keeping a brisk enough pace to keep from getting bored. The tour of the caverns was impressive. It was unlike anything I've seen before and it was nice having Raj there to translate because the guide only spoke French. Matt's pictures will probably show what it was like better than I could describe it. Another neat thing on the island was the fleet of simple wooden sailboats that the fishermen use. A few had outboards but most just had sails and a long pole for pushing off in the shallows. Also, the fishermen's homes all had huge strings of octopus strung out for drying. I've never seen so many octopi, or is it octopuses, in my life. Each house must have had hundreds. We also stopped at several beautiful beaches, white sand with turquoise lagoon water and the roar of breakers on the reef but unfortunately we didn't have the time to relax and enjoy a day at the beach. One of my favorite parts of the tours with Raj was the little stores we'd stop by and grab a snack of some local food and a soda or beer. It reminded me of taking friends from out of town to my favorite out of the way restaurants. Places that the tourists would pass up. I guess that's the main theme of our time hanging out with Raj, it felt more like hanging out with a good friend with local knowledge than some tour guide. So, I'd like to give a heartfelt thanks to Raj for all the wonderful hospitality. It's a shame we don't have more time to spend on Rodrigues.

48 hours of fun

Yesterday afternoon we ended our two day whirlwind stay at the amazing island of Rodrigues. The beer was cold and the food was really really really good. The dollar is very strong right now against the Mauritian Rupee, so it really didn't cost us much. For dinner one night, we had 5 big beers, a bottle of wine, 3 appetizers, and three entrees and the bill came to be $27 US total. We had lunch at a roadside little kiosk of Indian food and for four of us to eat and have a bottle of soda came out to be less than $3 total. . .it was amazing. The Health Inspector was kind enough to take two days off of work and to drive us all over the island, showing us the sites. We would have been incredibly lost if we had rented a car, plus, having local knowledge always makes for a more interesting tour. Our favorite restaurant was called Restaurant Paille en Queue. We ate there three times, and had our laundry done as well. For all three of us to get our laundry washed, dried and ironed was $10 US total. . pretty amazing. Any cruisers heading this way, I would strongly recommend a stop here.

none

Since we left Darwin which is in the center top of Australia we have traversed more than 65 degrees of longitude. Being 360 degrees around the entire earth, that means that in just over the last month we have gone more than 1/6th of the way around the world. We did stop for 3 nights in Cocos Keeling, but spent little time ashore. No particular point here just an interesting observation.

Rodrigues Island

We arrived at Rodrigues, pronounced like more than one Rodrig, Island yesterday afternoon, completing our 15-day passage across the middle of the Indian Ocean. Still gun shy from getting blasted in the ass by Aussie customs, we tried calling the Rodrigues officials on the radio for hours while we approached the island. Finally, when we got a couple hundred meters from Port Mathurin a couple of guys from the coast guard in a little inflatable approached us and directed us to tie up to the jetty. We told them we'd been trying to contact them on the radio and they replied that they had their radio turned off. I guess "vigilance" isn't one of the main themes for the coast guard here. During the first couple hours after tied up to the jetty we were visited by a total of 11 people from 4 different organizations, all of them very pleasant. Raj the health inspector drew us a map of the town with locations of everything we'd need and offered to let us use his shower in his house if we wanted. After we got everything sorted with the officials we made a meandering tour of the town and eventually made our way to the restaurant Raj recommended for dinner. Dinner was amazing. All of our dishes were made from local ingredients and they were all delicious. Our entire meal with appetizers, main dishes, several beers and a bottle of wine was less than $30 US. Raj stopped by as we were finishing our meal, arranged to have our laundry done with the same gal that runs the restaurant and invited us to his house for coffee. Over coffee we were discussing our plans to visit the caves on the other side of the island and debating either renting a car or taking the bus when Raj told us it would be much easier if he just took us. Now with most of the other islands we've been to when someone's being this friendly they're usually trying to sell you something at an outrageous price but with Raj I think it's a huge helping of kindness with a dash of boredom. I kid you not, it's 7am I'm writing this and Raj stopped by with fresh baguettes. I'm pretty sure he's going to take us to the other side of the island and kill us all or at least try to sell us a timeshare.

The Ticking Clock

We're currently a little under 400 miles from our waypoint outside Port Mathurin on Rodrigues Island. At our current rate we'll be there in roughly 3 days. Once we're under 100 hours from a waypoint our GPS displays our ETA in hours. It's a cool feature but I swear it makes time slow down. When we're a week away I don't really think about when we'll arrive that much. I'll grab a book, listen for strikes on the fishing pole and enjoy my watch. Once I see the time displayed in hours my mindset changes entirely. All of a sudden it's, "Ooh, only 84 hours to go. I better start getting ready." Sure we've got half a week of sailing left but we're measuring it in HOURS now. Seeing those numbers takes away the fatalistic view on the start of a passage where we can't control the wind and we'll just get there when we get there. Instead, I'm calculating what our arrival will be like. Are we going to get there in the dark and have to heave to for the night? Will we show up on a Sunday and have to stay on board until customs and immigration open again? The worst part is ETA is computed using the nearly instantaneous current velocity so it can change by half a day with a 1kt change in boat speed. What it comes down to is that it's nearly useless information that I really should ignore but try explaining that to my OCD.

A bit slower.

We have slowed down a bit out here and are now making about 120 mile days, down from 150-160. We are almost on a dead run with the Genoa poled out to starboard. There is an odd cross swell that rocks the hell out of us every little bit, but nothing too out of the ordinary. We are getting down to the last of our onions, potatoes, and tomatoes. After that, it is back to the cans. I think we still have a case of Coca-Cola left, which is an essential part of any well balanced sailor breakfast. We have hooked up some big fish in the last two days, but haven't landed any. Yesterday, the reel was pretty hot to the touch after something (could be a sea monster) ran out about 300 yards of line. But, the hook came loose before I could even try to turn it around. We have seen a bunch of action from just a 6 inch pink squid. Nothing fancy. On the geography side, we are 1571 miles due South of India, 1466 miles due East of Madagascar, and 2990 miles due North of Antarctica. For all of you Google Earth users out there, the island that we are headed for (Rodrigues Island) is I believe called Gambrani Island on their maps.

Quote of the day

Here is an Any Rand quote from Atlas Shrugged that describes how I sometimes feel about our experience in Australia: "Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?... We want them broken... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt."

Nothing New

We have just crossed the 80 degree East line and are around 300 miles away from being 1/2 way around the world. We have been catching some nice fish out here, and I think the fishing reel needs to be taken apart after something really big stripped off about 800 yards of line, luckily the line broke way down at the swivel, so we didn't lose all of our fishing line. It is about 7:00am and the sun has just risen. I have another hour before I get to wake Casey up and go to sleep myself.

Goodbye BW's lure...

A fish or something that lives in the ocean stole our lure 2 days ago. I was on watch when I heard the reel go "zzzzzz". Which means fish on. I go up and started to reel it in a bit when bam, it just took off. So fast and strong that the brake/drag on the reel couldn't hold it at all. We saw it jump in the water about 100 yards back, but no idea exactly what it was. Maybe a sailfish or marlin. That's about all that is big enough and jumps. Doubt it was a shark or a big tuna. Anyways. Line is running and I'm just kinda watching it go. Nothing to do except maybe cut the line and try to salvage what's left. Then suddenly it stopped and the pole went straight. Before it was bending a lot. I start to reel in thinking I can gain what little I can while I have a chance. But the fish never starts pulling again. I'm thinking either a shark got it or it spit the lure out. Finally get to the end and the lure is gone. So whatever it was probably had teeth to cut through the line (Jeff now tells me there was a steel leader and the swivel broke, so it's a mystery for sure). That points again to a marlin or sailfish. I think they both have teeth. Probably best not to try and get one of those in the boat. I hear they aren't too tasty. I made up for it yesterday with a nice big Dorado though.

Out to get me

Well, the Indian Ocean keeps throwing sea life at me while I relax but it hasn't hit me yet. First it was the flying squid while I was sleeping. Today it was a flying fish while I was reading. It hit the cushion I was sitting on about an inch from my arm and then flopped around next to me until I threw it back in the ocean. The aim is definitely getting better. I just hope we don't start getting sharks flying on board. Matt caught the largest dorado we've seen early tonight, probably one of the culprits that's scaring these poor flying fish out of the water, so now we've got a pile of fresh mahi mahi fillets. The seas are relatively calm and the wind steady, couldn't ask for much more out of a passage.

Cougars lose! Dammit!

The Washington State Cougars football team was defeated by the University of Washington Huskies this year in the always contentious "Apple Cup". I have a standing bet with a former co-worker, Jeff Dahlin, that the loser has to wear a sweatshirt of the opposite team on the first work day after the game. You can look back in the logs from around last Thanksgiving and see a picture of Jeff displaying the beautiful colors Crimson and Grey after the Cougars beat the Huskies. This time, it is going to take some shipping to get me the dreaded Huskies shirt. I presume that the best place will be South Africa, but no matter where it shows up, I am NOT looking forward to wearing it. I have worn the Husky colors (Purple and Gold) too may times in the past because of this bet. OH, and I think I owe Josh Miller $20.

thanksgiving

Mashed Potatoes, Ham (canned), Corn (canned), Gravy (in a little bag), Fresh Bread (from a mix), Peach Cobbler (canned peaches), Was good and filling. Probably our biggest meal underway so far. Last thanksgiving was McDonalds in Ensenada. We're a long way from there. Not sure what Xmas will bring. We'll be going to French islands so might end up with some decent food. Though I'm pretty sure we'll be back out on the water for the day itself.

Happy Thanksgiving

We just had our boat Thanksgiving courtesy of chef Matt. He baked fresh bread, made peach cobbler, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and ham. It was a great dinner. Last year we had McDonald's in Ensenada, Mexico. This year was a huge step up. I hope that everyone has a good Thanksgiving and everyone should eat lots and lots of Turkey for us.

Out of Cocos

We left Cocos Keeling yesterday and started our crossing of the Indian Ocean. Our stay at Cocos, while short, was great. As soon as we got into the lagoon, a pod of dolphins started swimming around the bow and followed us all the way into the anchorage. Then about a half dozen small, 1 meter or less, black tip sharks started cruising around the boat right after we set the hook. With beautiful white sand beaches, clear blue water, swaying palm trees and hardly anyone else around, Cocos Keeling was a place we wished we could have spent more time at but it's late in the season for this crossing so we had to beat feet. Now we're having a pleasant sail making 6-7kts under jib alone and yesterday's beam seas have moved around to the aft quarter, making the ride a bit more comfortable. Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I'm not sure what our plans are yet, complexity of the meal will be inversely proportional to the size of the seas. We've got a canned ham but maybe we'll throw a hook in the water and try to catch one of those pelagic turkeys.

leaving Australia

I've been a captive of the boat for the last few days in Cocos Keeling. My visa ran out on the way here. I thought we all had 1 year visas to match our cruising permit, but apparently that was not the case. Jeff and Casey's visas didn't expire since they flew back to the States and their 3 months started anew when they came back. So when we arrived at Cocos Keeling we were informed by radio that I was not allowed to go ashore and that we'd only be given enough time to provision and then we had to leave. So Australia struck again. Next stop is Rodriguez Island, about 2037 miles west.

Missing emails

Today when I was getting the boat email, three messages got lost. If you sent us an email in the last day (16th or 17th), could you please resend them. Gracias.

Anchored at last

We are here and anchored in the amazingly beautiful Cocos Keeling island group at a little island called Direction Island. We are all working on various projects and getting things cleaned up after 15 days at sea. We will be heading into town on Monday to provision and then get back on the road on Tuesday. this place is what I had envisioned in my mind when I thought of the tropics. Perfect white sand, lots of palm trees and a really cool reef. On the way in, we had about 40 dolphins swim in our bow wave until we anchored in about 15 feet of water and then about 8 black tip reef sharks showed up and swam around the boat for a bit. There is supposed to be good fishing and spear fishing around the corner and there are some little huts on the beach where the cruisers congregate for Sun-Downers(cocktail hour). Matt and Casey are putting the Duchess together right now and keep glancing at me wondering why I am typing instead of helping. . oh well. I imagine we will be putting up lots of pictures of this place. I'll put up some high resolution pictures for backgrounds on your(our adoring fans) computers.

a great evening

Just as the sun was setting tonight, the fishing reel went ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. I grabbed the pole, and out of the water behind the boat jumped a beautiful Dorado (Mahi-Mahi). It put up a pretty good fight, but was no match for my superior fishing abilities. Actually, I just cranked down on the drag and since we were travelling about 5 knots we just drug the thing for a while until it got tired. I had to beat the living crap out of it before it would quit kicking. . .it did not qo quietly into the night. A quick fillet later and we had two awesome hunks of fish. I went back on watch while Matt started cooking. I was sitting watching the stars, enjoying the sailing, and smelling the amazing aroma of Matt's fish fry. At the same time, a song that I had been trying to find for a long time came onto the stereo (we have almost 1400 songs in the mp3 changer, so it's sometimes hard to find where one is). I felt absolutely and perfectly content. At that moment, there was no other place in the world I wanted to be. I just had to sit there and smile. I also had to laugh because I had just put a hooded sweatshirt on since it got a little chilly. I think it was about 78 degrees, but you know, with the wind chill. . .

Squid Squall.

One of the most unique experiences of this trip happened to me this morning. It has been pretty bumpy out here, with pretty good sized waves coming from about 3 different directions. It has also been blowing about 15 knots, with some gusts in maybe the low 20s. Everyone else was asleep and I was sitting in the cockpit looking aft, towards the waves and the wind (We are sailing downwind right now). All morning there had been tons of schools of flying fish jumping out of the waves and scattering. Right when we reached the crest of a wave, what looked like a school of about 50 flying fish jumped out of the water right behind the boat. At the same time, a big gust of wind hit, sending the school shooting right towards the boat. I had enough time to yell "oh shit!" and try to duck out of the way before these tiny sea creatures started hitting the stern railing and exploding. I mean, it sounded like tomatoes being thrown at a wall. . .SPLAT! When I looked up, there was this weird black liquid splattered all over the place, and a large scattering of eyeballs and other organic bits. I looked around and noticed about 20 squid, in various levels of 'intactness' strewn about the boat and all along the starboard railing. All of them were busy squirting out large amounts of ink all over the place, making a hell of a mess. The splattered ink was the "crapping of the pants" by the handful that met a stainless steel demise. Can you imagine what that was like for the squid? Happily squirting along under water when this big black thing rushes by and you panic, jumping out of the water. Sky! Freedom! Soaring like a bird! The rush of air! The. ..oh wait, what is that big thing? Flying right at it, uh-oh. . *poop*, dead. I then noticed that there was a splat mark down the hatch by where Casey was sleeping. I was soooooo hoping that one had landed on him, but instead I found one in it's stain-making dead throws right on my bag of clothes. Niiiice. I gathered up about 20 of the little guys, and was going to make some calamari, but we are rocking enough that I didn't really want to play with hot oil in the galley today. Our friends on the Eshamy named their dingy "the Flying Squid", and up until today I didn't know that they really could.

same old, same old.

Onward, and Westward, that is our battle cry! Actually it is more like. . .let's get there and find a hamburger and a beer! We have been making really good time in the last few days. Yesterday's 24 hour run was 186.1 nautical miles. That is an average of 7.75 knots. Our charts show that there is a pretty good current that flows West out here, so I think we are getting at least a knot and a half of boost from that. The passage itself is surprisingly calm for our speed. We are actually (*actually*) going faster than we did on our passage from Vanuatu to Australia, but now I don't have that friendly feeling of impending doom from the boat banging around. It is quite nice. Should be to land in 4 days or so.

elementary

Still out here. All is well. Almost directly north of the western most point of Australia. Winds are good. Not very strong but enough to move the boat at about 5 knots average. Also with the light winds we get mild seas. So now that we actually have wind it's a pretty good sail. Before with no wind it was a bit frustrating. For 2 or 3 days the ocean was as calm as a lake as far as the eye can see in every direction. Been listening to Sherlock Holmes audio books and recent NPR recordings on watch to pass the time. Was 95 degrees in the boat for the first few days, but it's cooled to a reasonable 85 now. Still the cockpit cooks enough during the day to make it too hot to stand barefoot without a few buckets of water poured in every so often.

A long way to half way.

I just realized that we still have to sail 3000 miles west before we are even half way around the world (from Mexico). That is a long ways. That also means we still have the entire other half to go in about 1/3 of the time. crap. Other than that, we are making pretty good time out here. We are no longer lamenting our lack of wind. What we have right now is just about perfect, the seas are pretty calm and we are making about 130-140 mile days. It is kind of strange to hear a bunch of Indonesian voices on the VHF radio. We are only 200 miles south of Bali right now, and all the shipping traffic makes for a bunch of radio chatter. I just finished reading the book *Getting Stoned with Cannibals*, that my dad gave me. It is a hilarious account of a guy in Vanuatu and Fiji. This guy really likes to drink Kava, and he talks about all kinds of places we have been to. I would recommend it.

What a difference a breeze makes

We've finally got a steady bit of wind blowing for the last day or so and it's such a great change. We're saving fuel, letting Earl steer for us, moving faster and best of all, the wind offers some relief from this infernal heat. It's almost 10 degrees cooler on the boat today than it was in the first few days out of Darwin. Today I had the noon to 1600 watch and I spent a good portion of it hiding in the shade of the dodger with a wonderful breeze flowing over me. This was a welcome change. The last time I had that watch I spent it frying behind the wheel without a puff of wind to be found anywhere. I have a decent tan but I still got a bit of sunburn through my spf-15 that day. I really should have known better though. I was living in Seattle before this where the motto is, "Remember, spf-30 in November and December." I doubt any of my friends back home are nursing sunburns right now. Idiot!

A wee bit of wind.

We had gone about 30 miles out of our way to get up to Ashmore Reef, and right when we started to make the turn around the northern corner, the wind started up. We said, 'fuck it' and pointed the boat back to the west and away we went sailing. We have been sailing fairly consistently ever since. We had about 10 hours of 2-3 knots. . basically drifting, but we also have had some brief sprints of over 7 knots. Right now, the sun is rising and we are making a little bit over 4 knots. The wind is changing directions by about 30 degrees and I think I see a squall line (rain clouds) coming our way. It would be a happy happy day to get rained on. Other than that, we have a bit more than 1300 miles to go to Cocos Keeling, and will hopefully be there before Thanksgiving. . .not that it really matters when you are in the tropics and have no turkey.

Almost 1/4 way there

We are still motoring along out here in the almost mirror calm Indian Ocean. We are only about 10 miles away from a place called Ashmore Reef, and are most likely going to stop and grab a mooring ball until the wind comes up. We just don't have the fuel to make it all the way to Cocos Keeling. . .where we hear Diesel is really really expensive. Thus far we have been able to catch pretty much as many Tuna as we want, and we have been letting most of them go. . .it's just really fun to fight them. I now have a Cedar Plug out (the red and white one, Mike) and am hoping to catch something a bit different, like a Wahoo, or a Dorado, assuming that they exist out here. The water has returned to it's amazing bottomless level of clarity, and you can sit for hours just watching all the weird jellyfish go by. There has also been a shitload of flying fish. They congregate near the surface, and when the boat approaches, the school explodes in every which way. . some of the fish make it as far as a 100 yards before splashing back down. Send wind.

Please FedEx some wind.

We could really use some wind out here. We have been motoring quite a bit since we left Darwin, and have been taking advantage of every little gust of wind we can find. The trade winds should return in a few hundred more miles, but until then, we are just using Diesel. On a different note, we are finally in the Indian Ocean! So far it has been very calm, almost like a lake. But I am sure we will get totally bent over by it a few times in this crossing. We currently have about 1600 miles to go to Cocos Keeling, and then another 2700 to Mauritius, and then another 1300 to get to Durban, South Africa. That is a friggin long ways, and a lot of sailing. But we are prepared. For Thanksgiving I got two cans of canned Turkey, and Matt got three Advent Calendars of candy for Christmas. Yesterday I hooked up my first Sailfish. It was jumping all over and tail walking and everything. Unfortunately it spit the hook after a few minutes. I also caught a little Tuna this morning and just finished eating him for breakfast. If anyone knows any good wind dances, start doing them now.

Weather and Watch Changes

There's a phenomena I've observed during passages where significant changes in weather happen almost exactly on the time with the watch change. One of us will have a nice easy watch without having to touch a sheet and immediately after the next guy comes on watch he's reefing, tacking, changing sails or getting rained on. This morning I was awoken an hour before my watch by the sound of pouring rain on the deck. I got up and tightened the dogs on a hatch that had started to leak due to the sheer volume of water coming down. By the time my watch rolled around Matt and the cockpit were still soaked but I only caught a few drops of rain. I'm not sure why I was spared. Perhaps it was because I sacrificed a kangaroo to Neptune (couldn't find a virgin in Darwin) before we left. I'm sure my turn will come. Anyway, we've been motoring for over a day now and, with the exception of Matt's squall, haven't seen any wind to speak of. Water as far as the eye can see and it looks like we're on a huge lake it's so calm.

on the road

We're out on the boat. No wind. Motoring for the last day almost. My watch this morning was entirely filled with an amazing thunderstorm and rain. I got soaked. It's fine when sailing because you can sit under the dodger while the wind stearing does the work, but when motoring we have to be at the wheel. Still getting in the rythem or a long passage. With no wind there is no swell, so seasickness is not an issue. Still it would be nice to turn of the noisy heater (engine) and stop burning diesel.

Like a Fat Kid in Dodgeball

We're out! We finally left Australia today. Don't get me wrong, we had a pretty great time here but it's been nearly 2 1/2 months and it feels good to be moving on. Of course we couldn't just leave without some kind of fire drill. This time it was a failure in the connection to our external GPS antenna. A couple hour delay but we got it fixed and made it off the dock. Our next stop is Cocos Keeling, a pair of atolls roughly 2000 miles west of Australia. Cocos Keeling is under Australian protection so our Australian money and visas will still work there. We still have a significant amount of water between here there so hopefully the fishing will be good.

A trip inland

On Tuesday, Matt and I joined up with BW and Ben for an excursion into the hot interior of Australia. Our destination was Kakadu National park . I'll post our pictures as soon as I can. The park itself was dry and there were crocodile warnings posted everywhere. I guess a backpacker was eaten there a few years back. We hiked up to a big rock that overlooked what looked a lot like the African Serengeti. It turned out that it was the same rock that Paul Hogan swung his 'bat-attractor' to get the bad guys in the epic movie 'Crocodile Dundee'. We also hiked way up this waterfall and to these really cool 'plunge' pools. Places where the running water had made a string of these 3x5 meter pools that were about 10 meters deep. We jumped off the rocks and swam around. There was even an underwater tunnel to a lone pool. The hiking was cool because it was around these little streams and was really tropical. We are now back and getting the last of our chores done. Today we got the radar installed and hooked up the external antenna for the satellite phone.

Hot as Hell.

Today at 10:00am, it was around 90 degrees in the shade with a whole lot of humidity. It seems to be getting hotter and more humid every day. Yesterday we had the boat hauled out so that we could pressure wash and then paint the bottom. We put a few coats of International Micron Extra (for the low low price of about $300 a gallon) on by the evening and were ready to go back in the water this morning. I'm not sure what the total bill will be, but it will most likely be pretty close to a boat unit ($1000 USD). Ww were lucky to have our friend BW from the boat Bingo show up in Darwin and he helped us out with a few chores and even was so kind as to help us drink a few beers with our DrinkLink money. . .what a guy.

Fun in Darwin.

We have successfully made it to Darwin, the beer drinking capital of the world. No. . .Really. We have been told that there is more beer drunk here per capita than anywhere else in the world. We will do our best to investigate this claim. Anyways, we are in the Cullen Bay Marina at the moment and are glad to be back on a dock. As usual, once we get to a new place, we all scatter to find our favorite foods and then internet cafes. I managed to find a SubWay sandwich shop and had my most favorite thing, a foot long Meatball sub with cheddar cheese and extra sauce.

When I got back to the boat, I wandered over a fishing charter boat that was parked two slips down from us. I like to ask the locals what kind of lures they use for the local fish. They gave me some tips and then told me that they were just about to leave and I could join them on their afternoon charter (for $120 Australian). I grabbed some cash and jumped on board. We picked up 5 other people and headed out into the bay. Our first spot was amazing. We were bottom fishing off of a reef and everyone was hooking up constantly. The biggest excitement came from Dave, an avid fisherman from the town of Catherine, Northern Territories. He had been out with these guys for three days in the hopes of catching a Jew Fish (named for the bony 'jewel' that is found in their heads). We were catching little fish, that were around 5-10 pounds when ZING his reel started flying and his pole bent almost in half. After a bit of a fight, he landed his prized fish, which was really quite big...maybe over a meter long.

The other folks on the boat were two Australian couples that were really friendly. The guys were old friends and one was up from the West Coast to visit his friend. We got along great and they invited me to a party at their house later that night (plus Matt and Casey). We showed up to this really cool house that was built up on stilts like a tree house. All the walls looked like big venetian blinds made of teak and the whole house was surrounded by it's own bamboo forest. It was a ton of fun to go to a house party again, and we got to know a bunch of really cool locals. There was plenty of your standard party discussions, like "The top 5 albums of all time", and "I just don't know what the hell cricket is all about". There must have been 30 people there at one point, and I'm pretty sure I at least met all of them. All in all it has been a pretty good 2 days in Darwin.

Devil, thy name is Mario Golf.

This is a horribly addictive and incredibly frustrating game for the Game Boy Advanced. It is a role-playing golf game and you have to play lots of different courses and opponents, all the while gaining skills and experience so that you may someday beat Mario himself on the course in the Mushroom kingdom. No, I haven't lost my mind. . although, I wouldn't be the best judge of that. I think I have about 20 hours invested into this game so far, and I think I am about 80% done. I had to take a little bit of a time-out, because I was getting a bit too angry at a few missed Birdie putts. We have a Game Boy Advanced, and a Game Boy DS onboard. This helps to avoid the inevitable arguments about who is hogging what. The same arguments that most likely every parent with two or more kids knows and loves. Right now I am frustrated with Mario Golf, Matt is making steady progress on Shining Soul, and Casey is pissed off at Mega Man 4 - Code Red. All the while we are sailing along, eating every now and again and slowly making our way across the top of Australia. Talk about your non-stop adventure thrill ride.

I love fishing.

This afternoon we caught a really nice Tuna. We hadn't been fishing for quite a while, because as you travel through the barrier reef there are about 7 different kinds of restricted areas that you can or can't or can kind of fish in. We have these huge free charts that map out these areas, and the penalties are very stiff for violators. Since we have already had our fun being Australian law-breakers, we just decided not to risk it. But now that we are in Northern Australia and the Gulf of Carpentaria, I figured that it would be okay. Most likely we violated some law,. . .but sometimes you just gotta fish. We made some more sushi with the tuna, and then I made up some seared coconut tuna with mango chutney. Our friend from Alaska, Mike McCarthy, taught me how to make it. He even bought us a little Mexican tortilla cooker to use. It was quite a welcome change, since we are currently 'Vegetarians of Circumstance', which happens on every passage longer than 3 days. We should be in Darwin in 4 days, so lots of beef and beer in the near future.

Sailing the Reef

We left Lizard Island yesterday and we're currently sailing north inside the GBR. Sailing inside the reef is way different than the offshore passages we've been making. For the most part the water is 40- 60ft deep. We've anchored in deeper water. We're using the same passage that the shipping traffic uses. It's well marked but narrow in places and weaves through the reefs. Unlike offshore, here we have to steer a truer course and change course a couple times per watch. Our GPS charts are very accurate but we've still got to be on our toes watching for buoys and freighters. The weather has been in our favor the whole time though. A steady 12-18kts from the SE and moderate waves have made for a really pleasant sail so far.

Up, Up, and Away.

We are heading North up to Cape York and Thursday Island. Cape York is that point bit in North Eastern Australia. From there, we will head East across the Gulf of Carpenteria to Darwin. We have been making pretty good time so far, and are currently on a broad reach with only a double reefed main up (prevented of course). We really liked Lizard Island, and I would recommend anyone that wants to go on a pretty cool vacation to look it up. The last of our ice in the ice- chest has just melted, so we are back to warm everything. That also means that we are going to have to eat about 2 pounds of cheese in the next day or two. Yea. . .cheese.

In the satellite age.

This is the first website update sent over our new Iridium satellite phone. I picked this phone up from The Offshore Store in Seattle when I was back about a month ago. Anyone planning any kind of trip like ours should contact The Offshore Store and talk to Trevor. They are really friendly and have ALL the cool electronics and gadgetry you could ever, ever need.

Lizard Island

We arrived on Lizard Island today after an overnight passage from Port Douglas. The island was named by Captain Cook after he saw a bunch of lizards here (sand monitors to be precise). Can creativity and cartography co-exist? Okay, there's your alliteration for the day. We took the Duchess in to shore and hiked to the top of the island. My tongue's still a bit dirty from dragging through the dirt on the way up but the views were well worth it. The very top of the island is called Cook's Lookout. It's the exact place where he said, "Dang, that thar reef's a big sumbitch." or something to that effect.

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