South Africa - "not for sissies"!

They have T shirts that say this! Well, it's a bit wild here.......Zululand yacht Club hosted a welcome night that featured a welcome Zulu dance - very impressed, but then there was an impala pooh spitting competition. I'm not kidding! Needless to say I did not have a go but Oscar did and a few intrepid ARC people. it was the real deal. Oscar thought it may have been a plastic pellet till he squashed one to see. The yacht club is a little distance from the shopping Mall and the other Waterfront but the taxis (and everything else) are  really cheap so we may not get a car. The South African rand is 10 to our 1 dollar and the hourly wage for general workers is R14.00!! We've got Zulus all over the boat cleaning a and polishing. South African wine and beer is very nice and super cheap. We have trouble getting up to the R50 for a round to use the eftpos minimum. We are happily abusing the situation! The repair guys have started so all is going well. The area round here is a mixture of very nice residential with high walls, lots of barbed wire and pictures of armed security response and snarling dogs - then dodgy looking shanty towns. The Boardwalk Mall is super but there is armed security at most shop doors and no loiterers. The chandlery at the yacht club even has a grill door where you have to be buzzed in and out. We've been advised not to go out at night or stray off the main roads. Things are a bit broken down here with little or no maintenance of infrastructure. 4 out of 6 of the local  people we have met have plans to move to NZ or Australia with many of their friends and relatives already gone. Zululand Yacht Club's wifi is down because someone dug up the cable and stole it! Oscar went off to a safari park for two nights with the Cravens and Mindi and came back raving! They saw so many animals really close up and even had monkeys trash the girl's room! They were is glamping type tents. There are monkeys at the yacht club too and you have to be careful what you leave lying around on deck and to shut hatches as they have worked out how to get in!

Huw left us on Monday. He has decided that life with Laura is preferable to sailing with us! (she didn't like the sailing )It's been great having him with us this past 7 months and we'll miss him. He will now be walking/hiking round the world  instead.

Crossed the whole Indian Ocean! Nearly intact.....

We left Reunion as planned after refuelling at 9am. All of us heading south to be able to use the winds caused by an expected low to sail west. Got involved in a contrary current that had us motoring to get out of it and using more fuel than expected. We finally got out of that only to run in to very unexpected high winds and huge seas! The forecast was for 20 knots and we had gusts up to 42! Wouldn't you love to have a job where up to 40% variation on prediction up or down is acceptable and when you get it hopelessly wrong you still have a job the next day? We've all decided not to come back as dolphins and birds but weather forecasters! Anyway during all this at 5.30 am with both sails on reef 2 a huge freak wave hit us on the port side as we were just coming up out of a trough....there was a huge crack sound and everything not nailed down in the saloon ended up on the floor, Pete's model helicopter flew off it's velcro and hit Huw in the temple. Luckily because of the weather we were all up on watch or standby. Oscar got a terrible shock and went a bit cold and funny so we wrapped him all up and got him in a bedspread to come right. Huw took over the helm with an icepack and pain killers while Pete and I discovered the main cabin bulkhead was completely broken! Vertically and horizontally! We spent the next 4 hours bracing the breaks with ply and screws to make it safe. Luckily no leaks but the cabinets, floor and ceiling panels are out of alignment. The weather remained bad for another 24 hours and the boat survived OK so we were confident of getting to Richard's Bay in one piece. The next day broke calm, sunny and no wind - can you believe it. We then had to hurry up and beat another weather system to get past the Aghullus Current just off the South African coast. Refuelling from jerry cans at sea is not easy, fun or clean. We calculated the distance and diesel down to the last drop and made it OK. We did fly our repaired gennaker which went beautifully and furled really well.  Richards Bay is on of South Africa's biggest and busiest ports - there was quite a bit of shipping to avoid on the way past Madagascar. The wave also tore one of  the trampolines from the hull!

We are now at the Zulu Land Yacht Club (how's that for a name) which is a bit basic but has all the necessary repairers and chandlery. Our insurance company has been brilliant and had a surveyor there the next day for us. It looks like we will be here a bit longer than planned, maybe 10 days. Yesterday we went on a safari to the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Park (try pronouncing that), it was all day and we saw all the animals - lions (at a distance) rhinos just off the track, giraffe and elephant actually on the track plus warthogs, impala, wildebeest etc. Very good. there was a picnic lunch and one of the BBQs had been sat on by an elephant and was all crooked. The animals certainly don't seem to be worried by the vehicles and people but they are definitely wild and not tame. Three elephants got on three sides of our truck at one point and that was a bit scary especially when the biggest one started to flap it's ears!.

More Reunion

We've now explored a few towns and been on a trip to the mountains. Pete and I went to St Gilles le Bains and had a lovely lunch in a sea side café where they train chefs. Nothing very training about the food - it was delicious. We drove as far as St Leu then came back to the boat for dinner. The next morning was an early start for the mountains. We all decided to go to the crater called Cilaos. The road once we left the coast was incredibly steep and winding with hairpin after hairpin but beautifully engineered. A few tunnels that we felt could almost not accommodate the car width then amazingly we saw large tourist buses going through. The trip in was about 2 hours of very tiring quite strenuous driving for Pete who arrived quite shattered. The locals whizz around cutting the corners and quite a few parts are one lane, toot your horn, give way etc. We all commented that is wasn't unlike driving in the alps. We explored around the town of Cilaos - not very big, so we wondered whatever it was that caused such a hugely expensive road to be built to it. There were not loads of touristy things except mountain walks and the area is famous for a certain type of embroidery which has a society of women who keep the techinique saved - it's very detailed and pretty. Pete and I looked in the museum and saw that work being done. I still haven't found out what justified the road but suspect it could just be that a few people wanted to live there at a time when there was plenty of money for civil engineering ...? The island is funded by France so who knows.. We had a birthday lunch as it was Huw's birthday. The trip back was steeply down (obviously) and poor Pete collapsed with a few beers immediately upon returning.

.On Thurday Huw wanted to stay around the port for internet reasons and Oscar had a watching movies with the Aretha Kids date and football with a local boy called Joseph who lives on a boat here with his Dad. Pete and I decided to go to the east side of the island and quickly found out why it is so green compared with the west. It rains! We gave up just past St Denis and turned back for the dry side and had lunch in St Paul. The coast road around these parts is right up against near vertical walls of rock which have miles and miles of mesh and netting keeping the rocks from hitting the cars. It is all so dangerous and costly that there is a new road being built out over the sea, it will be 4 lanes and have to be wave and cyclone proof will take years to build and cost a fortune. Poor France! That night there was a Halloween party for the ARC people at the DoDo Restaurant. The kids all trick or treated the boats and ended up with stupid amounts of sugar!  Everyone entered into the spirit and dressed up. Luckily Oscar, Pete and I found by accident a costume shop in St Paul right by where we were on Tuesday so we were well kitted out. Peter from Wayward Wind came in drag so our Pete obliged him with a waltz. Unfortunately my photo did not turn out but I'll try to get one. Oscar managed to look dreadful!

Today is our last day and we have provisioned and got the boat ready. A part arrived for the generator at the eleventh hour and has been installed. The skippers briefing is in half an hour. There is some concern over the weather at the bottom of Madagascar, but apparently it is normal at that point to get some land effect off that island so the plan is to stay a couple of hundred nautical miles off the coast. The thing to really watch out for is the wind against current just off the South African coast by Richard's Bay. We can easily stand off and wait for a favourable wind to cross the current if need be.

Just sitting at the fuel dock waiting for it to open so we can get going. this leg is not called a competition leg because they want to let everyone make sensible decisions regarding the weather but the tracker is still on for you to see where we all are..

Bye for now........

Reunion

Arrived here after a very easy sail and motor overnight. Didn't use the repaired gennaker as we'll save it for the next leg. We are all tied up alongside a concrete wharf in the hardstand end of the marina so it's a bit dirty and noisy. We've had the welcome drinks and got maps (on the app) and a car and are ready to explore. Yesterday was the ARC organised tour to the main big volcano here that is currently in an active phase with lava and everything! Because of this though, the walking trials are closed so we didn't see any of that. Very impressive and rugged mountains (volcanoes) and huge deep ravines that carve down the mountain sides to the coast. The island is only a few millions of years old so the terrain is still sharp angles and the coast and fringing reef in their infancy (in world creation terms). We looked at one of the craters, a lava flow and had lunch. Today Pete, Oscar and I went to Saint Paul to look around and find an Orange phone shop for a sim card for Oscar. It is a nice little coastal town with cute cafes and bars, and an ice cream shop with a massive range of ice creams and sorbets. Reunion is a French prefecture of France so everything is very French - wonderful cheese and wine selections in the supermarkets and a lovely European feel to things but with a laid back island vibe. We're very impressed. I can definitely feel a revisit here one day coming on. (is that real English or just a fourex beer jingle?)

Final Mauritius

I have finally been able to get photos up for the past two blogs. Today we leave at 2pm. This morning there was a multi faith blessing of the fleet which I missed cos I was doing this. It's a days sail of 130 nm. So just one overnight then 5 days stop. Talk then.... By the way have a look at the wine menu pic and spot the funny thing..

More Mauritius

Thursday: We all walked into the big fruit and vegetable market in Port Louis and got some supplies. Very busy with a good range of food but very busy, noisy and god knows what we were walking in!  Also very cheap. Oscar caught up with the Craven kids from Aretha who were very pleased to see him!

.Friday : Pete and I organised a rental car. Huw didn't want to share in it so he stayed around the waterfront and Oscar decided to have a lay day. Pete and I ventured out with two maps. One from the car company and one from the tourist office. They didn't match each other and didn't bear much relation to the actual roads! So we got quite lost. Ended up in the south around Marebourg which is where the airport is. It reminded us of Lombok as it seems to be the Muslim/Hindu end of things but with Catholic churches here and there amongst the temples and mosques. the building were old and shabby and the newer ones looked partly finished. The people had moved in to the finished bit and just left the rest! Bits of rusty reinforcing sticking out of the concrete with washing strung up from them and external stairs going nowhere sort of thing. It looked more like don't care than particularly poor.(I'm going to put up a series of pics of these at the end of Mauritius blog for anyone who is interested.) All the people were clean and well dressed but the sides of the roads and homes were a mess. It seems funny that someone in charge cares enough to make all the telephone towers be disguised as palm trees but doesn't care about the rest of the environment. Another example - in amongst loads of street rubbish (corrugated iron sheets, old tyres, plastic bags, wrecked furniture) there would be a brand new blue powder coated steel mesh recycling cage for plastic bottles....weird.

That evening was Happy Hour for the ARC people at the Le Suffren Hotel. John and Joyce from Star Blazer told us about an app for getting around.

Saturday: Went out to the Jumbo shopping centre to do some supermarket shopping. Oscar came with us and bought a wallet. He and Huw tried to watch some World Cup rugby but the other guys had all gone off for the night at a Yacht Club to watch it and they couldn't find anywhere local with it on TV. Pete and I decided to walk into town, Port Louis itself, to get a roti but after dark it was Pretty terrible and a bit dangerous seeming. We came back to the waterfront to the Labourdonnais Hotel for dinner . Very nice and 5 star. The waterfront part of Port Louis is quite new and very nice with a couple of large malls one with a craft market upstairs and many international brand stores. There are two underpasses into town where the change is remarkable. Ghastly decrepit old building but right next door to huge glass office towers.

Sunday: Pete and I went out in the car all day. We couldn't persuade Oscar into coming as there was more rugby on in the afternoon again! this time we had the map app which once downloaded for free showed where you are and nearly all the streets correctly! We went to Bois Cherie tea plantation and di the tour and museum and ended up with a very nice lunch in the lovely old mansion overlooking all the plantings. Then we went to St Aubin where they make an very smooth agricultural rum - a few tastings and purchase there! After that with no trouble at all thanks ot the app but no thanks to the local signage we found Rochester Falls. Very pretty and lovely and cool but a bit challenging on the terrain after a few rums! We also found a huge shopping centre at Bagatelle - all the super doper international brand clothing stores and a couple of good supermarkets. Also a Trader Joe's type food hall. good for our final shop before Reunion. The rugby was the Scotland Australia game that we won by one goal. Oscar was the only Australian in the Keg and Marlin so great fun for him. We offered to let him put up our boxing kangaroo flag but he didn't for some reason.

Monday: This was the organised ARC tour day. We all (Huw and Oscar finally left the waterfront) went off in three buses to a sugar plantation and shop and factory (more rum tasting!) It feels like I'm being followed around by More Park and Bundaberg, Cane everywhere on the low lands, cane trash on the boat and getting stuck behind cane trucks! It's much the same latitude here so when we all went to the botanic gardens and everyone is oohing and aaahing over mango trees I'm thinking yaaaawn. But we had a very interesting informative and amusing guide so it was fun. The gardens were huge and very well maintained and laid out. We also visited the Chateau Labourdonnais which whilst it's not a very big by chateau standards was pretty impressive considering everything had to come by ship from Europe. The restoration was very complex and extensive due to general neglect and cyclone damage.. Along the way we had a very enjoyable lunch - put a group of yachties down by a bar and ......

Tuesday: this was mostly dedicated to sewing the ripped sail! Joyce very kindly volunteers herself and a good old very sturdy sewing machine and we all worked on it. Pete took tme out to fix up a bit of a rudder problem caused by the Brisbane "rudder mechanics". there was not only the tears to sew but lots of little rips caused by it going over the lifelines trying to get it furled last time. So lots of sticky sail repair patches too. it's going to be the funniest looking sail on the high seas, But if it gets us to Richards Bay who cares. We won't need it down to Cape Town. Pete, Oscar and I all had haircuts. An interesting experience in the washing- they lie you down on a low contoured bed and your head ends up about table height on a sort of wooden washboard. The person then either stands up or scoots around the end on a wheelie stool and somehow you don't get a stiff neck or water anywhere in your eyes down your collar etc. Much more ergonomically nice than the usual version of things for both parties. Take up a bit more room though, but having said that when I think of the elaborate big cushioned massage things lots of Australian salons use - maybe not. On the subject, I've decided to let my hair go to whatever is natural for it these days (salt and pepper I expect) to see what happens. Interestingly if I think back over the last 40 years of hairdressers giving the impression that if I didn't get in there every 5 weeks pronto I'd be grey at my desk by lunchtime the next day - well it's taking months and months and months and still not there.

The Caudan Waterfront hosted a welcome/farewell thank you party for us which was very nice with some local dancers and lots of nibbles and then dinner. Terrible photos I'm sorry - should have taken my proper camera.

Wednesday: We all put in another few hours on the sail hand stitching over some of the sticky repair tape. Oscar Pete and I then went to Bagatelle to the Mall of Mauritus to do our supermarket shopping. It's very a quite impressive landscape with the huge vocanic mountains rising up unexpectedly from flat coastal lands. Lots of great walks all through them but we've run out of time . Both Pete and I would like to come back sometime when the boat is in a marina somewhere for hurricane months and really have a good look around and visit the neighbouring Rodrigues Island too. My French is quite good enough for here where everyone speaks English and French and a tourist version of Franglaise! they even drive on "our" side of the road. it may be a bit different in Reunion where there is no English spoken to speak of.

We had a skippers briefing that afternoon which turned into a huge tanoa bowl (that Dagma and Yens have carted around from Fiji) of rum punch and nibbles. After they had finished with the room that we have commandeered for a sail repair loft for the past 3 days, Pete and I stayed up till 11pm sewing an old length of sheet (rope) onto the luff of the gennaker to try to give it something a bit better to furl onto - we'll see on that.

Finally at Mauritius

I seemed to have lost my blog that was here! So this is a test......OK that worked so now I have to type it again. Before it was OK to cut and paste from a word doc.....it's have to wait till tomorrow.

Here goes again: Finally arrived at Mauritius. the trip from Cocos was long but basically uneventful weather wise. Some big 4 plus metre swells but we travelled well with them. We finally broke the gennaker altogether. the two main repairs held together well enough but the sail itself was poorly designed and the materials not really good enough. In the past we have not used it so continuously so the faults were not apparent till now. We'll order another for Cape Town. Because of gentling along the damaged sail we had to go further north to have a better sailing angle for the trip down to the island. It also caused us to lose some time and position with the other boats. The others like the Amels, the Oyster and the XP44 are serious ocean racing boats not like our comfy old cruiser. However, as the are cracking along at a 45 angle drinking soup out of straws and eating dehydrated meals with waves breaking ll over them, we are walking around upright, making lovely meals from scratch and bone dry 2 metres above the water! You can't have everything - whatever floats your boat. I'll unapologetically take the comfort end of the float!.

The skies were mostly clear for the first week and the sun set directly in front of us and the moon rose directly behind us. Beautiful! Reminded me of a time once when I was on the evening watch I had been looking at the Raymarine and instruments and casually glanced over my shoulder and got the fright of my life thinking that a tnaker or warship had a searchlight on us right behind but it was an enormous full moon! The last week we had a bit of rain here and there and more cloud. Each morning there were lots of flying fish on the decks of all sizes from tiny to about 18 inches. they are pretty neat to watch as whole schools of them go flying by. One night Pete and I were sitting at the helm and a big one flew right past our faces smaked into the winch and fell on the floor! the helm is about 2.5 m out of the water. We even found scales in the sail bag. At first we thought it was a good sign that they were escaping from predators (who we planed to catch) and they were obviously abundant, but changed our minds to the thinking that they must thing that we were the predator as we caught next to nothing. 3 mahi mahi strikes in one hour but only landed one the whole trip. It was a good size and fed us for a few meals. the last few days we were out of fresh fruit and vegetables so it was fish and chips. We were all pretty glad to see land after 15 1/2 days! I was dreaming about avocado and a glass of wine on an unmoving surface. Huw was hanging out for a fresh apple, Oscar wanted a croissant and Pete needed salad.

We arrived to be met by the earlier arrivals and the ARC guys with shots of the local rum and gift bags with more....that was the end of that day!

Last of Cocos Keeling Islands

Here I am back in the wifi shack - this time being carried off by mosquitoes instead of attacked by coconuts!  That's beautiful tropical lagoon island life I suppose - tough.This is our last day and there was a Rally BBQ lunch on the beach with the skippers briefing first. All a bit delayed as the organisers boat broke down as they were leaving West Island. We're now getting everything ready for a 10 am local time start.  It will probably take two weeks to get to Mauritius so this will be it for a while. The winds look good and settled for all the way - but then that's weather forcasting....an unreliable dark art at the best of times. We've loved all the messages and emails and they have been passed on and appreciated.

Cocos Keeling Island

I have now put up the Christmas Island photos on the previous blog

We left Christmas a day after the main boats as we were still messing with the generator. There were three of us that took it easy leaving.

Oscar had a rough day and a half after his Chinese lunch came back to haunt him but after that was able to take his place in the night watches. it makes it all very easy as we now do only two hours on and six off.

I am sitting in the shelter shed on Direction Island at the wifi hot spot. It is so bright hat I have a towel over my head and the laptop trying to see the screen. Nearly jumped out of my skin when a coconut dropped out of it's tree just by me! We had a fairly uneventful mostly sailing trip from Christmas Is. We did manage to have another fright with a fishing line around the prop as we forgot to pull the lines in when we went into the wind to get the main down. We got the label maker out and now have a sticker on each throttle saying "RODS IN!"

 I made Pete a hazelnut mocha layer cake for his birthday then we had only just finished that and it was Oscar's!  So I made a chocolate cake for him.  What with some ice cream that we made and the lollies his cousins gave him from Darwin we all were sugared up! Cocos Keeling is a very pretty lagoon with fringing islands and snorkelling anywhere you're inclined to put your head in the water. We all snorkelled the famous "Rip".  Lots of very big schools of very big fish and loads of black tipped reef sharks - that luckily are very well fed on the reef fish! We had a bommie right under the boat with it's own resident turtle. Pete and I went to Home Island and from there by ferry to West Island where the shops etc are and the next diesel mechanic! Hopefully we are all fixed this time!!!. We left Oscar and Huw swimming and doing more Rip snorkels. Today Oscar is going to West Island for the day with the other family and tomorrow is the BBQ and skippers briefing for Mauritius. There is a lot of navel history here and is the sight of Australia's first ever navel victory - Pete and I are going to walk through the island today to see some of the remains of the instalments that used to be here. it was a catalina flying boat base too.

Christmas Island

We arrived about midnight and anchored in Flying fish Cove. The trip was a bit short on wind for the first day or two but it did give us thw chance to get the gennaker sewed and glued back together. We lost a day of good wind letting it dry but when it got up we were wing on wing all the next two days at a good speed. Waking up in the morning after coming in in the dark is always interesting as you're never quite where you thought you were at night and the shore is quite different too. There are heavily forested hills rising right up from the sea front. the buildings are shabby and old but the supermarkets have a huge range of good Australian food and the liquour is very duty free in a genuine way not like duty free at the airport. Extra large bottle of gin for $13 - got to be happy with that. Our supplies last well as we don't drink at all out at sea!

Oscar did the Jungle Tour on Friday morning and Huw haunted the info centre wifi. Pete and I stayed on board after the customs and immigration clearances as a diesel mechanic was coming on to see why we were getting water in the oil (there is always something!) There was a beach Rally BBQ on that night but unfortunately Huw and Pete only got cold left overs as one of the two boats rafted up on a mooring behind us panicked that we were getting to close to them and we had to move. We were on a huge drum mooring and very stable but you have to consider other people's panics even though unwarranted. Saturday was spent re mooring at a better spot and diving for the second anchor from the night before. by lunchtime we were all at the info centre wifi, then the supermarket and lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Oscar and Huw took the shopping back to the boat planning a shorkel later on and Pete and I did an island drive with the Rav4 that the diesel engineers let us use - very kind. There was a net grotto and blow holes. the place is filled with crabs of all shapes, colours and sizes. If you google "crab migration Christmas Island" you can see what we missed due to timing - an amazing natural event.

It is now Saturday afternoon and we will try to refurl the gennaker on the wharf so we can put it up when we leave. (it wasn't put away properly last time) Then Oscar Pete and I plan to go to the pub for dinner and buy the mechanics a drink. We leave at 8 am tomorrow as soon as we have cleared out with Border force, who are very much in evidence here due to the illegal immigration problems that Australia experiences from Indonesia etc. Big boats, lost of very obvious uniformed forces including the Navy and lots of checks on visiting boats. All handled very politely but firmly.

Pete's birthday tomorrow - I have a cake to make!

Have put up a few extra pics under leaving Lombok. The Christmas Island ones will have to wait till Cocos Keeling Island (should be there in 5 days) as I'm running out of battery and patience sitting in the car at the now closed info centre!

Leaving Lombok

The start was delayed by 20 minutes because the start marker boat was late. We got off to a good start with the main and the gennaker out but after about half an hour the wind started to gust and we tore the tack out of the bottom of the gennaker! Anyway the guys have all been sewing and sticking and contact glueing so we will be able to use it, but now of course it's all unravelled....if the wind dies away sufficiently we will put it back out and see what happens. So far we're mostly running last because of the time taken out to get the sail down etc. Oscar's not worried as it is giving him extra time near the coast for internet coverage of his game. The seas started out pretty rough but have settled down to a nice swell but some current against all of us. Talk again from Christmas Island! We've been seeing the blogs and getting all the emails - really enjoy them, please keep it up! By the way Oscar and the Craven kids did all go to a local school and gave a presentation about themselves (via a translator) I'll put a photo up as soon as Casper gets one to me. An open air under a tree school with some very excited local kids who do not see many Europeans, if any, especially ones as fair as Oscar and the Cravens!

Don't seem to have enough coverage for putting pics up - will do from Christmas Island

Saturday - Lombok

This might be the last blog before we leave. Start time is 9 am tomorrow with half an hour to get to the start line. I'll try to get something up. We have the skippers briefing tonight at the "resort". Oscar has gone over to "Aretha" with the kayaks. Last night there was some talk of all the kids going to an Indonesian school today but I'm not sure if that is still on.  I've just looked out and seen Oscar with Columbus on the back of one kayak and Bluebell being towed behind on the other - they're off visiting the other boats.

Friday - Lombok

Just been for a great snorkel! This time we caught a water taxi as last time it was a bit rough getting back. Also you have to weave through pearl farms!. The island we went to is Gili Layar just inside the harbour entrance. We asked the water taxi to come back in an hour and a half so we had time for a quick Bintang at the resort on the island. Not sure how I'll go getting gopro footage up as for this website you have to load to u tube and then set up a link. Not enough internet here for that. Will try for some stills though. Indonesian customs came on board this morning. Not sure what they actually managed to do except some paperwork and some very general photos inside the boat. All very nice and polite though. So even though we have spent a few days here going ashore etc we have only just officially cleared in!

I've put a few extra photos up on the previous blog - bit hard getting my act together some days! It is confirmed that we leave here on Sunday morning for Christmas Island. Oscar is happy as with the time difference in Melbourne he may get to watch his team (Richmond) playing as we leave Indonesia. He's bought some extra data for his phone. Here is the current itinerary to in the pics.

More Lombok

Our tour on Wednesday was interesting. Started out at a water taxi pick up from the boats then off to a market by bus. The market is on twice a week and sells just about everything you can imagine from fresh local food to pink plastic junk toy items - very crowded. We then were driven to Mataran, a near by city (if you could call it that) where we all got into little pony drawn carts to go to a typical village to see some pottery making. Oscar made a little dish he was able to keep. All unbelievably poor. There seems to be no shortage of food but  hygene is almost non existent with the water ways clogged with rubbish and no central or organised collections. A very high infant morality rate from water borne disease.  The mosques, temples and other religion related buildings are in top repair and clean and tidy. The various religions, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim seem to live well beside each other. We stopped for lunch and had a traditional Sasak meal and a very strong rice wine! (25%). From there we went to Lingsar Temple then Namarda Palace which was the ancient summer palace for the Balinese royal family. it was a full day followed up by a BBQ on the beach organised by he Marina guy, Ray. We've now met just about everyone in the rally from the various boats. All very nice and friendly. There are three kids on "Aretha" who have befriended Oscar.

Thursday was the scheduled refuelling day for us. A bit of a fiasco as there is no fuel jetty or anything. A tanker arrived after being delayed in a road jam for a few hours and filled drums on the stone wharf which was then piped down to us via an extremely long hose across two other boats into our tanks where we were anchored stern on to the wharf.  There was fuel spilled everywhere! Then it seemed that there was not enough to go round - but eventually it all sorted out and we have full fuel tanks again. Hoping of course not to use much on this next leg! In the evening we went ashore to the Secret Island Resort. (the word resort used very loosely). A quirky building with a very eclectic variety of decorating styles. No wine for sale (apparently they got one bottle in especially and it went the first night). I had a gin and tonic in a wine glass and the others drank Bintang beer. Oscar, Huw and Pete played pool. We've got a Rally dinner here tomorrow night.

Lombok

Motoring, motoring, motoring! We are so sick of the sound of the engines! There was hardly any wind the whole trip (7 days). There was plenty of activity apart from sailing though. We saw lots of dophins and Oscar got some good gopro footage. We might try to get the camera onto the end of the boat hook next time and get some underwater shots. huw and Oscar caught and landed a mackerel, tuna and a large Mahi Mahi. We had sushi and sashimi for a few lunches and steaks and curry for dinners. There was a breath of wind one day and we tried out the new whisker pole. It worked really well so we are confident that we will use it on the next leg with the anticipated wind direction to Christmas Island.

We are anchored at Marina Del Ray (run by an Australian named Ray, not sure which came first)on Gili Gede Island. It's very pretty and just a short ferry trip to Lombok itself. We arrived just after dawn and everyone was up to see the sunrise and approach after a great run through the Lombok Straits with the current - some of the other boats had a struggle against it. After lunch Pete caught up on some sleep and Huw, Oscar and I went off in the dingy to a snorkelling spot the ARC guys recommended. It was a fair way off on another Island but was well worth the effort. The most small fish that Huw and I have ever seen on one dive! A great first reef experience for Oscar. He took lots of gopro footage, of course.

Today is Wednesday and we are going on an island tour that the rally has organised. it's a day long with visits to villages, temples etc.

Follow the boats link

Follow the boats

Please click on the above link and go to the Darwin onwards button, then select our boat and see where we are and have been.

The last of Darwin and off.........

We're on our way to the start line for the run to Lombok!  We've left Rupert and Oscar's parents waving at the dock. I'll try to get Darwin pics up as we leave.

It's been a fun and interesting time in Darwin. Stocking up our wine turned into a challenge when the first liquor store we went to told us the law only allowed them to sell one cask per person per day! We had visions of us spending the next week or two driving from store to store trying to get our casks. However we found out that some stores don't have this limit if they are not in a recognised problem area. It seems that some of the locals have a bit of a problem. The other interesting thing we were told that one way of getting around Darwin where there was no bus route was to go to Dominoes and order a pizza for delivery to where you want to go then ask to hop in the car........

Pete, Rupert and I went to see the umping crocodiles in Adelaide River. A very good tour and some truly revolting crocodiles - there is nothing redeeming about them till they turn into a handbag. The trip was organised by the rally we are joining as was a welcome drinks at Tipperary Marina, so now we have met most of the other people on the 13 other boats. We passed all our checks with flying colours and "dressed the boat" with the international flags - very festive. Katrina and Richard flew up form Sydney to see us off which was very much appreciated by us. Richard has been a huge help getting s most of our sailing paper charts. they also gave us a valuable back up navigation tool (see the pics) We  all went out for a day sail on Sunday and a sunset cruise. Monday was taken up by an enormous shop to last us till La Reunion and Mauritius as we won't really stock up in Lombok or Christmas and Cocos. We could hardly see Oscar in the back of the little rental car! The Border Force people came to Tipperary Marina to do all the paperwork that was handled  very smoothly. this was also when we got the GST back on all the stuff we've been buying - that was welcome! Cullen Bay Marina has been a great place to stay with a lock entrance that kept everything safe. Now on our way and travelling well against the others (although it's not a race!) Fishing lines are out and we've had lunch. Will put the gennaker out once we have tacked our way out of the harbour then we'll go even better.! (although it's not a race) 7 knots from 13 at the moment.

Darwin 23 August

The sail is back on now all fixed up with a modification to the sail bag. The whisker pole has been built but not tried out yet. Scott the sailmaker made a splice that in the 1700's used to be commonly called a c--t splice! Yes, not kidding! it's used to join two bits of rope without a knot.... We've finally got the salt water rinse tap working for the kitchen after re running all the hose as we were advised on the wrong sort initially! Will save LOTS of water.

We went to the famous night markets at Mindil Beach where you HAVE to watch the sunset. Bit weird really - just an ordinary old sunset but all the people stand and stare at it (every Thursday and Sunday...) almost expected them to start swaying or something... Huw has gone off to Melbourne to catch up with Laura.

Pete and I have had a busy week including a very un eco, non cultural outback tour! We were picked up and taken to a float plane which then flew to and landed on Sweeties Lagoon. After a barramundi lunch floating around the lagoon we got on a air boat for a tour of the wetlands and rainforest. We met Sweetie the crocodile. It's definitely HER lagoon - it seems that she had a fight with and took out Lumpy earlier this year! Matt, our boat driver, slapped his thong (the shoe variety) on the waters edge and she came up and had a go at it. Very in the wild and not a semi tame croc. After that we had a helicopter trip to look at termite mounds then a final air boat high speed couple of laps. Boy toy heaven. We hired a car for one day and did lots of running around jobs so as to be relaxed when everybody starts arriving - starting with Rupert tonight.

Darwin - week 2

Well - the main sail has gone off to get a few things done and the whisker pole is under order. We've got a quirky restaurant/bar up the top of the marina walkway called Lola's Pergola! It has a strange carnival circus theme and gourmet burgers. We've lost a bit of time in there! But it's not all beer and skittles - Pete has fixed the satellite dish pole and many other little odd jobs with Huw's help. We've got a few city jobs to do like getting global roaming sim cards, cancelling phone accounts etc. It's very pleasant weather wise when the breeze is blowing but pretty hot when not! And it's mid winter.....Darwin Festival is on at the moment so there is lots going on around the town, we'll try to fit a show in. Hannah Gadsby the comedian is on tomorrow night.

Darwin

Here we are in Darwin! Only one scary bit in the Cumberland passage with a very strong current against a 4m swell in the dark (of course). We had a bit of drama with the generator not starting but after a fair bit of trouble shooting (in the dark of course 9.30 pm) we found a leaf in the non return valve for the cooling water. I was committed to then clean out and defrost one of the fridges as I had turned it off to save power in the event that we couldn't get the generator started......Fun thing to do at 10.30 pm. Arrived in Darwin on Thursday and stayed the night anchored out at Fannie Bay. Next morning we went into Cullen Bay Marina, via their lock, where we will stay for the next 3 weeks. Some repairs to be done, an aluminium whisker pole to get made and the engines serviced etc.  My brother Mark, his wife Annabelle and son Oscar arrive on 26th. Oscar is joining us to do the trip through to Cape Town. He will have his 15th birthday somewhere around Christmas Island - very exciting. He's between school terms - the family is moving from Luxembourg back to Melbourne.