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I'm not sure what else I can say about headwinds and counter-currents – it's all starting to feel a bit like Groundhog Day! But we are slowly chipping away at the distance, and there's definitely light at the end of the tunnel. Speaking of challenges, my friend Gary (who, as you know, is cruising in the opposite direction) reminded me of another exciting nautical feature of Indonesia that we haven't encountered yet on this trip: massive tugboats towing barges. This might not sound particularly thrilling until I mention the exciting part – they often have no lights or AIS! Sometimes, three tugs and barges will share a single AIS transponder, leaving two of them traveling in convoy with the "lucky" one that has AIS. To add to the fun, there is (or perhaps "was" is the operative word) a 100-meter vessel about 5 nautical miles ahead of us that was simply labeled "other" on the AIS. Well, it was labeled "other" until they apparent...
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Sharp Stick

We're still pushing onward, though not quite as fast or in the exact direction we'd like. But hey, that's all part of the adventure, right? I was hoping the wind would shift as predicted in the GFS forecast, but unfortunately, the opposite happened – the forecast changed to match our current conditions! The biggest hurdle at the moment is the current. We're battling a 1.5 knot current pushing us east as we try to maintain a course of around 330 degrees, around 43 degrees off the apparent wind. Despite this, we're still managing to tick off some miles towards our destination and keeping a positive outlook. This is what adventure is all about – pushing through discomfort and frustration. Adventure isn't sipping mai tais by the pool; it's about persevering and doing your best in challenging conditions. When I think about the incredible feats of past adventurers like Bligh's 3500nm open boat journey or Scott's expeditions to the South Pole, it puts...
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Barry Crocker

Yesterday definitely was a bit of a shocker! I don't know what was worse – the 30+ knot winds, pouring rain, the endless stream of fishing boats, the contrary current, long lines, or the headwinds that seemed determined to push us back to where we started. It was a challenging combination, to say the least. The current was particularly tricky. Depending on our tack, it would either shave off a couple of knots from our speed or push us significantly off course, sometimes by as much as 30 degrees. With the low visibility, it was difficult to determine if all the fishing boats were equipped with AIS as we couldn't see them, but the long lines and buoys certainly weren't, making for a few tense encounters as they materialized out of the rain and from behind waves. Our best tack saw us heading north until we were close to the coast, where we tacked in just 10 meters of water. After tacking, it was a case of seeing which way the current was going to let us head, which ended up b...
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Grey and Wet

Well, the weather hasn't exactly been great since we left the Torres Strait. Yesterday was a bit of a rollercoaster – squall after squall with moments of flat calm in between. Then, from early afternoon, we were in a non-stop squall-fest for hours! Thankfully, around midnight the wind finally eased off, but now it's barely 5 knots, which is pretty much like trying to sail uphill on ice. So, we're playing a delicate game right now – trying to make decent progress in the right direction while also keeping an eye on our fuel consumption. Oh, and let's not forget the ever-present challenge of dodging cargo ships, tankers, and those dense clumps of fishing boats and nets!  And a quick note to everyone on the Lewmar design team: the name "captive winch" kind of implies the rope is being held against its will on the drum and not allowed to bunch up and fall off. Maybe "unconfined winch" would be a more accurate name?
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Out of Torres Strait

We finally popped out of the end of the Torres Strait! I'm so pleased to have that part of the trip over – it feels like a huge milestone is behind us. For the last week, the weather models have been showing we'll get wind "in 2 days," but then the next day the wind is still 2 days away. So I was very encouraged as we stuck our nose into the Arafura Sea and felt a tickle on my face. We got the mainsail up, and the tickle remained, but not from the same direction! We've been chasing the breeze around ever since. We also had a lot of squalls blowing through last night, which kept us on our toes. The wind would shift and increase, then fade away, before increasing and shifting again. A bit of a wild ride! It appears that the sunrise is bringing light headwinds, which I'm not going to complain about at this stage. The big plus is that we're able to head directly where we want to go. And the bigger plus is we aren't burning any of our precious diesel.
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Torres Strait 2

We're almost through the Torres Strait and hoping to reach the Arafura Sea this afternoon, as long as we don't have to struggle against more tide. We had a nice ride last night with a few extra knots of speed, but we're paying the price for that now. Yesterday we had a couple of interesting encounters. First, we had some visitors who flew over and announced themselves as ABF (Australian Border Force). And we had to quickly check in with them and confirm our last port, next port and registration number. Interestingly we've been having issues with authorities not being able to see the name of the boat when they check our AIS as for some reason its not transmitted. ABF knew the name! Then, we had some other visitors who swam around but didn't announce themselves – they appeared to be false killer whales. It's a little unnerving navigating through the Torres Strait. There are scattered reefs and islets for hundreds of miles, and we're essentially using a tablet ...
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