Southern Hemisphere

Despite now being south of the equator, the weather remained unchanged even though we are several miles into the southern hemisphere! It's still very calm and the lack of wind made for a sweltering day.

One moment, we were gliding through the water at a pretty respectable 7.5 knots, thanks to a helpful push from the current. We were cruising along nicely and then, just like that, our familiar foe returned – the primary filter housing clogged with debris from the tank. Thankfully, we've gotten used to this little dance, and it was fixed within the hour. My feeling is that we will eventually suck up all the debris from the bottom and this will happen less and less. Unfortunately, my hope of getting a mesh strainer in Singapore on one of Rhona's missions didn't pan out – they didn't have anything that would fit our 9mm hose.

We also fired up the water maker today for the first time, and it functioned perfectly. We couldn't test it in Singapore because the water there was filthy, and we didn't want to damage the new membranes we brought with us. It was very reassuring to see a lovely stream of fresh water flowing from the test pipe.

The Java Sea lived up to its reputation today, but the highlight (or perhaps lowlight) was witnessing a brand new "sport" being developed – synchronized shipping. It appears to involve lining up several container ships and aiming them at a yacht. At midnight, I watched in disbelief as a line of colossal 330-meter-long container ships, each dwarfing our little 15-meter yacht, seemed to deliberately aim towards us.

The closest one came past about a quarter of a mile away, which might sound like a safe distance on land, but trust me, in the vast darkness of the sea, it feels much closer. Let's just say I'm not a huge fan of "synchronized shipping," and playing target practice in the middle of the ocean wasn't exactly on our itinerary. With five of us in a 2.5-nautical-mile circle, it certainly felt a bit of a squash..

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Off We Go

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