Yacht Delivery Blog

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?

Well, after a few days of calm since leaving Port Moresby, we've finally made it to the entrance of the Torres Strait. We'll be passing Bramble Cay soon and weaving our way through the reefs and islets. It's a bit of a navigational challenge with all the tankers and container ships, but we're keeping a sharp lookout. Hopefully, the current won't be too strong against us. On the bright side, the moon is getting fuller and should be full in a couple of days. That will be a welcome sight as we start heading towards Sorong. A full moon will help us keeping an eye out for Indonesian fishing boats as we get closer. Last night, we noticed a lot more ships on the horizon, all heading towards the same waypoint as us. It seems like a popular route. The wind was pretty light last night, only around 2 knots, but it picked up to a whole 5 knots this morning. The weather models suggest we might have a few more days of these calm conditions. This was taken at midnight and shows ...

I’m happy to report that we have finally made it through the Torres Strait , It was not an easy feat, but we managed to do it with some luck and skill!  The last section of the strait is extremely narrow and shallow, with many reefs and islands to avoid. I had been concerned about getting through in daylight, as the visibility is crucial for spotting the hazards. I had considered anchoring for the night, but eventually decided to push on and we made it into clear water before sunset, leaving just a couple of shoals to navigate through into open water. Generally, I would be very cautious of a 9-meter patch, but when the rest of the depth is 13 meters, it doesn’t seem too bad. Of course, the strait is not the only danger we faced on this voyage. Since I have so far been attacked by birds and several vicious flying fish, I am very cautious of what nature can throw at you. After reading today a catamaran that was sailing from Vanuatu to Australia sank after being attacked by sharks I ...

We had a nice second day with reasonable wind and we made good miles as we approached the Torres Strait , the narrow passage between Australia and Papua New Guinea that connects the Coral Sea and the Arafura Sea. This is one of the most challenging and exciting parts of our trip, as we have to navigate through a complex maze of reefs, islands, sandbanks, and shipping lanes. We also saw more dolphins at once than I've seen for a long time and interestingly there were two different types of dolphins swimming together. This is the point my marine biology skills breakdown but there were some very large ones and dozens of smaller ones. I think the large ones were bottlenose dolphins, which are very common in this area. They are friendly and curious animals that often come close to boats and play in the bow waves. No idea what the small ones where other than that they weren't spinner dolphins.  We dodged a few ships and entered the Torres Strait just about sunset and hav...