Yacht Delivery Blog

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 ...

Well, we made it out of Port Moresby! Let me tell you, there are only two reasons to go there, and neither of them are worth the risk of getting your head smashed in and violently robbed. You can get fuel, and the steak at the yacht club is the best I've ever had. My strong suggestion - Get extra fuel somewhere else and become a vegetarian for a week. It's just not worth it. We had to wait 24 hours to get checked in, which didn't exactly put me in a great mood. Then, seven customs officers in big black boots and red betel stained teeth came stomping around the boat for hours, pulling apart anything they thought was suspicious. A drawer with tape over it to stop it from sliding open? Suspicious! Anything in a bag? Dumped on the floor and rifled through! They eventually came to our pretty impressive medical kit, which is all organized in plastic boxes. I could just see what was going to happen. The officer goes, "WHAT'S THIS?" I said, "A medical kit....

Well, yesterday didn't quite go as planned! We lost the wind early in the morning and ended up fighting a bit of tide, which meant we arrived a little later than expected. We dropped anchor around 3:30 PM and were told the boarding officers had been notified. At about this point, I started glancing at my watch and wondering what the chances were of actually getting cleared in late on a Sunday afternoon. Turns out, the chances were zero. Around 17.00 they told us they'd come first thing in the morning (i.e., in a few hours). So, we had a choice to make: leave and go back out to sea for the night, then return in the morning (far safer, but a bit of a hassle), or stay put. The yacht club assured us it was safe to anchor outside the marina and that they have security monitoring the seawall. Which, of course, made me wonder why they have security if it's so safe, and what exactly a security guard on the seawall is going to do if something happens!  Anyway, since we were alread...

You know how there's always one person in every organization who really makes things happen? Well, at the Royal Papua Yacht Club, that person is Josephine! We were having a bit of trouble getting clearance to enter the country – our messages and calls to the authorities were going unanswered. Thankfully, we have Starlink! We called Josephine with Skype, and she managed to get in touch with someone and arrange for them to be standing by for our arrival today. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly, but I have a good feeling about it thanks to Josephine! Yesterday's sailing was great. The breeze was pretty steady, and we seemed to be making good time. I'm not entirely sure how accurate our tracker is (it's sitting inside the boat), but we seemed to be averaging around 8 knots. One thing that's surprised me is how little activity we've seen along the coast. Port Moresby has a population of almost half a million, but approaching the city, there's barely a light to...

Yesterday was a day of easy miles. We had a pretty consistent breeze that kept the boat speed up around 8+ knots. But then, around midnight, just as I came on watch, we got nailed by a huge squall! Thank goodness for a good radar! I saw the squall from several miles away and furled the headsail, bringing us up into the wind about 40 degrees hoping it would pass in front. But there was no missing it completely – luckily, we just caught the edge of it as it passed. I could tell what was going to happen as I got hit with an icy blast of wind and thought, "Hmmmmmm." As the wind started picking up to 25 knots, we dropped the mainsail, pulled out some headsail, and got back on track. We watched as the wind picked up to the mid to high 30s, and then we followed it around as it shifted from the north. It stayed gusty and rainy for a few hours. We finally got the mainsail back up at 4 am and are now back on track. The next leg of our journey takes us through the Torres Strait and in...

Well, I'm sure you can all guess what finally happened, judging by our course and speed! After some frustrating, slow, and far-too-hot days, the wind has returned. It's still easterly, but we've got around 15 knots over the deck, giving us a good, healthy push – even if it's not quite in the direction we'd prefer. Either way, it's good news! To the north of us is a long chain of islands and reefs called the Louisiade Archipelago. Somewhere in there, there must be a gap wide enough to fit two ships side-by-side because there's a veritable highway of traffic coming and going from the east coast of Australia (and probably New Zealand) heading to Korea, Japan, and maybe Hong Kong. They're all heading north or south, and we had to cross this busy shipping lane last night as we're making our way west. It's quite an experience having a cargo ship that could be over 600 feet long and 100 feet wide heading straight towards you at nighttime at 30kph! Typi...

Well, we're still out here, braving what little elements there are to brave! The conditions have been pretty consistent over the past few days, and I keep waiting for a change. Yesterday, was very exciting as the breeze shifted to the north and picking up a bit. "Sails up and away we go!" I thought. That plan went well for a while and of course, I immediately fell into my usual trap of calculating our speed, distance to our destination, and estimated arrival time. You know the drill: "If we're going X knots, that's XX nautical miles a day, and it's XXXnm to our destination, which means we'll be there in XX days!" But, wouldn't you know it, I had barely finished my mental calculations before the wind decided to play tricks on us again, shifting back to the east. This is a very slight exaggeration - I did have time to take a photo. So, to keep the apparent wind up, we had to start heading north, which, as you seasoned blog readers know, mean...