Oxygen is all tied up in the marina in Sorong after the delivery from Fiji. This was certainly an unusual passage! We left Fiji expecting those gentle trade winds that usually sweep across the Pacific, but instead, we were greeted with 30+ knots and rain or nearly flat calm. The normal strong winds of the Coral Sea vanished, replaced by an eerie stillness, and even the typically turbulent Torres Strait was surprisingly calm. These delays, caused by both excessive and insufficient wind, meant we faced headwinds for the next 1000 nautical miles after leaving Thursday Island behind. We could have managed this IF (and it's a big IF) we hadn't encountered a vicious counter-current that seemed determined to push us backwards, sideways or both. As if things weren't complicated enough, we had a problem with the genset (remember, we have electric motors, so the genset is crucial!). AND THEN, just to add insult to injury, the support for the mainsheet track started giving us troubl...
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The last few days have been quite the adventure, in fact its been pretty hectic! We've been battling torrential rain and squalls, along with one of my biggest annoyances – unlit fishing boats at night. I'm not sure if it's a blessing or a curse that they're big enough to show up on radar. On the one hand, at least we can see them, but on the other hand, hitting one would definitely ruin our day, where as a small one would just bounce off. This is an island 1/3rd of a mile away.
It's starting to feel very equatorial – lots of gray skies, squalls, and that hot, sticky humidity. We've got about 80 nautical miles to go before we reach a channel between two islands by Irian Jaya Barat, the western end of PNG. The plan is to navigate through there in daylight, which will leave us just 35 nautical miles from the marina in Sorong. So we will slow down later to arrive at the channel at first light. Yesterday was a bit of a mixed bag, with some slow sailing and some slow motoring. It's funny how the wind could spring up from 360 different directions but always seems to come from every direction except the one we want when it finally decides to show up! We ended up doing a few tacks yesterday because it was constantly shifting around. We've seen a bit of shipping traffic and the usual assortment of fishing boats. We can always tell when a fishing boat is nearby without even looking because suddenly there are flies buzzing around the saloon. I guess eve...
Well, it's fantastic to be leaving Tual behind and setting our sights on Sorong ! The journey is slow but steady, with the wind hovering around zero knts so let's just say it's "calm" today. It is great to be heading in exactly the right direction but a shame to be motoring, especially since we're totally reliant on the generator to keep those electric motors humming. It's a bit nerve-wracking, to be honest, as we keep a close eye on that recent repair and hope it holds out for a while longer. The thousand or so nautical miles from Port Moresby to Tual were a real test of our patience and a bit of a grind – mostly battling wind and current. So, I'm incredibly happy to be moving in the right direction now, and I am ready to call 4knts a decent speed! It's truly disheartening to be pushed further and further away from your destination by a strong current, watching that VMG (Velocity Made Good) dwindle down. Right now, we're navigating around a g...
Well, this is going to be a brief update, but I don't even know where to start. We arrived in Tual on Christmas afternoon, and I wasn't really expecting anything to happen, but it was nice to be anchored. We were told we would be cleared in the next day. We spent all day waiting for the Quarantine guy to come "in a few hours," "shortly," "he will be there in a while," "he just has to finish something," "after he's had his lunch." He finally arrived on the 27th at 11 am, and I wasn't very happy. I am at a complete loss as to how to explain the level of complete frustration and almost overwhelming perplexity of what happened when he got to the boat. He sat in the cockpit watching videos on Facebook. I wish I could say I was exaggerating, but I looked over his shoulder. Has our addiction to cell phones become so great we are completely oblivious of our surroundings and think it's acceptable to behave like this? It'...
Merry Christmas everyone! Well, it's Christmas Day, and we're still out here pushing forwards. We can see a little sliver of land on the horizon right in front of us, which is exciting! We have to go around the bottom of a small island, then up a channel before turning right over the top of a larger island and into Tual. It's not looking very likely that we'll get there before dark, and heading into an unfamiliar Asian port at night is definitely not a good idea. So I'll need to come up with a Plan B for tonight. If you're looking at our track, you'll see there's been a big change in direction. This recent change is a lot more positive than the changes of the last 10 days, which have all been in mostly the wrong direction! And even if they were in the right direction, it was only just! This change is because the wind died off almost completely – as forecast – and we're now motoring in exactly the right way albeit slowly. Luckily it appears the...
Merry Christmas Eve everyone! We're 65 nautical miles in a straight line from where we anchored for the generator repair, but we've probably sailed at least double that zig-zagging into the wind and current and dodging fishing boats. On the way out of the anchorage and along the south end of the island, the wind was westerly and looking fantastic for the trip up to Tual. Unfortunately, as we got out to sea, it started to swing around to the northwest, so essentially blowing from exactly where we want to go. The generator has run for a few hours since the patch-up, but it's nerve-wracking! The life expectancy of the repair is unknown, and every beat of the engine puts pressure on it. With two electric motors for propulsion, the generator is essential for us. So if you're wondering why the blog isn't as upbeat as usual, that's why. And it's Christmas Eve, and we have at least 150 nautical miles to go in a straight line to the next place to try and get a be...