Our seventh sea -the Timor Sea .

              

As the clearance procedure had taken us from 0800-1330, we decided that we would in fact  sail at sunrise the next day, as there were still things to do on board before we could finally depart, including  a final run ashore, for dinner and  some bread and some  anti scurvy greens to balance  those bacon and egg  butties we would be living on, in an attempt to arrive with hopefully nothing for Quarantine to take.

K'Gari off Kupang.Taken during our last Indonesian meal .
Another busy anchorage!

Everything was as they say, shipshape and we heaved up and were on our way to Australia by 0730.
Initially this was motoring for a couple of hours to the SW corner of Timor, during which time lure number 3 or is it 4, was lost. I must get some proper instruction on how to actually attach these things.I'm beginning to think on the lure loss front, it might be operator error.In fact it may be the traces I'm using- perhaps they are the weak point. Anyway I hope that it doesn't prematurely cause the demise of which ever pelagic  predator now has it as a body piercing decoration. It would be pointless to die for no reason, when whatever it was could have died in a good cause!

Once we rounded the SW cape of Timor, the breeze started to build and we were on our way, under sail alone. Course set at 103 degrees for Darwin heading into a  SE (135deg)-ESEly (112deg) wind.
Not exactly flying as it turns out,as we were attempting to sail impossibly close to the wind, 114nm the first day (24hrs), 106nm the next, getting worse as 103nm clocked up for the third day, but still going roughly in the right direction.

Kupang to Darwin

In the early hours of the third morning we crossed the magical line into Australian territorial waters.
I realised during the night that we had a minor issue. We had resorted to motoring during the night as the wind was so light and just for something completely unexpected, on the nose-again! So we had dropped the main and I had put a snotter -(device , usually rope,or, as quick fix, a bungy cord, to hold the halyard off the mast to stop it slapping. The quick fix snotter - (note to self, it's never really a quick fix- there is usually a price to pay for a speedy remedy) had detached itself from the main halyard. When I saw what had happened, with one of my random torch light inspections of the rigging in the dark, I tried to free it, but decided that waiting for daylight would be easier.
The reason it was mysteriously quiet, was that the halyard had somehow managed to flick itself forward around the mast and had entangled itself around the mast steaming light- something you couldn't do yourself ,for a bucket load of money!
A couple of fruitless attempts to un-entangle it in the dawn light also failed, so the easiest solution I could see , was to go aloft and free it.

Naturally a small debate about the sanity of this idea took place , much as it had about my midnight dip in the Java Sea.

I rigged up the bosun's chair, we altered course so that we were running with the swell, to give the most stable platform possible , and I ascended the mast. I was actually using the mast foot pegs, to climb the mast.These are positioned from deck level to the cross trees,  alternating on opposite sides of the mast. The bosun's chair in which I was "sitting" ( its a sort of soft seat which has a nappy like way of enclosing the user into it- culminating in three points meeting,one from each side and the third from between the wearers legs,at the point of attachment) , was attached to the spinnaker halyard, and Peter was taking up the slack in the halyard as I ascended. It took seconds to clear the mainsail halyard once I was up there.As usual, forgot the camera to get a sunrise shot from aloft , which would have been a change, from the other gazillion sunrise shots  already taken. I did a check around of the obvious things whilst up there and then descended back to the deck- a place I feel much more comfortable on , believe me. We resumed course.

At 0954hrs, it was welcome to Australia, as Border Force Patrol 55,did a low level surveillance pass . They then contacted us by VHF ,  asked how many on board,any animals, were we both well-in a medical sense ,not in an "at peace with the world/nature sense" ,confirmed the previously sent information about our arrival and updated our approx ETA into Darwin, which was still in roughly 40 hours time.

Eventually the breeze came away, lightly  from the ENE 070 degrees, which still wasn't that helpful, especially on top of the perpetual current which was now setting to the SW. We were carrying 30 degrees leeway at this point.

Check the sail set-pathetic.The bedsheet is setting better -
probably because its lighter and our forward propulsion was enough for it,
 but not the sails.(Note the footpeg steps on the mast)

The following day was fairly windless- completely in fact, but we did  witness the most stunning ballet from a school of dolphins which came  to entertain us as the washing dried.

Marine life has been fairly rare, to be honest throughout this adventure, so a school of dolphins playing in the bow wave was great to watch.

The booby bird that didn't keep "the pact"

Not so great, was the booby bird who decided that K'Gari was going to make the perfect roost for the night. Thus ensued a game of , let's move the booby bird along, until it became too dark for me to keep bothering to move it on each time it settled. In the end I thought we (booby bird and myself) had agreed that it could stay, but only on the condition of no pooing . Thus we left it alone on the foredeck. Not long after the truce, a second one appeared and decided that the safety line above the galley hatch was a suitable place to rest for the night- as if! After about 30mins of unbalancing ,flapping , repositioning and so on , it obviously dawned that the deck was more stable and so it settled for the night on the deck.
Daylight revealed that in fact, the pact between myself and BB1 was a farce- bird poop all over the starboard side trampoline and various bits of the foredeck. Luckily for it , it had flown the 'poop' just before dawn.Unluckily for BB2, who had, I admit, not pooed anywhere in the 8 hours it had travelled with us, and who was still happily slumbering on the deck by the galley hatch- until I shooed it on its way, before attacking the foredeck with a broom and the washdown hose.

When the wind had finally kicked in during the evening , K'Gari then,of course, became progressively unstoppable as the night progressed.

We arrived at the Darwin Port Limits at 0400, passing through the empty anchorages, which is such an uncommon sight off ports like Mackay and Gladstone, it seemed strange to see.

We had crossed our seventh sea. This crossing was 535 nm in 119.5hrs,which is only an average of 4.5kts, but its quicker than swimming and we used engines on and off for 66% of the voyage.

To date we have sailed  in, in order : the South China Sea ,  Andaman Sea, Java Sea, Bali Sea,  Flores Sea, Savu Sea and now the Timor Sea. There are of course many, many more to do.


Dolphins at play
       

https://youtu.be/HGxj7JUeVTs

 The freeloader

https://youtu.be/mXsGp-qmSAU