Our current position is 11 48 S, 128 36 E. We are underway from Darwin to Kupang. We left Darwin at 1300 on Sunday, 26 hours behind the fleet, having fixed some final bits and pieces, watched the rugby and got some sleep. As expected the wind was light and we motored most of the way out of Beagle Gulf.
Finally at 1600 hours we thought we had some wind, so we put the main and genoa up and the wind, on queue, eased again. We persisted with the sails up, finally getting enough breeze to push us along at 6.5 knots for an hour or so. Then the wind vanished completely so we sat doing 1.7 knots in 0.0 breeze, the 1.7 knots
presumably due to tide. After a lesiurely dinner we put the engine back on at 2000 hours and have been motoring ever since - it is now 1000 on Monday 28 July (Australia Central Standard Time ie 9.5 hours ahead of UTC). During the night we passed 2 other yachts in the fleet who had also left on Sunday and we have made up some time on the fleet stragglers who are motoring more slowly than our average of 7 knots.
There was a spectacular sunset last night, the sun setting scarlet red with a girdle of cloud. Then the sliver of moon rose also red. A flying fish did a death leap onto the deck right next to Barbara so it was his lucky night as he got scooped back to sea. Now to the funniest silliest thing....we recently purchased a neat little portable Waeco 12volt cooler that we use for food we require throughout the day so we are not opening up our main fridge and freezer everytime we want milk, butter or fruit. Well, we accordingly loaded it the day before leaving Darwin with fresh oranges and apples but when we opened yesterday for an orange the fruit was mostly spoiled because the thing had inadvertantly been switched to the food warmer zone. The apples were cooked and the oranges were very ripe!!!
P&B
Finally at 1600 hours we thought we had some wind, so we put the main and genoa up and the wind, on queue, eased again. We persisted with the sails up, finally getting enough breeze to push us along at 6.5 knots for an hour or so. Then the wind vanished completely so we sat doing 1.7 knots in 0.0 breeze, the 1.7 knots
presumably due to tide. After a lesiurely dinner we put the engine back on at 2000 hours and have been motoring ever since - it is now 1000 on Monday 28 July (Australia Central Standard Time ie 9.5 hours ahead of UTC). During the night we passed 2 other yachts in the fleet who had also left on Sunday and we have made up some time on the fleet stragglers who are motoring more slowly than our average of 7 knots.
There was a spectacular sunset last night, the sun setting scarlet red with a girdle of cloud. Then the sliver of moon rose also red. A flying fish did a death leap onto the deck right next to Barbara so it was his lucky night as he got scooped back to sea. Now to the funniest silliest thing....we recently purchased a neat little portable Waeco 12volt cooler that we use for food we require throughout the day so we are not opening up our main fridge and freezer everytime we want milk, butter or fruit. Well, we accordingly loaded it the day before leaving Darwin with fresh oranges and apples but when we opened yesterday for an orange the fruit was mostly spoiled because the thing had inadvertantly been switched to the food warmer zone. The apples were cooked and the oranges were very ripe!!!
P&B
