G'day Mates July 2011
Our regatta event starts from Darwin Australia. Capital of the Northern Territory, home to Aboriginal tribes, crocodiles, and tropical bugs! Often referred to as the Top End-it is situated on the North coast. Darwin is our departure point for the Indonesian Rally. This event is sponsored by the Indonesian government to promote tourism. It is welcomed by many yachties for its organization to get you, your boat and crew cleared through custom quarantine, and immigration. Not an easy feat in a country where graft is business as usual.
Day 1
Blaze and crew are ready for the 11am horn signaling the start of the rally. We have an eclectic crew with Aussies, Kiwis, )Yanks and a new addition from Cambodia. The wind is very light and we drift across the start line. It is warm and sunny. Now we just need some wind. We are anticipating 4-5 days of sailing. Hoping to average 6knots. The helm will be manned 24-7. Watches are 4 hours on- 8 hours off. These run 6-10pm, 10-2am, 2-6am etc. You have 2 shifts in a 24 hour period. Its nice to have enough people on board to run this schedule. During your hours off you catch up on sleep, eat, shower, read etc. After an hour the wind picks up and we join 10 boat leading the pack. Behind us Darwin and around 80 other boats all heading to Indonesia. By nightfall all we can see is a smattering of lights behind us. The fleet has thinned out after 8 hours. We set our course just off the rhumb line for a better point of sail.
DAY 2
Sun rises on our am watch. The sea is racing down the hull of the boat. Wind is out of the southeast. The main and spinnaker up and we sweep along at 7-8 knots. A 6 hour spinnaker run today. (Spinnaker is the brightly colored sail). Peter would love to keep the spinnaker up all night if he could. But the 'Admiral' (that would be me) does not allow it. Despite Swabbies' protest the spinnaker is down before sunset. A good day of fishing. Landed 3 Skipjacks. Dinner menu complete! Tonight's sunset is sureal. A giant ball of fire slowly dropping into the ocean. We all sit up top and watch the spectacle.
DAY 3
6AM. A brilliant sunrise chases the night away. We have a morning visit with dolphins dancing with the bow. A sight we always enjoy. Peter is already forward on the nets with spinnaker ready to go. He is like a little kid with a favorite toy. On Blaze we have the spinnaker in a long sausage shaped chute. You raise the sail with the halyard. When you pull the chute up the spinnaker bursts out and up with the wind. It is an awesome sight for any sailor. We have a very happy swabbie he spends the day trimming the "kite". An 8 hour spinnaker run with 2 jibes. Well done! Just before we drop her for the night we get a huge gust and the top quarter rips! The massive sail billows out looking to collapse in the water. We all scramble to pull the lower section out of the water and the rest back on board. Luckily our speed has dropped and we reclaim the sail.( Swabbie is very sad his toy is broken.) Time to put up the reacher (another type of sail). We continue on through the night at 7-8 knots. Wing on wing. We are making good time and loving the sail.
Day 4
7am enter the Timor Sea in Indonesian waters. 7:30 am Land Ho! The sillhouette of the mountains appear against the morning sky. Another hot day with wind steady out of the southeast. The tradewinds have been consistent and make sailing effortless. In the distance we spot three other reggatta boats. Our wind keeps building and by 10am our speed increases to 9-10 knots We are flying over the water. We roll up the reacher and still we are screaming along at 10 knots with just our main. We discuss reefing the main. (making it smaller) when we reach our next waypoint the wind slacks off. We decide not to reef. Our SOG(speed over ground) is still 8-9knots. We are getting a nice push with the tide. We sailed over 490 miles on a beam reach averaging 8knots. Warm breezes and sunshine during the days with star studded evenings. We arrive at Kupang, Timor in Indonesia at 2pm.
Salemant Jalan!
Captain Molly
and Swabbie Peter