Day 79, Year 3: Passage to Indonesia, Day Two
Date: Sunday, July 27, 2008
Weather: Not a Cloud in the Sky; Winds SE 5-8
Location: Passage from Darwin, Australia to Kupang, W Timor, Indonesia
Latitude: 11 degrees 43.481 minutes S
Longitude: 128 degrees 22.485 minutes E
Miles to Go: 318
It was another good day, but we still have little wind. Those that are extremely patient are sailing along at two to three knots, but we are using the motor to assist and are traveling at an average of five knots. We have current with us for six hours and then against us for the next six hours, and that pattern just keeps cycling. So we go a little faster with the current and a little slower when it is against us. But the seas are calm so it is at least a delightful motor sail. We are spending
every spare moment studying the information we have been given about Indonesia. I must say that it is a little disconcerting not to have specific information from the rally about what events they are sponsoring and where and when. Supposedly we will find this out in Kupang, but it is difficult to plan ahead without the specifics. The gentleman who has the information was supposed to fly to Darwin for our information meeting, but he didn’t make it. He is our only source of information, so we all
sure hope he exists and will meet us in Kupang. We have heard by way of the grapevine that he is trying to establish his own rally through Indonesia and is not as willing to cooperate with the current coordinators. But we are assured that this year he will be there to help us.
We got an email from Sam this morning. We wrote back with our “interpretation” which was that he really wants to come visit us in Southeast Asia. We are actually working on making that happen. If it does, it would be very exciting. There are three other boats in the rally that have children in the eighteen to twenty-four month range. And although I would love to have Sam come visit, I must say I truly admire the parents who travel with these little ones month after month, year after year. One
boat in the rally has an eight-month old on board. On many mornings in Darwin when we went to shore, the mother of this little one would be bringing the baby to shore in the dinghy and handing her off to one of us to hold while she went back to anchor her dinghy and swim in to shore. We opted to buy dinghy wheels in Darwin to avoid this anchoring out, but I surely did admire this mother. Then there is a catamaran named Ten with three children on board-an eight-month old little girl plus another
girl that is five and a boy that is eleven. Now that would be a challenge.
