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note: We can’t upload any images while we are offshore, but will share the images from this leg with you when we arrive somewhere with wifi access.
Friday, December 1
At 6 am we spotted a little reef about 40 miles ahead of us. Looking closely there are three small islands in Ashmore reef and a marked channel in. As it is within Australian waters and we had cleared out of the country in Darwin, we asked Border Force for permission to stop, which was promptly granted.
We could see the reef from 20 miles away as the light reflecting up from it dyed the undersides of the clouds a light blue. We got buzzed by a new Border Force crew as we approached the reef and they called us up to go through all their questions again.
It took the rest of the day to reach the reef and we arrived just as the sun was setting.
Saturday, December 2
It was very nice to get a full night’s sleep. We woke up early to see a large blue and red Australian Border Force vessel entering the reef. They tied up to the mooring beside us and sent over a RIB (rigid inflatable boat). They were very friendly and asked us the normal questions about our trip, and finally offered to bring us some cans of soda later on.
About an hour later they came back with a garbage bag stuffed full of soda, coconut water, chocolate, avocados, bananas, and even fresh made cookies and muffins! It was very nice of them and not at all what you expect when you meet a border patrol in any country.
The passage into the island was very narrow and filled with coral heads, so we elected to make the three mile crossing in the dinghy.
Closer to the island there were two Indonesian fish boats, both built to the same style and constructed from hefty rough cut timbers with a high bluff bow and stern. Beside them was a lifeboat. Strangely no one seemed to be on board any of them, and even when Border Force came over to talk to them we didn’t see any sign of people.
West island is covered in low lying brush with a large sandy beach, but the most notable feature is the thousands of seabirds that fill the whole sky above it in a wheeling white mass. The beach is riddled with huge turtle tracks that look like someone rolled a 50 gallon drum up the beach. At the top, the sand is pitted into large holes, presumably where the turtles lay their eggs. Up in the brush, the seabirds were nesting and the whole island was filled with a cacophony of bird cries and the rich stench of excrement.
There is a well on the island but it was dry so we headed back to the boat, passing over the biggest rays we’ve seen along with numerous sea turtles. It turns out that it was a good thing the well was dry, as the Border Force officers told us later that the well usually had dead sea turtles in it and probably best not to drink the water.
It would have been nice to spend longer on the island, but we are very aware of the failing winds and increasing risk of cyclones so we cast off around 1 pm.
Our boat has started taking anti-theft measures in preparation for South Africa. The starter motor now requires a sharp tap with a hammer at the same time as the key is turned to start the engine.
Sunday, December 3
Last night our electric bilge pump failed and our prop shaft developed a decent dribble at the stuffing box. This meant we had to manually pump the water out every two to four hours, which is a decent workout in a 40 degree Celsius cabin!
The electric motor in the pump had overheated, welding the brushes to their plastic housing. Luckily we were able to take it apart and free up the brushes and get the pump running again. Now we just need to fix the leak!
During the age of the tall ships, it was considered a very bad omen to bring bananas on board. Mere hours after accepting a bunch of bananas from the Border Force officers, our engine starter stopped working, the stuffing box started leaking and then later that night our bilge pump ceased to work and our bilge flooded up to the cabin floor – coincidence?…
Monday, December 4
We patched up the stuffing box, so it no longer leaks. We ended up packing the stuffing box with our beard balm, a malleable wax, and wrapped it all in silicone pipe repair tape. Callum had to crawl over the engine to get at the stuffing box to do the repairs. It was sweltering hot in there and he was drenched in sweat when he finally wriggled back out into the cabin. A more thorough going over will have to wait till South Africa.
That evening we saw the brightest shooting star of the trip so far, streaking across the sky from south to north. The stars while at sea are like nothing we’ve experienced on land (with the possible exception of the desert of central Australia), often stretching in a great bowl from horizon to horizon with absolutely no light pollution. On very calm days they are reflected in the water as well, creating an impression of floating in space. We also see many shooting stars, sometimes 10 or more in a night, so it is significant that this one was noteworthy.
Tuesday, December 5
Overnight we passed the lights of numerous fishing boats, one less than a mile away. There was one we couldn’t figure out though. It was off near the horizon, about 20 miles out, away from any of the other boats, and all we could see was a very bright, strobing light, alternating between green, red and white. The fishing boats are so lit up that it’s impossible to make out their navigation lights, or the shape of the hull, which makes it very challenging to see what direction they are going in. Especially as most of them aren’t equipped with AIS.
The bilge pump is still working fine. The stuffing box modifications are still holding up but we haven’t tried motoring yet so hopefully it will be able to handle that.
There is a lot of garbage in the water around here. We are a little over 150 nautical miles from Bali, Indonesia. I wonder if that is where it is all coming from.
We should be about two weeks out from Cocos (Keeling) Islands if the winds hold. It is funny, because before we left British Columbia, two weeks would have been a long time at sea, but now it feels like we are really close. I wonder if that is how some sailors end up doing multiple circumnavigations of the globe? Â Time certainly does take on a different meaning out here.
Wednesday, December 6
Today we passed longitude 117°E. The farthest spot we will get from Halifax, NS, our planned first port of call back in Canada.
The shipping traffic has increased significantly, now largely container ships and oil tankers, most of them just shy of 1000 feet in length.
Thursday, December 7
The heat is relentless with no chance of shade. By noon the deck is hot enough to burn bare feet and unfortunately, it only mildly improved at night. As a result, our bunk has become so saturated with sweat that when you squeeze it sweat bubbles out around your hands. Not very pleasant to sleep on. Today we pulled all the cushions out on deck in the hopes some fresh air might do them good. It did succeed in drying them out, but if possible just made the smell worse. We may have to wash them with sea water. Even a salt encrusted mattress is probably better than a sweat encrusted one.
Unfortunately one of our two cups fell overboard, but luckily we were able to swing around, heave to, and Cianan jumped in and grabbed it. To retrieve him I tossed in our rescue collar, thinking it would be a good chance to test it, or rather tried to toss it. It turned out some previous owner had coiled and tied off the line! A good thing to find out now and not when it’s needed. Scrambling out of the water, Cianan somehow got a large chunk of shell stuck in his foot. I had to extract the shell with a pair of pliers, releasing a good gush of blood to dribble all over on the nice clean deck.
The stuffing box has started leaking again. It looks like the silicone tape was breaking down from being in contact with the beard balm. We managed to take the stuffing box out and packed it with some grease and that seems to have resolved the leak. It’s a bit exciting to pull off the stuffing box and pack it full of grease with water pouring in while way out at sea. Fortunately, it was a fairly fast operation and our bilge pump was able to keep up with the inflow of seawater.
Our engine will no longer start. We are pretty sure it all goes back to the bananas. When we turn the key the starter only clicks. but it won’t turn or start to turn. The batteries are reading 12.9v but are down to 19% charge. With the tack we have been on this last while our solar panel is always in the shade of the sail and there isn’t enough wind to run the turbine. It is a good thing we replaced all the batteries with AGM (absorbent glass matt) ones. I believe having such a low charge would do some damage to the old flooded cell batteries that we replaced. We had planned to run the motor for a bit to charge up our battery banks. We’ll check all the connections to the starter later today in the daylight. Without power we will lose our chart plotter, AIS, tracker and bilge pump. It would be fun to practice using our sextant, although I think we have had enough of hand pumping the bilge.
We got the starter working and the motor running this morning, which was good as we were down to 7% charge on the boat batteries. We took the leads off the batteries, cleaned them up, coated everything in silicone grease, and the motor started on the first try.
Saturday, December 9
We ate a last orange and our final few squishy and sprouting potatoes, marking the end of our fresh food. We are now on to canned food until we reach South Africa.
The wind built and swung around to the south which was a nice change from our close hauled course up until then. The solar panel is still in the shade of the sail but the wind turbine is running and the batteries are back to full charge.
Sunday,December 10
As we crossed the Sunda trench at 2 am on a moonless night, a glowing cloud floated above the horizon. One has to wonder, ancient aliens crash landed in the trench? Or maybe just the lights from a squid boat…
Monday, December 11
We are hitting 8 knots on the waves! At this rate we’ll be at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in 4-5 days! It is making for a rather damp watch.
After almost a week of silence, our radio crackled to life again. It was Christmas Island air patrol hailing another boat. We passed within less than 100 miles of Christmas Island but, to save time, we are carrying on to Cocos Keeling Islands, which is better positioned for restocking on water in preparation for the long leg to Richards Bay, South Africa.
Wednesday, December 13
The wind picked up considerably over the last few days and our noon to noon distance went from 50 miles, to 105 miles, to 130 miles. We definitely had too much sail up, cruising along at 6-8kts under Genoa and full main, but we were enjoying the speed too much to shorten the sail, although this made for a very wet ride. Every half hour or so a wave would sweep over the deck, drenching the unlucky occupant of the cockpit who happened to be on watch. While this was exhilarating during the day, it quickly got old (and cold) during the night watches. I think that is some sort of torture practice but one we sailors voluntarily throw ourselves into…
Thursday, December 14
In the morning the wind began to die again, and as the sun came up, we saw that the blow from the night before had left the boat coated in a fine red-brown dust that must have been carried the 800 nautical miles from Australia in the south easterly wind.
We have three very large blue fish swimming along with us. I think they might be tuna but I can’t be sure. They are about four feet long and have been with us for the past few hours.
Despite the lighter breeze we were still doing a respectable, and much dryer, 4-5 kts. The waves also calmed considerably, farther apart, increasing our comfort.
As darkness settled, we were swarmed by large seabirds, about the size of a small goose with a long blue beak, white body and red feet. I was forced to turn the wind turbine off as they seemed determined to land on it. Soon I heard a loud crash as one crashed into the Genoa in its attempt to land on the pulpit. Luckily it seemed unharmed. All was quiet for another half hour before I was suddenly aroused from my thoughts by a furious flapping above my head, followed by a great splash as one of the birds descended between the backstay and leech of the mainsail, missed the lifeline and crashed into the water. Not put off in the least by this initial failure, it was soon back for another attempt. This time it contrived to crash into the lifeline and get itself thoroughly tangled there. With some difficulty I managed to extricate the bird, who gave me a most ungrateful look, before flying off, never to be seen again.
By midnight the wind had died further and the sails began to slap in the swell.
We are now about 250 nautical miles out from Cocos Keeling Island. All going well we should be there within a couple of days. We aren’t sure exactly what facilities are available there but hopefully we will have access to Wifi and be able to post photos of the past few weeks. We contacted the island in Darwin to find out about resupplying on water but never heard anything definitive back so hopefully that will all work out.