Lat: 10 51.495′ S
Long: 132 40.233′ E

We’re beginning our 6th consecutive day at sea, and as cruisers often say on the SSB radio nets when checking in, "all is well on board". The last two days consisted of very comfortable, downwind spinnaker sailing. This was a welcome relief after a couple of days of uncomfortable beam seas that, combined with a bit of exhaustion from getting used to long night watches, had me occasionally wanting to stop the boat and get off (obviously not an option). The wind eased up as well, so we slowed down but didn’t mind. However, it has now slowed to a virtual halt, and I’m surprised we’re still able to sail (now with the main and jib). We’re only 150 miles out of Darwin, but it may take two days to get there at this rate. Dallas worked out that it would cost about $100 in diesel to motor there, so as long as we can sail, we will. In the meantime, we are in the process of drawing some firm conclusions about the meaning of life and such. (I’ll let Dallas fill you in on those details….ha ha.)

One of several beautiful sunsets on this passage

It’s pretty unusual for anything too exciting to occur out here (hence the saying: sailing is 99% boredom, 1% sheer terror), but lately it has seemed that when it does, we are caught with our pants down, so to speak. The first incident of this on this passage was on Sunday when we had so much power in the house bank that Dallas thought we might as well flip on the fridge and make some ice. This sounded great to me, and by sunset, we had sufficient ice cubes for a cold drink. What better iced drink to have in calm seas than a cocktail, right? (believe it or not, also the skipper’s idea) Well, the first one was so good that Dallas decided to have another (I was on watch, he was headed to bed soon), and as he sipped on it, I went to check our course and discovered that according to the AIS, we were due to smack head-on into a ship! Of course we had 20 minutes before this was to occur — plenty of time to hail the ship (a tug towing a 600′ barge) on the radio and determine who would change course, but this is the first time that we have ever had to do this, so it was ironic that it occurred when we were the least alert.

Ice is picture-worthy for us

The second incident happened yesterday. In the lighter winds, I decided to take the opportunity to have a bath in the deep blue sea. We were going 4 knots, which was just about perfect in terms of being able to hold on to the swim ladder without any trouble but still get a bit of a thrill. Anyway, no sooner had I come out of the water when a Customs plane approached for its daily fly-by! If they can read the hailing port from the stern of the boat, I’m sure they can….anyway, I quickly found my towel and headed for cover.

Check out the wake running behind

The only other highlight of recent days to speak of (besides the dolphins that Dallas talked about) was that Dallas made his first loaf of bread yesterday — black olive and onion loaf. It turned out very, very well.

Hopefully our next post will be from Darwin…