Numberala beach - Roti Island, Indonesia

So we moved on to a nice anchorage on the island of Roti a couple of days ago - a village called Numberala, which is apparently known for its surfing.  Big breaking waves to either side of our anchoring spot.  Tamsyn is missing her new friend Cleo from an Australian boat called Capricorn Dancer.  They should be meeting us here soon.

As we left Kupang, we left seven other boats, friends who all have more serious repairs that are still underway.  Two blown engines, electrical problems, rig problems, and so on.  A high percentage of Sail Komodo boats had repairs to undertake in Kupang; which is interesting since most of them are only 4 days out from Darwin when they arrive.  It only keeps happening the longer you're out from home.  We just felt glad to get our stuff fixed and get out of there.

All is well.  Moving west in a few days.  The wind is back! 

Owen

Indonesia scenes - Kupang Photo Post

So... we're still here.

Ready to leave soon (as soon as we sort out our outboard motor - it never ends).   When we first got to Kupang we were not impressed, as it took forever for officials to clear us in, and we had to get a local agent to help, but once we spent time in the town we got to like it.

While we've been here we dug into our steering problems again, and think they're sorted now.  Time will tell for sure.  Our local mechanical genius Matthew resurrected our windlass too. Need work in Kupang, he's the man.

Provisions are on board as is water and fuel, so we should be good to go but the wind is supposed to completely die for a few days.  I'm also finishing up a contract, so I guess we have to be somewhere with internet.  We certainly could use the silver.

Here are some images from our time here.  Street life, a couple of outings and some friends.

Griffyn in the Torres Strait; that's Australia back there!

Caving

Popular picnic site

Everything is better with monkeys!

This one stole Carrie's orange

This gentleman helped us with provisions and the Indonesian language

Making our lunch

Mother and daughter

Market scene

More of the market

The view from Madrona at anchor.

That's all for now.  Hope you like the pictures.  We miss all our friends and family; hope you guys are well.

Owen

Madrona safely at anchor at Kupang, Indonesia

Just touching base. We got into Kupong this afternoon after a long haul to get here. The town lies perched, a haphazard jumble, on top of frozen waves of dark basalt. Mr. Christian's castaways are no where in evidence. Most definitely an Asian feel to the place. The call to prayer is loud and embracing.

Only one other cruiser here - a boat from Finland named Melina. Hopefully Customs and the lot will come tomorrow, as the larder is getting kind of bare. Could stock up as deeply as we like, and now we are dreaming of food in all its glorious possibilities.

Owen

10 09.492 S

123 34.570 E

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Madrona becalmed 40 miles off Timor

Hello from the old Mill Pond here off the island of Timor.

Well, from having too much wind for much of the trip, for the last couple of days we have had virtually no wind. Average wind speeds have been in the 4 to 5 knot range, and surprisingly with a mirror flat sea, we are able to make very slow progress in such light winds.

Apparently there is a high pressure system over Western Australia that has killed our local trade winds, but they should reestablish themselves in a couple days, by which time we hope to be fairly close to the south end of Timor, where we will turn into a channel between Timor and it's neighbor to the west and sail another 18 miles to Kupang - our landfall.

When it is so calm that you cannot even really sail (much) what do we do? Well, we sleep good at night as it's so calm. We do school a bit, and bathe in the cockpit. Today Carrie and Tamsyn baked bread. The other day we celebrated Griffyn's birthday! He loved his presents (and chocolate cake), and all of us have played many games of Battleship, and helped G make many mechanical contraptions with his Erector Set/Mechanix. Carrie also sewed an Indonesian flag with her new Singer hand cranked sewing machine (Thanks James!) She loved the experience and it took her only 20 minutes from opening the box to actually sewing - a novel experience considering the old Singer electric we had on board needed constant repair and adjustment.

We are enjoying these quiet days, and watched the most gorgeous sunset last night.

Owen, Carrie, Griffyn & Tamsyn

10 25.695 S
125 00.781 E
285 degrees true
2.0 knots

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Madrona north of Western Australia -

Hi,

It still very rough and wild out here. Huge rolls. It got so wild last night that some of our batteries broke loose and we lost all electrical power for about fifteen minutes until I could figure out what had happened. The power went down right when we were reducing sail in 30+ knot winds, and we both got this horrible sinking feeling. Sure was dark out here in the ocean with heavy clouds, rain, and the knowledge that you've got a wee problem to sort out. Anyway... re secured the batteries in question, and were back in business in literally fifteen minutes. Made us realize how truly dependant on power we are.

Wind is fickle today. 30 knots one hour, 12 knots the next. Seas uniformly big. Plugging away at something like 4 knots (our slowest day so far).

For the last two days we get a daily flyby by low flying Australian boarder patrol aircraft. Literally at mast top level. Wakes you up! That's their way of saying, "turn on your VHF radio." They are very nice, asking for ship's details and route, etc... We enjoy their visits. We also had a big bird ( a Booby) stow away on deck all night to get out of the sloppy weather. Tamsyn and Griffyn were delighted.

Tomorrow Griffyn turns eight years old! We have yet to decide if presents will be opened on passage or not. (He's getting Battleship and an Erector Set).

That's it from her. I need to pull down some weather info - see if there is an end in sight to this bad weather.

Everyone says hi.

Owen

9 49.975 S
132 23.801 E
270 degrees true
4.0 knots (or there abouts)

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Seas still big, working our way west across the Arafura Sea

It's a little known fact that Arafura means "beautiful jade colored water that kicks your ass.
The wind never lets up that we've noticed, and since the water is only 130 feet deep here... well it kicks up a bit. About 5.5 meters this morning. A bit less now. Argh.

A couple of nights ago we were struggling on in heavy winds. 30 - 35 knots for 24 hours and 16 foot seas. We passed 20 ships last night. One close encounter. Mostly they were Asian fishing fleets. No sleep for Carrie or I, five minute lookout schedule. Yesterday we angled northwest to stay in Oz economic zone so no Asian fishing fleets. No rest for the weary.

We miss judged how much quick food to provision. By quick I mean crackers, instant anything, and simple canned meals. This is partly because money is as always tight, but also that Port Moresby is very expensive. Triple what you would pay back home. Must have something to to with the 20 billion dollars for Liquid Natural Gas development in the last two years. Our shortage is also, in part, due to the great hospitality we experienced from James Baker (his youngest is the rapper Machine Gun Kelly - go figure. James is very proud of him). Anyway... as a cumulative oversight we are now out of crackers and almost everything else easy to make. Thing is it is still too rough to barely cook. So...Argh. Again.

James was really great. He took Carrie and the kids into his home and wined and dined us. I stayed on the boat because of the heavy winds in the area (notice a pattern?). James also was our guardian angel in Port Moresby, driving us around town - it's not safe to walk anywhere. Four Chinese nationals were decapitated while we were there. Port Moresby is a bit like Beruit in the 1980's. Kidnappings and murder are rife. Unless traveling with James and his bodyguards Tamsyn and Griffyn never left the yacht club. Within the last year a young white girl was abducted and murdered 100 meters from the yacht club. I made many solo trips into town to deal with clearance and Indonesian visas.

Brian Hull was also generous with his time and assistance, letting us participate in his ritual TV nights with close friends, and driving us around on a couple errands.

So thanks guys. You were great.

So we're headed west.
Oh, and Happy Birthday Mom!

Owen and Carrie

9 57.425 S
137 20.555 E
272 degrees true
4.5 knots

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Madrona has exited the Torres Strait and entered the Araufura Sea

Just a quick note.

Madrona has completed the passage through the Torres Strait. The last 36 hours were among the most tense we've ever had on this voyage, and all on board are thrilled to be past that leg of the journey.

So since the Solomon Islands we have sailed the Coral Sea, to the Gulf of Papua New Guinea, and then through the Torres Strait, and now into the Arafua Sea, and ultimately into the Timor Sea, where we will touch at Kupang, our first stop in Indonesia, roughly 11 days from now.

The Captain and the first mate need a couple days of rest before we become school teachers once more.

Owen & Carrie

10 33.289 S
142 06.451 E

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