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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Made our turn! 4 hours until Prince of Wales Channel

Ma and Pa Kettle here,

We made our turn, and are now sailing on the beam. Ride much better. Last night was like trying to grope ones way along a knife edge ridge when holding only a candle against the complete darkness, while at he same time the ridge is the travel path of very large elephants who may, or may not, deign to step on you. Oh, did I mention the high winds threatening to topple you into the chasm? Suffice to say we were very very tense.

Four hours to the entrance of the Prince of Wales Channel and the remaining twenty miles of the Torres Strait. In this upcoming stretch we were warned yesterday of 9 knot currents. Such currents could easily sweep one into a rock or island, so we must have steerage from either sails or engine; or both.

So in about 3 hours I will check he engine fluid levels, and we'll get ready for the next part of the big show.

Kids up eating wheatbix - Carrie and I too.

Owen

10 20.449 S
142 45.942 E
5.3 knots, 245 degrees true

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Passed Trancred Pass - Holding our course in 30 knots wind and strong current

Hi again,

So we've managed to get back on our line and have held it for many hours, and were able to pass Tancred Pass (our escape hatch from this route) and are proceeding SW, and expect to make our turn into favorable sailing winds in about 20 miles (or 8:30 am local time).

As I write it's 3:57 am local time (17:57 utc)and about half an hour ago we passes the U.S. naval support ship Wally Schirra. They even saw us on radar :-)

So that's the story here. My package of Oreo cookies is finished (aargh) and Carrie is off watch snoozing, and the kids are sleeping fitfully, as you might expect with engine noise and radio chatter.

Owen

10 01.896 S
143 03.103 E

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Great Northeast Channel - very tough going - currents, wind & swell

Hi,

So Madrona is getting a bit of a tough go coming down the Great Northeast Channel. This passage is seriously not for the faint of heart. We sailed fine until we had to turn SW. Then it was fine until the wind came up to 25 knots out of the SE. The westerly moving current, combined with swell and wind made it so we couldn't make out course, and have had to motor for many hours now.

The currents are fierce and the seas are rough. For a while it looked like we were being swept inexorably towards Warrior Reefs.

As it stands right now we still might not make our course (angle of 206 degrees true, so we have developed a back-door alternate plan where we would escape this narrowing channel through Tancred Pass (10 01.183 S, 142 57.595 E), where we would then pass into the waters west of Sassie Island and then proceed SW until we meet up with the main shipping route down by Beresford Shoal. If we do take the alternate route it wouldn't be for something like 7 hours from now as we are moving very slow against tide and current and wind.

Of course we much prefer to make our course. We will let you know what happens.

We also had to replace the starboard sheet (line to the headsail) today because of a very strange fluky thing. The line got caught in the workings of a "block" (a nautical pulley. Anyway the line was shredded. we just happened to look over and saw it caught in the block's workings. So we had to replace that line with some mountaineering maneuvers.

Owen & Carrie & kids
at 13:05 UTC July 6th
9 45.095 S
143 11.921 E

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Entered Torres Strait

Hi,

We've entered the Torres Strait about a half hour behind our predicted time. We will turn SW in three miles. Weather is unsettled with rain on and off. Passed, or been passed by, three vessels overnight. The last one was the 500 meter M/V Helene Rickmers - an enormous green container ship. Her Captain agreed to pass the word to oncoming vessels that we are n the straits heading west.

Family is waking up. It's nine in the morning local time and folks are hungry.

So far so good.

9 14.961 S
143 52.973 E

Owen

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Eight hours from Bramble Cay - Torres Strait entrance

Just a quick update.

We are about 8 hours from the Bligh Entrance to the Torres Straits. We should be there around sunrise as planned. Winds light. Just passed a ship that just came through and he advised us of 9 knot westerly currents at Hammond Rock. Wow.

9 9.940 S
144 39.313 E

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Out of PNG... and headed for the Torres Strait

Hi,

We've been extremely busy in Port Moresby the last week. We anchored in the marina "pond" of the Royal Papuan Yacht Club - a place that has been described as "the last bastion of white elitism" in Papua New Guinea. That about sums it up, but the folks there were very good to us, and saw to our needs, and we are grateful.

We made some friends there, Brian Hull a 50 year PNG resident, and James Baker an American working at the Bank of Papua New Guinea. We also had a nice dinner with Walter North, an RPCV like myself and U.S. Ambassador to PNG, The Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Water is a friend of my friend Nancy (Hi Nancy), and we had a great time visiting.

We Had a false start out from Moresby on Wednesday - Customs came three hours late to clear us out, and by the time we did the paperwork, and brought up the anchor (the sow way), the wind was howling. It was blowing 25 - 29 knots in the bay, and after three hours of trying to get out to the entrance we turned around and took a slip for the night and left again yesterday at 7:00 am when the winds had calmed down again.

So now we are headed for the entrance to the Torres Strait. Wind was steady and brisk yesterday but calmed down during the night. Right now we are make 4 knots due west which is fine, as we want to do as much of the Torres in daylight as possible. Have only seen one ship so far but that will increase no doubt, as the strait is one of the busy shipping places on our little globe.

Wind is out of the SE and steady in direction is not speed. Once we enter the straits we will turn SW and our wind angle for sailing should be around 70 degrees - knock on wood. We'll try not to hit anything and make some sailmail posting of our progress, as power will not be a problem; I will have to charge batteries with all the radar and computer usage we will need to have as we pass through the waters ahead.

Had some heavy rain this morning. Kids squirrelly. Carrie making pancakes.

9 11.953 S
145 19.687 E

Owen

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