Indonesia

What an amazingly bustling, hectic place full of friendly people. It was in Kupang that we cleared in through customs and obtained our cruising permits allowing us to tour the islands. In kupang there was also the Oyster party which featured most of the top figures in the city to greet us all along with some excellent local food and drink for the evening. Unfortunately I had two mishaps that evening. One at the start when I drove our tender through a mooring line for a small local fishing boat which cut it and the boat drifted off slowly, in my defence the line was about 100 ft long and under water, luckily the boat was recovered quickly. The second was when I got back to Proteus a bit later than Tosh and Bry, walked into the corner of the cockpit table and fell on my right knee twisting it badly. This would put me in a lot of pain and nearly out of action for a week or two. It still isn't fully recovered now three weeks later. Arranged by our top Oyster representative, Debbie was a trip up to the local orphanage. Along with this were many toys to play with including pen and paper. These kids didn't have anything and the boys even had to sleep on the floor! So off to the bed shop on the way to buy mattresses for them to sleep on. It was even apparent that the staff hadn't been paid for months so a donation was made to help them too. There is a bit of corruption in Indonesia and it seems bizarre how the police can afford a new shiny helicopter in comparison!

After Kupang we made our way up and round the North of the islands which is by far the most picturesque route full of beautiful bays, beaches and reefs. This took us round to Rinca in the Komodo reserve, home to many thousands of Komodo dragons. We took a tour along with others from Amelie, Spent, Sulana, Wolfhound, Purusha and Serendipity. This took us a long way round the reserve where we found Water Buffalo and the Komodo dragon. One buffalo was having a bad week and had been bitten by a dragon and was in the long process of slowly dying.

Next along was a trip to Gilli Air, a party island and fun place.  Once more there were a few Oyster yachts here and we had a big dinner ashore and a snorkel in the afternoon to cool off before up early to leave for Bali.

The sail to Bali was brilliant with good breeze, an interesting crossing across one of the busiest shipping straights in the world (not very daunting for anyone who has been across the English Channel on a busy day) and the sight of hundreds of the local, outrigger fishing boats going the opposite direction to us

Now tied up in Bali International Marina. This isn't as glamorous as it may sound and I may have had too higher expectations for the marina after hearing its name but the staff were very friendly and helpful and the bar was good. Bali is by far the most manic place I have ever visited, even more so than Kupang. The absolute highlight being a few of us jumping on new 250cc Kawasaki dirt bikes and heading inland up the mountains. This turned out to be an incredible way to see the island although Tosh and myself with very similar riding experience (neither of us can actually remember the last time we rode a motorbike) really did over sell ourselves to the tour guide and told them that we had ridden thousands of times and it as all good. So we set off and after a few metres were on the beach riding at high speed on the sand and over technical rocky outcrops. At this point it was running through my mind that I was massively inexperienced for this and there was almost certainly a massive crash going to happen imminently. As soon as I had excepted the inevitable I felt a lot easier and just got on with it. The tour took us through rice paddies, dirt tracks, hill sides, public roads and into the centre of Bali about 1000m up. The guides were excellent and encouraged a bit of rowdy behaviour so there was plenty of over and even undertaking, wheel spinning, donuts and wheelies plus a couple of crashes thrown in for good measure

This was some of the most fun I have ever had!

Another trip into Bali and to Kuta where the Bali bombings took place a few years ago. There was no everdince of any blast I could see, just a huge contrast from the inner of the island which was green and luscious to streets of knock off shops and bars and restaurants here, all pleasantly there to the soundtrack of a big ocean swell lapping up the steep beach.

9 October, my birthday. After much trying to persuade Tosh not to leave, I was at sea for the first time on my birthday. This was not the best fun I've had and I've decided to miss it out and do it again somewhere else. 

Mainly uneventful

On the crossing from Darwin to Kupang, Indonesia. There wasn't much to report, the winds were very light and on the nose for most of the way. This is when it's a good time to have a big six cylinder diesel in your boat. Progress was slow going in the aid of saving fuel but we did have a small visitor who stayed for the day

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The remainder of the journey was much of the same UNTIL KUPANG. If anyone was to ask me if it was advisable to arrive at night I'd have to say no, it's not a good idea... We did. The amount of unlit fishing buoys, nets, platforms and boats is incredible! At least the boats are all single cylinder diesels with no silencers so you can hear them coming. The main source of nav light is a strobing white, red, blue light if they have any at all. WELCOME TO INDONESIA

The bank balance

Sometimes living the life on a yacht is very good for saving money and living frugally. Australia is not the place for this kind of existence! Recently we have spent most of our time on land than sailing which has been great fun at times. This leads me to our time in Darwin, someone told me is the tenth most expensive city in the world to live in. Before leaving the sort of civilisation that Australia offers which is very similar in many ways to home, a few of us decided to have a lot of fun in between working on Proteus. This included watching the Australian Super Bike Series, go karts on an outdoor circuit which have been the best so far, Ed from Crazy Daisy's birthday night out and a couple of nights in Litchfield National Park camping. This was the best bit for me with twelve of us in three 4x4s barbecues, dust track driving, water crossings, getting filthy dirty, swimming under waterfalls, seeing some wildlife and having a few drinks. See here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzJ2_u4WkjA&feature=em-upload_owner. Tipperary marina was also an interesting place to get in and out of with no room for fenders either side going through the lock gates and literally a foot in front and behind once the gates were closed. I'm glad we did it all, now the only area of Australia I haven't visited is the east coast, maybe another year

Cairns to Darwin passage

From leaving Cairns, Queensland to Darwin, Northern Territory it has been a varied trip and as I type this about 50 nautical miles out from Darwin we are sat in 2 knots of wind, flat seas, amazing sunshine without a cloud in the sky but it hasn't always been like this. Initially for the first couple of days out of Cairns it was very lumpy, cold and windy, a complete contrast to now. For the first few hundred miles coming up the coast from Cairns pilotage is good fun and keeps you on your toes as it is necessary to weave through channels in the reef some of which are shared with cargo ships and fishing boats which at times can get quite skinny with breaking waves over a reef a few metres out to one side and a 290 metre ship to the other. Further up the coast towards the most northern point of Australia the earth starts to change into a more deep red colour, there are a lot more aboriginal settlements and 4x4s along tracks and beaches for the experience. We have caught a massive fish that was about 5ft6 and over 50kgs with big teeth and generally dangerous looking but we have no idea what it is! Also reeled in has been a blue tuna which we consumed in no time at all. There have been many sightings of giant sea turtles and also some very big sea snakes out in the Torres Straits and Van Dieman Gulf, where we are now. We have gone past about four other Oysters now that the wind has dropped out through are careful selection of sails (the big cruising chute) and now the wind has gone almost altogether being on a larger boat pays dividends by having a higher cruising speed and range under motor. This is now the final stint into Darwin and we are hot on the heels of Babe. Lets see who gets in first.

Back with the pack

The sail from the Whitsunday islands to cairns was a welcome break after the race week. This part of Australia is really where you can see a change in the coast beginning to happen and ports becoming more few and far between. The other change was in the weather and the first time for a while that the waterproofs and boots came out for warmth and dryness as the wind built and with it the seas which occasionally landed in the cockpit of the boat, under headsail alone we made some serious progress putting us in Cairns in no time at all. Always a welcoming sight are our friends from the Oyster World Rally fleet and some of the boats remained in port when we arrived, others had already left for Darwin. Not much seemed to have changed in Cairns since my last visit although it was nice to sit still for a few days in civilisation whilst we worked on Proteus giving her some tlc including a new screen at the starboard cockpit pedestal. We did pick up a Holden Commodore as a hire car not just because of its big engine and rear wheel drive but to go up the mountains and into the Table lands. In one day I saw platypus, ostrich, kangaroos, a tortoise, a tank, v2 flying bomb and a Morris Minor (a rare sight in oz). Time again to make a move we traditionally were the last to leave port.

Hamilton Island Race Week

Now this is one of the big ones on the calendar. In a few days leading up to the start of the race week and the return of Tim and Bryony, jack and myself have been super busy transforming proteus from a luxury cruising yacht to a slick racing machine (you can take that last part slightly loosely but we've definitely made a marked improvement). Hamilton Island Race Week pulls in some serious boats with the likes of Wild Oats, Bob Oatley's 90 footer, a lot of TP52s and various other racers down through cruisers and classics with an overall entry list of 150 plus boats. Proteus is in the cruising division 1 along side some other racy metal that I wonder what is doing in the same class as us but unphased and in very light airs, sometimes starting races in 2 knots of wind we went for it with the permanent core crew and a couple of extras including Tammy who was recommended to me by the marina manager and Anthony who is the publisher and director of Ocean magazine which I have read a few times back on the other side of the globe. The whole team pulled together amazingly well and made some good tactical calls with the help of some local knowledge combined with our many thousands of miles of experience and managed to gently caress Proteus and her large 50 ton weight forward with some constant and precise trimming of sails through the water and the race fleet to bring in some good results whilst surrounded by the picturesque Whitsunday islands. The conclusion was a few trophies for the days racing and an overall 2nd place. For such a big completion as HIRW this is an incredible result and a credit to the crew and also to the boat. Now back to cruising and on to catch up with the rest of the oyster fleet

 

THEY'VE LEFT ME IN CHARGE!!!

It has been holiday time on board Proteus, first mine which was amazing to be back with my family, friends and beautiful fiancée, then tosh and Bryony off for a couple of well deserved weeks. These are all exciting times with the build up to Hamilton Island Race Week that we are entered in and with the arrival of Chris and Denise's friends, John and Jill who were with us for 7 days. So down to business and my first time in close quarters handling of proteus myself and jack got to busy with me as stand in skipper and jack as hostess. The weather was fantastic with very light winds so limited sailing but excellent snorkelling and amazing beaches the tour of the Whitsunday islands was on. All was great as we had a hump back whale with its calf swim under the stern of the boat within touching distance and were able to have the sensation of seeing and hearing them breathe and dive. Also many sea turtles, coral and reef fish about. I always have a strange feeling of remembrance in Australia as I try and piece together my memory from the places I visited nearly 9 years ago. We ventured into Whitehaven beach, luncheon bay, butterfly bay, hayman island, Nara inlet and Cid harbour. John and Jill who have never done much sailing had a great time and saw more natural sights in the space of a week than most people may ever do, it's nice to be reminded of how lucky I am.