We are currently snuggly tucked into the Port Moresby Yacht Club in Papua New Guinea.

Before leaving New Zealand, we thought we would be coming to Port Moresby to get our visas for Indonesia, but we were able to get them in New Caledonia alleviating the need the need to stop in here.

We were on passage for a total of 9 days, but around day 3 or 4 we began hearing a grinding/creaking noise coming from where our forestay attaches to the top of the mast. Michael and I both went to the front deck to try to see what was not right. The roller furling, which holds the jib sail, seemed loose, so Michael tightened the halyard at the mast. The grinding became a little squeak and we were satisfied -- until it came back. He tightened it some more, but in the end, we were worried that something more serious was going on. To lose our forestay, which is a key player in holding up our mast, was a real concern. We furled the jib and hoisted our storm sail to take its place. The storm sail, just by its name, implies that it is very small but tough. Our jib is our 'work horse' sail and when we replaced its power with the storm sail - about 1/4 of the size, our speed fell by about 2 knots. That may not sound like a lot, but when you do the math, subtracting 2 knots from speeds of 6-8 knots brought us down to 4-6 knots reducing our speed by 25%. That would make an eight day passage into a ten day passage, and that is substantial.

At this point, we still had over 2000 nautical miles (18 days) to cover to get to Indonesia and we didn't want our time on the ocean to be any longer than it already was going to be , so we began looking at our options. We really needed our jib back to cover the many miles ahead. We thought that if the winds mellowed and the seas relaxed, Michael could climb the mast at sea, just to take a look. This wasn't looking likely as our weather files were showing more of the same - 15-20 knot winds. Option B was to anchor behind an island in the Torres Straits, but that brought Australian Customs and Immigration issues with it. Option C was to come to Port Moresby. What finally made the decision was that if there were repairs necessary on the roller furling, at least we would have a dock to lay it out on and there would be services to make repairs.

A huge high-light at the around day 7 or 8 of the passage was the tuna and mahi mahi we caught. We were thrilled to have fresh fish. We made sashimi and sushi. Yum, yum!

We arrived on Tuesday morning (Aug. 14) and today, Aug. 16, we are ready to set sail. Michael found nothing amiss with the forestay or furling, so he lubricated all moving parts and 'tuned the rig', which means tightened or loosened the shrouds holding the masts. We did a bit of shopping for fresh food, did 4 loads of laundry and really enjoyed the hot showers!!!

From here, the entrance to the Torres Straits is about 200 nautical miles. That's about a day and a half, so in about 3-4 days, we hope to be through the Straits and into the Arafura Sea - the world's shallowest sea - and from there, it will be another 1100 nautical miles to Kupang, Indonesia. The Rally has already begun, so as soon as we have completed our check in and have had our windlass looked at (it quit working in Koumac, New Cal) we will try to catch up.

You can follow our progress by clicking on the map on the right side of this page. Michael posts a position report at least once every 24 hours, sometime twice. Also, he posts a position report at winlink.org. If you go to the winlink website and type VE3MZL in the search engine, you will find a map showing our position with the 'comment of the day'.