Yesterday we continued to prepare for our sail to and through Indonesia. We will be spending about 2.5 months there, slowly making our way up their archipelago. The country has over 17,000 islands and as we island hop through their country our trip will take us over 2500 nm. We have learned that most of the western world stuff that we use on our boat will not be available where we are going so it is important to stock up now with things that we think we may need. This includes selected foods.

Yesterday, I filled up our propane tanks and the jerry jugs that I had emptied into our fuel bladder. We also worked on cleaning the boat since our Darwin friends, Brian and Gayle, were coming over today for an American BBQ dinner.

Today was more of the same. I scrubbed the deck while Mary Margaret cleaned inside the boat and cooked. However, as I was finishing up I saw a huge tower of smoke rising in the distance. Someone had put to fire a large field and the smoke and ash was being carried by the wind toward us. Soon it was raining ash on my nice, newly cleaned deck. In no time the deck was covered with black soot and ash. I was sooo pissed. Oh well, what can you do?

At 1400 I motored the dinghy into shore to pick Brian and Gayle up. To my surprise, I could not get the dinghy all the way to shore because it was a very low tide. We have a tidal range here of about 8 meters and this was the lowest tide we have seen since our arrival. The dinghy wheels just stuck in the very fine sand so I left it there, about 100 feet from shore.

I waded into shore and soon saw Brian and Gayle walking down the launch ramp toward me carrying a bunch of goodies. Gayle had made a killer dessert and they had brought a large bunch of bananas from the banana tree in their backyard.

We wading out to the dinghy and began our trip out to Leu Cat. Brian and Gayle own a Lagoon 440 that is in the charter fleet in the Whitsundays. It was built that same year as Leu Cat: 2006. Brian was anxious to see Leu Cat and discover how we had retrofitted her for blue water sailing. Their boat comes out of the charter fleet this November and they would like to take her cruising for a bit.

After Mary Margaret had completed giving Gayle and Brian the grand tour of Leu Cat, I introduced Gayle to my favorite part of the boat. Soon, she was laying back and gentling rocking in our hammock. She too fell in love with the hammock and soon was looking like a long time cruiser. She just needed a drink in her hand to be complete.

We finally made our way back into the salon where all kinds of appetizers were served. Mary Margaret had made a vegetable dip from scratch that was to die for. Gayle had brought a wheel of camembert cheese and a spinach dip that meddled well with the goodies that were being served.

Around 1630 I fired up the grill and put on four racks of spareribs that had spent the day in our solar cooker. In no time their outsides were crisped up golden brown and I was slavering on the homemade BBQ sauce that Mary Margaret had whipped up.

Soon we were sitting down and enjoying the feast that included homemade pasta salad and coleslaw. Gayle never had tasted BBQ ribs before and she ended up loving them. As the finishing touch, she brought out her homemade chocolate toblerone mousse, topped with whipped cream and a strawberry. Man, was that good!

As we caught our breath from that great meal, we went forward again. Gayle climbed back into the hammock and we all watched the sun slowly sink into the horizon and it left us with a brilliant dark red sunset. It was the perfect moment to end a perfect day!