07/10/2008
The seas have calmed a bit and the sun has even come out to play a couple times. This is a refreshing change to the past few days of salty wetness and waves with some kinda mission to make you spill whatever it is that you just set down. Today we've been rocking a a beam reach with winds 16-20kn. Yay.
Many birds have been taking refuge on sora, most notably this sizable booby perched on our portside cleat. He stayed with us through out most of the evening and even left a little thank you poop on the deck, which shows more couth than the fowl incident the evening before. Some birds landed on the mizzen when I was on the dog watch from 12-3:30am and commenced chirping at one another non-stop. Well, I became annoyed-like,"hey, we're letting you take a break here and the least you could do is not frikken fight while resting your weary birdy bones", but they kept at it in spite of several verbal warnings on my part. So I had to leave the cozy comfort of the cockpit and get my until recently dry tush thrown all about to go shake em off before they woke up papsy. Mission accomplished, I worked my way back to the watchmans nest of two almost dry fold up seat cushions locked in the lee and rubbed my face with an "I'm glad thats over, now I can get back to my REAL watch duties" kind of relief and wouldn't cha know, the fighting aviary brothers had relieved themselves on the line that I used to wiggle the mizzen boom. So, there i sit with poop on my face and poop on my hands exponentially more annoyed than before and I could have sworn that I heard off in the distance what could only be described as a seabird's last laugh.
Pops and Bones fixed the generator enough for it to charge without choking itsself. Whatacupla stand up guys, eh? Dad also jiggled some wires and got the music back on and thank goodness cause I was starting to get the shakes. Cassie without music is an ugly thing to behold. Though I did get a little practice time on my juice harp...
Looks like we'll be there on the morn of Monday the 14th and with Mom flying in on Sunday the 20th, that should be just about enough time for us to clean up our act. And Sora.
When we get there, Eran, Deano, Conrad, and Jesse, some of my favorite Aussies, will all be elsewhere. Wouldn't cha know? Guess that dirty rumour that all the good ones get out aint so far fetched...
So cheers to getting there...preferably without poop on ya Cass
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07/09/2008
We have left the cozy shelter of Port Moresby to brave the windy as leg to Darwin. We went hard out the first day and with crap weather, choppy seas, random squalls, and winds out of the SSE at 25-35 and building we decided to take a much needed and welcomed night off by anchoring behind Rennel Island. This is one of the many islets with poor holding and little protection on the way to the Torres straight. We read that this one was pretty bad, but as good as it gets. We'll take it!
We slept hard and fast in preparation for the big day ahead and quite literally flew through the channel with narry a problem. We timed it spot on with the tides in our favor and a current of at least 5 knots on our tail. We we're doing 12.5kn over ground. It was mildly surreal.
We're planning on bypassing Thursday island to get as much done in Darwin as possible.the water maker, genny, stereo, radar and fridge are all on the fritz. Time to revisit the other side of this cruising thing. Maintainance purgatory...
So, we're outta the Coral Sea and into the Arafura Sea, finally in Australian waters. The color de agua has changed from the royal blue of deep water to the opaque green of shallow depths. Very interesting...
Cheers to 'brinkmanship' as defined by Chuck Puhlanik(sp) Cass-i-o
This is a picture that caught my fancy of a painting in the PNG airport that we spent 3 hours in chasing immigration officals asking about who to see to get our temporary visas. Could they be warm fuzzies?
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07/03/2008
Our bread munching buddy Tom caught up with some mates of his in the Solomons and decided to take his kitesurfing gear and skidaddle. Sora is on the fast track to Darwin and Tom was barely getting time to do all those fantastic cruisey things that he set out to do. Sora surely sorely misses him.
This is Tom Tom with a breakfast cray...I made lobster omlettes and we all gotta piece.
We have, with the aid of 25kn of tail wind, made it to Port Moresby. The Royal Papua Yacht Club is amazing. Great food, beautiful facilities, and all round extremely nice folks.
We met a Aussie expat and are touring the area with him this afternoon. Dad said he had a limo for us, but I anticpate a legg pulling.
Cheers to my parents 40th anniversary today!!!
Cass
Oh yeah, the gallery hath been updated.
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06/23/2008
What happens when you buy two combination locks that are identical? You set one and leave the other as back up, store them in the same drawer and instead of doing the "fooled you!" fake lock up you actually close it and then come home late at night and realize that your boat is so safe that not even you can break in. The proof is in the picture. After countless attempts of trying to trick the lock into remembering it's supposed to open when we put in the special code, including WD 40 and clever spin combinations, we realized the blunder and cut the bugger off. So our morning began with eggs and a side grinder.
It's great to be here. We had our first showers since Santo, Dad took us out to dinner and we all got a full nights rest on a boat that wasn't trying to throw you out of your bed.
Gizo is an interesting place. Everyone is spitting betel-nut and moves faster than any islanders I've seen this far. We must be getting close to Asia. The officials were friendly and locals, though not as smiley and thrilled to be alive as the folk from Vanuatu, are quick to offer help to a few lost white cruisers roaming through town on a dirt road sweating half to death. The carvings here are some of the most detailed, unique and pleasing to the eye pieces of art I've ever seen. The awesome intricacy is proof of the hundreds of hours they must have spent shaping both rock and wood.
We are planning on unwinding one more day and the idea of high tailing straight to Thursday Islands is on the table. We never do what we initially plan. Have you been noticing that?
Cheers to improv sailing, Cass
And, yes Seadog, we get those instant messages. Keep sending them.
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06/22/2008
Remember that I had said we were going to Port Moresby, possibly with a stop off in the Louisades Isles? Well.now we are going to the Solomons, island of Gizo to be specific. How much fund does that sound? I've been teasing my par that he is the geezer going to Gizo. Remember the Gremlins? Gizmo.he has to know about Gizo. There have been many other silly alliterations, but we'll leave it at that.
We are about 20 miles out this morning at 9:30. The past week has been relatively painless. We've been seeing gusts up to 30 but it's all on the stern. We've been surfing as well seeing 13kn on the speedometer.We actually hit a 13.6 and I'm afraid that Simon may have matched my record of last April. I'll have to check the log book on that one.
We received word from the weather man that there was a BFH(Big Fat High) building over Australia and moving toward PNG. Seas were to get progressively bigger and more confused while winds were to get up to 40kn. We made the group decision to take a right and wait it out in the Solomans. We'll chill here for a few days then mosey on over to Port Moresby, hopefully, to re-provision before aiming for the Thursday Islands. We still have over a thousand miles to go before racing our final destination of Darwin. The Indonesia rally starts on the 28th but we are trying to get there as early as possible for a couple of reasons. One: Meep is flying in to join us on the 19th.yay!! Two: We have a broken water maker what needs attention. There are other boats there that we haven't seen in ages and I have a friend from Whangarei who's working there.so needless to say, I am a little excited.
I'll tell you, since leaving NZ we have caught more fish than that old guy whose on the fishing bridge every day next to Jesus(Pensacolians, you know what i'm talking about). We just got a pretty big strike. I'm going to go help 'em reel it in. Just kidding. I've been informed that the hook has straightened out and we lost him. Dern.
...One of the bigger waves we surfed the evening before we got into Gizo.
Red sky at night!
Cheers to yelling, "Fish on!"
Cass
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