I wrote the following blog update yesterday in anticipation of our departure for Indonesia this morning. However after many consults with our cronies, we all decided to leave tomorrow, instead. 'Why?' you may be asking. It's not because we're having such a fine time here that we can't bear the thought of leaving (although we are), but it actually has to do with our arrival date in Indonesia. We don't want to arrive prior to Saturday August 2. Indonesia, with the largest Muslim population in the world, celebrates Ramadan, which is ending today. Then they celebrate the end of Ramadan for 3 days (Eid al-fitr), which, in all due respect, had I been fasting for a month, I would want to celebrate for 3 days, as well. Now we're up to Friday which, in Indonesia, is like our Sunday and all of the government administrative offices are closed. Therefore, if we arrive before Saturday, we'll have to stay on Moonbeam at anchor. So...why bother!

Here's the pre-departure blog:

We've done the laundry, re-provisioned with freshies, reorganized our pantry items to put items we'll want to access during the crossing close at hand, stowed away items more appropriate to leisurely cruising, and, yes, we've cleared out of Australia through customs....a most easy and civilized process. As I've mentioned in a prior blog, these Torres Straits islands are, without doubt the most user friendly for cruisers. Locals, without exception, have been as helpful as possible to make our sojourn here and our getaway comfortable and easy. We have also made prepared meals (lasagna, bolognese sauce, meat loaf) which can all be microwaved to give us comfort food dinners en route.

As you can see from the pic of the day, it's always something when we're dealing with boats, and in doing final pre-departure checks, there were some items which needed attention. Fortunately, great mechanical minds from the rally gang came to the rescue, and they spent most of the day tweaking and repairing.

So...here is the plan for the better part of the next week. We have 670 nautical miles (1 NM=1.15 regular miles) to sail between Horn Island and Saumlaki, Indonesia. Being a realist, I figure on averaging 5-6 knots (1 knot=1.15 mph) which would get us there in 4.5-5.5 days. Ken, (ever the optimist) on the other hand is figuring on averaging 7-8 knots which would get us there....yesterday. If you're taking bets, smart money is on me. Jes' sayin'. (I left the knot/mile and NM/miles for you to calculate, if you get bored.)

While at sea, we will not have access to wi-fi. No AOL!!!!! We will have our satellite system (touch wood) and will do blog updates. (We won't be able to read comments or respond until we arrive.) If all goes well, expect boring....and while you may want to read interesting blogs, I personally am hoping for boring. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all about me.)

Once we arrive in Indonesia, we should get SIM cards loaded up and will be back in the world of (slow) wi-fi.

So..stay tuned. I think tomorrow will be D-day...finally.

BTW, If you've noticed some numbers in small font on the bottom of the blue screen on the left, that is the number of 'hits' on the blog since 3/15/14 when the counter started. Over 15,500 as of today...and we haven't even gone anywhere!!!!!