INDIAN OCEAN CROSSING 2015

From Cocos Keeling to north Madagascar was a hard, looooooong sail. Uncomfortable. Heavy, huge seas and swell which ran in no co-herent fashion - all the time. 30-40 kn winds were a constant. Two days - out of the twenty four days - were ideal blue water sailing. The windvane steering sometimes could not keep up with the repetitive onslaught of the seas. In due course the steering line snapped. Eelco dressed up in his safety harness and clipped himself to the pushpit then clambered over board down the stern while the liquid mountains charged onto us. He retrieved the broken line and strung the replacement line successfully. I was so uptight and worried, I forgot to take pictures. The heavy seas took its toll on the steering gear too. A couple of times there were a big 'bang!'. One of the 'bangs' was the starboard main stay snapped off a 12mm rod. We also discovered with dismay that the weight of the danbuoy has rusted off. Hooray for life on the saltwater.... Two good things about the Indian Ocean. 1) The current is a true plus. 2) The weather was mostly sunny, warm and dry. 

Cocos Keeling

An Oasis in the Indian Ocean. Be sure to stop there if you go direction West. Al you need is an Australian visa. The local police are the best ambassadors Australia could wish for. 
Around the boat fish, squid, turtles, dolphins, and sharks abound. Crystal clear water present the coral frightning close - even though it is deep. All the variations of turquoise colour are spread out in the panorama and in the 'RIB' dance plenty green parrot fish close to the rocky edge. 
Regularly many kite surfers glide across the big beautiful lagoon. Anchor holding is rock solid in pure white sand. 
Directions Island has a rich history and the hermit crab population florishes. Lots of signatures are left by visiting yachts. 
On the day of our departure, an out-of-this-world big cutoms ship filled the entrance to the bay. They checked us out and kindly wished us a good voyage. MORE..

DARWIN

Fanny Bay anchorage in front of the sailing club of Darwin, is big. Boats anchoring way out in the distance because of the big tides. Making going ashore a big schlep (trouble). But being considerate the club has fat wheel trolleys the boaties may use to get dinghies out of and into the low water. Very handy, we agree. On the other side of the bay two war ships and two marine supply vessels and a customs boat were on anchor. We felt safe. We liked Darwin. And it sunsets...

TIMOR SEA

The Timor Sea might be in the Indian Ocean, but none of the Indian Ocean mean characteristics apply. We expected strong trade-winds, but barely got any. Flat seas lump and slither. Night time the thought of wind there was during the day, goes sleep. So do we. Sails down. Anchor light up. Mylady drifting in zig-sag circles with the tide. (Yes, it's a sea snake in the pic. There were plenty.)

Australia, cruise 2015

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Australia. Wonderful people.  Departing Darwin heading west for Madagascar. 
The croc story ...

LONESOME cruising

Off the beaten track? No. Just going around the northern point of Australia, westward. Just a route. 
Dangerous? Not any more than the normal. 

Weather's absolutely perfect - warm days, cool evenings, wind and seas from behind. 
How many marina's or ports for convenience are there from Cooktown in the northeast to Darwin in the north? 
None. 
How many other cruising boats did we see over this 1100 nautical mile distance? 
Three. 
It is just a surprise for us both to experience so few cruising boats. Somehow I thought being in a developed country with such a big yachting industry, and the Indonesian cruising grounds just above Australia in a hop, skip and jump distance, that one would see a yacht from time to time. Clearly we were completely wrong.
    Fortunately we are a happy two-some that don't mind our lonesome (note: not lonely) exploring of new shores and its secrets and showcases. We always enjoy the natural life. Sometimes we even feel special apart from privileged - being at, or part of, creation's beauty and wonders. Every day there is something new to learn.  And we have not even been at five percent of the possible anchorages. Yet there were many places I wished to stay longer. A place worth returning to - the north coast of Australia. Mi sa le (I shall return). Read more...

CRUISING wEATHER along the sunshine Queensland coast.

The High pressure systems rolling across Australia to the east are regular and we get the associated SE tradewinds with it. The perfect direction to take us to the north of OZ. In general we have 3 or 4 or 5 days strong south easterlies then two days of light winds. Our cruising schedule is thus accordingly. A few days sailing from break-of-day till the next overnight spot (sometimes short-, other times long hops). Then a couple of days resting and catching up with home chores and exploring. We've had fair weather mostly. Not enough rain to catch water but getting miserably wet seems to be a constant. The 'Sunshine Coast' we've only occationally experienced with glimpses. It is warm temperatures and that we like. The sun shone, the trades blew, and the current raged as we rounded the top of Australia leaving the Pacific Ocean after eleven years. Read more

CRUISING SECURITY ALERT for Australia, Queensland.

The following I presume could be encountered anywhere where there are plenty yachts. But this happened to us on the Queensland coast.
* aggresive yacht attack on Mylady sailboat.
* un-manned yachts under full sail and motor.
The alarm went at 5:30am and the anchor was on deck at 6:00am. While skipper was still securing the anchor, I steered Mylady out to sea. We noticed the only other yacht in the bay at North Palm Island, at the far opposite side, who came in late afternoon the previous day, also have navigation lights on. We were moving opposite directions. I turned back to the bay to pass them red to red. But they turned also inside. I turned more to not be misunderstood, but so did they. Deciding if they want to pass us on the shore side I'll go to sea. Making an almost 90 degree I headed out to sea. But they turned with us. Confused I asked skipper am I reading the lights right? He turned around and ordered 'Give gas!' The lights (boat) was concerningly close. We sped away. But they followed at high speed. Skipper took the wheel and after a short full rev run, stopped the boat. The aggresive yacht who reved up with us, made a sharp turn to the south and passed our stern at arms length. 'IDIOTS! skipper shouted'. The yacht motored away as the day was breaking. 
The unmanned yacht we encountered earlier going to Airlie Beach. We were sailing on a strong southeasterly, hard to windward, the last leg to Airlie Beach. A big yacht under full sail came out from Airlie Beach heading our way. Since we were on a concerned course, we kept a close eye on it. We soon realized he was motoring but not a person in sight. In all the time that we passed him and afterwards till he was out of sight, no human was visible. It left an eerie feeling to know at full speed in very changeable weather, their are yachts with NO LOOKOUT.
Read about other travellers...

STUCK IN UPSTART BAY

We woke after midnight from the scream of our wind generator. A windgust from a southerly shore wind shifted us into another direction. Steadily the squealling of the anchor bunner started to increase and the anchorchain grinding on the bow. With the arrival of daylight we started to hieve anchor. Our suspicions grounded to a halt with the anchor. Stuck. 
First we tried the gentle way. Skipper on the bow trying to follow the chain around the corners it took to wrap itself around the rocks, while I do my best to steer the boat the intended way. Still stuck.
Then the tough way. With brute force and maximum revs on the engine, the braking strength of the anchor, the chain, the boat deck as well as the nerves of the crew are tested to the limit. Still stuck.
Finally the smart way. Remembering the triumph card of sv Mylady with her super good back-off ability, skipper took the wheel and motored around our anchor and then reversed full force the other way. 
The tension loaded anchorchain gave a jump and fell slack. Did the chain break? I couldn't tell and feared the answer. I winched the chain back into the anchorlocker while skipper kept motoring fast backwards. We both were immensely relieved to see the anchor coming above water. 
"Do you dive?" a local fisherman and his wife asked when we went ashore.
"No. Why?"
"There's a pot of gold down there where you were stuck. You're not the first one. We've seen lots of chain and anchor go down there, never to come up again."
'This is James Morill country.'

MYLADY in the Whitsundays

We are spending some time in the Whitsundays off the Queensland coast in Australia. It is beautiful when its not raining. The Southeaster tradewinds helped us along all the time and the very strong tidal currents play havoc with our plans. It is a total delight to see schools of fish jump and run as they avoid being next on the menu. Birds chatter and twitter as I think they only do in OZ. Fish eagles glided over us a few times. Lots of local tourists everywhere - snorkling. And what do we do? Take pictures of the colourful rocks. The Whitsundays is a very nice cruising ground. Here one can spend time....  Also please read the turquoise sea. 

MYLADY VOYAGE from Fiji to Australia

Monday is not a good time to clear suctoms first thing in the morning. We finally departed at noon. The ocean state was not bad and winds just enough. We went south around Fiji. Two days later though, the seasickness held the triumph card. Sailing was good in general. Seas mostly from behind. A phantom storm which had no reason or explanation had us running for our lives with 50kn chasers. Fortunately it was a one night event. 
Some days were diamonds.
Other days were filled with crashers onboard.
Some days were gold.
Other days we dropped sails at night, anchorlight on and went to bed with the sleeping tradewinds.
More than 50% of the time we had glorious, fantastic, awesome sunrises and sunsets.  Asif we were starving, we ate and ate as much we could of our dried and special products to avoid OZ quarantine taking it off. Birdlife was sadly limited to the count of ten. None fish caught. Saw some flyingfish. 

Ended the voyage with a two day gale which was forcasted to be 20-30kn. However, we got the also forcasted 'could be 40% stronger' at 40-50kns. The very steep, high, furious and sickening seas, tried to pluck the mast off deck and in the process ripped the starboard front stay out from deck. We made landfall in Mackay, OZ, safely. 
(The repaired stay bolt) Please read the emotional experience of the voyage also. 

TASMAN SEA JULY ‘11

We left Australia in front of bad weather coming. We knew it. The advantage was that we would be on the topside of the low pressure system making use of favourable wind directions for half of the way. Well the low caught up with us three days out of Coffs Harbour. Humongous seas chased us. Wind was horrific but direction was good. Thus, we survived it well. The rest of the trip we had unexpected favourable winds or no wind and relatively calm seas. We even had lovely sunshine and not hazy skies when we passed the top of New Zealand. So for the first time after having been here many times, we actually had a beautiful clear panoramic view of the northern tip of New Zealand with the lighthouse at Cape Reinga balancing on the highest, sharpest point of steep ranges.
Thanks for all the messages that came in. We appreciate.