If you would like to read about any of our adventures click on the link below:
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007

2006 Adventures

2005 Adventures

The loss of Songbird and the beginning of Hard Yakka

2007
 January:We parted company as Acates headed off to Hervey Bay, Azure stopped at Kingfisher resort and as the wind was so good and we were making good timing we continued on to Gary's anchorage the South side of the Sandy Straits and got there just in time for sunset.  We drank a bottle of wine in the space of 30minutes felt very drunk and fell asleep on the couch.  I must made it to bed at some stage as the alarm went of at 4am. Up anchor and away we motored to Wide Bay Bar.  It was quite lumpy but plenty of water under us.  We had a great sail to Mooloolaba.  Even Shrek enjoyed it.  As we were having anchor problems we pulled up onto a pile when we arrived into the mouth of the river and luckily enough were allowed to stay there for a week and a half. The guy that was leasing the pile was on the hard and wasn't going to be back for weeks. Brilliant! 
Ric's kids Chant and Simon arrived onboard here and I departed company.  I was heading away for 10 days meditation in the hills(some people thought it was 10 days of medication) while Ric and the kids were going to sail the boat to the Gold Coast.  I arrived back on the 21st of January where the boat was anchored in Bums Bay, Broadwater, Gold Coast.  Great spot during the week but an absolutely nightmare at the weekend.  You have a million other boats to contend with even though there isn't anymore room in the anchorage and for every boat theres ten jet skis.  But its great for dogs, easy access to endless walks and endless beaches.  My brother Kenneth and his girlfriend Sabrina arrived over from Ireland on the start of their two month touring holiday. They got a bit of a culture shock straight away spending six days with us onboard 'Hard Yakka'.  Coming from house living I think they felt a little cramped with six of us onboard and didn't really enjoy the short cold showers.  Ric's kids left on the 27th to fly back to Perth and Kenneth and Sabrina continued their holiday onto Brisbane.  Alone again and so much to do here before we head off.  I might look for some relief work while I'm here but as its the beginning of the year and not many teachers are sick I won't be holding my breath. Top

February:  First part of the month saw us doing the ever present maintenance jobs that needed doing on the boat.  We brought our pain in the arse anchor winch back to the company and got a new motor for it.  We installed her again and fingers crossed we won't be having problems.  I think the agents for Simpson and Lawrence have their fingers crossed that they won't be hearing from us again as well.  We met a great French couple from New Caledonia while we were at anchor in Southport and our friend Chris from Azure turned up as well for a few nights.  We completely provisioned up filling both our fridge and freezer to absolute capacity.  We also topped up our water and fuel tanks.  Poor Hard Yakka was feeling a little bit sluggish as we made our way up the Gold Coast seaway.We left Southport early Feb with E/SE winds 10-15.  With just our screecher out we cruised the 15 miles to Jacobs Well.  Here we got absolutley devoured by the smallest sandflies I've ever seen.  This place deffnitley has to be the sandfly capital of the world.  We had a rendezvous here with Terry and Denise O'Shea who also have built an F-41.  The last time we met was when myself and Ric flew over about four years ago to see the progress on their F-41 which was at least a year ahead of us in the building stages.  So we had alot to catch up on.
From here we again cruised up the seaway with light SE to Redland Bay where we caught up with Mike Cole(who is building a 50ft space age radical Schionning design) and his partner for lunch.  A couple of bottles of wine late we continued on to Peel Island where we stayed the night.  Lovely anchorage and a nice long beach. 
The following day with about 1knot of wind we motored sailed up the Brisbane river.  At the mouth of the river are where all the tankers come in to off load all their cargo.  We had a tanker follow us in the leads so we turned on our second motor and made sure we got in before him.  A first experience for us was going under our first bridge ever - The Gateway Bridge.  Unlike the power lines that you go under at least you can see clearly that you are going to go underneath it without hitting it.  We had a couple of panic minutes going under the power lines as its nearly impossible to tell whether your going to hit.  As we got further up the river it started to feel like you were in the Mediterranean.  You have rock walls with house and apartments built on them and the river is just there.  Its quiet pretty.  The Story Bridge is the next bridge we cruised under with ease and just around the corner opposite the Eagle Street pier we picked up a mooring.  We were pretty lucky picking up this mooring which cost us a bottle of rum.  There are piles just further up the river on the city side of the river which you can pick up if one is free and contact the Port Authority once you are secured.  It feels really surreal to be moored in the middle of a city with skyscrapers towering around you. But I must say at night with the lights its a fantastic sight.  Brisbane is a great city with plenty to see - Botanic Gardens, South Bank(cheap cinema), State library(free Internet), Queensland museum and the Maritime museum to name a few of the pretty special sights.  Needless to say we put our bikes to good use here.
We spend two nights at Tangalooma anchored nicely behind the wrecks.  Water visibility was alittle disappointing but we had a good time.  The research centre on the island beside the resort is worth a look with a very interesting tour of the old whaling station that they used to have at Tangalooma.
Mooloolaba was the next stop over.  We hit here with a 25-30 knot E/SE wind.  Had our first breaking wave over the boat. A little scary but Hard Yakka did well.  Weather was very wet in Mooloolaba for the week we were there. Here Aide en's brother Kenneth turned up with girlfriend Sabrina and moved onboard with us.  After three to four days of waiting for the right conditions to get over Wide Bay Bar we left at 3am one morning with our good mates from Acates.  Conditions at the bar were excellent when we arrived at 1.00pm so thankfully we didn't have to make the hard slog up and around the top..  We anchored just in around the corner at Pelican Bay.  Named because of all the birds that land on the sand here. Moved down to Carlo which is a 4km walk from Rainbow beach.  Gorgeous quiet spot, great anchorage and just around the corner from Tin Can Bay.  We had a great sail on the screecher up to Kingfisher Resort where we were joined by Acates the following day after they had a brief meeting with a sand bank in the middle of the straits.  Top

March:  We spent four or five glorious days at Kingfisher(can't remember exactly how many). Here Shrek got attached by a dingo on heat.  Aideen and Ruth walked 26km to Lake McKenzie.  Kenneth and Sabrina fished 24 hours a day without much luck.  We swam and swam and swam in gorgeous clear water.  From here we did a legger over to the Mary River and slowly sailed up to Maryborough.  Great town so we spent another four or five days up there.  A couple at anchor where we had a BBQ with the rest of the yachties at the slipway. Then two nights at Mary river marina only $25 per night and you could have a free mud bath included in the price if you wanted.  Thats one thing Maryborough has plenty of is mud!  Here we said a sad goodbye to Kenneth and Sabrina as they continued on their travels down the coast.  As much as they tried they didn't quiet make it to backgammon champions of the boat.  But Kenneth has developed a fetish for speedos! We took of down the river again and anchored at the river heads, in the Susan river.  We spent a lovely night with Ruth and Kelvin from Acates who were housesitting on the hill.  And then back out to Frasier to get absolutely devoured by sandflies.  I think we are keeping the mossie repellent companies in business.  We headed for Rooney Point at the Northern end of Frasier.  Very calm and hardly any wind.  Not as many sandflies either.  A storm came through that night which kept us on anchor watch for a few hours until it dissipated.  It was quiet lumpy and we didn't get much sleep.  We left at 5am for Lady Musgrave.  We had the spinnaker up most of the way.  About 10 miles South of Lady Elliott the wind died and we ended up motoring.  As it was such calm weather we decided to drop the pick at Lady Elliott as neither of us had been there before.  Always passing it by because its not a very good anchorage.  We had a look around the island and went for a snorkel in the beautiful clear water.  That night the winds picked up from the NW - again not much sleep so we packed everything away and took off out of there at  1am.  We were only going to make Bundaberg so we ended up back in the river mouth again at 6am when the winds were reaching 25knots NW.  By the time we reached Bundaberg we were having serious problems with our steering which kept making the boat round up into wind and not come back. We also couldn't get one of our motors fired up and one of the props were giving us trouble.  All in a day's work(or a night sail)  so we had a few jobs to do after a couple of hours kip.
We anchored just between the two marinas for the night where we bumped into our friend Kadari from Stormbird 2.  We made the decision to go to the marina for a couple of nights to get the prop off and the rudders looked at.  We sent the prop back to Mooloolaba to get fixed by the experts down there and within no time we had the rudders all lined up again.  The motor was a simple enough problem of air in our tank.  Once we released that we were back firing on all cylinders.  Back down the river again and we spent a few nights hanging out with Kadari who now is the proud owner of a 49ft Crowther 'Island Time'.  Once we had the prop back and on we left the next day for 1770.  We just made it in and over the bar before sunset. We spent a few brilliant days here and one of the most important on the Irish calender - Paddies Day!  One of the bus shelters has been renovated into the local pub a perfect spot to celebrate the day.  A strong wind warning had been issued so we decided to make for Pancake Creek about 12 miles up the road.  When we got out from the bar we found the winds to be only maxing 18knots but we had a nice swell of 3-4 meters to contend with.  Good sail the whole way with winds increasing to 25knots just around Clews Point.  After drying out for a day at Pancake and one in the water we made our way up to Gladstone to collect mail.  The best marina and cheapest on the whole Eastern seaboard.  Up through the narrows with squalls following us the whole way up, so we did alot of jibbing.  The day after we found ourselves in the Kepells for a couple of nights and straight up to Island Head Creek to sit out a strong wind warning.  We made a b-line for the Percy's after this, anchoring at the Southern Island for one night.  Really pretty spot a little swell but nothing too uncomfortable.  We made our way over to the Middle Percy's to check out the famous a-frame where all the yachties go to.  Very pretty spot especially the lagoon in one little corner of the bay.  But too many sanflies.  We were gone within the hour and straight on to Double Island about 30miles further North.  We were running on spinnaker the whole way.  Just perfect!  Now we're back in the Whitsundays with a million other yachts.  Before hitting Airlie we spent a night in the Southern Group - Goldsmith island.  Very quiet around here don't think many of the bareboaters venture down this way.  Great anchorage and flat as.  Once we hit Airlie we caught up with our mad mates Todd and Tracy Fisher from 'Gone Surfin' and spent a few days and night catching up with all the goss as its been a year and a half since we saw them last.Top

April:  After provisioning up at Airlie we were off again for spots further North.  First stop been Bona Bay at the South West corner of Gloucester Island.  We had a lovely spinnaker sail and seemed to be the only boat in the bay.  Forgetting as you do about what day it was(not unusual for the odd yachtie) we found before long to be in the company of many boats from Bowen out for the Easter weekend.  Not to worry, at least not as many as in Airlie.  We left at first light anyway and took of for Cape Upstart.  Again we had a brilliant spinnaker sail the whole way.  Winds were E/SE 15knots.  So we were just on the brink of taking her down.  Once we got to 'The Bun' at the corner of Upstart Bay we decided to douse her.  Ric started pulling the spinnaker sock ropes but she grabbed some wind and he had some nasty burns to his hands.  It took the two of us with all our body strength to bring her down.  We spent two lovely days at Upstart.  Life on the beach was busy with nearly most of the holiday homes been occupied for the weekend. The swimming holes were full of fresh water which was brilliant. 
We took of from Cape Upstart in a strong wind warning with our sights on Magnetic Island.  As usual(well usual for us anytime we leave Cape Upstart) there was no wind and it was swinging in all directions.  We had two reefs in the main and the jib up as we were expecting big winds.  So we spent a frustrating hour out before we cleared the Cape and the wind came in stronger.  We had a constant 20-25knots with quiet big swells of 3-3.5meters.  We did 15-16knots regularly.  On the way around Cape Bowling Green the winds picked up to a solid 25 gusting to 30 with even bigger swells.  We did our record speed of 18.5knots.  You could just feel the boat take off.  The autopilot did very well considering the strength of the wind and the swells.  In all it took us eight hours to get to Maggie's. The bay was full of boats for the Easter weekend so we anchored well outside the pack.  Nearly a week at Maggies and well rested we took off for Hinchinbrook.  Winds were only averaging 15knots even though it was forecasted 20-30. We made it all the way to Hancock Island on the South side of the Hinchinbrook channel before dark.  On the way we got hit by a few squalls with 30-40 knot winds before getting to Lucinda.  We stopped at Mourilyan Harbour for the night so we could enter the Innisfail bar on high tide the following morning. Two great days in Innisfal catching up with all our mates. Of course it was raining.  A great sail to Fitzroy Island in perfect conditions.  Flat seas and 15knots.  Here we took out our starboard rudder to check the bearings which was easier than we thought.  Into Cairns the next day. A very fast trip with the bullets coming down from the mountains on your port side as you enter the leads for Cairns.  We ended up spending a week here.  We helped our mates Peter and Sue to antifoul their 52ft Crowther cat called Koru, caught up with friends, grabbed some US dollars while the exchange rate is good and did the usual provisioning.Top

May: This was a very sad month for us as we gave our gorgeous dog 'Shrek' to a friend to look after.  We departed company in Port Douglas and the boat just hasn't seemed the same since.  We left here for Lowe Isles and then out to Bat Reef where we met up with Ben Cropp who was filming some tiger sharks.  We spent a couple of gorgeous days out on the reef diving and fishing.  From here we headed for High Islands where we rendezvoused with Koru and we have been sailing with them ever since.  We hit Cooktown for a couple of days and then out to one of my favourite islands Lizard. Ric and myself spent three days here snorkelling and exploring around the island.  We had a good 20-25knots of breeze the whole way with gust up and beyond 30 around Cape Melville which is renowned for blowing alot harder than the forcasted weather.  So we've had great sailing the whole way.  We spent  a couple of nights at Flinders and had a look at the Aboriginal paintings and caught some mud crabs.  Here we also tried to renovate our wind generator.  In the middle of the night we experienced quite strong winds and our main halyard got loose and flew into our screaming wind generator.  We woke up the next morning to three shorter blades and a wind generator that doesn't scream anymore but purrs while also giving us power.  We then made a bee line out to the reef.  It was blowing 20-25 but myself and Ric really wanted to head that way as the seas are always flat when your heading North in the trades.  We also love diving and Ric loves spearfishing.  So we got plenty of great fish to eat.  We made our way in to shore at Portland Roads and headed to Cape Grenville from there.  We spent three nights at the Cape and caught heaps of mudcrab.  We also followed the track over to the beach at Indian Bay to see if we could find any Nautilus shells which are very hard to find completely intact.  The rubbish that has washed up on this beach is a disgrace and most of it is plastics. Very sad to see.  We spent a gorgeous night at Cape York and did the trek along the beach to the most Northerly part of the Australian continent.  Now that you have to go through quarantine at Thursday Island we made sure to give it a miss and head to the gorgeous town of Seisha.  Here we provisioned up a little at the local supermarket.  Bamaga is about 6km away from here but the supermarket we were told at Seisha is 100 times better.  Yes food such as tinned food and packets are more expensive but the fruit and veg was definitely cheaper here than Cairns.  Every Friday night they have a couple of bands and a burger night at the Fishing club and what a brilliant night.  All the yachties partied on down with the locals who are some of the friendlies people I have met on my travels.  The band and the burgers were brilliant.  Where would you get a fish burger or beef burger filled with salad for $5.00.  Next stop Crab Island on the way to the Jackson river.  Crab Island is renowned for crocodiles and turtles hatching on the beach.  And more often than not its supposed to look like world war three on the beach with turtle parts everywhere.  So we couldn't let it go by without investigating.  We took the dinghys out at night and saw some good croc action, from the very big to the little crocs.  No turtles however.  Leaving the next day we saw a turtle hatching on the beach and alot of turtle marks on the beach where they had been that night.  We also saw a few croc's sunning themselves on the beach.  Jackson river 20nm down the coast was the next pit stop.  Here we shared the river with a fishing charter.  Myself and Ric caught a couple of barra and apart from a couple of queenies that was it.  After two days r&r we decided to make the leap across to Gove.  We had great sailing and good winds but unfortunately the wind was up the bum, but you can't have it everyway.  It took us 51 hours to get to Gove and I could smell the burgers and chips 50miles of the coast from the yacht club.  So I was telling Koru who were about ten miles behind us.  So the first thing we did when we got to Gove was go to the yacht club for a feed. What a disapointment.  We've been to Gove many times before and our memories of the yacht club have always been good ones but I can't say the same this time.  Its been two years since Ric was there and seven since I've been in Gove.  The food is outrageously priced and pretty poor quality.  The welcoming is not like it used to be.  Facilities are very run down and the atmosphere just isn't there and not very encouraging for coming in for a beer at night.  So we did it the once and that was it.  Arriving at Gove we didn't waste any time beaching Hard Yakka and starting to clean the bottom.  We were getting her ready to antifoul.  We had bought the antifoul in Cairns and had planned to antifoul in Gove. 
We bought one 10lt and two 4lt containers of light blue a/foul.  So weren't we surprised when we found that we had 10lt of dark green and 8ltrs of light green.  At this stage it was too late we had her scrubbed down and ready to paint.  We were pissed off big time but we mixed both paints and got a dark green a/foul effect in the end.  I know you don't really see the antifoul but it the principal.  The stuff costs and arm and a leg so you expect it to be what you paid for.  We rang and complained so it will be interesting to see what happens.  We met up with good mates Mark and Julie Bevan who took off at the same time as us to pick up their newly acquired yacht 'Albatroos 2' in Cairns.  The night before we left Gove we had dinner with mates soon to be Lindsay and Tom Brown in one of the bays opposite the mine.  What a gorgeous spot.  A little cottage with their own private beach, two coconut trees a  hammock strung in between and a mooring buoy for the yacht.  Its like something you would see on tv.Top

June:  I can't believe its June.  This month saw us leaving Gove and heading to Cape Wilburforce, Cotton Islands, Wessel Islands and Elcho Island.  I had got some shell in my foot since the otherside of the Gulf, at Crab Island when we went crocodile hunting with one of Ric's mates.  I though I had it all out but a day out of Gove and my foot blew up and started to get very sore very quick.  By the time I got to Elcho it was deffnitely time to check in with the local nurse. Elcho Island is an aboriginal island and you do need a permit if you wish to go ashore here, which we didn't have.  We called them up on VHF they responded immediately and when they heard that I needed medical attention(mind you we did tell them it wasn't an emergency) they had a nurse with a 4wd to meet us on the beach once we had anchored.  Where else would you get service like this?  As it turned out they give me some antibiotics and if it got worse I could stop at any of the other islands on the way and most of them have a clinic with at least a nurse in attendance.  Elcho I was quiet surprise is a big island with about 2000 people living there.  They have two full time GP's who happened to be mad yachties as well.  We persuaded one of the doctors to take a lunch break(didn't need much persuading) and she drove us around the island to have a look, as I wouldn't be walking anywhere for awhile.  That evening both doc's came onboard for sundowners.  Elcho island is a dry island so no alcohol whatsoever to be brought onto the island.  Its ok for yachties to have it onboard as long as its not brought ashore.  Well I don't think i've ever seen two people consume our wine so quickly.  They've been living on non-alcoholic beer for far too long.  It was a great treat to get a birds eye view of how an aboriginal community is run - very interesting!
My foot got better after a few days but whatever is in there is still there.  Bit of a worry incase it flares up in Indonesia. 
We had great sails all the way to Darwin.  We arrived safely in Darwin on the 16th and immediately caught up with Ric's family who were very kind to lend us a car for the month we are here. And now its on with the never ending maintenance jobs - and I won't bore you with them.  Till next month adios Top

July:  This month has been crazy.  We were expecting it to be a little as we had a list of jobs as long as your arm on things that we needed to do on the boat and stuff we needed to get before we head overseas.  But we didn't expect it to be quiet so manic!  The weather in Darwin has just been absolutely gorgeous.  Quite cool which is pretty strange for this time of year here.  Cold been getting as low as 14/15 degrees at night.  With all the bush fires burning at the moment the sunsets are just amazing.  I got a job for a month with the government working as a medical receptionist.  I have to say its great been back at work and I'm really enjoying.  I don't know if its because its completely out of my field or because I'm earning money again.  I think its a bit of both.  So I'm working right up to Friday the 20th.  I finish work at 4 race back to Darwin sailing club to clear customs and then off we go Saturday morning.  We got to Darwin well before the main fleet so we had time to arrange alot of things before the crowd descended.  Alot of the yachts go into marinas while they are here.  But there are only so many places available in the marinas so the rest have to park outside the yacht club.  In my opinion its the best spot.  Great holding and unless a Northerly hits at 15knots very comfortable.  At the moment most of the people for the rally are here and the bay at night looks like a city of lights from all the mast lights.  Just beautiful.  We've got out duty free fuel - 0.96cents at Cullen Bay marina.  We've sorted out our social visa's and we've checked in with the rally organisers.  And most importantly we've organised our duty free grog!  As beer is cheaper in Indo than here we're not going to buy any before we leave. But wine is alot more expensive in Asia, so we've stocked up on our cask wines as thats what we drink the most of.  I don't know what we'll do once it runs out but I guess we'll work it out.  So our mates from Koru went in with us on the same deal and bought 150 casks of wine, whereas we bought a modest 50.  The bottleshop loved seeing us coming.  While I've been at work Ric has been working on the jobs on the boat.  We fixed the bearings on our rudder, got a lightening protection rod made up for the boat, changed all our filters, oils, injectors etc...and more! 
Its a week to go and we've everything pretty sorted.  Now I'm just ready to leave but we don't receive our CAITs until the day before we leave. Fannie Bay is now mad busy with boats everywhere. I've never seen this many Cats in one place.  Peter and Mal Lord arrived from Tasmania and moved onto the boat on the Thursday before we left.  Its now my last day at work.  I've getting of at 3.15 in order to cycle back to Fannie Bay so I can clear customs before 4.  (Customs come down to the Darwin Sailing Club and clear everybody on the rally there).  Tomorrow morning theres a champagne breakfast at the Yacht Club and then we're off at 11.00am.  In case we didn't get around to talking to you before we left, our mobile phone no longer works and the only way you can contact us is by email. Top

August:  The crossing from Darwin to Kupang was brilliant.  There was a strong wind warning forecasted before we left so some of the yachts put of leaving until the Monday.  We left and we were about fifth in the fleet leaving Darwin doing 8/9knots.  Wind was about 15knots from a SE direction.  During the night the wind died and we were down to 2knots of speed.  We started our three hour watches and it all went very well.  Alot of boats passed us in the night as they motored and we ended up sailing the whole way to Kupang.  We had only one drama on the way and that was with our spinnaker.  Pulling her up on the second day she landed in the water.  Where the spinnaker halyard was attached ripped.  Ric jumped in the water to free her up as she was caught around our keels.  Then he went up the mast to retrieve the spinnaker halyard.  We lost about 3/4 of an hour and we were back on our way again.  Third day was the best sailing all day and night with a constant 10-12 knots.  I think we had finally picked up the trade winds.  And once we hit the Roti Strait we were zooming along with a 25-30 knots of wind. We arrived in Kupang at 1.50pm (Indo time) on Tuesday the 24th.
The anchorage of Kupang is not the best and the landing at Teddy's bar is just awful.  If the dingy boys weren't there I don't know what you would do.  You have to watch them a little as they would just drag the dinghy up the beach and with glass and stone your dinghy wouldn't last long.  So we got them to lift it and there is enough of them around to do that for you.  However they are rough with the dinghy's when you are not there as they broke off one of wheels from dragging her side ways on the beach. In saying that they are worth their weight in gold.  For 25,000rup - approx $3.50AUS they will look after you dingy all day and you can come and go as many times as you like.  I even witnessed them lifting our dingy on their shoulders to get it past all the other dingys and put it in the water for us.  Just amazing!  Kupang is a busy city with beautiful, friendly people who were only to delighted to see the rally arrive.  They don't get much tourism in Kupang anymore and the rally is nearly their only source of tourist income for the whole year.  They want to please and will do anything for you.  As the saying goes around Indonesia 'its impossible, but we'll see what we can do".  To get around Kupang you use a bemo, which is the local bus service. For 2,000rup it will get you anywhere around the city.  They have great markets here with plenty of fruit and veg.  We bought some papaya, watermelon, limes and lemon.  They were beautiful.  We ate in the local restaurants and the food was gorgeous.  Its deffinitely cheaper to eat out here than on your boat but of course we are all full of food after leaving Darwim as we weren't sure what to expect.  Teddy's Bar is a hive of activity and all the locals come down to check out the Australians and we seem to be the local entertainment at night.  We did a couple of tours while we were there to the monkey caves and a local waterfall which was great.  The highlight I think for myself and Ric was seeing the local men building a fishing boat.  Internet service is not good in Kupang, very slow and you get cut of quite regularly.  Rubbish is a problem.  The locals seem to just throw their rubbish on to the street and in the water.  We were told the dingy boys would take care of our rubbish and when you bring it in, in the dinghy they will grab it.  Don't be suprised if you see them throwing your rubbish back into the water about 5 minutes later.  A bit sad! We spent three days here but decided to head off on the Friday for Kera Island(Monkey Island) about 5nm off Kupang. 
We ended anchoring here for the night and we were joined by a few local fishermen.  Four fishermen arrived onboard that evening.  They have no English so we were desperately trying to look up our phrase book.  We didn't do so bad.  We give them some crisps and cordial. (I think they were expecting whiskey).  They stayed about an hour had a look around the boat and headed off quite happily
The next day Koru decided to come over so we waited to have a chat with them.  Snorkelling around the island is pretty good.  Some really nice colourful soft corals and lots of little fish.  No big fish to be seen and some dead corals.  But all in all pretty good.  There is a break on the NW side of the island.  Myself, Ric and Lordie decided to go boogie boarding.  While I was riding some waves Ric and Lordie managed to get hit by a wave that snuck up on them and the whole dinghy went ass over head with Lordy landing on Ric.  We lost all our masks and snorkels but managed to salvage everything else.  We swam the boat upside down to the beach and just as we were nearly there Peter, Marty and Daryl arrived from Koru to save the day.  They dragged us to the beach the rest of the way.  We righted the dinghy and towed it back to the boat.  Ric worked on the motor for hours and got the baby started again.  The handle that broke of in the Gold Coast broke off again so we also ended up glassing that back together again.  We were sucking diesel again.  We decided to stay another night out at the island and head into Kupang to buy masks and snorkels the next day.  We ended up buying the last mask and snorkel in the main shopping mall for 250,000 rp  for three sets and next day we headed out again and sailed up the Timor coast to a place called Tg Kurus.  There was a big swell from the West, the same kind of swell that you get on the West coast of Australia.  It didn't worry us but we didn't venture in shore as we would have got milled on the rocks.  We had a swim and just chilled for the rest of the day.  Last day of the year we headed off again after the 7am sched with Koru who were still in Kupang.  We had to motor out around the bay before we picked up any wind.  We were joined by another British yacht called Island Fling.  We hoisted the sails and just as they were up we got a hit on our fishing line - a 1.2m Wahoo.  We kept half and came up alongside Island Fling and flung them a quarter.  The last quarter we trailed along at the back of the boat hoping to give it to a fisherman.  We were going to anchor at Tg Noilloi but we couldn't find anywhere shallow enough to anchor.  This is a problem here.  Timor doesn't seem to have a continental shelf.  As we were looking for a suitable place to anchor the whole village had run down to the water to greet us.  I found out later that 111 people lived in this village. We brought in the rest of the fish and Mal brought some colouring pencils for the kids and a copy book.  They loved it.  Ric held of in Hard Yakka while myself, Lordy and Mal went ashore.  Villagers had no English so I tried the little bit of Indonesian that I had. We stayed about 20minutes and then took off again.  Had another swim and hoisted the sails for Alor.
We arrived at the start of the Pantar Straits just on day break and followed a local ferry up the Strait.  Currents and rips can get very bad here but we managed alot better than boats coming behind us.  We stayed close to Pantar and managed to stay out of most of the channel and as we turned for the bay to Kalabahai we were doing 8 and 9 knots of speed.  The sail was gorgeous. We were surrounded by beautiful steep mountains, traditional sail boats and ferrys zooming everywhere.  There was also some big fishing structures to avoid and the odd man in his dugout. We ended up anchoring outside the town and were the first yacht there.  We cleared in again with rally control and had a walk around the town.  We were a novelty to the locals as were were the first of the group to arrive.  The town was extremely friendly and we made good friends with a group of girls who ran a kiosk.  After walking around in the hot sun we found ourselves at their kiosk having a bintang and mentioned that we would love a Nasi Goreng, so one of them jumped on her motorbike and went and got us four grogeous Nasi Gorengs. Just amazing!  Before I left I gave one of the girls some baby clothes for her new born baby that we had managed to grab from St Vinnies before we left.  She was so grateful and repayed the compliment to me on our last day with a bracelet and necklace that had been handmade in Kalabahi.
All in all we spent 5 days here and attended the Sail Indonesia welcoming and Alor expo.  We also grabbed a local bus and made our way to Alor Kecil(small island) which is at the beginning of the bay as you make your way up to Kalabahi.  We got a local dugout/sail boat to the island and had a drift dive for a couple of hours.  It was gorgeous and very clear with lots of fish.  We left Alor on a Sunday and made our way to Pantar and ended up anchoring at the most amazing site so far this trip beside Indulgence 2.  We were anchored stern on in our own private bay to a beautiful beach.  That night Allan and Eric from Indulgence 2 had a bomb fire on the beach.  Island paradise.
Its now the end of August and we find that we have day hopped along the Northern coastline of Indonesia, along Flores and we are now in Rinca and Komodo Island group.  Mal and Lordy have departed and managed to get a flight out of Flores at Maumere for Bali.  As its peak season here in Indonesia its very hard to get a  departing flight and sometimes you have to bribe your way out in order to get a seat on a plane.  Our Indonesian has improved in leaps and bounds we can hold a fairly good conversation with the natives combined with alot of hand signals. We've started back tank diving again and have had some amazing dives.  One of the best dive so far has been in the Southern end of Rinca.  We were anchored about 150m off a beach where we saw Komodo's, pigs, deer, monkies and thats just on the beach.  Below water the soft corals and fish were just the most colourful and spectacular I've seen yet.  The water clarity down here isn't great due to the heavy currents which flow and the water is quiet cold because of the depth.  The best dive so far island on the North coast of Komodo.  A mile out to sea there is a volcanic rock with millions of fish.  As we were diving there three dolphins came over to have a look at us and a play.  It was amazing.  The water was crystal clear and the fish kept changing colour. Top

September: First of September saw us arriving at Bima the biggest town on the Indonesian island Sumbawa.  Big fishing port and the first town where we encountered a supermarket.  Here there are no bemo's only Ben Huirs(horse and cart).  The town has got a real Wild West feel to it.  As usual we were only just anchored and the cops came over trying to board.  But we let them know we were heading into town they eventually got the hint and pissed off. (We had just heard from our mates on another yacht in the anchorage who had tried to come in at night to Bima but couldn't so stayed outside the harbour till day break.  The cops came out to them at 2.00am looking for smokes and beer and they're supposed to be Muslims). Then came the local diesel/benzine/water dealer.  We still had heaps of diesel left from Darwin so bought 20ltrs of benzine and some water. We eventually got into town and went to the supermarket.  The supermarket amazed me it was 80% full of sweet stuff - chips, cakes, fizzy drinks etc.  But it did have UHT milk and CHEESE(i thought i'd never see cheese again).  Mind you it is the processed stuff but tastes devine.  Our Ben Huir was waiting for us and then took us to the local market where we bought the best fruit and veg yet.  Then back to the harbour where our benzine was waiting for us.  Excellent service.  Nice place but for one night only.  We were gone the next day and ended up 30miles up the coast at a pearl farm beside a completely Muslim village.  We went for a walk on the beach and met two fishermen.  As we were talking with them one of the pearl boats(a huge tinnie with a 40hp motor) came over with one guy in it.  He pulled Ric aside to show him his eye.  It looked like he had a really bad case of conjunctivitis in both eyes and seeminly had it for three months.  As it turned out we had some old eyedrops still in the fridge so we went and got them and explained to the guy how to take them.  One of the other fishermen also had eye problems and the other said he had heart problems.  So to keep them all happy we give one of the fishermen eye drops(Drops that Mal had left behind for cleaning out her eyes) and we give the other fisherman some panadol.  Maybe the placebo effect will work.  The people were very friendly.  About three hours later the guy with the conjunctivitis came out in a dugout and amazinly enough his eyes were looking better already.  We had told them before that we were looking for a papaya.  So this guy got Ric to bring him in to the village in our dingy drop him off and come back for him 20 minutes later.  When we picked him up he had two huge paw paws for us free of charge.  We paid for them anyway.  Back on the boat we give him a coke and another friend of his rocked up.  Well the friend looked like he was tripping.  His eyes were falling out of his head looking around the boat.  We gave him a coke and he didn't know how to open it.  His friend had to show him.  Then he drank out of the wrong side and spilt it all over himself.  Eventually he got the hang of it but was drinking coke through the ali ring on the top.  It was just amazing to watch this guy. I was really trying not to stare.
Satonda Island 4 or 5 miles of the Sumbawa coast.  A volcanic island with a big crater lake right in the middle surrounded by lush jungle.  We picked up the mooring of the beach and ended up parked right beside a Thai dive charter.  We went ashore to be met by the park ranger and the harbour master.  It cost us 10,000rp each to walk around the island. The harbour master of course tried to get more money out of us as they do but we claimed that we were part of Sail Indonesia and we didn't have to pay any extra fees as its all cleared through Jakarta. He seemed happy enough with this and let us on our way. 
After a couple of more nights of the coast of Sumbawa we made our way to Lombok.  This is just a beautiful island and one of my favourite islands so far.  We started our Lombok adventures by picking up a mooring of the Gili's.  The Gilis are three islands about two miles of the North West coast of Lombok.  This place is a backpackers meca with bars and cafes everywhere. Dive schools, rasta Indonesia's and sleeping dictionarys as they call themselves.  This is also the place for great diving and any drug that you would like to do in comfort while your in Indonesia without a police presence. The story goes that the police have to give the islanders 24hrs notice before they come over so everyone has plenty of time to bury what they've got. While I was here I got the crazy idea that I wanted to climb the highest mountain in Lombok, Mt Rinjani.  I did a trek for three nights four days climbing to an altitude of 3760m.  It was gorgeous with amazing views but by the time I got back I was crippled. I could barely walk and had to crawl around the boat for two days afterward.  It was a very difficult climb but worth the huge effort it took. I met some lovely people on my trek and had the pleasure of spending the three night four days with a couple from Belgium and a couple from France.  You can see some of the amazing shots I got on latest pictures webpage. While I was away Ric caught up with a few yachties and had some of the locals out testing out my guitar on the boat. (It hasn't been the same since).  He also ended up at some surfey drug party. Some strange guy came to pick me up on a motorbike at Senara, the town where you trek up the mountain from and brought me down to Mohammeds place(an hour on the back of the bike with beautiful views of Lombok) to meet Ric.  He had moved from the Gili Aer to the mainland.  We decided to leave at 5am the next day for Bali.  I wasn't any help as I couldn't walk around the boat so Ric had to do everything(he says as usual!!).  We had a really great sail across the straits between Lombok and Bali.  Half way across we got in between an Australian warship and an Indonesian warship having words over the VHF radio.  We were hoping they weren't going to start anything until we were well out of the way.  We are now in Lovina which a beautiful town North of Bali and a 30 minute ride on a Bemo to the city of Siniraja(this city used to seat the goverment for Bali but  I think it all happens now in Denpasar).  Here we sorted out our visas which were to run out in nine days not giving us enough time to make it to Borneo and then check out before they expire.  So 160AUD later we had our visa's renewed for another month.  Ric also booked a flight out of Singapore for October 16th so we now had a deadline and have to be out of Indonesia by mid October.  This is ok because our cruising permit runs out around this time anyway and it should be enough time to reach Singapore. We left Bali at 5am on the 17th after staying another day at anchor.  Ric got a touch of Bali belly and we weren't quite ready to leave this beautiful part of Indonesia.  We covered 70nm and were anchored up by 2.30.  We had great winds with a constant 15-20knots.  The wind seems to blow in three day segments and after that you have a week of no wind at all.  So it looks like we left Bali at the right time and caught the start of the three day window.  After Pulau Raas which we used as an overnight stop,  we left the next day at midday and did our first overnighter since arriving in Indonesia to Pulau Bawean 140nm North West.  It was a brilliant night sail and very easy without having to change course or the sails once.  We met alot of boats and most seemed to have lights which was very comforting.  Alot however liked to turn on and off their lights.  Now you see then now you don't.  You have to be on constant watch especially without a radar.  After an uneventful night we arrived at Pulau Bawean pretty tired at 11.30am.  We anchored up had some lunch and hit the scratcher.  We were in bed 30minutes having dossed off into a lovely slumber when we were were awakened by three local men from the village who had jumped onboard our back steps.  Excellent!  One turned out to be the village head and like most Indonesians I think they were just curious.  Ric seemed to think they wanted to hit us up for some rupiadh as they had paddled along way to see us.  They had no English through so even if they did we couldn't understand them.  They eventually left but we were now wide awake. 
We left Bawean early the next day and dodged all the local fishing boats and fishing traps to get us safely of shore.  Then we got a call from 'Aju' a Dutch monohull that was also going in the same direction as us so we were going to have company through the night.  Wind was pretty much up our bum so we decided to try our spinnaker out.  We hadn't had it up since we ripped it on the way from Darwin.  We had made tentative repairs in Kupang but unfortunately they didn't hold up and its started to rip again after about an hour up(and we were doing so well).  So down she came and up with the screecher again. It was a slow sail with only 4 to 5 knots breeze.  As the sun went down the wind picked up to 10-15knots and we started averaging 7-8knots.  There was alot of traffic on the water but everyone seemed to have some sort of a light just not nav lights. It was a good night but Ric got a scare at about 3am during his watch.  A barge came out of nowhere and we had to swerve to miss it.  It passed 20 metres of our beam.  I think he just about had a heartattack.  We arrived at the shallows of Kumai River at daybreak just as we had planned.  We did have to slow ourselves down at about midnight by putting out our small headie or we would have hit the shallows at dark.  From the beginning of the first shallows its still another 50miles till you get to Kumai town.  We were pretty wrecked though so we decided to drop anchor just around the corner at the mouth of the river.  It was also alot cooler here so we decided to get one decent nights sleep.  Aju also followed suit.  There was quiet alot of traffic up and down the river from barges full of palm oil towned by tugs to passenger ferries and cargo boats.  We motored a further 10miles up the river the next morning to Kumai town.  It was really surreal this part of Indonesia is completely different to what we've seen already.  The sky is overcast from all the burning off.  Its very humid and you feel like you could be stuck in the middle of the Amazon just as easily.  There was four other boats already anchored so we dropped our pick behind them all.  We hadn't our pick down five minutes and already we had the tour operators in the speed boats trying to come along side.  Satu Jam we shouted.  Come back in one hour.  Harry was the first tour operator onboard and the one we had heard about from other yachties.  He filled us in on all the local goss and give us the information for the tours.  Next guy was a little more unorthodox and his tours were cheaper.  But by the sounds of it the guide might turn or up or he might not, you might get dinner or you might not.  Needless to say we picked Harry and got a cheaper tour as there was four of us.  Louise and Fonse from 'Aju' and myself and Ric.  We decided to do a one night two day tour starting on Monday giving us another day to rest up after our overnighters.  Sunday morning we were catapulted out of bed at 3am(there is a one hour time difference between Bali and Kumai and then back to Bali time for Singapore) with the bloody mosques.  Ramadan eat your heart out.  They were going for it until about 8am.  Great!!! Just what you need on a Sunday morning.  I felt like putting a sock in the speakers.  The tour was brilliant.  We left a boat boy on the yacht all arranged by Harry.  He sleeps in the cockpit for the whole time your away and watches your boat.  It makes it a little easier to leave it for two days.  We had a driver, a guide and a cook.  They were brilliant guys and the cook if I could kidnap him I would.  The food was delicious and heaps of it.  We saw a wild orangutan on the way up the river.  And heaps of orangutans once we got to Camp Leaky.  We spent the night a bit further down the river from Camp Leaky surrounded by probiscis monkies and long tailed macaque's.  Also at the feeding stations for the orangutans there were some bearded pigs.  Really funny looking guys.  On the way down the river at 7pm the following night the tree's were lit up like christmas trees with the fireflies.  They were gorgeous.  It was an expensive trip in Indonesian standards but worth every rupiadh.  We ended up checking out of Kumai with Harry's help and spend another night down at the river mouth before we heading off. 
We sailed 250nm to Serute Island. We are now in 1degree of latitude and despite been so close to the equator we still have at least 15knots of breeze fromt he trade winds.  We did notice about 100-150miles from Serute Island it became noticeably warmer and more humid.  We spent two lovely days relaxing with Aju.  There was also another German yacht anchored in the bay further West of us so we caught up with them for drinks as well.  A fresh water spring runs into the bay we were anchored at, so great for filling up our jerry cans and having a cool off. Top

October:
We did our last overnighter from Serute Island.  About 250 miles further North West we hit Tujuh Island.  It was only an overnight stop, not a brilliant anchorage if it was blowing hard.  We did another 50 mile hop in no wind(doldrums), so we had to motor the whole way to Linga Island.  From here we day hopped the whole way to Singapore.  We sailed across the equator and into the Northern Hemisphere at 00degrees 00minutes 000secondsS/N 104degrees 48minutes 547secondsE. At one stage I was in the Northern Hemisphere while Ric was still in the Southern.  We celebrated at Kentar island with crayfish and a bottle of wine which we had brought from one of the wineries in Bali(it was worse than methane and in the end we had to through it out and go back to our cardboard chardonnay).  We had a BBQ on the beach(if you'd call it a beach) that night with yachties from Hong Kong, Britan and America.  This part of Indonesia is very different to the rest.  You notice that you've really hit Asia here.  The towns and villages are based around the water are on stilts and dotted around are lone fishing houses on stilts.  They usually mark the edge of the reef. The last market we saw was in Kumai and had no fruit or veg left by the time we had got to Lingga.  But none of the villages had a market so it was looking like it was going to be tinned fruit for breakfast, dinner and tea until we got to Singapore.  We also had plenty of rice so we can't complain. 
Once we crossed the equator the wind shifted to the West and there wasn't much of it.  We day hopped through the Riau Group of Islands.  Very pretty spot but the water is dirty so you wouldn't swim and there are no decent size beaches for a walk.  It was the first time in the whole time that we've been on the boat when we didn't get off in five days.  If we stop somewhere for a night we always get off the boat to explore but it just wasn't an option here.  We made our way to an island still in Indonesia but directly across from Singapore City.  We spent our last night in Indonesian waters here and early the next day crossed the notorious Singapore Straits.  Notorious for the size of the ships and the fact that its supposed to be a four lane highway of bumper to bumper tankers and freighters.  What a disapointment!  We only saw one big ship on our way across.  A very easy crossing.  Immigration clearance is on Sisters Island we called and called to no avail nobody answered our call.  We rang Raffles and asked if we could clear in there ourselves.  'Of course you can', was the reply. So we proceeded to Raffles which is miles away from Sisters Island.  Once we got there and were all tied up we found out that it cost us 70SGD to clear immigration and pay for port fee's.  Needless to say we were pissed off.  They couldn't quiet understand its only 70 dollars. (A complete monetary society). At this stage there was no way we heading back to Sisters Island so we paid our dues.  When immigration came they would only give us two weeks visa even though we asked for a month and are entitled to a month.  We think that Raffles and the Immigration dept have there a special thing going as if you want it renewed and the Immigration Officer tried to tell us that you can only do it through Raffles (Bullshit!) which of course costs another 100SGD.  We are going to do it ourselves needless to say.
Anway apart from that Singapore is great and so is Raffles. Ric flies back to Australia and I've got a mate from Ireland coming to visit me for two weeks.  I'm also going to put out some feelers for work while Ii'm here so maybe we'll be here longer than the month planned. 
I spent a week in Malaysia with Catriona while Ric was away travelling around by bus which is very cheap and very easy to do.  The people here are very friendly like Indo and you can still get around with your few words of  Indonesian which is like Malay.  Unfortunately at this time of year the islands of the East coast are closed because of the Monsoon season so we didn't get a chance to do that.  Put we did K.L, Pulau Pankor and Cameron Highlands. A week in Singapore as well and before I knew it Tina was back on the plane flying home. Top

November:
After a great month in Singapore we were off on our travels again.  We left Raffles marina with a Swiss boat Serenade and Australian boat Blue Moon of Oz.  With wind on the nose we motored and dodged the big ships down the Johor Strait until we were parallel with the Singapore Strait and started to make our way up the Malacca Strait(sounds very complicated).  We then had a nice SW to push us to Pulau Pisang for the night.  A humid but comfortable night with a small swell from the shipping lane.  We left at 5am as we had 70nm to cover before we reached the Water Islands.  We kept inside the shipping lane keeping a constant lookout for fishing boats, fishing nets and masses of debris in the tide line including chairs, big planks of wood and dead bodies(well one dead body).  The fishing nets were alot easier to work out than Indonesia.  We made good time having a nice W/SW to get us into Besar Island before dark.  We got hit by the biggest electrical storm myself and Ric have ever seen with huge forks of lightening hitting all around the boat.  It didn't help that we dragged anchor twice in the middle of this storm.  We finally grabbed at about 5am and left two hours later.  With only 40nm to Port Dickson we were tied up safe and sound in the marina by 2pm followed closely by Pura Vida and Blue Moon of Oz. Serenade had gone overnight from Pisang and had arrived a couple of days before hand. PD is brilliant. The people in the marina are so efficient and so friendly.  We checked into Malaysia here which was very easy cost us nothing. (Not corrupt like Indo). You are half way between KL and Malacca and there is easy access to both cities.  We visited both and really enjoyed them.  I had a job interview in KL so we stayed overnight and Ric went mad buying DVD's in chinatown.  After a very relaxing week in PD and also getting alot of jobs done like our sails repaired we were ready to depart again.
Port Klang, the big shipping port to Kuala Lumpur was our first stop.  We saw alot of traffic along the way and huge ships entering the port here.  The Port is pretty filthy and not somewhere we would like to stop for long.  We spent the night very comfortably just off the shipping channel before the entrance to the Port.  Next day we did a 10nm hop to Pulau Angsa which has a huge radar on it to monitor all the shipping coming up and down the Straits.  Not a great anchorage during the day but the during the night the water settled down alot.  This was the first night we had seen clear skies and stars since Bali.  Next day was a gorgeous day and wind from the NE for the first time(maybe the NE monsoon has arrived)! It hadn't it only last three hours and then it kept swinging more to the N so we ended up motor sailing 75nm to Pulau Pangkor.  But the clear skies stayed and we had a gorgeous couple of nights anchored of Pulau Laut which is the small island to the South West of Pangkor.  Here it cost about 5,000AUD per night to rent a bungalow on the island.  Its private so no yachties thank you very much.  Water is still not clear for diving but we did swim of the boat for the first time since Bali. Ric and myself rented a motorbike on Pangkor and travelled around the island which takes all of two hours if you have lunch and take it really slowly but its very pretty. After three very relaxing days at Pangkor we made our way to Pinang three day later.  Skies are very very overcast and hazy and water is dirtier than ever.

December:
This was a bit of a crazy month for us.  I flew out of Penang(also spelt Pinang) at the last moment and flew to Ireland to see my lovely new niece for a couple of weeks before Xmas.  I flew back into Phuket and spent a lovely two weeks with Ric eating the ham and smoke salmon I snuck back in my case.Top