That's why they call it sailing...

The terrain of the Komodo islands is a bit desolate
during the dry season.

...and not getting places. Cause just getting places is easy.

Based on the wind predictions, we left Kupang in the late afternoon so we would get to Komodo during daylight hours after a couple of overnights.

Beach near Teddy's Bar in Kupang

But before we left, we got to try the famous local smoked pork (babi se'i). Which we found interesting as it was the first day of Ramadan. Indonesia may be the world's most populous Muslim country, but there are certainly non-Muslim pockets here and there. Kupang, for instance, is primarily Protestant. The smoked pork was super yummy as was the crispy pork belly.

Good pork or not, we were not sorry to leave Kupang because the anchorage continued to be uncomfortable the whole time we were there. A side swell originating from who-knows-where kept the boat rocking non-stop. Also, there is no good place to leave a dinghy. The beach near where we anchored goes completely awash at high tide and the next beach over is frequented by touts who demand a high price to "watch" your dingy. There were even some reports of dinghies being damaged if the "watching" fees weren't paid.  Luckily, a gentleman named Lambert lives on the beach and for a small fee will watch your dinghy, including taking it out to a mooring and swimming back in (which he manages pretty well considering he only has one functional leg).

With Kupang in the rear view mirror, we started on a nice downwind run with 7+ knots wing-on-wing (main triple-reefed again because the winds were strong once again). The strong winds lasted until the following day and we expected we would need to slow down in the evening to have a first light arrival.

Around dusk on the second day the winds started to moderate.  Forget about slowing down, it was looking like we might be in for a late morning arrival. Finally, after losing even more steam, the wind went completely AWOL in the evening and died. From 25 knots to nothing in the span of about 4 hours. Because the waves were still up and banging the sails around, we turned on an engine and motored until the wind decided to reappear a few hours later and picked up to a brisk pace that got us to Komodo in the early morning after all. We picked up a mooring (made challenging by the howling wind) and the wind has been blowing like stink ever since.

On the plus side, we saw our dragons. When Matt was little, he saw Komodo dragons on Wild Kingdom (the original one with Marlin Perkins--yes, we are old: there aren't reading glasses everywhere on our boat for nothing). He was very disappointed to learn that they were on the opposite side of the world because it seemed impossible that he'd ever get to see one in real life. And yet here we are. So touching--excuse me, I have something in my eye.

Do they look nervous? Yes, yes they do.

But for real, Komodo dragons are very cool, in large part because you know they could kill you with one bite (in the absence of good medical care, which around here is scarce). We stayed in our dinghy when these guys came swaggering out of the undergrowth at the sound of the engine ('Um, Dad, maybe we should back the dinghy up...' was heard more than once). Anyway, they are huge, menacing and prehistoric-looking. The non-stop drooling and tongue flicking doesn't make them look like puppy dogs, either. And it turns out that they can swim, which we didn't realize until we read more about them later because they gingerly avoided the water's edge like they didn't want to get wet. Fortunately they hadn't felt like spanning the three feet of water between us.

It's crowded here. Two Phinisis tied to the back
of our moored boat.

Fast and hard or slow and easy?

Matt and I sometimes talk about whether we would prefer fast and hard or slow and easy (Talking passages here. What did you think I meant?). What we got for a passage from Darwin to Kupang was fast, hard and a bit uncomfortable. The wind prediction wasn't wrong per se. There was just a lot more of everything.

The direction was downwind, so that part was good. We were wing-on-wing pretty much the whole way (our whisker pole has certainly earned its keep). The speed was much higher than predicted, reading 30 knots apparent on our instruments. The waves also couldn't make up their mind. We spent a lot of the voyage on a relatively shallow shelf that extends a long way out from Darwin and seemed to make the seas confused. We had 8-foot waves hitting us every which way.

It felt like we were in the heavy-duty wash cycle on a washing machine, with a little less water and more banging with what felt like a giant sledgehammer on the bottom of the boat. But what we lacked in comfort, we made up for in speed. We averaged over 7 knots the whole trip (even with a double-reefed main and jib) and at one point we saw 17.5 knots as we surfed down one wave.

As we got closer to Kupang, we started to slow down the boat so as not to arrive in the middle of the night. We triple-reefed the main and put out a tiny scrap of head sail for stability. The wind responded by picking up and we continued to go over 7 knots. We finally took down all the sails and the boat finally slowed down to 5 knots. It is amazing to me that the boat could go that fast with no engine or sails.

Even after slowing down, it was dark when we reached the channel. It's a big, wide open channel but we were worried about FADs and unlit bagans. However, we didn't have a lot of options, so we turned on the radar and made our way forward, keeping a close watch on the water. There was no moon but the lights from the city helped and we had a big spotlight. Other than a couple fishing floats with tiny flashing lights that were towards the edges of the channel, we didn't see anything. The easy to see bagans were lit up like Christmas trees and were anchored along the side of the channel.

We finally made it to the anchorage. We didn't get the nice calm conditions we were hoping for and are rocking and rolling as we speak. But a good night's rest cures a lot of ills. We spent yesterday checking in (we have found that checking into or out of Indonesia takes a whole day). You have to take taxis to navigate the process in sprawling Kupang, so there were many taxi rides to Immigration, Quarantine, Customs, and the Port Captain. Quarantine and Customs also wanted to visit the boat, which meant more travel back and forth (they couldn't go at the same time, of course--there's a process). Quarantine got to the beach where we had our dinghy, looked at the waves and wind and our boat bobbing around and decided not to actually go on the boat ('tidak mau'--Bahasa Indonesian for 'don't want').

Kupang is the biggest Indonesian city we have visited so far. It is packed full of people, cars, ojeks, and merchandise. Charming, no, but there is an energy and at least an effort to keep garbage off the streets. Plus, we saw a troop of monkeys crossing the street (they live in a nearby cave). Matt's busy reinstalling the port rudder quadrant, which came loose during the passage (that's what that banging noise was...). And thus start the, 'If we were in Darwin, this would be so much easier' conversations. We'll leave soon for Komodo. There be dragons.

Ooroo Australia

Apparently Ooroo or Hooroo is Aussie slang for goodbye. I haven't actually heard anyone here say it though. G'day, on the other hand, is common. And 'mate'. That part is satisfying, as is the occasional sight of a man (usually an older gentleman) dressed in a Crocodile Dundee hat, safari shirt, and very short shorts. It reminds me that I'm in Australia and not the U.S.

Just when we're getting the rhythm of the way people talk here, it's time to go. We sold our car (we did much better this time by not wrecking it at the last moment like we did the one in New Zealand). We've checked the engines and performed a myriad of last minute fixes (such as unwrapping a huge tangle in the anchor chain caused by a broken shackle, bleeding air from the fuel line, and fixing the stop solenoid).

Our boat is again stuffed with First World provisions, including a freezer full of meat. Matt had to bleed some coolant from the freezer, re-add some, and then bleed it again to get it back to its old self. On the plus side, messing around with refrigeration is one more aspect of boat life that he's become comfortable with. The last few trips to the store to pick up specific supplies also devolved into the familiar "oh, maybe we need just one or two more of [take your pick]."  And that's how we now have enough tortilla chips and Whittaker's chocolate bars to last a lifetime or two.

Part of our check-out procedure with the Australian Border Force involved handing over a big stack of receipts. Australia is one of the few places that make it relatively easy to get back local taxes paid by tourists for purchases made within the 60 days before departure. Of course, some countries make it even easier by not charging visiting yachts the tax in the first place (at least on yacht-related purchases).

Hopefully this tax refund will help to defray some of the massive bleed out of funds from our bank account. Unfortunately we couldn't get back all that we paid since some of the parts we had imported were over $1000, had a 10% import tax imposed, and there is no way to recoup it (we paid several hundred dollars just in taxes to bring in our engine radiator assembly). I feel sorry for the poor Border Force representative that has to enter all the amounts though.

We're headed for Kupang, Indonesia to check-in. It should take us 3 or 4 days of sailing to get there. The forecasts predict a pleasant downwind sail. So we are hoping for a gentle transition to getting our sea legs back. Obviously, our weather and sea condition predictions are never inaccurate. As our friend Mark (previously of Amelie IV) used to say, 'What could go wrong?'

Back in the wattah

Perry with nifty new shades done by
our friend Rachel. The old ones were disintegrating.

Perry is back in the water. After a fitful night of sleep with rabid nooseeums attacking and the noise of the boat lift groaning at random intervals, we got up bright and early to be launched at high tide.

Our new strut and shaft decked out
in PropOne antifoul 

We got the rudder back in place the night before, which is why we spent the night in the lift. We are still floating and the port engine seems to be running well (knock on teak). We plan to do a shakedown cruise in the area before leaving for Indonesia.

Because it is so like the US here in many ways, we sometimes forget that Australia is actually a much smaller country in population. Like small enough where the national news broadcast on the radio does a traffic report for the ENTIRE country.

We managed to visit Kakadu National Park, which was a very long drive to do in just one day, but well worth it. We swam in beautiful waterfall pools (that had just opened the day before after being closed for the season) and saw interesting Aboriginal rock art that is thousands of years old. We finished out the day with dinner at the Mindl Beach Sunset Market. It is the place to be on a Thursday or Sunday evening. There were food stalls with almost anything you would want, craft vendors, and street performers.

Lightning Man (on the right)

We have mint again. Mojitos anyone?