SALSA’s ITINERARY;

Depart Bali Indonesia about July 10 for six day (585 Nautical Mile) sail to Christmas Island, hang out for about five days then depart July 20 for the five day (530 NM) sail to Cocos Keeling Islands, hang out another five days.  Depart Cocos August 1st for the 30 day (2850 NM) sail to Nosy Be Madagascar.  Then just hang out a month or more and eventually work my way down the Western Coast of Madagascar so I can depart for Durban South Africa by November 1st from the southwestern part of Madagascar before the Cyclone season.  Then it gets tricky.  According to my guide books I need to hang out in Durban for almost two months until January when the weather is prime to coast hop my way the last 800 miles around the Cape of Good Hope into the Atlantic to Cape Town South Africa. But I’m wondering if I could do that earlier in December?  Then I can hang out as long as I want (a month or two??) before sailing back to South America via St. Helena Island.  So in short the approximate arrival dates are:

Christmas Island July 15
Cocos Keeling July 25
Nosy Be Madagascar August 30
Durban (or Richards Bay) South Africa Nov 10.
Cape Town South Africa sometime in February 2012

As for the distant future I only see two options. (A) Press on home through the Caribbean to arrive on the East Coast of the USA before the Hurricane season starts in June 2012 OR..  (B) Slight detour back to Cartegena Colombia / San Blas Panama are (one of my favorite places so far) and wait till the following season to sail back to the U.S in the winter of 2013.  I should have a better idea by the time I’m ready to leave South Africa.

Besides the Itinerary there hasn’t been a lot to report since the last update, more of the same, working on the boat, playing with the locals, drinking with the expats, things like that!  I’m actually leaving Bali almost two months later than originally anticipated but the combination of finding new projects on Salsa plus invitations to all the irresistible social events around here, I’ve just been slow :-).

Salsa is VERY close to being ready to tackling the Indian Ocean.  All of the biggest issues have been resolved leaving at the moment just a few little things to finish up plus provisioning for food, water, diesel, etc.   Not really sure how much food to pack on considering that I’ll plan to stop at Christmas and Cocos Keeling Islands where I know I can re-stock but I think I need to provision for the entire 4,000 miles to Madagascar just in case I don’t stop or get lost or something :-).   The leaking transmission was very tricky.  Turned out a very small (pin hole) vent on the transmission was blocked and this was causing it to blow out every new seal I replaced, I got lucky and discovered the blocked vent, replaced one last seal, and now it’s perfect!  The engine was stalling due to a slight air leak in my ancient fuel filtration system that I could not find until I re-arranged my fuel flow so that everything after the tank was under positive pressure instead of vacuum and only then could I find the leak.  Some people say the idea on boats is to put your fuel system (filters and lines coming from the tank) under vacuum so that if you get a leak you get air in the system and the engine dies opposed to pressurizing it (by moving the pump) so that if you get a leak, you get diesel in the bilge.  I’m not sure if I’m right but I think I prefer a little diesel leak and a running engine vs air leak and engine not running, at least it’s not leaking now!…    Any thoughts here?  Anyway.  Point is it runs great went out for a few wonderful test sails with new friends here in Bali, and am really looking forward for the big trip after getting right out there in ocean for a few hours in the trade winds, downwind (as I should have nearly the entire way) was just well.. a breeze!

As far as suspicions about me remaining in Bali indefinitely everyone can relax, I’m out of here soon, (sadly!) My last delay was largely in part due to my agent misplacing my passport, good friends wedding part on July 10, and finding some corroded bolts that hold the mast step to the deck that should I plan to fix today!  I hope to keep plenty of log / blog details on my passage while underway so hopefully I can get updates posted at each of my stops but if not, my daily Spot check position reports should work until I am about half way across the Indian Ocean, then don’t freak out when I go ‘offline’ with position reports as there is a big coverage gap where I get no service in the Western Indian ocean, South Africa, and Eastern Atlantic, so once I lose coverage I do not get it back until half way to South America from Africa!   I guess that’s enough for now, as always I hope this update finds everyone well!  -Kirk