Well…  The Website blog is only about two months or so behind, that’s not SOOO bad is it!?   I really can’t give this update justice either as I’m only hours from pulling up the anchor and setting sail for Indonesia from Darwin where I‘ve been delayed first from my dinghy disappearing in the middle of the night and secondly by weather.  The next stop is probably Bali, but maybe Kupang first, I guess it just depends on how I feel once I get underway. 

I’m hoping the conditions will allow me to do some writing about the sail from Brisbane all the way to Darwin (where I am now) as it was certainly a memorable and eventful few months.  A very short summary would have to mention my haul-out and bottom paint in Bundaberg.  A nice quick sail from Bundy to Whitsunday’s with only a few stops in between.  The Whitsundays are truly a very cool cruising ground with plenty of nice anchorages and beaches plus easy provisioning but the best part here were the fish at Bait Reef about 12 miles or so offshore.  That’s where you can snorkel or dive with HUGE and very tame fish that will eat right out of your hand.  And once you get moored inside the reef they just hangout under your boat, I‘ve never seen anything quite like that. .  WhitSundays to Cairns took a month with a LOT of nice stops like Magnetic Island and the Hitchinbrook channel said to be full of crocodiles.  Magnetic Island was full of wildlife where I saw a Koala in the wild and played with the lorikeets, just amazing!  Further north I saw my first crocodile in the wild, I just anchored and there he was 100 feet from the boat just floating around hanging out.  The wind from Cairns north blew like stink EVERY day.  They forecast-ed sustained winds over 30kts on multiple occasions but I’m sure I saw well over 40kts at times and anything below 25kts was starting to seem unusual.  Then consider that decent anchorages were few and far between makes for a wet, fast and somewhat uncomfortable sail, but very manageable. Lizard Island was a highlight anchorage with a very nice hike and amazing snorkeling. Giant Clams big enough you could stick your head in one.

The rest of the sail to Darwin was lacking any anchorages worth mentioning for now as I hope to write a proper update while I’m sailing to Indonesia.

For those that are always asking, here is the current ITINERARY:

Depart Darwin for Indonesia Aug 1, 5 to 10 days sailing depending on arrival point

Indonesia to Thailand,  Mid September

Thailand to Sri Lanka March, (seriously considering skipping Sri Lanka and Chagos going direct to Madagascar)

Sri Lanka to Chagos, March 2011

Chagos to Madagascar, May 2011

Madagascar to Durban/Richards bay Africa October 2011

Round the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Town Dec/Jan 2012.

Then it’s just an easy down wind sail across the Atlantic back to the U.S or more likely via South America.

WELL… That’s at least that’s how the plan looks for now!   Sorry to everyone for the serious lack of updates recently but I DID update the photos yesterday from Australia so at least you can check those out here;

http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z110/kirkalittle/09%2012%20Australia/

You may have to browse through the Australia sub-folders to see all the new pictures and some of them are great!!

Next update will be at least one or two weeks once I get settled in somewhere in Indonesia!


Filed under: sailing

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