MYSTIC LADY

This is what received today, news from the sea. Ken is a guy in his sixties, I think, and Stephan must be about in between Stef and Ken. Stephan is originally from Schwaebisch Gmuend, an hour away from where Stef and I come from! and has been living in New Zealand for ......... hmmm, forever, I guess. Enjoy reading.

A whole week in Darwin , one of achievement , a fair amount of pleasure , and some good food and drink ! We even found some very good beer !!
David thoroughly organised us in the way of sightseeing , such that,after he left us, ( deserted ! ),there was not too much of interest left to us. That man has a lot to answer for ! But before he left,we had a new Hydrovane rudder shaft made and waiting : had managed a few post cards: visited museums and heritage centres : shopping centres ( ughhhh !!) ;and,amongst other things, beaten both Australia and NZ at the "make life for Ken difficult at the gas game". To explain that,the boat has an English/European Calor gas system and cylinders. The above authorities find these cylinders totally unacceptable,and will not refill them,or allow them to be refilled.As ours were last filled in Panama on the way out,by the time we arrived in NZ supplies were getting somewhat low.A very kind friend of Mark lent us a cylinder for the time in NZ,but that was handed back on our departure.Mark,meanwhile,had made adaptors to fit NZ to our cylinders,but noone would use them.Fortunately,when noone was looking,our cylinders "became" filled from a local cylinder we obtained, legally,actually ! However,in Australia,the problem again reared its ugly head,and noone would touch anything . Fortunately,we found a large cylinder,at a " bargain"price,and not only filled our existing cylinders,but have some left over for top ups,despite the whole procedure being illegal.As we are now well and truly in international waters,they will have to send out a gunboat!!
David,sadly,left us late Saturday night ( thanks,Roz, for letting us have him this long )and Sunday was a lazy day ,somewhat encouraged by all the liquor shops being shut,and we having run out on the boat !
Monday was the 'technical'side of departure,with Customs and officials needing 48hrs notice and documentation in advance:collecting and fitting our new Hydrovane rudder shaft; and,believe it or not,we have recruited a new crew member ! After all the notices in backpackers etc.,and all the talking ( pleading with every eligible person we met !),we have found one !!
Stefanie ( Stef ) is just 22 yrs old,German,and flying up from Cairns,sight unseen,to join us Monday evening.She must be stark raving bonkers mad !!We are quite looking forward to it. However,Customs and Immigration clearance had to be initiated before she arrived here,so a visit on her behalf was initiated,and again we were very lucky in finding a lovely helpful chap called Bill,who bent over backwards to get things organised for us.Despite that,it transpired Stef had a glitch with her permit validity,so , on Tuesday,all of us went to Immigration ,where a very motherly lady took charge and sorted everything,including into Cocos Keeling,which comes under the Australian banner.We are lucky : we don't mind : and they are all marvellous people !
Tuesday evening Stef was "escorted "away for farewells with friends in Darwin.On her return,she slept in the #######,trusting soul.Or maybe she couldn't make it downstairs into the boat that night.We two,left to our own devices,found an "eat all you can" restaurant,offering a 6 course meal for $27, and absolutely pigged out !There was soup,salad,red meats,assorted fish,sweets galore, various coffee and tea, all absolutely delicious and excellent,and round as many times as you liked.Fortunately,closing time intruded !!
Wednesday,day of departure,dawned clear and bright,and everything worked like clockwork.We were refuelled (duty free !),cleared and away by 1030 AM.The only slight problem was no wind ,so we were already into using the engine on and off for some 12 hrs ,during which we passed a large brown turtle lazing on the surface,who raised his ugly head:took one look at us;and somewhat as an afterthought,slowly dissappeared below the surface.It wasn't until 3AM that the wind picked up a little to allow sailing.And when it did arive it was fickle and on and off.However,it did allow some semblance of sailing,picking up a little as the day progressed. A tropic bird,passing,decided to provide interest by performing two quick orbits around the boat,before slowly flapping off into the distance,and who knows where .
Around tea time we were visited by our first Indian Ocean dolphins.These were larger than we had seen before,and had an almost greyish green tinge to their backs.Nowhere near as energetic or friendly as those previously encountered,they swam round a couple of times and dissappeared.Stephan's theory is that,with the water temperature at some 29 degrees C , it makes them lethargic.
Although having sailed a little previously,Stef is well and truly 'in at the deep end' !This is her first trip offshore,and ,with some 2,000 nm of it ahead,will be make or break.So far,she is not only fitting in well,but is actually enjoying the relatively steep learning curve,and the big wide open spaces.A couple of really beautiful sunrise/sunsets have actually helped the female mind along a little..Should she,however,decide at Cocos that she has had enough,there is one plane in two weeks,and that goes to Perth! Meanwhile,a salt water bath every day seems to be taking over,heaven help us !
Thursday night/Friday morning sometime,we crossed the 8hr time zone boundary of 123 1/2 degrees E ,going from GMT plus 9 1/2 toGMt plus 8 .We are now 7 hrs ahead of British Summer time.This is no problem,except it put an extra 1 1/2 hrs onto Friday,waiting for lunch,which is quite a hardship! To alleviate the pressure,a couple of our dwindling stock of beers did help a little !
In terms of progress,we are not doing too badly.It took a while to leave the wind shaddow of Australia behind,and get into the SE Trades,since when the wind has been mainly in the 15 to 20 bracket,virtually running. We have two head sails rigged,and poled out,which is giving us 6 to 7 kts day and night at the moment,with the odd flash into the supersonic ! So,by the time you get this,we should be very close to the Ashmore Reef,at just over 12 degs S,and 123 degs E.We are heading due west.The reef consists of a few "islands",with 4 coconut trees between them! We do not intend stopping !
Best wishes from everyone,and particularly from Stefanie whose decision to come along was rapid and unexpected by all, and more next week.
Stef,
Stephan,
Ken.