Category: 2012 Blog

Liquid Gold…..

September 21-22, 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

Well Peter and I of s/v \”Mango\” topped up our fuel. The Co-op at Home Island charges $2.42 Australian per LITER! That\’s about $9.30 per GALLON US. So 21 gallons (80 liters) cost 200.00 US! If you think you\’re paying a lot at the pump, try filling up here! Most of the locals have electric powered or gasoline powered 4 wheel ATV\’s and golf carts. This island is only about 1.5 miles long by a quarter mile wide. Come to think of it, I don\’t think we saw a car anywhere on Home Island.

It\’s interesting to see the Malay community on Home Island in full cover up and head scarves for the women and skull caps for the men driving around golf carts on a tropical island! The call to prayer can be clearly heard here at the anchorage 2 miles away. Another interesting fact is that we can see no real industry of any type here. We see a very few stores and infrastructure support, but no real sign of anything else? Apparently there is a move to start a boutique gourmet food business with genuine \”Cocos Island Sea Salt\”. They\’re using a drying technique for the sea water that is very slow, but very traditional. The article I read here says that unemployment is as high as 65%. There is a rumor that a new detention facility will be built here and that may become the local employer. Otherwise, it\’s \”centrelink\” (welfare) for most of the Malay population on Home Island.

The ferry here is brand new. One of the crew told me it cost 1.8 million USD! Air conditioned, fast, attractive, 600 hp Caterpillar diesel engines. Yesterday, when we went to come back to Direction from Home Island, the new Ferry (3 months old), wouldn\’t start! So we had to take the old ferry back here to Direction Island. Ah Paradise….:-)

We made the trip in the dinghy to Home Island from Direction Island, not too wet. Then took the \”new\” ferry (back working now). It\’s computer got fuzzed up which is why it stopped working yesterday. The trip was 25 minutes and a brand new dock facility is on West Island. It\’s been open only 6 weeks.

Think they\’re building up the infrastructure? The main use of the ferry is to bring the high school students back and forth from Home Island to West Island which is why I\’m sure the money was spent.

We took the shuttle bus into town. Town has 200 people. We learned that there are about 450 on Home Island. We went to the super market which is a local Mom and Pop. It was much better stocked than the one on Home Island. We went to the Visitors center, did some internet and walked about the area. The golf course here has 9 holes and like a few other Pacific Islands, the fairways are part of the run way for the jets. So of course, sometimes you can\’t play! If you came here to surf or dive and sit for awhile, it seems you\’d have good options. There is a dive company here, but they won\’t come over the to Direction Island to pick anyone up. The one and only resident Dugong live on the entrance channel to Direction Island. We may take a ride and see if we can find him/her.

We\’re watching the weather and will leave as soon as things settle. This may be 1-3 days.

Stand by, Scott and Nikki

Cocos-Keeling Island…..

19-21 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

We arrived at Cocos-Keeling Island after an exactly 3 day passage from Christmas Island. It was uneventful and a nice sail.

Upon arrival, we noticed the 150 Australian Customs vessel and two small boats which had come in with boat people from Sri Lanka. Apparently, the Sri Lankans head their clients here as it\’s closer than Christmas Island. We learned that the going rate from Sri Lanka is about $8,000.00 pp/US. AND, no crew comes along on any of these \”Leaky Tiki\’s\”. If crew come, they are arrested and prosecuted. So at the last minute, someone aboard is given essentially a hand held GPS and \”follow that line\” instructions. Wow! No experience and sent 1500 miles out to sea on questionable vessels. The boats themselves are taken out to sea and burned by Australian Customs. This is another reason they get a premium fee as the boats are \”throw away\”.

Here on Cocos, there is essentially two communities. One on Home Island, former copra plantation of the Clunies-Ross family, and the other is West Island where most of the ex-pats live and is the center of the small tourist industry here. There is a ferry that goes from Home Island to West Island every day, several times a day, but only comes here to Direction Island, twice a week. We took the Ferry to Home Island yesterday and found out about topping the diesel off, grocery shopping (pretty weak!) and paying our $50.00 Australian for a weeks right to anchor here.

We did a big walk and got an internet fix at their small business center. We had a rice/noodle lunch at their one and only cafe. After that, it was back to Beach House and Nikki has been working on her Celestial Navigation skills. First two sites were worked out and she did virtually a perfect site. Beginner\’s luck? Naw, she\’s good!

This morning, Peter from Germany aboard s/v \”Mango\” and I took our dinghy with jerry cans to fill up on Home Island, about a 20 minute trip. The weather has turned a bit nastier and I got pretty wet on the ride. We\’re seeing our first rain in three months here! It looks like it will be a bit unsettled for the next few days as well, so we\’ll plan our departure accordingly.

We were going to go back to Home Island with the dinghy today and take the ferry to West Island, but we\’ll leave that to be \”weather dependant\”.

There are 8 boats here now. One from the UK, three Americans, one Canadian, one German, one South African en-route to OZ (a power cat!) and one unknown.

The water here is perfect. Warm, clear and lots of fish and well trained black tip reef sharks. These are the \”hamsters\” of the shark family and only hang around to see what goodies we might throw off the boat. If we go swim with them, which I may later, they\’ll flee very fast. However, if you spear fish around them, they\’ll steal your catch right off the spear. As I don\’t do any of that, no worries. Friends John and Paula on \”Mr. John\” recounted when they were here years ago how the black tips would come in when they saw a diver spear fishing. Not so dumb animals after all!

Stand by, hope to tell more before we\’re off…. KIT,

Scott and Nikki (working out those sun shots…:-)))

Nice day at sea…..

18 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

The last 24 hours of sailing has been some of the steadiest and sublime I\’ve yet experienced in a long ocean passage. The swell is 3 meters from the south (10 feet), but it\’s a 10 second period swell with little or no \”seas\” on top of it. The winds have been between 13 and 19 knots. Very steady, very comfortable. All systems are working well (quick find me a piece of wood!).

Last night we had a bit of excitement when we went to put our large reaching sail away. It did not roll up properly and started to come undone in the wind. Nikki and I got it down and stowed in the sail locker. We\’ll have to sort that out, re-raise it and roll it up correctly. However, with the current conditions, we\’ll most likely use if for awhile as it gives us a bit more speed. We\’ve been sailing anywhere between 6 and 9 knots depending on the moment. The current push is not as strong as the leg to Christmas, but we\’re getting a little help from it for sure. I expect we\’ll do another approximately 180 mile day, giving us less than 160 to go. This means we\’ll be slowing down tonight as to not arrive at Cocos before we have good light.

Christmas Island was a \”high island\” at around 1000 feet and easy to see at distance. It also had no outlying dangers as to reefs, etc. Cocos on the other hand is a true atoll. The coconut trees on it are the tallest objects and it\’s much harder to see until we\’re close. The pass seems easy to enter, but the water is shallow and the lagoon full of \”bombies\” (aka: rocks!). So we do want good light to enter there.

We did see what were most likely four Indonesian fishing boats last night. Hard to believe we\’ve sailed 850 miles from Bali, but we are still fairly close to Indonesia which runs mostly east/west at it\’s southern islands. That will of course change quickly once we leave Cocos.

Depending on what there is to do there and how much we\’re enjoying it, we\’ll stay anywhere from three to seven days. Then off to Chagos, 1500 miles to the NNW.

KIT, Scott and Sleeping Nikki….:-)

Bye, Bye Christmas…Onward to Cocos-Keeling……

17 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

We spent our last day at Christmas Island doing some emailing and interneting as we\’re getting close to being truly \”off the grid\”. We do expect some wifi at Cocos, but that\’s it for up to 6-8 weeks.

We did a driving tour of the island and the rain forest habitat seems in very good shape. We drove by the entrance to the Detention Center, but clearly would not be invited in for a tour. Apparently, the Aussie media hangs out on the island waiting for the latest \”at sea\” disaster story. Unfortunately, a bad one happened about 3 weeks ago.

As we were getting ready to depart, we saw our first human trafficking boat moored in Flying Fish Cove. The folks were all in new life jackets provided by the Aussie Navy, everyone seemed tired, but calm. The authorities very professionally escorted them ashore and to the awaiting busses for transport to the center. It was interesting to say the least to see this first hand. The Aussie maritime patrol and Aussie Navy are effectively permanently stationed at Christmas Island. Apparently, the boat people are brought in about every other day….. Their border security is of course easy compared to that of many nations as they have a significant body of ocean surrounding the nation. Nonetheless, it\’s still a big issue \”down under\”.

Both ourselves and s/v \”Ainia\” left the island under very nice conditions. Within a few hours, we were both hailed by Australian Maritime Patrol and identified. They\’re quite professional and efficient. The conditions have been pretty comfortable, winds around 14-18 knots from the ESE, swell at 1.5 to 2.5 meters, little in the way of breaking sea. We\’ve the full mainsail and reacher up for the last 24 hours. The current doesn\’t seem as strong on this leg, but we\’ve got a bit to help push us along.

Cocos-Keeling is the furthest west point of Australia, some 1000 miles northeast of the mainland. It\’s a group of two atolls, very similar to what Cindy and I experienced in the Tuamotus. Tourism is the main industry and something less than a few hundred people live there. What \”detention facilities\” they may or may not have, we\’ve no idea.

Sailing along, 344 nm to go as of this writing. Position is: 11 deg 04 min S x 102 deg 43 min E. Soon, we\’ll be in double versus triple digits on our longitude, every getting closer to the Western Hemisphere…. I\’ll write more on it when we get there, but Cocos-Keeling will represent \”Beach House\” going half way round the world from our most eastern local, Bahia Herradura in Costa Rica.

KIT, Scott with Sleeping Nikki

It\’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…..

13-15 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

We arrived at dawn on the 13th having just passed our friends on s/v \”Ainia\” who left 28 hours before us!  We had a record 235 mile day as we benefited form a lovely 2-3 knot current pushing us here.

We pulled into Flying Fish Cove and picked up a mooring provided by the harbor as to not damage their coral. How nice!  The water was clear and warm.  No rubbish in the bay, what a pleasure.  We checked in with Customs and Quarantine and set off for a walk about town.  Having gotten \”sorted\” as they say here, we arranged for a \”hire care\” (rental) and got a good old \”UTE\”.  We used this to top off with lovely Aussie Diesel fuel and do a major marketing for food as this would be the last stop for groceries for about 6 weeks. We had a lovely meal out at Rummah Tinggi (Toll Booth in Malay) and enjoyed the calm anchorage. The population here is a mixture of Anglo Aussie, Malay and Chinese. Only about 1500 people live here.

The next day, I booked my ticket from South Africa to London to L.A. for just before Christmas (how ironic!) and did lots of inter-netting at the local visitors center.

An interesting feature here is the \”Asylum Detention Center\”. DETENTION:  At least 10,000 people a year come from Indonesia by boat, literally hoping to be taken into custody by the Australian Maritime Patrol or Aussie Navy. Apparently, they catch near 100% of them Why?  These are mostly middle eastern Arabs and Iranians WITH money, trying to get political asylum in Australia.  They frequently fly first class from their home country into Indonesia with family and possessions. They then pay an exorbitant fee, risking life and limb to take a leaky tiki boat from there \”toward\” Australia.  There are very few Indonesians, just middle easterners.  Apparently over 99% of them are successful in gaining asylum, which of course keeps encouraging it. It is very unpopular in Australia oh btw! The hitch is, it takes 3-5 years to go through the process; the entire time, they remain in the detention centers.  There are several around Australia and several have been out-sourced to the island nation of Nauru which is strapped for cash.

We took a 4WD land tour of this tropical island and it\’s rain forest. The high light was the blow holes on the west side of the island. We went by the detention center which looked like nice clean army barracks. There was a guard and no photos or entry allowed. The locals who work there even tell you that they cannot tell you much about the place. We met a gal at a restaurant who works there during the day as a yoga activities instructor ad teaches English….

Soon we\’ll be off to Cocos-Keeling Island, 550 miles to the southwest. Cocos-Keeling is also an Australian island, but much more like the Tuamotus of French Polynesia as where Christmas Island is much like Niue in the South Pacific.

The weather looks good and we expect the trip to take about three days. Stand by,

Scott and Nikki, \”Ute-ing\” around Christmas Island

It\’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…..

13-15 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

We arrived at dawn on the 13th having just passed our friends on s/v \”Ainia\” who left 28 hours before us!  We had a record 235 mile day as we benefited form a lovely 2-3 knot current pushing us here.

We pulled into Flying Fish Cove and picked up a mooring provided by the harbor as to not damage their coral. How nice!  The water was clear and warm.  No rubbish in the bay, what a pleasure.  We checked in with Customs and Quarantine and set off for a walk about town.  Having gotten \”sorted\” as they say here, we arranged for a \”hire care\” (rental) and got a good old \”UTE\”.  We used this to top off with lovely Aussie Diesel fuel and do a major marketing for food as this would be the last stop for groceries for about 6 weeks. We had a lovely meal out at Rummah Tinggi (Toll Booth in Malay) and enjoyed the calm anchorage. The population here is a mixture of Anglo Aussie, Malay and Chinese. Only about 1500 people live here.

The next day, I booked my ticket from South Africa to London to L.A. for just before Christmas (how ironic!) and did lots of inter-netting at the local visitors center.

An interesting feature here is the \”Asylum Detention Center\”. DETENTION:  At least 10,000 people a year come from Indonesia by boat, literally hoping to be taken into custody by the Australian Maritime Patrol or Aussie Navy. Apparently, they catch near 100% of them Why?  These are mostly middle eastern Arabs and Iranians WITH money, trying to get political asylum in Australia.  They frequently fly first class from their home country into Indonesia with family and possessions. They then pay an exorbitant fee, risking life and limb to take a leaky tiki boat from there \”toward\” Australia.  There are very few Indonesians, just middle easterners.  Apparently over 99% of them are successful in gaining asylum, which of course keeps encouraging it. It is very unpopular in Australia oh btw! The hitch is, it takes 3-5 years to go through the process; the entire time, they remain in the detention centers.  There are several around Australia and several have been out-sourced to the island nation of Nauru which is strapped for cash.

We took a 4WD land tour of this tropical island and it\’s rain forest. The high light was the blow holes on the west side of the island. We went by the detention center which looked like nice clean army barracks. There was a guard and no photos or entry allowed. The locals who work there even tell you that they cannot tell you much about the place. We met a gal at a restaurant who works there during the day as a yoga activities instructor ad teaches English….

Soon we\’ll be off to Cocos-Keeling Island, 550 miles to the southwest. Cocos-Keeling is also an Australian island, but much more like the Tuamotus of French Polynesia as where Christmas Island is much like Niue in the South Pacific.

The weather looks good and we expect the trip to take about three days. Stand by,

Scott and Nikki, \”Ute-ing\” around Christmas Island

Sailing Along…..Reflections…..

11 September 2012, (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

On this ominous date, I am reminded of how big events can be in this world, yet how small we are out here floating upon the vast Indian Ocean. The voyages this season will have \”Beach House\” putting on some real mileage.

To recap.. Our first legs were from Brisbane to Darwin where we covered some 2200 miles. From Darwin to Kupang/Lembata then on to Bali approximately 1200 miles.

We\’re now embarking across the Indian Ocean. Our first leg from Bali to Christmas Island is 570 miles. From Christmas to Cocos-Keeling Island about another 500 miles. From Cocos-Keeling to Saloman Atoll in Chagos Archipelago around 1500 miles and from there to Nosy Be, Madagascar, another 1600 miles. The final planned leg will be across the Mozambique Channel (with conditions similar to the US East Coast\’s \”Gulf Stream\”) and into Richards Bay, South Africa an additional 1000 miles. At some time in the Southern Hemisphere Summer, I\’ll most likely work the boat around to Cape Town, an additional 1500 miles.

All in all, around 10,000 miles in this one season, a little over 1/3rd the distance \”Beach House\” had covered in the previous 7 years! Think almost two complete round trips from Los Angeles to New York or Brisbane to Perth. And don\’t forget, we\’re going about 7 mph or 10 kph. Little boat, big ocean, lots of distance.

I always said this trip was much like the journey in the \”Lord of the Rings\” trilogy. Three books. The first from Los Angeles to New Zealand, the second from New Zealand across the Indian Ocean to South Africa, the last across the South Atlantic and Caribbean through the Panama Canal to tag our outbound track. It certainly remains to be seen that this will be accomplished, but onward we go….

So I thought I\’d take this momentus day to reflect and look at the big picture. Sometimes it\’s so big, it\’s scary, but one day at time and perhaps the elephant can be eaten…:-)

Last night was pretty ideal as to sailing conditions. We\’ve a 1+ knot current pushing us along and it\’s really helping. We hope to have this gift the entire way across to South Africa. Nikki, who is an inveterate stargazer, was using her IPAD App last night with it\’s GPS to see the night sky in real time, reflecting on the bright phosphorescence in our wake.

So yes, \”onward\”….

KIT, more as we go… Scott and Nikki

Leaving Las Vegas

10 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

Well, \”leaving day\” is always a bit of a challenge; this one was no exception! After taking on and filtering our questionable quality diesel fuel and getting dock sedentary-itis for three weeks. I\’m always a bit in waiting for the \”other shoe to drop\” mode.

We were all ready to go and at 8 a.m. we said our goodbye\’s and were off. \”Ainia\” had left the day before and \”Saviah\” the day before that.

About 15 minutes later while I\’m putting the dock lines and fenders away, Nikki calls me up out of the depths of the boat and asks me why the channel buoy seems to be marked wrong? I went through looking at all the buoys up and down the channel and suddenly,(as I realized we were on the reef area), the starboard engine just stopped. I immediately assumed we\’d inhaled a plastic bag in the water cooling system as the entire harbor in Bali looks like a plastic trash heap. Just as I was telling Nikki to \”keep the boat away from everything and out of the way\”, we bumped into the reef outside the main channel.

So now, we\’re more worried about the grounding than the engine wouldn\’t start. Quickly I hailed down a local with a big outboard and within 5-10 minutes we were out of danger. Here is where raising our movable daggerboards really pays off. I keep them down to \”bump\” an object first and hopefully keep us safe from hull damage. Then by raising them, we have enough water to effect a quick escape. The tide was falling too! We could have really been stuck, not to mention rubbed the wrong way by a dead coral reef.

I gave the guy some cash as a thank you (another story!) and went to check our water cooling system on the stopped engine. It checked out fine, so we tried and successfully re-started the engine. On the road again….. Or so we thought!

Five minutes later, the starboard engine started acting like it was fuel starved. Why does this always happen in either totally remote or totally traffic jammed places?…:-) I quickly changed with the flip of a handle, one fuel filter for a reserve one. No luck, the engine died. I changed the fuel filters while in the channel on both engines and tried again. This time, the starboard engine started right up. Five minutes later it died again.

That was enough, we through in the towel and headed back to the marina which I was loathe to do. We tied up on the outside dock and it occurred to me that it was most likely the SECONDARY fuel filter that was also plugged, a job better done at the dock anyway. Nikki and I quickly changed this filter – which is hard to tell if it\’s junked up or not in most cases, but here I could clearly see it was. Not wanting to take a chance, we changed the port motor secondary fuel filter as well; it too was clogged up. We told the marina as we\’d only lost two and half hours of the day, that we\’d test the engines and if they worked, goodbye again. If not, we\’d need a mechanic and be back in an hour or less.

Well, this time the \”leaving spirits\” were on our side, both engines purred better than ever and off we went. Making sure to follow our inbound track as to not repeat our bumping boo boo.

Once we cleared the south side of Bali, it was 570 miles, straight to Christmas Island… Stay tuned and watch for our position reports as we now embark on an approximately 5,000 mile voyage across the Indian Ocean….

Scott and Nikki

Bali Touring, Getting Ready for Christmas……Part 2

7-10 September, 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

We met a few boats who would also be sailing to South Africa, but as it\’s a long long trip, we would mostly not be seeing each other.

S/V \”Ainia\” with Bruce and June from Toronto (and crew of two more) as well as young couple Andrew and Diana from Seattle aboard their Hans Christensen 34 s/v \”Saviah\” would be sailing similar routes. \”Ainia\” might press straight through to Durban, \”Saviah\” will make the usual stops in Mauritius and Rodriegeous Islands (both French) en-route to Durban sailing south of Madagascar.

Due to the more pleasant weather conditions and wanting to break up our trip a bit, Nikki and I will go the northern route up to Chagos Archipelago. Chagos is just south of the equator and in the central Indian Ocean. From there we will head to the top of Madagascar staying well away from places we don\’t want to be.

Chagos is also home to the most secret US Navy base in the world at Diego Garcia Atoll. We\’re not allowed to go into it (unless emergency), but at least as we brush near bad guy territory, it\’s nice to know they don\’t want to be anywhere near the US or British Navies.

So, our next post will be as we depart Bali for Christmas Island, Australia. Our planned route will take us to Christmas Island, Australia, Cocos-Keeling Island, Australia, Chagos Archipelago, North, then west Madagascar (Nosy Be) and finally into Richards Bay, South Africa on the northeast coast of South Africa.

Stand by and KIT, Scott and Nikki

27 August – 9 September, 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

Well, I\’d love to tell you how wonderful Bali is. Unfortunately….not so much. It\’s over crowded in Denpasar, (the main tourist area), way too much traffic and rubbish everywhere. It\’s not just that everyone smokes and throws their rubbish out the window into the street. I\’ve NEVER seen so much junk floating in the water as I have in this country. I think I\’ve seen 5 times as much junk floating here in the water as I\’ve seen since we left California. That\’s saying a lot! Frankly, I didn\’t see the appeal.

Nikki and Izzie had a day tour to Ubud which is a tourist haven; home to shopping till dropping and the famous \”Monkey Temple\”. The Monkey Temple is Balineese Hindu site which has as it\’s main feature, the local monkeys crawling around as they will. High enthusiasm did not seem to be the order of the day, but undaunted and at the suggestion of sailing friends with a little push from my cousin Janice, we decided to do a day tour up to the north end of the island to it\’s volcano. I believe Indonesia is home to more active volcanos than anywhere else in the world including the famous \”Krakatoa\” located between Java and Sumatra. The driver was nothing short of mad. His English was not quite as advertised and the traffic all the way was abysmal. We stopped at a few Hindu Temples along the way and finally reached the volcano which the restaurant we went to had a lovely view. It last erupted in 1998 and the light lava flows are still standing in sharp contrast to the vegetation in the caldera. The food was mediocre, the view worth an hour and back we went.

Along the way, we stopped again in Ubud, the shopping here is good if you like that sort of \”chachkis\” (junk) shopping. While in Ubud, we met a friend of Janice and David\’s (Scott\’s Cousin), \”Kedek\”. Janice last saw her 14 years ago. She remembered Janice and David very well and was a lovely gal. We had a brief hug and hello\’s with quick goodbyes as we were exhausted and Kedek had to get back to work. The highlight of the way home was when our crazy driver was pulled over by a policeman and they almost got into a fist fight. The screaming match was ugly enough, but calmer heads finally prevailed and off we went.

Our next several days were spent getting ready to leave for Christmas Island, Australia. The local guys, washed and waxed the boat and did the metal polishing; \”Beach House\” has never looked so good. Checking out of Indonesia required stops at the Navy, Quarantine, Immigration, Customs and finally the Port Captain to get our clearance papers. It went pretty well only taking about 2 hours with the local taxi.

Part 2 to follow….. Scott and Nikki