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Hello to all,
AUSTRALIA
Thought I should send you an update on the voyage so far, the attached photo was taken from Basilea inflatable tender. You can see from the photo how close we were to the largest thing on the planet. We were anchored of some wrecks and had just been diving when we spotted tree adult whales and a calf close to Basilea.The wrecks form a natural harbor of Tangalloma,which is on Moreton Island.We had been anchored there for two days enjoying the 20knot South easterly sea breeze,kiting in board shorts.
Back to the whale story, I grabbed Mitch and Melissa and the camera and proceeded close to the where the whales were. What I realized was that we stood between them and deep water, as the wrecks formed a sort of natural harbor, I stood on the bow of the dinghy taking photos of this amazing mammal. Because we stood in its path it dived below us, the thing was huge, it created its own surface tension on the water, like forming an oil slick,when it submerged we could see the calf, it was an amazing experience to be apart of.
All good things come to an end, we had Mum and Dad with us and had to sail up the Brisbane River take them to the airport, some 15 miles and anchored right in the CBD, what a contradiction!Brisbane is a wonderful city, like Melbourne but smaller, the river is beautiful, board walks restaurants and Bars, like South bank in Melbourne which is getting close to what Brisbane river is like, it was good to see, because Brisbane I thought, was behind in style and culture.Anyway as I right this im waiting for a seal for the transmission, I had to drop the gearbox yesterday and replace the seal due to an excessive trans leak,
My back is sore our home looks like a building site,but soon (hopefully)Basilea will be on her way again.
Hey mate, Well im sitting here listening to Cold Play reading your email, we are moored with 90feet of chain out, a bridle and an anchor buddy!Its blowing SE 20/30, the bullets coming down off Great Keppel are more like 50K the swell is wrapping around the Northern part of the island to where we are, causing us to jump forward on the anchor, then a bullet hits from the other direction and back we go till yank!Had a pretty good test getting here, sailed 34 hours averaging 8knots! The second day I called up a yacht on our rear horizon, couldn't make it out so I called her up, this guy Pete answers and we have a chat and he then says, ill see you in a couple of hours, I thought he must be in a Cat, with that confidence... we had 8 hours of sailing to go!
So I watched him from I think 8 in the morn , he didn't make a dint on us, we pulled up rounding the eastern end of the island in total darkness, id lost sight of him, anyway after a sketchy anchoring and no lead lights, we went to bed after a scotch or too! Shit it was raining and blowing too!
Woke up in the morning to see us parked right along side two boats, one was our friends of Billabong and the other was a 55ft Cat! So I had to find out if his name was Pete, sure enough it was!
Anyway all is well, my back is much better, been wearing a brace and about to put a crab pot out for dinner!
Yeh mate,where we are current is a big factor, we are sailing around port Clinton, of the east Capricornia coast, big tides , today the low is 5meters, this effect on a prevailing trade wind makes the going tough, so planning is important,we are aim to anchor at our location in daylight as anchorage at night is dangerous because we are amongst reef!So current estimation and its timing are critical in my navigation, ive sen yachts being swept onto reef and the vessel lost. My yacht is not insured so I risk every day my fortune (basilea) against my skill as a seamen.
Well done on the golf course, 10th is good, build on this mate when we raced for Australia, a 10th was a keeper, cause if we were consistently in the top 10, we new we had confidence to do better, you have a great mind Vida, you should persue your sailing, your questions are intelligent and you always
News from Basilea,Its about 1000hrs Tuesday, sailing with kite up running before a light SE. Just passing Hinchinbroke Island, seas are smoother since the kite is up,not as much rolling. Six hours till Dunk and a safe anchorage, didn't sleep last night, we have no transmission. The bloody thing crapped it coming into Percy islands. WE went to Airlie and have sent the gearbox to Brisbane, they should have it today, so Stevo a mate is coming up to Port Douglas. So we thought we'd risk it and sail to Cairns, and drive to Port Douglas, in the meantime hopefully, we will learn what the problem is with the gearbox and that it can be fixed inexpensively. In the meantime we find it frustrated, just waiting around.You start to think a lot about Insurance, Basilea isn't insured,, we priced it and even though it could cost upwards of $15K, not all parts of the world are covered, and because of the huge outlay, without any Income, I have decided to learn to do without Insurance for the first time in my life. It's a scary thought when the engine die's and your flying down wind late at night around the great Barrier reef!Anyway, the photo was taken on dust past McKay. I counted 40 ships that night> Hope you are well and safe.
We are at Cape Grenville, born in Aus, its an amazing feeling being hear, ive looked at the map of Australia since I was a little boy, that seems like a long time to Mitch and James, just thinking, I only hope that James reads this email; I know mum and dad will get it and probably Mitch, but I also hope James gets it.Its about 7.00 o'clock, feel like its been a big mission getting here, years of planning, mels stressing about the toilet overflowing and all I can do is want to write this email to you guys, who said this was easy, its not however, its very worthwhile to me, don't know why, guess I get the satisfaction to try and master my own destiny sailing. It's a feeling of great fulfillment, just getting what I believe life is meant to be.
Don't know why about im excited and scared at the same time, I wanted to share this moment with the people I care so much about, for the past seven days ive been trying to call one of you guys on the sat phone and its frustration cause, it doesn't always work, but, when I really needed to hear from someone, the other day, I spoke to James, it was a wonderful feeling and I realize how much I miss him and how proud I am of him, he told me he had an apprenticeship as a Roof Plumber, he sounded so excited, and so did I.
I love him very much, as I love you all the same way, so that's why I m writing this email, email is a great thing of this generation and im proud I have two sons, of that generation that I feel sure will look after the place as have had I and before me, my parents, I guess that's what family means, and if sailing the seven seas, takes me to realize that importance, my travels me something to me which I feel compelled to share with you guys.
Tomorrow morning at 0600 hrs we set sail to cover 80 miles before we cross the "Top" With a bit of luck we will get the tides right and Basilea will sail on by Cape York as if it was inevitable and so...
By Thursday, (I Think) we will be on the other side of Cape York The furtherest out post of northern Australia a great country, so big, we are very lucky that we were born in, looking at it for real, not on a map and I will celebrate in your honor what I have done and in a four more days we will be in Darwin, when I will be able to talk in Person to you again!
We made Darwin, finally, waiting on a new prop and we leave next week, I think the 21st, havnt had time to scratch myself, She keeps me busy, just about the start to hook up the HF to the Computer so we can receive weather charts, Grib files are ok but they don't show the Pressure Chart, and I reckon had I of seen one before leaving Bamaga across the Azura sea,I would of waited, thinking about that trip, its probably the hardest trip of sailed in over two decades, that makes me feel old? Maybe its just me getting old that makes it harder! Hey guys, we should be departing tomorrow all going well. Its been full on Basilea is just about ready and hopefully we get the Marine teck to turn up today and install a smart regulator and we are gone.So we have placed a new web site up, please have a look at it. To our friends, it will show you our Journey, my blogs and how to contact us while away.theres some great photography and I am learning the program so it hopefully will become more interactive as we go along our Journey.We will be updating it as much as possible. We've put some stuff in about the next four months surfing and kiting etc so add it to your favorites.We hope you like it. Best wishes to you allNow to cross the Indian Ocean..yeh! A long time since saying Giddy!Position Report from Basilea September
2007.
Its seems a long time since ive said
hello, so hello.
We are in
It’s cheaper faster and for a Third
World Country, amazing to say the least. Don’t believe what the Ausi Media says
about Indo. They are a fantastic contented happy race of people. I can’t believe
how much the Corporate’s in
Just yesterday I purchased a new 15hp
Yamaha outboard, I paid A$1200, in Aus the same engine would cost $2900! Bought
a Honda Genset for A $ 250, Anaconda charged $2000 and the thing lasted 6months
and when the thing broke down, they wouldn’t even recognize the 12mont warranty?
Pure Greed, anyway so be it!
Anyway, we’ve had an amazing adventure
since arriving In Indonesian waters. It’s a challenging place to sail.
Incredibly deep waters strong currents and inaccurate Charts which have tested
my skill as a seaman and I am humbled by how this country works. The people are
so happy, they have very little yet they need little to put a smile on there
faces. My Indonesian Language is small yet there English is fantastic! Ive
worked out that the best way too get by is to smile and so , with little Indo,
ive got by and have made many friends here.
We had an amazing time in, a
After leaving here we sailed north to
Flores and Komodo, home of the Dragon and some of the most pictures’ waters ive
seen, Fucking amazing, like perhaps the Med! I will write more about this in
time.
So much that we’ve seen that I cant
still believe, Australia and the World has perhaps not discovered yet and
perhaps, that’s a good thing, it reminds me of a lyric, the Eagles wrote once,
“call some place paradise and you can kiss it
goodbye!”.
What I fear is Global warming, if it is
to Happen and is true, most of the people and how they live will perish, I have
little doubt about that fact, entire communities live at sea level. They literal
LIVE ON THE
As I mentioned, I have much to right
about this in time.
We have spent much time in small
Villages learning the way of the Indonesian, Muslim or Hindu, they all get along
just fine and have a genuine understanding of Religion and what it is about. I
could not say the same for other Religions I have seen in my small time on this
Planet.
We have spent the last Month in Lombok
and particularly the Gilli islands NW Coast of Lombok, what an amazing place,
the scenery is raw and spectacular, huge Volcanoes, higher than any mountain in
Aus, the Gilli islands are beautiful, great surf great food great anchorages and
the people welcome us with open hearts. WE are contemplating staying here for a
while and setting up a charter business.
We’ve met some Ausi’s who run a resort
called the Beach House, Mathew and Di. They are formerly from
I’ve surfed Scare Reef at its best, Dale
Chapman and Reece, spent a week with us sailing the East Coast of Lombok to
Scare Ekas and Desert Point and then back to Gilli, we had perfect surf, and it
was good to have had them aboard.
Just said goodbye to Melissa’s parents
Keith and Janet and im certain, Keith who,s a healthy 60 something left here
with a fondness of
Traveling across
Anyway, got to go, had too many Bin
tangs tonight in the local Village playing the Harp, getting better at the
guitar and while im nursing a small head injury from a surfing injury on the
reef at Lacerations, id better get some sleep!
Missing You all, and I wish you all my
love. I miss
I have lost count of the places we’ve seen so far and it’s only just the surface. We are about to set sail for Pucket should be there in a couple of days. Spent the last month in Malaysian, two weeks of that in the blister heat sanding re-fairing and repairing Basilea Rudder, re-antifouled her and I reckon she’s ready for another two years in the deep blue, Basilea should know be able to steer us true again, ive had to take it easy since hitting the bomie in Bali, and thank god I did because when we hauled her from the water we found the rudder had almost split in two, so we were very lucky, dodging huge electrical storms Gales and bloody fishing nets and boats, its been a challenge and no two days are the same, we launched her yesterday and after spending hours polishing all the grim of her, the Langkawi air show has been on and the jets had sprayed red dye from there engines which left a red stain all over her top sides.
Went kite surfing the
other day, the NE monsoon has kicked in here now it blows 15 to 20k and the
region is so picturess. The scenery is amazing sheer cliffs rise up from the
water and the colors are striking, I will make a point to start photographing
again and send you, just that over the past month I haven’t truly had the time.
Can you believe that, I keep asking myself when I can sit back and relax but
running the boat and sailing certainly takes a lot of my time. Its funny cause
we are living on our sailing budget we have learnt to be frugal as we have no
income so little things take lots of time, just this morning it took me four
hours to carry 300 liters of fuel from a service station to the yacht and fill
her up again, in Aus I would just pull up to a marina and fill her at the pump
and pay the price,, guess that’s what you do when you live in a city. Anyway its
good bloody exercise and it keeps you fit and you get out and meet the people
and learn there cultures which are pretty cool. I calculated that I saved A$250
equivalent and got a workout lugging jerry cans.Hanging for a surf, but
the next month will be spent spear fishing diving and kite surfing. Malaysia is
cheap so cheap, its amazing being an Australian living here, I wouldn’t say the
people are the most outwardly friendly people put I have met some great people
likewise, there government looks after their welfare very well, they hardly pay
tax and the cost of things is so cheap. A can of beer is 30c, fuel is cheap and
the people have housing partly funded by the government, it’s an advanced
economy lead primarily by a good sense of welfare.Once we leave the
Malacca straights we are in the Andaman Sea, the top of the Indian Ocean, to our
port side is Sumatra and Arche then due south is the Maldives, we are planning
to leave here in February and reach south west to the Andaman Islands then run
before the wind south to the Maldives another 1000 miles, by June 2008 the SE
trades start to kick in and we will sail North again back up to Arche and then
the Mentawis we are in the flow now and using the seasons to our
advantage.