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Neill 10/13/99
Two days out from Darwin on the way to Indonesia.
We plan to pass to the west of Timor, up to the north side of Florres
Island. The days have been hot, 90's. The sailing is fine. Very calm
seas, light wind. Margarita is doing great. Used the spinnaker today for
the first time in over a year. We plan to blast through Indonesia after
looking at the Komodo dragons and seeing a bit of the islands. Then
through Malaysia and on to Thailand hopefully by the end of November.
That gives us a few weeks to cruise there before the trip home at
Christmas. All well here. The kids are fully immersed in the new school
year. Bronwen is finding the work more challenging, longer assignments.
Emma and Douglas are both really pleased to have a set out schedule of
what to do each day, rather than the standard "do school for 3 hours" that
they have been living with. So far so good.
Neill 10/15/99
Nice message, Steve. We have just left the Timor
Sea heading north towards Flores. Still not sure whether to go around the
East side or west side of Flores. Reading lots of accounts still. We
have a full 24 hours to decide. What's the rush? We are all a bit edgy
about it. Piracy and now the troubles up here. We won't spend much
time. Want to see the dragons on Komodo Island, and some Urangutang park
near Bali. Other than that we will probably top up the fuel tanks and get
out of dodge. Douglas has turned into a real worry wort in his old age.
He was consumed with piracy, but today has switched as our friends the
Hoptoads did not make the radio schedule this afternoon. I think they
switched clock times and forgot. Still we are all concerned. I even tried
calling Darwin Radio on the SSB to check on any EPIRB hits today but
couldn't reach them, worrying on its own. Anyway, Oz was fun, but we are
glad to be moving on. The top end was hot and nasty. Don't know why
anyone would live there. And the anchorage/marina scene is wild with 7
meter tides. A story for another time. (Is the Brewery still operating?
How is your stock?) The East side of Oz was fantastic. Really nice
cruising, good snorkelling etc. The people are nice, but not as nice as
NZ. Definite difference. And the lack of integration of the Aborigines
is not nice to see. Very different from the Maoris in NZ. As for
Thailand, we will go up the strait of Malacca and then up the West side to
a Phuket. Everything we read sounds great. Like Mexico with the palapas
and cheap food, except it is Thai!!! Yeha!!! We've heard that in some
anchorages you can take the dinghy to shore and buy a pot full of food
from the cart vendor. I'm getting hungry. We love to read about your
days. Funny. Michael playing CivII. Emma, Douglas and I go through
stages of intense addiction. I have been playing during the night watches
on this passage. Really makes the time fly. And Sarah and Delinda at
rehearsals. That must be very exciting. And time consuming! How awesome
that she got that part! A Mercedes! Sounds good. 20 yrs old, barely
broken in. Must be a considerable change from teh Toyota. OK, all for
now. Great to hear from you. And thanks from Emma, she is in bed, for the
Jo's Boys. Keep it for December.
Neill 11/6/99
I haven't checked the mail yet. We did not try and
bend. A real lesson in engineering and the modern marriage. We have had
advice to go ahead and bend, but I think that it was because the situation
was not well described by me. I do not see how pulling up on the free end
can possible unbend the bend. It can only make a new one. Anyway, at
cruising RPM, the wobble is nearly gone. About 0.5 mm travel. So we are
content. May blow past Singapore and wait for Thailand to get a new
shaft. Anyway, thanks for your help. We had a fun two day road trip in
Bali. It is a dirty and poor island. Incredibly geared up for tourists
dollars. Hawkers very aggressive. They will do anything to get an item
into your hands and then start bargaining. Emma had a man try and get her
to take a really nice BIG elephant carving. "Free, free. Gift for you.
Take" Then they tell you they of course can't just give it away. Cultural
lesson. If I didn't tell you already, I left camera bag (35 mm SLR plus 3
lenses, plus camcorder) in a taxi. Never got it back. Called company
several times, no way. The value of that stuff in a pawn shop much more
than annual salary so no way he would think of returning. Big bummer.
Lost 2 hrs of video, from as far back as Vanuatu S thinks. Ugh. This
passage slow. Very light wind. We are on the way to Kalimantan (Borneo)
to visit Orangutan game park. Sounds great.
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