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May 2, 2005

Things are looking up and away...

After a frustrating few days there when it seemed that nothing was coming together, an ABC TV report on Dateline produced a flurry of local interest down at the boat and a welcome offers of support. Darwin is finally coming around it seems...

We're into the final stages of getting things together. My 'do list' is starting to get shorter rather than longer. We're just waiting on the marine batteries from Sydney which we hope will arrive tomorrow Tuesday. Kenny then arrives in Wednesday evening and we'll launch Moksha on the high tide Thursday afternoon around 3 pm local time. Then it'll be the usual routine of loading her with enough food for the task in hand (3 weeks - a conservative estimate for the voyage) and taking her out for a spin around the bay to test the pedal mechanism and let Lourdes get a feel for her.

Estimate Time of Departure is currently Saturday 4am local time Darwin. This may change for those looking to come down and see us off, so please check back. And as our late friend Peter Bird once told us, 'Go when only when you're ready. It doesn't matter that people have to wait around. It's your own lives that are in the balance'. I've always kept these words close to heart, even when the media are showing up and pressuring us to go. I intend to continue this tradition - it's brought us good luck this far.

As far as weather is concerned we were hoping to get a narrow window of slack wind and current between the wet and dry season. But for some reason (being an El Nino year?) the trades have already set in at 15-20 knots. Not an impossible task for the voyage we are aiming to do, as long as it's not all from the east. To get around the eastern edge of Timor to Dili we'll need some help from the southeast.

Four days and counting...

Posted on May 2, 2005 11:07 AM

Comments

Posted by: astrid at May 3, 2005 4:26 PM

Posted by: gl. at May 2, 2005 11:08 PM