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June 4, 2005
Yesterday we took our beautiful new Current Designs kayaks out for spin in the bay and practiced some rescue maneuvres. The initial launch was quite tricky; the beach all around the port area (where we’ve rented some space from the Dili port authority to store Moksha and work on the kayaks) being a dumping ground for old vehicles + scrap metal in general. Just to the left a boat was being relieved of it’s cargo the old fashioned way – the lengths timber being thrown overboard and swum to shore by hand – and typically the guys came over to help. Just like in Tarawa or the Solomons, the locals are always incredibly enthusiastic to help out.
We then had to paddle for about an hour east up the coast to clear the polluted water and find a spot we could each practise flipping over, draining the water from the upturned kayak then making a re-entry. Easy in the calm conditions we experienced and without any gear in the boats. A different story in a real-life I'm sure.
Chris and Ina seem to be getting the hang of the 'Mothership' double Libra XT that will carry much of the heavier equipment, food and water. At 21 feet it will be quite a knack steering it in the right direction and in adverse sea conditions when fully laden. We have some excellent water-bags acquired from Ortlieb Water Solutions - enough capacity to carry 200 litres, enough for 10-12 days at 4-5 litres per person per day (4 team members in total). We hope water won't be a problem on the trip.
In addition to our personal effects we will be taking with us a laptop computer for updating the website, 2 x solar panels for powering 2 x master batteries (that in turn recharge the batteries for the video cameras, the laptop and satphone), 2 x video cameras, tapestock x 100 (for the video cameras), 3 x still cameras, slide film (60 rolls), fishing gear (including speargun), epoxy resin to repair the kayaks, other misc tools and repair materials, 2 x EPIRBS, 8 x flares, 2 x waterfilters, 1 x desalinator (for creating fresh from saltwater in an emergency), 2 x saucepans, kettle and basic camping gear including mosquito domes + bedrolls.
For food we plan to take along basic 'staples' (like rice) that we can mix with locally grown veggies we buy along the way from the villages and fish of course that we catch towards the end of each paddling day.
ETD looking like Tues/Wed morning at this rate. We have a crucial meeting with the Indonesia embassy Monday morning - we're asking them to notify the police, army and navy over the border in Indonesia that we're coming. There was a recent incident of a dive boat being fired upon by an Indonesian naval vessel in East Timorese waters. No one was injured but we're keen for the guys at ground level to be informed that there are some crazy westerners heading their way before we hove into view on the horizon, and to be nice to them! Indonesians are very suspicious of anything out of the ordinary, and the last thing we want to be mistaken for are spies...
Posted on June 4, 2005 1:18 PM
Comments
i am designing polygonic raft structures, having made about 3o cardboard & duct tape models & almost having built a full-scale prototype for the contest downtown in a couple weeks .. trying to find a way to propel it .. i will write more about it .. last night i made a "pirate pack" from triangles, & it does look like a real sailboat too :) -- i want to circumnavigate vancouver island soon
Posted by: dave street at July 4, 2005 9:41 PM