In the Timor Sea: to our north is the Island of Timor, to our southeast is Australia about 250 miles away, and as we enter the Indian Ocean Bali is only 460 miles away now.
In some nice hot tropical hot weather but we hear it’s snowing and sleeting and hailing back in Lunenburg. Last evening our 10x 12′ cargo hatch hosted a few sleeping bodies. All sleeping peacefully under the large collection of bright stars and the cool evening air blowing over them as they caught some shut-eye. Even the aloha deck bench was packed with three crew members sleeping heading to feet, as if they were having a sleepover at a friend’s house and passed out on the couch. It’s nice to sleep on deck in nice weather.
This morning, after ship’s cook Donald’s famous Grenadian meat donut breakfast, the Southern Belle rigging team of Abbey, Rhyanne and Annie, along with Dustin, sent down the starboard main upper topsail foot rope. Once it was on deck the women inspected its condition and went to work replacing old, worn out seizings and chafe gear.
The 8-12 watch is lead this week by Brittni, as she got a chance to experience what it’s like working as a lead seaman. As the saying goes “if you want to get the job done right, get a Picton Castle girl”. The 8-12 watch cleaned the semi dory and gave her a soapy scrub. The semi dory is our spare skiff, we will be launching both the skiff and dory once we arrive to be used for provisioning as well as coxswain practice.
Our sailmaking team continued work on the outer jib. The carpenters, sheltered from the sun’s violent rays, worked on the quarterdeck removing old caulking, with the added help from Dawson! The mid-day power shower is a delight, everyone is grateful to cool off after a busy morning.
This afternoon crew are keeping themselves busy by working on their personal projects; Mandy is finishing her home-made knife, Rhyanne is sanding down her ditty bag bottom and Anders has taken apart his accordion in hopes to repair it after an unfortunate incident where it was caught in the rain. The crew will take it easy now until Monday morning when we begin preparing to anchor in Bali!
From: Vanuatu
Towards: Bali
Date: Saturday, November 17, 2018
Noon Position: 11°35.2′ S – 123°08′ E
Course + Speed: W 3/4 N + 8kts
Wind direction + Force: ESE + 1
Swell Height + Direction: 1m + SW’ly
Weather: Hot
Day’s Run: 196.3 nm
Passage Log: 2811.9 nm
Distance to Port: 505 nm
Voyage: 13181.3 nm
Sails Set: None, motoring