Noon Update : 24-July-2007

Timor Sea Crossing
10'55.0S/125'11.6E

• 110nm last 24 hrs
• 96nm to Kupang, Indonesia
• 341nm from Darwin, Australia
• winds SE 10-15 knots
  
• seas S 2-3 ft

Happy Birthday to Brother Ron, the webmaster who makes this whole thing happen!

We have had another pleasant 24hr run with the winds slowing down in the evening and stronger during the daylight hours. Sandpiper still has other rally boats around us and we are able to chat it up with them on the VHF radio. The only other traffic we have seen was a large oil rig we passed last night that was flaring off its excess gas in a giant fireball, and 2 fishing boats 2 miles away from us.

Fishing boats at night always make me a little nervous as there is no way to tell at night what they are fishing for. Boats that drag nets are OK as their nets are right behind them. But long-liners have fishing gear that extends for miles. Also, most long liners run their gear fairly deep. But sometimes they are set up to catch surface fish. At night there is no way to tell which way their gear is deployed. Also, there are drift-netters, which are not very common. They set long nets along the surface which are very hard to see at night. We have been lucky so far with most fishing boats. But we did snag a long line in Mexico since they were marking their gear with old coke cans.

At sunset tonight we had less than 70 miles to go. So we decided to slow Sandpiper down so we would not make landfall during the night. There are supposed to be many unlit objects along the Indonesian coastline that we do not want to run into. We have rolled in the jib and double reefed the main sail, slowing us down to 3 to 4 knots. If we can maintain this speed, then we can expect to arrive at the entrance channel at 0800h.

We will be arriving at the anchorage in Kupang, Timor where all the other rally boats are anchoring. We will be flying our quarantine flag and wait to be cleared in by Indonesian Customs. After that we are free to go ashore and do a little exploring. There are scheduled events ashore with the Rally which we will report back to you as soon as possible.

We are still having a little trouble getting a connection with Sailmail. We can send OK. But it is time consuming to download our new emails because we only have 10 minutes use a day. We have 19 emails in our inbox. So it might be some time before I can get them all downloaded. So have a little patience if we do no respond right away.

More when it happens,
Tom and Amy

Noon Update : 23-July-2007

Timor Sea Crossing
11'24.1S/126'59.8E

• 104nm last 24 hrs
• 215nm to Kupang, Indonesia
• 231nm from Darwin, Australia
• winds SE 10-15 knots
• seas S 2-3ft

Happy Birthday to June Sherman (Amy's Grandmother in Florida)!! Thanks for the great package of candy we received just before we left Darwin! Also, a Happy Birthday to Mom Larson in Tucson Arizona!!

Slow overnight sail with really light winds all night. Ran the engine for one hour to charge up the batteries. Sailed the rest of the night, averaging 3.5 knots all night. The winds picked up slightly in the morning and now we have been averaging 4 knots since.

Still have a few boats around us. Was able to chat with S/V Shiraz, who was 4 miles ahead from us. They have since blazed ahead of us with their spinnaker flying.

S/V Blue Sky is one day behind us. They did not leave Darwin until Sunday morning because they were getting last minute supplies for the boat (paper towels).

We also have a new F.O.S. (Friends of Sandpiper)! Welcome S/V Sunburn, who we met pulling into Cooktown. They are sailing with 2 kids and are 4 miles off our bow.

We are hoping to make Kupang early Wednesday morning. If we keep this speed, then we should be arriving right on time.

I apologize for the late postings. We are in some kind of Sailmail black hole and we are having a hard time getting a connection. The antennas that we connect to is one in Firefly, New South Wales, Australia, that is 1200 miles away. We have used that antenna for the last year. The next antenna is in Brunei, which we are getting closer to (now 1200 miles away). I think the problem is that we are right between these two antennas. So hopefully the Brunei antenna will start working for us the closer we get to it.

The other reason it is hard to get connected is that when we transmit out emails on our SSB radio, the transmit signal is so strong that is shuts off the autopilot, which makes Sandpiper sail in circles. So when we transmit, one of us has to be on the helm with power shut off to the autopilot while the other person works on getting a connection with the laptop.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

Noon Update : 22-July-2007

Timor Sea Crossing
11'50.1S/128'42.5E

• 127nm last 24 hrs
• 319nm to Kupang, Indonesia
  
• 127nm from Darwin, Australia
• Winds SE 15-20 knots
• seas S 2-3ft

We pulled up anchor at 10:45 yesterday morning and crossed the start line with 107 other boats to begin the 'Darwin to Kupang' Rally. There was an official rally boat anchored at the starting line taking pictures and airplanes overhead escorting the fleet out of the channel. We had a great beam reach until sunset and then ended up motoring all night as all the wind just disappeared. Right at sunrise this morning the winds came back up and we have been sailing straight down wind ever since.

We have not sailed with this many boats since we left San Diego with the Baja Ha-Ha fleet of 140 boats back in 2005. It is nice to look around and see boats all along the horizon. As the sun set last night we were surrounded by many other boat's running lights. Luckily, there is not much chance of a collision because we are all sailing in the same direction.

All of the catamarans have blasted away and are well forward of us. But Sandpiper is keeping her own with the mono hulls. Our new, super cool, jib pole is making this downwind run quite nice.

One thing we replaced while we were in Darwin was Sandpiper's port & starboard running lights with new LED lights. With the old sidelights and stern light switched on for sailing at night, they were quite a draw on the batteries when the engine is not running. These new LED lights are not only brighter, but they use a fraction of the power!

One other thing that we have changed for this trip is that Sandpiper has gone totally electronic . We are using no paper charts. Usually we plot on paper along with the electronic charts. But we have found that the electronic C-Map charts to be so accurate that we only use paper large-scale ocean charts incase the 2 computers and 4 GPS's fail. Its kind of weird not having a paper chart to glance at or use for a reference. It is making Amy a little crazy.

We were told that all the boats participating in this rally will have their positions posted on the 'Darwin to Kupang Rally' web site. I do not know what it looks like. But it should have all the boats positions posted with updates every 24 hours since we are all checking in via SSB radio every day. If it is not, then check out where brother Ron has us plotted on the Google Maps.

More in 24,

Tom and Amy