Yesterday we motored for about three hours before we found some wind. Not much though, just enough to fly the asymmetrical, one of those really light balloon-type spinnakers. Most of the day, we managed to do around 3 to 3 1/2 knots (nm/hr). That doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t, but passage-making is a 24 hr business, and if you multiply that number by 24, it’s still around 80 miles for the day.
At four in the afternoon, we heard a plane in the distance, and sure enough, the Australian border police swooped down a minute later to check us out. The police flew very low over us and, a minute later, hailed us on the VHF radio on channel 16. I think that’s the official channel worldwide.
“Code Blue, Code Blue, this is the Australian border police. Do you read over?”
We are reading fine and are asked to go to channel 71, keeping channel 16 open for other official traffic. The officer asked if we’re still intending to sail to Christmas Island and, if so, our eta. I say I hope for anything between 15 to 20 days, but it’s a tough call to make with these light winds. I hear a chuckle, and he says, “Well, I’d rather be up here in the plane than with you guys.” He asked if we were all in good health and said they would monitor us all the way to Christmas Island. Comforting to know. ‘Fair winds’ and back to channel 16.
Three sharks cruised around the boat for a while. Nice-looking, distinct black tips on dorsal and pectoral fins, identifying them as black-tip sharks. And talking about wildlife, on top of the contraption above the cockpit, the horizontally mounted solar panels form a perfect miniature helipad for incoming birds. Eight of those hitchhikers as we speak. Noisy! And crapping all over the place.
We also made water. Not that we needed the water, but the machine needs to run every ten days or so, preventing it from fouling. It takes salt water from the sea and turns it into drinking water. It takes a bit of preparation before the freshwater flows, but when it does, it makes about 55 liters in an hour. Just under a liter a minute. Good. We all had warm showers.
Twice I’ve seen a snake of some sort, but I haven’t found a book on board yet that could help identify them.
An Indonesian fishing boat just passed by. From a distance, it looks like a small barge with a mobile home on top. An Australian policeman told me there is a big problem with these guys fishing in Australian waters, but I really have no details.
Very little wind. I downloaded the newly updated predictions, and it does not get any better in the near future. We motored from about three this morning and are now slowly sailing since noon. We are literally chasing the wind.
