Mischief Newsletter No 4
Selamat Siang!
We're in Bali after a five and a half day crossing with a bit of adventure towards the end as we hit a strong current some 25 miles south of Bali. We were flying at 8-9 knots and only doing 2knots over ground, and the sea was a veritable washing machine- phew, the worst of
it only lasted 1-2 hours, and then even though we still had a very strong 3-5 knot head current, the sea eased more and more until we reached close to shore and hugged the coast round to Benoa harbour.
The crossing itself was quite pleasant – it took us 5 ½ days to do the 734 nautical mile crossing. First day out of Dampier we were moving at a great 7-8 knots, but the wind died down after the first 30 hours and we spent the next 30 hours motor sailing gently at around 5 knots before we hit the south east trades and they blew us steadily for a couple of days, again doing 6-8 knots. We did 4 four watches, and I elected to do the midnight to 4.00am which was really no problem at all. Mind you I did have a really fascinating book The History of Venice and a red night light which allowed me to read without obscuring my night vision. We did not see any shipping until close to Bali, and only encountered the fishermen during the last 20 miles, inside the current.
Bjorn and I really enjoyed hearing from you all and especially appreciated those wonderful messages of encouragement – they were very precious to us.
Now sipping my first Balinese pina colada at Bali marina, and waiting for customs and immigration to turn up before getting ready to go explore this beautiful island.
Ah, here comes Bjorn: We’re all cleared now. Except for quarantine, who were two really nice guys, nobody else came on board and clearing customs and immigration was a breeze, with Bali Marina doing all the work in a couple of hours. Off on our first walk to stretch our legs after 6 days!
One day later:
Caught up with an American and a Dutch couple and had dinner at the Marina last night. Good and very cheap food – Marina itself is very small but the facilities are pretty OK.
We are now organising to go around the island and explore! We intend to ‘do’ Bali first, then attempt to go east (north of islands) to visit Lombok (& Gili Islands), and hopefully Komodo – I don’t know how far we’ll get before turning west once again and then make our way to the Kumai river in Borneo visiting the islands in between.
Our very best wishes to you all and we promise to try and live up to our boat’s name – we have to, she really looked after us and is a very comfortable cruising yacht.
Selamat Siang!
We're in Bali after a five and a half day crossing with a bit of adventure towards the end as we hit a strong current some 25 miles south of Bali. We were flying at 8-9 knots and only doing 2knots over ground, and the sea was a veritable washing machine- phew, the worst of
it only lasted 1-2 hours, and then even though we still had a very strong 3-5 knot head current, the sea eased more and more until we reached close to shore and hugged the coast round to Benoa harbour.The crossing itself was quite pleasant – it took us 5 ½ days to do the 734 nautical mile crossing. First day out of Dampier we were moving at a great 7-8 knots, but the wind died down after the first 30 hours and we spent the next 30 hours motor sailing gently at around 5 knots before we hit the south east trades and they blew us steadily for a couple of days, again doing 6-8 knots. We did 4 four watches, and I elected to do the midnight to 4.00am which was really no problem at all. Mind you I did have a really fascinating book The History of Venice and a red night light which allowed me to read without obscuring my night vision. We did not see any shipping until close to Bali, and only encountered the fishermen during the last 20 miles, inside the current.
Bjorn and I really enjoyed hearing from you all and especially appreciated those wonderful messages of encouragement – they were very precious to us.
Now sipping my first Balinese pina colada at Bali marina, and waiting for customs and immigration to turn up before getting ready to go explore this beautiful island.
Ah, here comes Bjorn: We’re all cleared now. Except for quarantine, who were two really nice guys, nobody else came on board and clearing customs and immigration was a breeze, with Bali Marina doing all the work in a couple of hours. Off on our first walk to stretch our legs after 6 days!
One day later:
Caught up with an American and a Dutch couple and had dinner at the Marina last night. Good and very cheap food – Marina itself is very small but the facilities are pretty OK.
We are now organising to go around the island and explore! We intend to ‘do’ Bali first, then attempt to go east (north of islands) to visit Lombok (& Gili Islands), and hopefully Komodo – I don’t know how far we’ll get before turning west once again and then make our way to the Kumai river in Borneo visiting the islands in between.
Our very best wishes to you all and we promise to try and live up to our boat’s name – we have to, she really looked after us and is a very comfortable cruising yacht.
