Farewell Australia

August 1, 2013

Day 4 - somewhere in the middle of the Timor Sea…. heading towards Indonesia… at about 2.5 - 3 knots.  Thanks to this new blog editor app and Omar, I can now work on the blog even when I don't have internet connection!  We left Darwin on the 28th, the day after the official rally start as our autopilot hadn't been returned from the mechanic.  However, we didn't mind the delay - we filled it with outdoor movies, croc visits, and some bonding time with the crew.  

The deckchair cinema where Omar and I watched Kontiki in readiness of our upcoming departure.

The crew from left to right: Olivia, Simon, Jill, Baz, Orla, Omar and me.  Captain Julian in the front.

Box jelly fish on display at the Darwin Musuem…. along with a load of information on how not to get stung and what to do if you do… if you don't die within 2 minutes that is.

Orla, Omar and myself on the jumping croc cruise on the Adelaide River.

Can you believe it???  I can't even begin to describe what the snap of their jaws sounded like.  Or the thud they make when they landed on the boat!

With skin as pretty as that, you can see why Luis Vuitton likes them so much!

I just want to make sure you get an idea of how big the crocs really are!  This is Dominator…. over 6 meters long.

And crew bonding time begins!  Believe it or not, all the money spent on this bar crawl went to a fundraiser that Baz put on.

Simon in front. Orla and Olivia behind him. Baz behind Orla. Jill between myself and Omar and her new man next to her.

Omar, me, Orla, Jill and Dave practicing for our berths on board.

Check out this strange swimming guy we saw.  I said sea slug…. Omar said swimming bacon.  I don't think either of us were right.

Here I am navigating the boat on one of my watches!

An average day on the boat.

One of many amazing sunsets we have seen!

Dolphin party on the bow of the boat.  We see them everyday and on this day we also happened to see fish, sea snakes, a sea turtle, a shark, loads of jellyfish (which sent us scrambling out of the water during our afternoon swim) and flying fish.

A quick lesson on reading charts and plotting a course.

We have also been learning to tie knots.  Here is Captain teaching Jill how to tie a bowline knot . . . the bunny goes around the tree and back down his hole.

Olivia has been keeping us all in shape with some boat exercises . . . planking.

Another amazing sunset.  We time dinners so we can eat while we watch.

And one hell of a sunrise!