Leaving For Indonesia

Tandem departs on July 21 for the island of Timor in eastern Indonesia, specifically the village of Kupang where 120 yachts from Australia, South Africa, Europe, NZ and assorted other locations will conclude a 4-day race and begin a tour of the country for the next 3 months. We are loading on fuel, water and food for the duration and hope to find ourselves in either Singapore or Thailand in Nov.

We left Brisbane 6 weeks ago and with various detours for stitches (fish bite), new autopilot, etc. we have traveled over 1500 miles, sailing every inch of the way and only seeing the sun for 5 days. Fish were plentiful, delicious huge Mackeral, tuna, and wahoo so we had all the sushi we could possibly eat. We passed around Cape York, the northernmost point on Australia, tired and wet but encountered beautiful sunny weather for the remainder of the trip to Darwin, another 700 miles. After 6 weeks of small, isolated anchorages Darwin looked like a major city and we have enjoyed all that it has to offer. The national park of Kakadu, an aboriginal preserve that encompasses the entire northern part of the country was a nice diversion from boat chores and a good place to see up close some of the crocs that inhabit these waters, making swimming a no-no.