Departed Dili

Hi everyone,
We departed Dili at 1530 this afternoon, bound towards Kupang. Now sailing along at about 3 knots in a 4-6 knot NE breeze - very quiet and peaceful. We just sailed through our first set of fish traps (at least the first we've noticed). These ones were wooden structures attached to a set of barrel floats, from which presumably a very long line runs to an anchor of some kind. We'll have a nearly full moon tonight so hopefully should be able to pick out any others in our path.

Departing Dili

After fitting the new freshwater pump yesterday afternoon we ran the engine this morning to test it. The engine seems to have far fewer knocking and rattling noises which is encouraging. I suspect the pump has been on its way out for some time. With the engine working we arranged with Kym Miller for our clearing out, which was completed at 2pm. While waiting in the morning we went ashore to get bread and run a few final errands around Dili.

Last night a large Thai junk came into Dili harbour. It has been re-anchoring constantly in amongst all the nice new yacht moorings. I suspect several are now entirely destroyed and some others probably weakened considerably. Apparently the junk is going to offer diving holidays from Dili for the next few months. I expect it will entirely destroy the moorings in that time.

It's great to be out on the water again. A bit more wind would be nice, but we're on our way to join Sail Indonesia at last! We decided to sail to Kupang since the rally folks will still be there when we arrive, but probably wouldn't be there in Saumlaki. Also the western route seems our best bet while we (hopefully) bed in the engine with its many new components.