//WL2K

Can't remember when/what I wrote last time... Maybe old age, cruiseheimer's or lack of sleep. ;-))

We left Kiwistan on 13 July and headed north, experienced a storm with up to 58.8 knots of wind (bimini didn't like that; wind-generator is lashed down now) and sailed between New Caledonia and Vanuatu towards the Torres Strait and Darwin in Australia. All in all 38 days at sea, which is my personal record. Extremely slow as usual, as we covered just over 3600 miles in that time. The weather was pretty shitty until we reached the Torres Strait, but the wind was from behind almost all the time. Now we have sun and absolutely excellent conditions. Can't go into the water though, as every year they are pulling about 200 ferocious salt-water crocodiles out of Darwin harbour alone. Never mind the deadly box-jellyfish...

One thing that is pretty strange, is my reaction to being ashore again. I am actually "land sick", staggering around as if I were totally drunk. Always expecting "land waves" which somehow don't show up. And that although we arrived three days ago. Never had it that bad before.

Of course everything is very exciting and we are looking forward to meeting new interesting people. So far, we have always been very lucky in this respect. We need to work on the boat (always), get our visas and cruising permit for Indonesia and then slowly go up to Malaysia and Thailand. Major refit is the plan. Liping told me that she would continue to go sailing with me until Aurora's 10th birthday on 30 December 2013 -- but only if I get the boat properly fixed. So, I will at least try to do that. <grin>

If you have Skype or some such, you can reach us on +61420422168 . My brother just called me from Turkey, so it seems to work fine. eMail currently only at WDC7641@sailmail.com and *ONLY* simple ASCII text.

Cheers & ciao for now,

Holg, Liping & Aurora Ulani

-----
At 8/22/2009 6:07 AM (utc) our position was 12°28.06'S 130°51.33'E

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

One Month at Sea - Left the Pacific - In the Arafura Sea

Now we've spent one month at sea and are almost used to the sailing lifestyle again. :-) In that month we had three (3) days of good weather - but the wind has been from behind all this time. Except for the first few days after leaving Whangarei in New Zealand, we have been sailing solely under the genoa all the time. Today the sun is shining and the wind is very light, while yesterday we enjoyed exhilarating sailing in the Torres Strait. It is a beautiful place, almost like a lagoon with little islands all over the place. Although there are reefs lurking all over, the charts are excellent and so are the lights. Still, at night it makes me nervous... It took two nights and one day so pass the Torres Strait and now we are in the Arafura Sea. Next stop Darwin and it looks now as if we'll go on to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand next. We might still change our mind, though, and head across the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. We'll see. eMails are welcome, but keep them in plain (ASCII) text and on the brief side.

-----
At 8/12/2009 10:00 PM (utc) our position was 10°33.68'S 141°50.40'E