Preparing to leave

View from our boat tonight

Our stay in Darwin and, in fact Australia, is rapidly coming to an end; this weekend we depart for Kupang, our first stop in Indonesia.

We've really quite enjoyed our layover here in the Northern Territories. The weather has been incredible, sun every day with sufficient breeze to keep our wind generator producing that which it was designed to do – make electricity, and we've experienced some of the most incredible sunsets imaginable right from the cockpit of our boat.

It's also been one heck of a busy and frustrating time as Darwin is a tad laid back and what doesn't happen today, may happen tomorrow or may not, usually the latter. Someone mentioned that NT doesn't necessarily stand for Northern Territories but rather for Not Today, Not Tomorrow, Not Tuesday and Not Thursday, to which I've added, NoTever. However, it's all done (or not) in a friendly manner so one can't get too aggravated. We're told it's excellent training for what we'll experience in Indonesia.

In some respects, we're happy to be leaving as we've found Australia to be horrendously expensive putting us in a position where we weren't able to travel, stop for a drink or light meal or generally enjoy a bit of time away from the boat.  Apart from friends who took us to Sydney (fabulous), a quick trip to Warwick and another friend who took us to see Surfer's Paradise, we've been unable to see anything of the country other than the coastline we've passed.  We give our great thanks to them, much appreciated.  Despite that, we have enjoyed it and would have loved to see more.  On our radio net each morning, they have a session called "money-saving tip of the day" to which one cruiser suggested "bypass Australia".  I guess that sort of says it all.

The 'girls' at the BBQ

Sail Indonesia and the rally organisers entertained us last Saturday night to a fabulous BBQ get together here at the club where we were able to meet many of the other participants and have a fitting celebration for Paul's birthday. The trip back to the boats that evening proved to be quite an exercise as Darwin experiences huge tides (6 to 8 metres), When it came time to leave the club, it was very very low, leaving us with a long trek across soft wet sand dragging our dinghy for what seemed like miles.

 

In preparation for the trip northwards, we needed to organise some Indonesian money.  Well, the Rupiah is one of those currencies that has a zillion zeros on each note.  We went in today to collect our ordered funds from the bank and came back with a huge bundle of notes making up several million Rupiah.  Now, in truth, this is worth very little but it's great fun to hold several million somethingorother in my hot little hands for while.  For once I can truly say "I'm a millionaire!"

 

Here in Darwin, we haven't quite worked out if crocodiles are an issue or not as one source says that they haven't seen one in 40 years where the next states that the authorities removed some 300 from the region just last year.  Who to believe?  Regardless, one is a little wary when venturing into the water.  We managed to wrap a fishing line around our prop which meant that Paul had to dive down to cut it all off.  This took quite a few attempts as he didn't want to linger just in case.  Fortunately, mission accomplished with no missing appendages.  I trust Indonesia is void of said creatures - we want to enjoy our swimming.