New Plan, off to Indonesia
I have made two major changes in plan recently. The first is to not ship the boat next year to the Mediterranean and to wait in SE Asia for a year to see if the pirate situation improves. I think the political winds in the US favor a stronger effort to make the Red Sea safe. It is an elections year and Obama needs to be show some gumption. Also Hilary has been very vocal on the subject; President Clinton has said many times that his biggest regret was not invading Somalia so there is work to be done there for sure.
SE Asia has infinite cruising grounds, great diving and it is cheap! After half a year in the land of Oz, my cruising kitty could use a break. Australia is obscenely expensive and I am ready to trade a $20 hamburger for a $2 noodle bowl for sure. So we will slowly explore SE Asia, stay longer in each place and see the out of the way spots I would have skipped on a faster pace. Furthur is ready to chill anchored by palm trees for a while.
Second change; My long time plan to visit Papua New Guinea faced increasing obstacles with visa complications, crew changes and the trend for all my cruising friends to go another route. I kept trying to make it work with increasing stress and difficulties till one day I got an email from dear friends on Curious saying they had joined the Sail Indonesia Rally and I thought, why not go along! So I signed up and found crew and away we go!
We will head out to Darwin this week after some parts arrive and provisioning is done. The 1300 mile trip will take us over the top of Australia and into the historic town of Darwin where we will get assistance with our three month Indonesian Visas from the rally. We will join 103 boats who will take three routes into Indonesia cruise the long island dotted country to Singapore.
The rally is well laid out with stops and events, I suspect we will not follow it exactly and venture out with a smaller group of boats for most of the time. You can see the rally information on; www.sailindonesia.net I think this is going to be great fun and look forward to seeing some old friends and making many new ones.
I have made two major changes in plan recently. The first is to not ship the boat next year to the Mediterranean and to wait in SE Asia for a year to see if the pirate situation improves. I think the political winds in the US favor a stronger effort to make the Red Sea safe. It is an elections year and Obama needs to be show some gumption. Also Hilary has been very vocal on the subject; President Clinton has said many times that his biggest regret was not invading Somalia so there is work to be done there for sure.
SE Asia has infinite cruising grounds, great diving and it is cheap! After half a year in the land of Oz, my cruising kitty could use a break. Australia is obscenely expensive and I am ready to trade a $20 hamburger for a $2 noodle bowl for sure. So we will slowly explore SE Asia, stay longer in each place and see the out of the way spots I would have skipped on a faster pace. Furthur is ready to chill anchored by palm trees for a while.
Second change; My long time plan to visit Papua New Guinea faced increasing obstacles with visa complications, crew changes and the trend for all my cruising friends to go another route. I kept trying to make it work with increasing stress and difficulties till one day I got an email from dear friends on Curious saying they had joined the Sail Indonesia Rally and I thought, why not go along! So I signed up and found crew and away we go!
We will head out to Darwin this week after some parts arrive and provisioning is done. The 1300 mile trip will take us over the top of Australia and into the historic town of Darwin where we will get assistance with our three month Indonesian Visas from the rally. We will join 103 boats who will take three routes into Indonesia cruise the long island dotted country to Singapore.
The rally is well laid out with stops and events, I suspect we will not follow it exactly and venture out with a smaller group of boats for most of the time. You can see the rally information on; www.sailindonesia.net I think this is going to be great fun and look forward to seeing some old friends and making many new ones.
Wow Brian
the Indonesia trip sounds great. Hopefully we’ll get to do it sooner or later. The whole world would surely thank Obama for regaining safe access to the Suez Canal! We continue to follow your blog with great interest. what a wonderful trip. Sorry you found our beautiful country so expensive. It’s probably going to get worse unfortunately.
cheers
Penny & Dan
Hola Brian,
Well I sure have lived through you all this time…..
I finialy will have a month off… Yeah!!
I will be in Babgkok—Burma—Bali for the month of September.
Yes, I like it where it is NOT expensive.
Love to you,
Zena