Tag: single handed sailing

ARRIVING VANUATU AND HOSPITAL VISIT

My first taste of Vanuatu Tusker Beer, its good. Photo Ray Penson

On the way down from Lata I had developed ugly looking ulcers around my mouth and lips.  I was worried about what was causing them, I set off to find the hospital.  It was a long walk to the hospital along the road to the airstrip.  I managed to arrive before the doctor finished for the day.  I told the doctor about my recent malaria and the drugs I was taking.  He responded that the ulcers were a common side effect of the Primaquine tablets I was taking.  The doctor gave me some multivitamin pills and said the ulcers will clear up when I finish the course of treatment.  That was a relief, it wasn’t some flesh-eating tropical disease.

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STRUCK DOWN WITH MALARIA

Truce anchored at Shaw Point. Photo Ray Penson

The speed picked up and I furled the yankee.  We raced ahead through the night with just the staysail and double reefed main.  It was blowing gale force now and we were going too fast.  My illness had returned again.  I was in a bad way, sleeping on the cockpit seats.  I just had to let the boat go, Mickey was doing a great job of steering and I seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness.  At one stage we took a wave into the cockpit, I was washed off the seat into the cockpit well, sloshing around in the water with a bucket and a bunch of ropes.  I just climbed back on the seat and went back to sleep, soaking wet.  Truce could look after herself. 

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BEATEN BACK BY THE CURRENT AND FICKLE WINDS

Struggling to depart Kavieng, butting wind and current.

Departing Kavieng was hard work, a light onshore wind threatened to put us onto a lee shore, thankfully the wind freshened a bit, allowing us to head away and clear the land. Then the wind died and the current pushed us westwards, losing ground and making interesting track patterns on the navigation plotter. There followed a series of squalls making for uncomfortable sailing, on a positive note I was able to fill the water tanks with nice fresh rainwater. This carried on for two days, yo-yoing back and forth with the squalls but slowly making progress eastwards.

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WEEVILS CAUSE BROKEN TOOTH

Getting ready to take the Banana Boat to Kavieng Town for inward Clearance. Photo Ray Penson

As my shop bought bread had run out I decided to make some bread with fresh flour I had bought in Biak.  When I opened the flour container I was greeted by whole bunch of Weevils. The second flour container was also similarly infested.  I really dislike weevils, the flour went over the side immediately.  Bread was off the menu but my craving for bread only intensified.

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SAILING FROM KUDAT TO PUERTO PRINCESA

Palawan Sunset. Photo Ray Penson

The next step of the journey is sailing from Kudat in Malaysia to Puerto Princesa on the island of Palawan in the Philippines. This will be my first visit to the Philippines and I am very much looking forward to it. The departure from Kudat was promising, for a while we had a tail wind until it disappeared mid morning and the sea went glassy, leaving us bobbing around going backwards slowly. The engine had to go on, otherwise we wouldn’t make any progress and the tide would take us back to Kudat. 

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STRESSFUL NIGHT SAIL TO BAWEAN

Accosted by School Girls for photos. Photo by School girl.

Only a few fishermen more and the sun rose as we closed the coast of Bawean.  By nine in the morning we were anchored in Teluk Promahan, a bay sheltered from the SE trade winds on the north of the Island.  It had been a long, busy night and no rest.  I was happy and relieved to be safely anchored and cracked a breakfast beer.  Well, it was five o clock somewhere.

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1,000 MILES INSIDE THE BARRIER REEF

Track of Truce inside the Great Barrier Reef

Of course, the reality of cruising an area or coast is often different from the perceptions.  This was very true of my cruise inside the Barrier Reef.  I started the voyage in Gladstone, Queensland and finished the Barrier Reef section In Siasea, just around Cape York in the Gulf of Carpentaria, amazingly still in Queensland – Australia is a big place.

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DEPARTED CAIRNS

Low Island North of Cairns. Photo Ray Penson

Finally, at last, by the 29th August the trades had moderated and I let go from the mooring as the tide turned to ebb and headed out from Cairns.  Truce had been tied up there for nearly a month and developed a nasty scummy slime around the waterline.  Time to sail it off.

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