Sailing the Timor Sea

When I strolled up to the Tipperary Waters Marina to meet the people and yacht with which I would be sailing across the Timor Sea, I was ready for the worst. After my previous experience of drifting into a rocky bay during a thunderstorm, at night, in a broken ship with an incompetent captain that was navigating us towards rocks, I was a tad apprehensive. However, before I even stepped on board, all of my worries had vanished.

The 50 foot yacht was obviously, even to an untrained eye, fully equipped, gorgeous and ready to go. The entire crew was on board getting the ship ready to go. Not only was everyone joking and getting along well, but they were all pretty good looking too! There was Scott, the Kiwi Captain, who has been sailing his whole life and has been a navigator on cruise ships for nearly a decade. With his American girlfriend Alyssa, he is heading up to Thailand to start a charter business. Hitching a ride for part of the journey was Martin from France, Moniek from the Netherlands, and Tobias from Denmark.

When we eventually pulled away from Darwin and Australia sunk into the horizon, the experience just kept getting better. It turns out that Martin is a world class chef and has worked at top restaurants from Brazil to French Polynesia and has cooked with the celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsey. The pasta dish that I ate that night underneath the glow of a moon rainbow (there were even friggin’ moon rainbows!) was one of the best I’ve ever tasted.

The weather that night, like it was for the entire trip, was perfect. A slight wind and calm clear seas made for easy work while keeping watch every night. Our watches, in pairs of 2 for 4 hour blocks every night, comprised mainly of occasionally check the radar and look into front of us to make sure we didn’t hit things or stuff. With the autopilot working its magic, this meant that our main challenges included drinking tea and reading.

On the second day for at least 30 minutes, we got swarmed by 20-30 dolphins that were jumping around the boat and having the time of their life darting around the bow. All of us went camera crazy as we let our feet dangle over the front and splash down just feet away from the slippery sea swimmers. Not being content with merely getting his feet near the dolphins, Scott hooked up an ingenious rope system from the top of the mast where he could sit in a safety harness and hurl himself overboard to splash down in the ocean without being dragged away. Jumping overboard into dolphin filled waters in the Timor Sea was not something I could not pass up.

I think Scott may have done that a few times before, because I did not look nearly as graceful when I flung myself over the side, spun around furiously, smacked into the ocean, swallowed 10 liters of sea water, and then swung back into the side of the boat. It was definitely enormously refreshing, although, the safety strap the cut deeply into vital groin areas almost made come back on board as a woman!

That night our imaginations got the better of us for a few hours. A phantom ship constantly appeared and then disappeared both from sight and the radar. Sometimes approaching within 2 miles of our location, we had visions of pirates or boat people (illegal immigrants to Australia, who arrive not by hopping a border but by crossing seas) looking to plunder our booty. For me, this possible threat to our booties was overshadowed by the splendor of the phosphorescence that danced behind our boat. Disturbed by our movement, the micro-organisms emit a dazzling sparkling light show, like a tame version of what you can see in Life of Pi. This serene source of beauty left me able to worry less about being pillaged by pirates and to instead contemplate important things like when did pirates decide to adopt the pirate accent?

Just two and half days after leaving Australia on a boat I woke up for the final shift on watch. Stumbling onto the cockpit at 4am, I saw it. I could only see the faint outline of a tiny island, but here it was for the first time, Asia: the largest land mass. Not only was it a sweet sight, but also a sweet smell. The air was noticeably more agreeable in sight of land than it had been at sea. Even though the 300 km from Darwin had brought me to a new world, at that time of day, and at that distance, it could have been anywhere in the world.

As Scott steered the yacht into the harbour, we got to see the world wake up. The sun rose from behind the island and we got to see the warm orange glow bring a city to life. First, the silhouette of a modern factory revealed itself and then slowly, so did the people. Small fishing boats began to dart around the bay and scooters began to spped around the city. By the time we dropped anchor the city was alive under a high hot sun.

After the idyllic weather, great company, delicious food, and amazing scenery, I think there is an important lesson to draw from this. If you find an opportunity online to blindly join a group of strangers sailing across a foreign ocean, do it.

Outback Day 3: Maree - Coober Pedy

Shortly after getting under way on Day 3 we pulled up beside the south shore of Lake Eyre, the world’s 4^th largest lake. As we gazed at the water, or salt, I couldn’t be sure which is was, we become even better acquainted with what is by far the worst part of the outback: the flies. Never in all my life have I come across flies so enormously and consistently irritating. 

No matter where in the outback you may be or pull over, you will be instantly swarmed by flies which won’t be content until they land in your ears, eyes, nose, or mouth. I had to constantly swat all around my head like a crazy person to get any relief (I have since been told this is called the Australian salute). It makes no sense to me how there can be so many flies everywhere in this seemingly lifeless environment. What the hell are they doing the 99% of the time when there’s no humans or big animals around?

The flies go away at night, which is good, but what am I supposed to do the other 10 hours of the day? When we pulled over in Coward Springs, I got my answer. When we arrived I was greeted by, I think, the owner who displayed his horrifying method of coping with the flies. He adopted the “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em approach.” All over his nose, mouth and ears there were at least 20 flies furiously scurrying and filling in every facial crevasse. Even with the most neglected and sickly horse or cow, I have never seen such a dense population of insects on a single head. Coward Springs is pretty much the only tourist attraction along the Oodnadatta Track, and other than fly-infested faces it is just a grimy lukewarm spring/ hot tub that is most welcome to anyone who hasn’t showered in a day or so.

Mr. Fly Face was also kindly able to tell us that it would be raining that night, and all of the roads would be turned into mud. Up until this point we had just been blithely carting ourselves across the outback. Being armed with actual useful knowledge, and desiring not to have fly orgies on our faces while stuck in muddy roads for up to 4 days, we decided we needed to make it to a sealed road before dark. We took a detour from the Oodnadatta Track and made our way to Coober Pedy to get on the Stuart highway (the main Adelaide-Darwin highway).

 

William's Creek: Australia's smallest town (6-10 people) and the turnoff from the Oodnadatta Track to Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy is a major sight along this highway, but I suppose that is not saying much. It’s main claims to fame include roughly a million piles of dirt stacked from opal mining, a grassless golf course, underground houses, and the backdrop for post-apocalyptic films such as Mad Max 3, Red Planet, and Pitch Black. Since, none of us had much interest in mounds of dirt from Vin Diesel movies, we headed north to find a deserted road we could camp beside.

This proved slightly more difficult than planned since most side roads have large signs that read “Mining Area, Stupid. Explosives and bottomless pits everywhere. We’ll fine you big time.” Eventually we did find a good spot and had another impromptu goon and desert party.