Sailing Donetes

Just three months since we decided to seriously consider a sailing sabbatical we sit on the balcony of the Hampton Harbour Boat and Sailing Club in Dampier en route to Broome, Indonesia and Langkawi (Malaysia) by Christmas. Few things have gone to plan so far but we move forward, learning more and more, becoming more familiar with the boat, 24 hour routines, and starting now to feel like we are really cruising (no pun intended). In order to depart on our trip we needed to prepare the boat, our house, our other commitments and that left very little time to prepare ourselves. Linda has been a champion, juggling property management, end of financial year accounts, missing family and friends and finding her sea legs while I arranged for all of the works on the boat, business arrangements, boat registration, visas etc. We spent triple our budget on preparing the boat to ensure nothing was left to chance.  New sails, new life raft, new water maker, new generator, new AIS Man Overboa

Well we finally got away from Fremantle at 7:15 on Tuesday morning. After 31 hours of motoring with 4 metre swells and 20 knot winds, not what we saw in the forecast, we pulled into a terrific floating pen at Batavia Coast Marina in Geraldton. (Just to prove we are here :-). ) While Donetes handled the conditions perfectly, it was too challenging a first leg with seasickness and lack of sleep making our first leg an uncomfortable one. Committed to not repeating the same, we are resting up in Geraldton for a few days before very favourable conditions make for a pleasant sail to Shark Bay on Saturday, arriving Sunday morning. Went shopping today for some essentials (chocolate) and luxuries ( electric heater and microwave) and a couple of good books to enjoy for the next couple of days while we aren't tending to the many chores on a liveaboard sailboat.