Darwin and Australia departure looming close

It is now Thursday 25th. July and we are scheduled to set sail again on Saturday for Kupang on Indonesian Timor.
It seems almost no time since we arrived here 3 weeks ago. We have enjoyed our time here with meeting such a diverse range of fellow yachtsmen. We have not only met many nationalities in Sail Indonesia, but have also met some solo sailors who are heading for the Cape of Good Hope on their way home. Stuart MacDonald of "Beyond" is a case in point. He is a Scotsman and also a master mariner who regaled us with tales of his past experiences. Andy, a Swede who is beside us at the moment and is leaving in a day or so. We have the utmost admiration for these solo single minded sailors and wish them fair winds. They are heading for Christmas Is., Cocos Keeling and then Reunion or Mauritius before tackling the notorious S. African coast before Cape Town. It's 6,500 miles from here and at an average speed of 5 knots that's 1300 hours or 54 days. This is the alternative facing many cruisers with the piracy as it is off the Somalian coast. For us, we will just spend 2-3 years in SE Asia before deciding on our future strategy.
We have enjoyed Darwin and have found it to be a very pleasant town - very leafy with fairly modern buildings by and large after the Japanese totally destroyed the place in 1942. Darwin at the moment is enjoying a boom with LNG onshore processing plants (Japanese owned!!) being established before the gas is shipped offshore. Don't know what the medium term holds as there is a world wide glut of natural gas, but no doubt long term things will continue to boom. There are apartment buildings going up all over town and our friend Neil is involved with one of those. It is like Auckland at the moment with rentals and property prices going through the roof. Prices for everything else are expensive - especially for us with the NZ/AUS currency cross rate. This has improved to around NZD1.00/AUD0.86 but still puts us at a disadvantage. It's ironic that the exchange rate is improving just as we are departing after 18 months here!!
Neil has very kindly been lending us his car and we have been able to achieve all our errands as a result. Filling LPG bottles and provision shopping to name but a few. Last Saturday there was a Sail Indonesia BBQ at the Darwin Sailing Club which we attended and renewed acquaintance with our friends mainly on catamarans which cannot enter the locked marinas and consequently have to anchor off at Fannie Bay. Then yesterday there was a technical briefing at the Darwin Hilton by Sail Indonesia where we were brought up to date with the latest issues with sailing through Indonesia - not least of which are the endless documentation requirements. Indonesia runs on paperwork - like India!! We are due to clear Australian Customs at the sailing club on Friday morning when we will receive our CAITS (cruising permits) for Indonesia and then the official start is at 1100 on Saturday - 80 boats all moving across the start line together - frightening!! Duty free booze is being delivered on Friday afternoon - most important!! We are booked to leave Tipperary at high tide early Saturday morning.
First port is Kupang on the island of Indonesian Timor 470 nautical miles from here. The weather forecast is for fairly light winds - no more than 10 knots from the E to SE so we should have a gentle start! We'll keep you regaled!!
Lotsaluv from us............
Jim and Jean xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com