We are going to go from Fiji to Vanuatua and then up to the Solomons which lie just above the Hurricane zone, so we have to be in the Solomons by latest the end of November. Then from the Solomons to Northern Papa New Guinea, and then on to Bali via North East Indonesia...from the Solomons onwards its all within 10 degrees of the equator so no worries about hurricanes once in that zone. So December and January we will spend cruising from the Solomons to PNG and into Indo waters by Feb. We should be in Bali by mid Feb, find a home for shimmi and fly home late Feb. So we should be in SA early March.
Like I said before the only real drawback of this route is that it lies in between the 2 trade wind belts, so its going to be lots of doldrums, squally weather and slow motoring. I wish I could get hold of someone who has done this route...it seems such an obvious alternative to holing up in New Zealand for hurricane season...
We are currently still at Morro Negrito, our night anchorage is 08deg04.5 N and 81deg43.7E. We are waiting for an engine part (crankshaft oil seal) to be FEDEXed from Miami to David. We are actually going to take shimmi back to Pedregal (the port of David) for a few days to do a big semi final stock up (they have a great supermarket - salami, pesto etc) and to collect the part. This is the port which lies up a river delta with 3 ways to get in. Its where we hit that cable...we wont be taking that route! Then from Pedregal we will check out of Panama and cruise around to Golfito again. At Golfito we will do our FINAL stock up, fuel up, water up, clean up and get the mechanic to do a few engine touch ups. Our new crew Andy should come on board later today...we are not quite sure what its going to be like to have another person permanently on board...
Anyway, we are ready to get going!!!!
