I arrived back in Darwin, Australia, on April 19 after a long flight from Seattle and an almost missed connection out of Brisbane. Fortunately, Immigration for many incoming foreigners is done at a machine – scan passport, pose for photo, take printout, done. Many machines were available, no waiting. Fortunately, Customs was also quick – they didn’t open any bags.

I had a lot of work to do to get Phywave ready to sail again – putting all the sails back on, top off the diesel jerry cans (I emptied them to fill the boat’s main diesel tank in December), top off the water tank, buy provisions, and arrange for clearing out of Australia (5 day notification lead time required to get an exit appointment at the Customs jetty).

When I arrived in November I removed the dodger because there were many zipper slides that had corroded to the point I could no longer move them. I had to cut some zippers lose to get the dodger off the frame. The bimini and connector panel had already been removed and stowed below long ago after they were damaged in heavy winds sailing south through the Atlantic. I didn’t have either in place since leaving the ad hoc anchorage behind a tall cliff near the east entrance to the Strait of Magellan. I took the lot – dodger, bimini, connector panel – to The Canopy Man, recommended as the best canvas guy in Darwin. I told him I’d be back in April to pick up everything repaired so he had plenty of time to do the work. I picked it up on April 22 and installed it on the boat, a multi-hour effort because the canvas is stretched tight across the frame and takes some pulling and cursing to get it all connected. Everything went back together OK except 2 forward window panels on the dodger that each had one zipper reversed. I immediately took them back to Nick, the canopy man, to have the zippers flipped. As I write this on Sunday I’m hoping to get them back tomorrow. Last Thursday was a holiday here, their Veterans Day, and on Friday Nick was closed.

There is some urgency to get the fixed panels back since I told Australia Border Force (ABF) I would clear out at 1100 am on Wednesday, May 1.

I have made a major change to my route. After watching the weather going north to India for months while at home, and seeing nothing good, I decided to make my Asia continent landing in Indonesia on the island Lombok, just east of Bali where I landed my plane in 2011. Lombok has some good anchorages and a marina. My only purpose in going to India was to claim I’d sail to the continent of Asia. After spending some time at home researching it, I couldn’t find any authority that argued Indonesia was not consider part of Asia even though it is an island country and not attached to what we consider to be the Asia mainland. The change in routing will keep me in the southeast trade wind zone and make most of my India Ocean crossing downwind.

One thing I forgot to do while at home is make a “boat stamp”. Many countries, like Indonesia, are enamored of stamping paperwork of all kinds. Documents are “official” when they have been stamped and signed, stamped by them and stamped by me with my boat stamp. If I’d jumped on it when I arrived in Darwin I could have had one made here but I didn’t remember until yesterday while reading some Indonesia clearing-in instructions. It’s too late to get one made by my May 1 departure date, but I did find a DIY rubber stamp kit at Officeworks, the local version of Staples. DIY (do it yourself) means using tweezers to pluck individual tiny rubber letters and numbers from a tray and placing them in the grooves in the stamp. It’s sort of like old fashion typesetting. After losing a few letters to ham-handed tweezer work, I finally had assembled 3 rows of basic information the stamp should include. It looks like crap but I think it will suffice. No choice at this point.

I finally took out the drone after more than a year, charged the batteries, and made a short video of Phywave in Cullen Bay Marina. My drone flying skills are very rusty. I hope to use the drone more at future anchorages.