We have just crossed into Indonesian waters and less than 24hours from checking into Kupang on the South East corner of the massive country Indonesia. Already we have passed a dozen typical South East Asian fishing boats, none with AIS (automated identification system most boats have for identifying each other and making them visible on our plotters) and weirdly I feel so much more at home. Hello Indo!

… or so we thought. About 4 hours into our journey we hooked onto a big fish and quickly dropped the sails and Arabella went to start the motors and the engine wouldn’t start. After landing a lovely big Spanish Mackerel I went to figure out what was the problem. There was an error message on the screen ‘IMPORTANT! auxiliary stop. See Op Manual.’ After a few minutes I was stumped and decided to call the Volvo mechanic I had just bought a replacement display screen from to ask for help. He was equally stumped and I was out of ideas. The thought of having failed engines in the middle of the ocean with high chance of squalls and lightning made me terribly nervous. Yet at the same time, the thought of going back to Darwin and had to deal with Australia Border Force bureaucracy gave me horrible chills. In the end I decided that safety first and we’d better turn back to Darwin.

About an hour in and I was trying to brainstorm and troubleshoot with my brother Craig about the problem.  He said surely you have an emergency stop button somewhere and perhaps that is the fault. Almost before I finished reading his message I ran down to the little hatch where this button is and found that I had accidentally pushed the button down when I returned the little hose pipe to the hatch. Problem solved and thank god we didn’t need to return to Darwin. Another 180 degrees turn and we were back underway.

Nothing against Australia. It is a beautiful country with a beautiful coastline and some very colourful people but it ain't for me. Australia is a dichotomy. From North to South but even amongst folks in a community. It is a dichotomy in its rules based society which tries to control yet promises freedom. It is a dichotomy in so much that I probably don’t really understand. I was told by many a friend I would find this out but I wasn’t so sure. Ive always seen our antipodean brothers as similar but it is safe to say that my love for South Africa only grew. I have no criticism for Australia but only to say that it’s not for me.

So cheerio Mate. It was a fun and adventurous time filled with some extraordinary experiences, some of which we have captured on our blog.