Nov 28 – Dec 5
Hi All,
Wow….what a cruising year……the 2nd longest mileage one yet!! We left Bobbin Head Australia on April 29 and will fly back to California on Dec 5th….love the dateline thing going east….we leave 6:25pm Monday, connect in Hong Kong and get into SFO at 9:00pm Monday night……sweet as!!!!
Final Stats 2016 Cruising:
Miles Traveled: 5825nm
Nights at anchor: 164
# of stops: 60…….whoa that’s a lot!!!
Marinas: 9
Nights in Marinas: 56
Engine hours: 797
Gen hours: 615
Watermaker hours: ~400
Fish caught: just one yellow fin tuna……oweeeee:(((((
Fuel used: 4532 gals, 491 gal for the GEN
Avg fuel price: $3.07/gal, cheapest was duty free in Darwin @$2.14 and most expensive was Horn Island @ $4.06
NMPG: 1.44nmpg……one of our better years!!!
Avg speed: 7.3kts
Scuba dives: 20……not as many as we wanted but not too bad, we dove in 5 different locations!!
In our 12 years of cruising, the last 9 years full time, we have done:
Engine hours: 6221
GEN hours: 7881
Watermaker: 4400
Total miles: 43,688nm
We very much enjoyed cruising through the eastern and north side of Australia. A huge disappointment was the coral bleaching destruction of the Great Barrier Reef……global warming (yes Donald it’s true but go ahead and deny reality once again) and toxic waste dumping and mining runoff are to blame…..arghhhhhh!!
Indonesia and Malaysia continued the warm, friendly, courteous, family oriented and deeply religious cultures we have found in a lot of the South Pacific countries…..namely Fiji, Tonga and Vanauatu. We thoroughly enjoyed learning about the different religions……Islamic, Buddha and Hindu. The language barrier in Indonesia certainly hurt our ability to get to know people as well as we wanted. I/we did get to do the big four in Indo…….climbing Mt Rinjani one of my top physical achievements…..I’m still pinching myself for the adventure, scuba diving in Komodo, the Komodo dragons, and seeing the orangutans in Kalimantan……wow, wow, wow…..and certainly the day we went with Wati (who we still remain in contact with) to the English school and the Sultan Palace was a great cultural experince!!
Boat Stuff:
John spent 5 long, physical days: boat washed, dinghy scrubbed and polished (hired a Thai worker for USD25/day to help on outside cleaning), GEN new salt water pump, changed oil & filter, checked Cummins zincs, took 8 different oil and coolant samples to be tested in USA, flushed all 3 engines, cleaned engine room, pickled watermaker, took out clark pump to bring back for exchange, bagged props and blocked thruster tube with plates (keeps barnacles from growing while gone), covered outside FB and bow area with tarps, placed shades in all windows……
Kathy: cleaned entire inside, wiped down all walls and floors, vacuumed entire boat, cleaned sumps, cleaned GE refer, shutdown GE freezer, cleaned commissary, cleaned heads, took food store inventory, a gazillion loads of laundry……
Next year: still undecided. We have talked with 2 contractors setup by the Thailand Selene dealer in Phuket on painting the boat. We like both of them and are waiting for quotes. The owner of Precision Shipwrights is involved in the Kings Regatta and will get us a quote by mid-Dec. Then it will be decision time on 2017 and 2018!! In the mean time I’m plotting many different routes to get back to Alaska……joy!!!!
We return to Thailand on Feb 8th…….until then, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Years!!!!
John
Mystic Moon
Rest Mystic Rest!!!!
Mystic all spit-shined, vinegared, polished, defrosted, bleached, and peroxided….resting at Yacht Haven Marina in Phuket
