Valdange
31 Jul 2013 | Ashmore Reef, Australia
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In Darwin I meet Tony, former British soldier, owner and skipper of the Valdange, who suddenly decided to sail around the world, a year ago; David, also British, who is traveling around as an experienced sailor; and Arnaud and Ilona, French couple who just spent seven months traveling in a van in Australia. So, with me, that makes the new crew of the Valdange. I arrive late at night, they are squatting the marina's pub which is trying to close down, there is a beer waiting for me and they have already a few ahead. I like these people.
We set off late morning, after clearing with the customs; and the life onboard starts quietly. There is nothing much to do, after we put the sails on and get off Darwin's waters, the auto pilot keeps the bearing and beeps if anything keeps it from doing that. The weather is quiet, the sea is calm, even too little wind sometime. After a day of quite general sea-sickness, we spend the time cooking (with three Frenches onboard it turns to a gastronomic trip), cleaning, hanging around, reading, chatting, playing, fishing, looking at the sea, looking at the stars... As we have an oven onboard and the usage is to make bread everyday, I take on the challenge with making home made yeast.
After six days at sea, we arrive at Ashmore reef, which is a marine national park having three little desert islands. Only a little bit of the park and a piece of the West Island is open to the public. They apparently don't have too many visitors around: there we only meet two customs ships and a Australian navy warship. It's a little bit of paradise, two coconut trees, lot of birds, shells, fishes... We do a little of snorkeling to have a closer look at the reefs, we see a shark, giant turtles (I didn't know they could swim that fast), and plenty of fishes and other sea animals I cannot identify. Dolphins follow us while we leave.