Gary's Deliveries

 Hi all. 2 things for you today - NEW BLOG SITE/APP  -  https://www.polarsteps.com/GaryWatson9 TRACKING  -  will still be at  -  https://share.garmin.com/FKHAP and "hopefully" also on the new blog website/App   1.  I have started using another website/App to post my blogs as this site is not very intuitive for me to use and although I am supposed to be able to upload video's, but I have never been able to plus I struggle with the formatting so I  am experimenting with this one  -  https://www.polarsteps.com/GaryWatson9 2.  My next adventure is SY "Illusion" from Panama to Papeete, French Polynesia, some 4,600nm as the crow flys.   Arrived here in Panama on Wednesday 8th April and now waiting for Kel and David to arrive tomorrow 11th April from NZ.    N ew blog site

It seemed like we had a few dolphins pushing us along today as we spent most of the day hitting over 11kts and we haven't changed any settings.  We must have been in a bit of a current maybe.  The plan was to arrive in Bali on the 23rd but we managed to make it to the marina 10mins before they closed at 17:00 today (Monday).  So now we are sitting on the dock waiting to be cleared in tomorrow (Tuesday) and jump on a Qantas flight home via Melbourne tomorrow night.             Obviously back in Indo waters Australian courtesy flag - served it's purpose         Garmin "Fish Eye" 3D sounder - brilliant piece of kit!        Following the etiquette and law - Indonesian courtesy flag (etiquette) and yellow "Q" flag (law)                                                   ...

Yet another calm day on the water. We have been trucking along nicely keeping really good speed as the sea conditions have near ideal. Our 24hr run was just over 230nm and as of now, 23:45, we only have 171nm left to go.  Benoa Marina which is where we are headed for in Bali closes everyday at 17:00.  It’s a very small marina and always has a barrier across the entrance which has to be removed by a tender to allow boats in and out.    We would need to keep an average speed of 10kts to make it just in time before they close.  I doubt we will but it will be very close.  If we don’t make it it will be very frustrating as we will have to find somewhere in the chaotic harbour to anchor for the night.  We passed a couple of reasonable sized Indonesian fishing boat’s during the day but they were just sitting around tied to a FAD waiting for night time before they drop their nets into the water, turn on their really bright lights that attract the fish then hau...

We went through some weather last night.  Big storm and sheet lightning   At least the boat got a wash.   Today was another chill day.  Slight sea, light winds which picked up to 20kts for an hour this afternoon before going back down to 10kts.   Starting to see my old favourites, FADS (fish attracting devices).  They are anchored with a very long rope and heavy concrete block and around here it’s 1,000 to 2,000 metres deep.   Even came across a decent sized Indonesian fishing boat who actually had AIS which he must have only just turned on when we got 3nm from him.  Still amazes me when some these guys actually have AIS these days! We managed to creep up on a bird having a snooze on a log.  Got pretty close and still asleep so I gave him a little toot on the horn.  That woke him up.   We have a very small oil Leak from both engines.  I don’t think it’s an issue but something we will keep an eye on.  Strange as it’s i...

What a lovely day this has been. Mostly 5-10kts of wind on the nose and very little sea swell.   We have been trucking along at around 9.5kts most of the day.   We got buzzed again by one of the ABF patrol planes who flew towards and past us then make a slow turn in the distance before coming down to a pretty low level and fly past us from astern so they could see the name on our transom.  I managed to grab my phone a snap a few pics as it went by.  A minute or 2 later and our VHF crackles into life - “MY Moonlao this is Border Force aircraft” then into asking us to confirm the usual, last port of call, next port of call and where is the boat registered?  Obviously they know the answers as this is the 7th or 8th time of asking.  A very civilised diner tonight.  Roast pork (pre cooked from the supermarket), roast potatoes, peas, sweetcorn, garlic bread all washed down with the last small glass of the red wine that was opened in Port Douglas when the own...

Woke up in a very hot boat and as the AC has been on all night that could mean only 1 thing, the AC unit has frozen up again.  It seems every time the boat stops anywhere over night it does this.  The fact that the temperature of the water in the marina is 31c may have something to do with it! Turned the AC to dehumidify and in 5mins it's al cleared, back to AC mode and pumping out cold air again, phew. Yesterday I booked to have the lock opened at 10:30 today so we could get out and on the quarantine dock outside the lock gates in time for our ABF appointment which is now 11:00 and not 10:00 as originally planned. Tea, breakfast, another tea and we were ready to get stuff done in time for our departure.  David washed the boat down while I wrote yesterdays blog.  Then it was down into the engine room which we have renamed the sauna, for some greasing of the shafts/variable pitching system.  This was a 2 man job as the grease gun is a little damaged and needs 3 h...

We arrived at the fuel dock outside Cullen Bay Marina at 08:00 spent 2 hrs filling up the boat with 3,605lts of diesel at a total cost of NZ$12,449!  She's now back up to capacity of 4,400lts for the next leg to Bali. We were ready to enter the marina at 10:30 but to get in you have to go through a lock.  Before you can go though the you have to go through an induction if it is the first time.  After our induction we went into the lock, Ben the operator slowly raised the water level by 3m, gates open and into the Marina we went, onto our berth, plug in the electric and water hook ups then proceeded to have a tidy up and dump the 4 bags of rubbish we accumulated since leaving Port Douglas.  Once that was done into an Uber and off to Coles the supermarket for a top up shop.  An hour later, A$300 lighter and 4 decent sized bags of groceries it was into another Uber back to the boat.  It is sooo hot and sticky it's nice to get into the AC of as soon as you can....

  A pretty chill day on the water.  I spent a good few hours sorting out admin.   Confirmed with Cullen Bay Marina that we will be there tomorrow.  Booked our clearing out with Aussie Boarder Force for 10:00 on Wednesday along with sending them copies of passports, boat rego, copy of the ABF authority to cruise for 12mths in Aus without having to pay import duty boat insurance, photo of boat and completed B333 form.    Then sent all that plus a lot more details to our clearing in agent in Indo and asked her to book us into the Benoa Marina in Bali (I was there in the Nordhavn in Dec) and arranged with her that she will look after all domestic cruising permits and clearances that the owners will need while they tiki tour around before they head to Singapore, Malaysia and finally Thailand.  80nm from Darwin and at 22:00 we got a call from another ABF plane that buzzed us and asked the usual questions - are we charter or private boat, last port of call, n...

Up at 06:00 this morning Sunday, after a really peaceful nights sleep at anchor.  Yet again there was an infestation of bugs in the cockpit some of them unfortunately got into the main cabin so we spent most of the day vacuuming them up as they appeared from under cabinetry.  Tiny little things. We left the anchorage just before 06:30 with calm seas and vertically no wind.  Headed south to the Cumberland Straite between Marchinbar Island and Guluwuru Island to get on the west side of them for the last 350nm run to Darwin..   The chart states “strong tide rips”.  WELL, I would call it more like breaking surf all the way across.   OMG! The photo below shows the route I had planned and the blue dotted line the actual route I ended up taking.  The swirls are a bit of a giveaway.  When I saw the surf I was ready to turn away and head back up the way we came and go around the top of the island some 30nm away but as we got closer I noticed that at e...

The day started off really well.  I was on the 06:00-12:00 watch and for the first 4 or 5hrs conditions were really nice, 10kts on the nose with a small swell.  Then it all went back to normal and by midday it was blowing 30kts and the sea state was unpleasant.   Around lunchtime we had an encounter with an Aussie fishing trawler who came within 600m of us out in the middle of nowhere and he was within a cats whisker of being on the right side of the No Fishing area I did have a plan B in mind and that was to duck into the long chain of islands called Wessel Islands.  We ended up in a really nice bay called Burston Bay on the northern Wessel Island. Just as we were rounding the corner into the bay with the 3D forward facing sonar on we get a call from an Australian Boarder Force aircraft.  The questions were - what is your port of registration, last port of call, next port of call, all answered and off they went after doing 3 fly by's!  Funnily enough ...

Now nearly midnight on Friday 13th, day 7 of this trip and to be honest I'm pretty glad this day is over.  The weather forecast lied to us.  It was supposed to be 10-15kts and 1m seas from just off the starboard bow.  Well we have had 10-20kts, 1.5-2.5m chop 45 degrees off the starboard bow but every now and then it would come round to the beam which this boat does not like, even with the highest giro stabiliser setting we have had a good few slaps and rolls.  We have had to put everything in the galley either under the table on the floor, in drawers or in the sink to stop it crashing to the floor.  I had to sleep in the saloon table area earlier as I was getting thrown around the bed and even getting airborne occasionally.   We are in the middle of nowhere then all of a sudden I get a target on the radar.  A 280m cargo ship has come out of some port in the Gulf of Carpentaria heading NW.  As I watch it closely and activate the target tracker...

We had a leisurely start to today, Thursday, up around 0830.  The boat had a good 'ol wash down as the heavens opened.  We also had hundreds of bugs all over the cockpit as we left the cockpit lights on as well as the anchor light just to make sure any foolhardy boaters saw us in the middle of the night.  Aussie bugs are next level!  They are massive. After looking at the weather forecast we decided to get going and head for Darwin.  It was forecast to be 15kts of wind and 1m sea on the nose which is no problem for this boat.  So we had an early lunch and got going at 12:00 Once we got back over the entrance bar to the river and around Cape York (the very top of mainland Aus) the conditions were not as expected.  We had a decent chop 45 degrees off the starboard bow which made the ride slightly bouncey and pretty uncomfortable.  This was caused mainly by the very shallow water around this area between 6-8m.  After battling our way through the...

 We went through the night as planned.  Weather was so-so, we had 20kts wind, 1.5m seas, thunder/lightning and squally rain.  Apart from that it was an ok night.  We decided to do 3hrs on 3hrs off watches which I don't normally do as it is very tiring but as it was only 1 night that it worked. As we were not going to make Thursday Island before night fall I decided to stop in a little river by Turtle Head Island only 40 ish nm from Thursday. So we go into the river and found a good spot to anchor.  On our way into the river by Turtle head Island  OMG!!  After anchoring up with absolutely no one else here we and sitting around watching "Drive To Survive" on Netflix for an hour or so I heard this strange noise.  When I looked out the window and all I could see was the tail of a helicopter!!  Holly shit!  It was 10mts off the stern and about 5mts off the water and the downdraft was churning up the water something crazy!  We both went o...

Tuesday 10th March and today's plan was to get up and leave early and keep going overnight till we get to or very close to Thursday Island.  So the anchor was up at 1st light which was around 06:00 and off we went.        Cool sunrise           Conditions were really good, 5kts of wind, flat calm seas and 9+kts of boat speed burning 17lts per hour total for both engines.  We have 2 Yanmar 150hp engines which is small for a 62ft boat but this boat was designed for  efficiency  and fuel economy with 4,400lt fuel capacity and a 4,000nm range.  It also has a pretty unusual feature,  the propellors are variable pitch.  So you can keep the revs  consistent , change the pitch which in turn changes the speed and fuel consumption up or down depending on which way you pitch it.  Not many boats of this size have variable pitch props. The last few days I have been trying to find a supplier in Darwin that...

The reason for the Day 2&3 heading is we left on Saturday, travelled 10nm and stayed the night (Day 1).  Yesterday we ended up in Cooktown river for the night (Day 2).  Writing this today, Monday at 16:00 which is Day 3. Now to the actual Day 3 blog........ Our stop last night was Cooktown river and we arrived into the entrance around 14:00. The charts show it as a very shallow river but there were yachts in there anchored in 3m of water so I knew it was ok for us as we draw about 1.3m. I drove in very slowly with the forward facing sonar on, best one I’ve ever used, as the charts were not particularly accurate.  We got past the fuel wharf where the depth got to less than a meter below the keel so I stopped and backed out looking for another route to the deeper water.  As I was doing this one of the old salty locals came over his tender and showed us the way round the shallows to 3m depth.  Anchor down with excellent holding.  The water coming out of th...

At the back end of August last year I was writing about a delivery I was doing of a Dickey Pacific 62 from Opua to Bundaberg.  Well I got a call to ask if I was available to take her ("Moonlao") from Port Douglas through to Bali.  Luckily I had a small window before I head over to Panama for my next job early next month.  So David, my crew mate, and I  flew into Cairns on Thursday afternoon, hired a car and drove the 1hr or so to Port Douglas marina where the boat was. We were greeted by Tan and Geoff, spent a a couple of nights with them on the boat which was great fun before we departed and they headed off in the car. There was a "Yellow" cyclone warning issued the day before we arrived but it only turned out to be a bit of a blow so nothing to worry about. Although this boat could make Bali in one go without stopping I decided to clear out of Darwin where we can top up the tanks and the owner has really good quality fuel where as the quality of fuel in Indonesia ...

 Tuesday 30th Dec '25 Route Overview This last leg of the Nordhavn 76 delivery was a short but operationally sensitive transit from Nongsa Point Marina into Singapore waters, finishing at Raffles Marina . The final passage of a 5000nm trip! Departure was at first light to manage traffic density in the Singapore Strait , one of the most commercially congested shipping corridors in the world. Even on a short passage, timing matters. The route involved a westbound exit into the Strait before turning north through the channel separating Malaysia and Singapore, finishing just south of the Johor–Singapore Causeway. For a 76-foot long-range motor yacht, this is not technically demanding in terms of range or endurance. The challenge is traffic management, AIS monitoring, radar plotting, and disciplined bridge watchkeeping. Commercial vessels move fast and with limited manoeuvrability. Positioning decisions must be made early. Routing Decisions This delivery follows earlier offshore work...

  Monday 29th Dec '25 Arrived at the entrance to Nongsa Point Marina, Batam Island, Indonesia at 09:00, waited till we got the all clear to go in.  Put the boat on to berth number B6 with 1/2 a metre either space either side between a dock and an 80ft boat which was very tight, just as well we have bow and stern thrusters and they were working overtime for this docking.   Then it was off to the office to do the paperwork and pay the silly money to berth for 1 night and clear in/out.  NZ$650 was the total for those 2 things! An hour or so later we had a visit from a Customs guy to come onboard to take photos of the main engine, the auxiliary engine, VF radio which showed our unique MMSI number, if you don't know what that is, don't ask :-) then he went up to the fly bridge and took photos of both radar units.  That was it - very strange.  12:45 now and waiting for all our paperwork to come back from the marina office, including our passports then it wil...