ABOUT: Chris & Manuela departed San Francisco, California, on April 18th on their J-40 sloop to sail to the South Pacific and points west. We think we'll be sailing 2-3 years, and then return to our normal lives. ARCHIVES:   Sunday, November 16, 2003   Dear Friends, We are now safely ‘down under’ in the land of kangaroos and koalas. The trip from New Caledonia was one of our more difficult ones, despite the fact that it lasted only 6 days. A really fun part was sailing together with “Legs Eleven”, an Australian yacht (Adams 12 racer) we had met in Samoa. The first couple of days as well as the last day we sailed within sight of each other, which was a surprise to both of us. Fun too, was to compare strategy and sail combinations. For the first 3 days we were plagued with very little wind, which was quite variable in terms of direction. So we ended up with plenty of sail changes and also motoring for good stretches, something we absolutely deplore. During the second 3 days, we managed to go through a trough (a weak extension of a front), and two cold fronts. This is typically the type of weather one tries to stay away from, but of course, once out on the open ocean, one has to deal with whatever comes up. The last front was by far the strongest, packing sustained winds of around 33 knots (65 km/h). Luckily, the seas didn’t build too much (about 7’ or 2m), permitting us to just scream along, initially under 2nd reef and #4. But as the wind kept building and night fell, we decided to try to sail under jib alone, something that Legs Eleven was having good success with. Getting the main down turned out to be a major problem – even with the halyard completely blown and the sail luffing, the sail didn’t want to stay down but just lifted up every time I had just barely managed to pull it down. In darkness, with the boom moving, and the boat bucking, this was neither fun nor safe. Finally, we took a long docking line, and kept on wrapping it around boom and main while always pulling a bit of the main down. This worked well. After finally having subdued the main, we bore off and started heading towards the Australian coast again, which was roughly 50 miles away. I was surprised that we had no problem to point to 60-70 degrees of apparent wind with the jib alone. We were still doing 8 knots, and only began to slow down to about 6 when the wind dropped to 20 knots some hours later. As the sun rose the following morning, we made landfall at Bundaberg in Australia. Shortly after arriving, we hauled our boat out for a new bottom-paint job, as the boat-yard here is fantastic – by far the cleanest, most efficiently run, yard I’ve ever come across. Some other maintenance items included another coat of varnish on the outside teak and general lubrication jobs. Then, last week, we took a road-trip to Brisbane, 3rd largest city with 1.3m inhabitants on the continent. We were really looking forward to spending some time in a large, cultural city again, but after 1 day I must admit, both Manu and I were looking forward to get back to the open country. On our way back to Bundaberg we stopped at the “Lone Pine Reserve”, a park for local flora & fauna. Manuela loved the koalas, and then thought it wise to handle a large diamond python (“to work on her fear of snakes”). The python was happy to wrap herself around Manu and check things out, but I don’t think that the foundations of a long-term relationship were laid. Tomorrow, a totally excited Manu will fly for 6 days to Adelaide, home of the Dulwich center. This center was founded by Michael White, creator of “Narrative Therapy”, the method that Manuela follows when treating clients. Meanwhile, I will start to sail Argonaut south by myself in simple day-hops (no night-sailing, no sleep-deprivation). I’ve wanted to give single-handing a try for a while, and will tag along “Giana”, which is sailed by Francoise, an experienced single-hander (she’s been sailing the oceans for the past 30 years). Well, that’s it for now. Chris & Manu Christoph 7:32 PM