Latest news 2006

December 24th 2006 : After 10 days crusing with our friend Lilou around Phang Nga Bay, Phi Phi Islands and Krabi, we are now with Claude, Bernard and Lilou spending Christmas all togheter.

November 16th, 2006 : Already one month that the TiTOM's team is working hard in Telaga

on TiTOM's yearly maintenance ! Sunday we will leave for Satun (Thailand), where we will lift out TiTOM to remake its antifouling.

October 19th, 2006 : After Singapore, we sailed or better motored north along the Malacca straight as the wind was absent. We stopped in Port Dickson to make our entry in Malaysia et visited the beautiful town of Malacca

, then went to Penang, where our friend Christine joint us for 2 weeks. This time the wind between Penang

and Langkawi was in the nose, and after tough night we finally arrived in the archipelago of Langkawi. We explore the main island by sailing, driving, walking and also with...

cable car ! Actually we are achored in Telaga lagoon, it is a beautiful place. (next news soons)

September 8th 2006 : Singapore, here we are ! We will write more about this fascinating place in the next few days. Here bellow a short summary of our adventures before Singapore :

We had a fine crossing from Bali to Banjarmasin (S coast of Borneo) with just a stop in Kangean. With strong current going south, the Badung strait between Bali and Nusapenida island deserve its tough reputation, and we had to use our engine full speed to get out of it !

After sailing up during 15 NM the Barito's

(we were the only sailing boat).

because of its many channels in which its inhabitants move about

on very noisy boats.

Much smaller, the town of Kumai is situated more west of the South coast of Borneo. We also had to sail up the Kumai river to reach this town. Ideal place to admire the beauty of the nature and the wild life of the Tanjung Punting's National Park, especialy the endanger species

of Orangutan, the TiTOM's team took 3 days holidays

going up one of the Kumai's tributary

to visit the Park and the rehabilitation centers for orangutans

here our friend Tom ! We met our cousin Pan

who tried to teach us some basic of his mother tongue !

August 7th, 2006 : Benoa (Bali) : Already 2 months in Indonésie, time is flying ! This time it's from Bali that we up-date our site, as we hardly found before internet cafe.

Our first Island was Roti, and as very few people speak english, to be able to communicate we hade no other choice than to try to learn to speak Indonesian. Luckily here most of the people are very patient, nice

and helpful. Sailing along the north coast of the Sonde Archipelago is quite easy, with a flat sea and thermic wind. We went on the Kelimutu volcano (Flores) and saw its 3 lakes

, visited the famous dragons of Komodo

, and some typical

villages.

June 3th, 2006 : Darwin : we arrived on May 24th, and it is only since Gove we enjoyed sunny weather, with the 28°-30° during the day and 16°-17° in the night, just ideal.

What a change ! We left Cairns on a wonderful sunny day with our friends Petra and Gilles on Flinders Chase to go to Michaelmas, a lovely small sandy island populated with thousands of birds. This sunny day did not last long. As we arrived the rain was pouring down and it kept on raining for a couple of weeks.

We were suspicious that somewhere in the Coral sea a tropical storm was about to get formed and decided to go in the well protected harbor of Port Douglas

where we again met our friends Chris and Sue from Lady Bubbli. Good premonition, as there was a new cyclone forming on the South Salomon. Monica headed 400km north, on Lockhart River, before crossing Cape York peninsula. It was cat. 5 with wind reaching 350km, luckily it did not hit Darwin, it would have been a disaster. Monica crossed between Katherine and Kakadu National park, in some uninhabited region. Monica brought a lot of rain. Hoping Monica was the last cyclone of the year, we continued our journey.

From Cooktown

to Cape York

there were very few inhabitants, besides the trawlers in peak season of prawns, we met very few people: We went with Greg, Jessica and Shaun,

on their trawler Captain Serab, to visit a small waterfall

at Cape Flattery and before we left, Greg gave us a huge bag of prawns plus crabs, a real feast. A couple of days later we met Andy

on his tiny sea kayac at Flinders Island, he has rowed from Sydney to Thursday Island, sleeping everynight in his wet (because of rain) tent on land. It is quite an adventure knowing that the land is inhabited by crocodiles !!! What a brave fellow, we hope he succeeds in his project. We also met Anthony in Escape River at the pearl farm.

Anthony has a passion for pearls, and speaking with him is a real pleasure. We were very lucky Anthony showed us around the pearl farm. Before meeting Ben on Justapussy in Gove, we saw the catamaran in Port Douglas and Lizard Island

. We crossed the Gulf of Carpentaria in 3 days without meeting anyone

, it was quite choppy (Ben would say that it was bloody rough- but he is an Aussie and justapussy :-)

From Gove

to Darwin, besides crocodiles, snakes, short-finned pilot whales, tortoises, and the many radio air and maritime checkSSss from various Australien authorities such as: customs, coast guards, navy, we met no-one.

We did not want to leave Darwin without visiting the Kakadu National Park

. We were amazed to discover that the Kakadu National Park is bigger than our country Switzerland !!! As you can imagine, in one day we visited only a very small part of it, and we also had another day visit to the Litchfield national park

. For we Swiss, Australia is a huge, enormous country we would need years to discover. Who knows we may come back but next time with a van. We found the aussies very nice and very heplfull.

Now it is time for new adventures, we should leave Darwin in about one week and will be heading for Indonesia.

April11th, 2006 : TiTOM is ready for news adventures ! As the SE winds are back, tomorrow or after tomorrow we will be heading North. We will be sailing between the coast and the Great Barrier Reef. The Cap York will be reach in day sailing, and then we will cross the Carpenteria Gulf in 3 days, arriving in Gove. We intend to be in Darwin around mid-May.

We are one of the lucky ones ! LARRY, classified category 5, hit Cairns region on monday March 20th, at 6.30 am.

On Tuesday March 14th, a low pressure formed in the Solomon Islands and developed into a tropical storm, and on Wednesday it developed into a cyclone catagory 1 called Larry in the Coral sea. It seems that Larry is heading for Cairns. Very quickly and in a very efficient way we are informed by radio and VHF that this cyclone is going to be a dangerous one, with devastating wind and lots of rain. The population is asked to take the appropriate steps to protect themselves. Provisions and up-dates received from the Weather Center are very accurate, they are able to report the exact location, day and time LARRY will hit the coast.

Saturday morning we are informed that cyclone LARRY will hit the Australian coast between Cairns and Innisfail (small town about 100km south) on Monday at around 6.30am, with very devastating winds. We decide to go about 5 miles up the river and get moored in the strong mangroves where we should be well protected. Just before leaving, our neighbour Henri asks us if we can tow him as his engine is dead. Our neighbour has a passion for exotic plants, he transformed his boat WASA into a kind of botanical garden.

As you can imagine, while we were towing him we did not go unnoticed ! Since we have enough time before the cyclone is due to arrive, and at this stage very few boats have moved, we can choose the best place in the river with the highest mangroves. After WASA is anchored in a safe place we found a kind of pirate hole

in the mangrove. Just the right size for our boat. We put lines all over and feel like we're trapped in a spider's web. We hardly can see TITOM behind the mangrove. At low tide our boat is lying in the mud

, at least 15 cm is missing at the waterline!

The night before the cyclone the weather is extremely warm and humid. There is no air, the water is flat, the slightest breath is sucked up by LARRY. There is a strange atmosphere. Calm before the storm !!! We are aware that something bad is coming, but besides the terrible sandfly attacks, we do not feel anything. It is quite an odd feeling.

Every hour and during the whole night the radio broadcast news about Larry, we know that now it has become a catagory 5, the highest, with extremely destructive winds which can reach up to 300km/h along its front.

By Sunday afternoon all the boats are

up the river and moored in the

mangroves. The marina is closed and the big ships have been asked to quit Cairns and to go offshore.

Monday March 20th,2006,

When we got back to our anchorage we discovered the huge damage.

Larry will not be forgotten easily by the people in Innisfail, as they return to rebuild their city and community. Fortunately there has been not been any death and this is surely due to the authorities which alerted the population a long time in advance and were are great support.

February 8th 2006 :This year we will unfortunately not be exploring this wonderful country for two reasons, the most important one, Cairns is situated in a cyclone region that is why we prefer to stay near TITOM to bring her to the protection of the mangrove in case of alert. And secondly, Australia is such a huge and beautiful country we need time to discover it. We surely will come back when we have sold TiTOM and will go round aussie lands by van. Anyhow even if we have to stay in

Cairns, don't think we are bored. We regularly go to Fitzroy Island where we relax for a couple of days in the spa

, we also go to Michaelmas Cay

where we can admire thousands of sterns which come on the island to have babies and is also a wonderful spot for snorkling

. We went to visit the zoo and beeing in Australien we could not leave it without a photo taken with a koala !!!

when we are not visiting or sailing we do some painting for our friends or

on our boat !