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| Day 97 |
12 July 2000 |
| Aru Sea |
| "Set Back" |
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A bad night for progress. At breakfast time we are about ten
miles west of where we were last Sunday. In just a few hours a
strong set, or current, has grasped Duyfken by the keel and
dragged her back over the tracks we have made in the last four
days. All that work of beating up and down has been lost. Our
net progress for four days of sailing has been ten miles
backwards.
This is very disappointing. We were not expecting such a strong
adverse current here. In fact the reason we came up to the Irian
Jaya coast was to get out of the current and perhaps even pick
up a favourable one. Once again we are reminded of the folly of
nautical optimism.
After breakfast we furl the sails and start the engines. Though
we set ourselves a nearly impossible task of sailing all the way
to the Pennefather River against the wind, it is still a moment
of defeat when the engines drop into gear and the propellers
start turning.
A few days ago I wrote that the one thing we have on our side is
time, but clearly I was wrong. The great limiting factor in this
voyage is that it has an ETA at the end of it. If we weren't due
at Pennefather River on a particular day, the 9th of August, we
could just keep plugging along until the conditions become
favourable, just as they would have done in the olden days. But
in this era of the infernal combustion engine (thank you David
Walton, steamboat owner) we are accustomed to punctuality,
obsessed by it, to the extent that we even insist on an ETA for
a voyage on a sailing ship.
I have to praise our little ship. She has bravely striven over
the last few days to take us where we want to go. Given time she
would make it. She has not let us down, rather, it is the
impatience of the era which has defeated her. In her own time,
four centuries ago, Duyfken was considered a swift
passage-maker. We have proved that our Duyfken performs much as
her predecessor did. So we moderns must take responsibility for
disappointments that are of our own making.
Even though Duyfken has engines, we still might have a problem
meeting our ETA. We don't have unlimited fuel, and certainly not
enough to motor all the way to our destination. We will still be
looking for ways to use the wind and we will still have to
search out the best currents if we are to meet our commitments.
We still need a few lucky breaks.
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Peter Manthorpe
Master
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