Ooroo Australia

Apparently Ooroo or Hooroo is Aussie slang for goodbye. I haven't actually heard anyone here say it though. G'day, on the other hand, is common. And 'mate'. That part is satisfying, as is the occasional sight of a man (usually an older gentleman) dressed in a Crocodile Dundee hat, safari shirt, and very short shorts. It reminds me that I'm in Australia and not the U.S.
Just when we're getting the rhythm of the way people talk here, it's time to go. We sold our car (we did much better this time by not wrecking it at the last moment like we did the one in New Zealand). We've checked the engines and performed a myriad of last minute fixes (such as unwrapping a huge tangle in the anchor chain caused by a broken shackle, bleeding air from the fuel line, and fixing the stop solenoid).

Our boat is again stuffed with First World provisions, including a freezer full of meat. Matt had to bleed some coolant from the freezer, re-add some, and then bleed it again to get it back to its old self. On the plus side, messing around with refrigeration is one more aspect of boat life that he's become comfortable with. The last few trips to the store to pick up specific supplies also devolved into the familiar "oh, maybe we need just one or two more of [take your pick]."  And that's how we now have enough tortilla chips and Whittaker's chocolate bars to last a lifetime or two.

Part of our check-out procedure with the Australian Border Force involved handing over a big stack of receipts. Australia is one of the few places that make it relatively easy to get back local taxes paid by tourists for purchases made within the 60 days before departure. Of course, some countries make it even easier by not charging visiting yachts the tax in the first place (at least on yacht-related purchases).

Hopefully this tax refund will help to defray some of the massive bleed out of funds from our bank account. Unfortunately we couldn't get back all that we paid since some of the parts we had imported were over $1000, had a 10% import tax imposed, and there is no way to recoup it (we paid several hundred dollars just in taxes to bring in our engine radiator assembly). I feel sorry for the poor Border Force representative that has to enter all the amounts though.

We're headed for Kupang, Indonesia to check-in. It should take us 3 or 4 days of sailing to get there. The forecasts predict a pleasant downwind sail. So we are hoping for a gentle transition to getting our sea legs back. Obviously, our weather and sea condition predictions are never inaccurate. As our friend Mark (previously of Amelie IV) used to say, 'What could go wrong?'