If nothing else sailing in Indonesia is rarely boring! We left Bali headed for Maselembo Besar Island but yesterday morning early after the radio sched @ 0730 arranged to meet with another vessel travelling north west, in fact one from Mossman, at Pulau Bawean some 120 miles to the west but directly along our course out. In fact we were going to go there from Bali but thought we might go and dive MB first. So we dog legged and headed for Pulau Bawean. We had been sailing through the night and this would extend our passage to another full night at least. The wind was fitful but blowing at 16 - 17 knots from square behind so we sailed through the day just with the genoa. This wasn't all that great as though comfortable we had tide across sea and slightly lumpy conditions and weren't making all that good time maybe just 5 - 6 knots. We felt like we should be going faster.

Those that read yesterday's missive will recall that Paul, our autopilot, had unexpectedly decided to take a short (we hope) period of leave or maybe just went AWOL. Maybe it is just a fuse (we hope) but we have to pull the unit out as it has two fuses inside it to check and as we rely on the autopilot also as the rudder indicator which is very important to us it is difficult to do whilst travelling and also there is the risk of damaging something in the process with the movement so we will wait until we are at anchor and then check and maybe fix it (we hope). It is a long way to hand steer to Singapore!

Anyway as is the way with Indonesia, late in the afternoon the breeze is on the cusp of being too weak for just the genoa (headsail) but the gusts are too strong for the MPS and there has been a lot of cloud action on the horizons during the day and we hadn't wanted to risk putting the MPS up which can be a cow to get down if the wind strengthens unexpectedly. But around early dinner time and just before dark the wind slows to 8 - 12 knots and the boat speed slows so it is time to put the 'big fella' up.

That's great we pick up boat speed to now 6 - 7 knots and occasionally little bursts of more! It is good to be hooting along a bit faster to our destination. It was going to be lunchtime tomorrow arrival and now it is reasonably early morning with the extra speed. On in to the night we go.

It is a very pleasant night, the moon is bright lighting up the water, and the seas have calmed, the breeze is very pleasant and just nice for a night sail under spinnaker or MPS. We often don't use this sail at night when short handed as it is a handful to get in if blowing.

Around maybe 1100 Dianne is at the helm and calls me up as she has seen something flash by on the Port side. An inspection reveals that there is a white buoy trailing along not far behind us! I guess we have finally and inevitably picked up one of these fishing buoys. Further inspection reveals a bamboo pole with a rag attached trailing out from under us. I pull the bamboo post up from the stern but whilst I can pull it up I cannot dislodge it, pull the buoy up and few hundred metres of nylon line but cannot dislodge the bamboo pole stuck under the boat. Also notice something else dragging in the water below us, it is night of course. Well we have to stop the boat to see what we can do about this so we set about dropping the MPS, to do this we start the sock coming down over it, unfurl the genoa to blanket it to make it possible to pull it into the sock and then drop it and refurl the genoa. Just want you want to do at midnight! Anyway once stopped we are able to dislodge the bamboo pole and a large foam float that was the other item dragging under water. What a relief I was not looking forward to the other option of a midnight dive to see what it was caught on and to cut it free!!! Certainly not boring.

These fishing buoys and poles are very commonplace, along with FAD's, nets, lines and boats! However through the day we had not noticed any FAD's or buoys in this area as we were in the middle of the Java Sea and at least 50nm from land or islands but maybe this was just a stray free floating one as it had no anchor or other equipment on it. Anyway we put it back where we found it, glad to be rid of this unwanted passenger, and back on track without a swim. We reset the Genoa for the rest of the night for an easier sail and carried on a little slower but for an easy ride through the rest of the night. Tuesday morning we can see Pulau Bawean, about 25 miles to go and our anchorage all going well. Will probably have a night here before some long long treks north west>