PHOTO: CHILLI CRAB AT REZEKI

We finally left Batavia Marina, Jakarta, on Friday 28th September after 3 months of work on Aquarius. During the process of repairing and altering Aquarius, we owe much to the kind generosity and friendship extended to us by our friend Ery. Ery has an engineering business in Jakarta and helped us with all manner of engineering solutions to issues we had to put right on Aquarius. We will be forever in his debt. Thank you so much Ery.
We left Jakarta on a FRIDAY!!! Old superstitions run deep and it was with a little trepidation on my part that we did indeed depart on a Friday. However, the trip north to Batam was an absolute pleasure and by far the best sailing we have experienced on Aquarius. We averaged 4 knots for the 6 day passage with very, very little motoring required. For the most part we cruised at 5.5 knots and upward. The weather was very kind to us and we only had two squalls to entire passage. We arrived at Nongsa at 2200hrs on the 2nd of October. Our friends from the local community and the marina welcomed us back with a huge amount of friendship. A few days after our arrival, we visited Rezeki seafood Restaurant with our friends Lea (Crystal Blues) and Sue and Richard (Sea Bunny). Chilli crab, steamed ginger prawns and kalian in oyster sauce with garlic were sensational. Now to get aquarius bedded down and us prepped for our flight back to Oz.