Kumai leg

P Kangean
arrived so I could fix watermaker
eventually got generator working but unable to fire WM
Visited that evening by locals and ended up giving a vial of eye/ear drops to one man for infected eye.
They told us way to get out of the anchorage (not the way we had came in) and where shallows were. Michael asked him for fish so he returned next day w disappointing fish.
P Bawean
Anchored too late around point but got in ok just at dusk. debated whther to go ashore but I was keen to leave it until we could see. Morning into village we spotted and were directed over a major hill for market supplies. Michael, ill with belly trouble didnt enjoy the demanding 3 k walk.  We arrived in the main village  which was a small scenic fishing village. Michael and Emma were requested many times for photos while salty was left alone.
Turns out we were too late for market with only 1 stallholder still there right after Pagi prayer. We had seen many people going into mosque on the way. A woman came and talked to us as her daughter wanted a photo w Mike. We/he obliged and after more talk they gave us a lift in a nice suv back over the hill to our dinghy. After more photos we went back to the boat. We decided to move over to the other anchorage mentioned in 101 about 10 nm away for some snorkelling so up anchored. 
Anchoring was uneventual once we cleared some initial reef realising we were too far out and neeed to go further into the bay around the next reef.
We anchored alongside a strip of reef which marked a major group of reefs which filled in the point out to the off laying island around a mile out. We were just past a "parked " tug with barge which had helped us identify the deeper water channel.
We jumped in the dinghy and headed over to the near patch of coral for a snorkel. The coral was good but visibilty v bad. When back at the boat in the fading afternoon a man paddled over. It looked like he had been standing off our boat for a while waiting for us to get back. After sign language and a little english and bahasa Indo exchanged we let him climb aboard. He bought out 2 visitors books which were scribed by various yachties from years gone by. He explained this is what he wanted -"no money".  He asked a few questions so we asked him where the market was. He offered to meet us next morning to show us but we stayed vague about our landing time not sure about his offer. He said goodbye and we debated about whether to go ashore again and look for a local Warung. I was once again conservative and won the day, or at least was allowed to make the call. We ate on board, maybe some cards and then to bed.
Next morning we went ashore to find a market. We pulled our dinghy up alongside a group of local boats tehthered to a number of bamboo pylons - the only apparent way for most fisherman to go ashore from these was to hop over their neighbours boats until they made shore which was a shallow pebble beach landing. Our man Miliky was there waiting for us even though we were around an hour later. He scooped us up and led us into a spread out and sparse village with some occasional shops and straight away we were greatful for his help. We would never have found our way without it. On the way a short distance from the beach he took us into his "brother's " house to say hello before we later bought some goods at a general shop before sitting down  for coffee. Some locals wanted photos of our resident youth (ie not me). Instead of "kope" (coffee) Emma ended up with a sprite spider containg ice and condensed milk -yum . Sometimes being happy with black coffe is a virtue...
Miliky took us to his house a short walk away. He offered us bread fruit (we think) and retreived a number of learning English textbooks from a large cabinet in his entrance living room we were sitting in. We flicked through past participles etc before deciding the most useful book was literally elementary. It included pictures with words alongside in both English and Indonesian. The local school was next door and a handful had followed us to the doorway. After a while more children gathered around and many had moved inside the small living room, sitting on the floor and following our every gesture and word with laughs and comments. We tried to engage them with some succes as Michael asked them what work they would like to do after school. Airline pilot seemed popular while fisherman wasnt very. It turns out Miliky is a farmer. In typical indonesian style their were no remanstrances or guidance to the childrens behaviour that we saw so that they were unrestrained and bubbly but respectful.
We asked to go to the market to which Miliky said was a long way away. He had organised it anyway with 3 motorbikes ready to go. 
I rode behind Miliky who was about half my weight which was a featof pillion surrender, while Emma was behind Milikys sister and Mike rode behind another man ( cousin?). We travelled for kilometres before realising we were heading back to the village we had been in the day before. Miliky's springs bottomed out constantly as we bounced and skipped over newly, still being constructed road, dirt sections and crumbling road. Only a short section could be considered a road as we know it.
At the market their was only one stall still going -we bought some more vegetables from the same old lady who was also the only one still there yesterday.
Oh well!,  back on the bikes to Miliky's village although before we got to his place he turned left up the hill. He mentioned to me "see Bawean"several times so I guess we were going sightseeing.
We climbed on the bikes a short while passing a few small villages through dry rice paddy fields waiting the wet season. Miliky stopped at his familys home to get us some bananas and after a short ride we stopped ar another small village .  The waterfall, which was nearly dry and poorly looking with an attached well, was down a short walk through jungle. There we sat and pondered some more mutual language difficulties before we all returned to the seaside village of Miliky. Miliky ushered us into a small Warung makan near the dinghy and we sat down at a small wooden table with plastic seats in a dungy dark room. The food came out, which was Indo spicey and tasty, with ice, water and, after eating, a tube of frozen flavoured ice. We were all uncertain about what to trust but ended up partaking of it all so as not to offend.
We wanted to return to our dinghy in time to catch a snorkel but Miliky insisted we visited his brother again and produced a guitar which I played for a while.No one else played although they had apparently enjoyed it so we left for the dinghy. Miliky's sister had requested to come out to the boat so we agreed to take her out to show her around -"play on boat" as Miliky put it.  His sister enjoyed the visit although insisted on cleaning some dishes left in the sink like greased lightning. We had trouble getting her to leave as she was convinced Miliky was also coming out. Michael eventually left with her in the dinghy without resorting to violence. Because we had anchored out near the snorkelling reefs Michael disappeared from view when near shore. He returned after a while towing Miliky's canoe containing Miliky and a youth back out to Holdfast 7 - Miliky also wanted to play. He stayed on the boat for around half an hour asking questions and chatting before we thanked him profusely and started the long paddle back to shore. 
We organised ourselves for a snorkel and headed off to a spot near the boat Miliky had recommended. The visibilty was so terrible we quickly aborted that location and headed out to the reef nearer the island were we had been the previous afternoon and once again had a late afternoon snorkel. Coral and fish were good but visibilty only passable.

Michael and Martin woke up at 0130 this morning to pull anchor off the little island Sukur we anchored at last night. I awoke to hear the motor on and then chain screeching in the bow. The chain was stuck on some coral with 50 m still out .After many attempts and tripping the anchor winch circuit many times Martin and crew let more chain out and headed to sea hoping to free it. Success! the chain lifted easily now so I retired to bed. The agreed time to lift anchor had been 0300 but Martin had set his alarm on his iphone which was still on Melbourne time - Michael seemed unimpressed as they had drawn the short straw anyway . I had cooked another fish meal -tuna steaks in onion and Morrocan spices with mash and cabbage with cloves so was able to call my shift time. We had anchored at 3 in the afternoon after travelling around 15 miles out of our direct route to have a snorkel. We werent going to make our Flores destination until the middle of the night anyway so were looking at another night at sea, possibly bobbing around offshore waiting for daylight to allow us visibilty in throughh the coral. 
After a late afternoon snorkel at the island Sam and Michael set off on a mission in the dinghy to the nearby village to see if they could round up any eggs there. they got ashore with the handheld radio and walked several kilometres along the the dead coral beach before coming to the village. With much interest from the village they located the supplies and with the help of 15 or so locals walked back to the dinghy in the dark They had kept us informed via radio so Martin and I and kicked back with a quiet drink. We were visited by a passsing Indonesian boat towing 2 dugout canoes manned (boyed?) by 2 boys. They pulled up to the boat and were very friendly. They were most interested in our facemasks and made indications they would like one 1 but I indicated that it was mine and I needed it. After 10 mins or so in which the boys were able to introduce themselves they motored off with their diesel chugging away around the point with the 2 boys back in their dugouts.
Later we heard them passing back between us and the island travelling over the reef after our dinner but we couldnt see them as they used no lights at all and the moon was still beneath the horizon.
On the 28 th we had arrived at Banda at around 2:00 am so, unsure  to go in at night, we hove to off Banadneira between it, the main island, and Pulau Ai , and after checking our distance on radar waited for the sun. 
We entered the island group between Bandneira and Gunang Api, the active volcano. Gunang Api went to 660 m straight up from the sea on all sides and  its peak was usually covered with cloud.
More on Banda the next blog........

We arrived in Cairns Marlin Marina at around 8:30pm last night. The docking was a little tricky with a strong tidal flow and the wind pushing the nose into the dock. A port side tie up made it easier as reverse prop "walks" to port allowing me to overcome the tide with some healthy reverse while hanging off the bow lines until the stern was secure.
We had snorkelled around lunchtime at Normanby island (part of the Franklands) using our eletric snorkel which was a great success despite average coral and murky water. After the snorkel we gybed up the coast with a healthy. 12 - 17 knot breeze over our mostly right shoulder ( on starboard tack).
On Saturday morning I awoke as Michael had just reeled in a fish on our lure. Not knowing what it was it took some research to find out that it was a young Spanish Mackerel who just made the min size. The rest of Saturday had seen us do a long spinnaker run out close to the reef in light airs and mostly clear sunny skies while that night, as the with the previous night, we mostly had to motor as the breeze died.
After docking in Cairns Mike and I looked for a beer and some late grub landing in the Woolshed full of beer, food ( with 10 mins left to order) , a band, backpackers and some scantily dressed young ladies celebrating Canada day for some reason.
A couple of beers, meal, and back to the boat

I was having trouble getting into my shift so thought I would do some blogging - well because we are too far offshore its probably just called writing, but on the ipad so I can post when next in range. 
Its 2 am, The full moon is dropping below the horizon on a mostly cloudy night. There is a freighter passing us 3M to starboard as we motor NW up the coast to Cairns, just E of Cape Bowling Green.  The moon is now a fiery red colour as it gives its last gasps of light, as I look around I see quite a few stars which will hopefully keep me company for a while. We had the spinnaker up for most of the afternoon after we left Airlie on a crystal clear day tickling along at 3-4 knots with a slight current against us. Although slow it was a beautiful sail past a wild mainland and isolated islands eventually out past Gloucester island and head.  Michael had constructed a line and lure but was surprised he hadn't caught anything before the sun went down. With no fish hanging gutted from the stern I decided to BBQ some snags while Michael insisted on boiling some vegies. Fine except the BBQ flash-burned my wrist a little as it exploded because I relit it after it blew out. Food was fine though once I re-settled the tray which had lifted off the frame a bit. Mike stood a long watch until 1 am as I slept, apparently enjoying a movie as he kept an eye on things using the radar, plotter, ais and eyeball mark 1 as they say.
After waking this morning I showered and then walked in the clear sun alomg the picturesqe bay boardwalk down to Jubilee village. I passed Michael jogging towards me his Canberra hued shoulders glistening white in the sun rare amongst these queenslanders whomare all a shade of brown. I found Harrys cafe and stopped to have a full english breakfast and coffe while I flicked through the articles in the online Age app.
Back to the boat and Michael and I planned the few leaving jobs ending with leaving the dock at 11:30 to refuel before heading off.
The moon has now dropped and I ponder about how much fuel we will use to get to Cairns. Its forecast for a healthy 10-15 knots today so should be sailing sooner or later but we'll see how we go I suppose. 

We motored up to Coffs harbour figuring to get a sea view as well as get close to shore avoiding some current. As we turned from our waypoint just off the harbour approach a breeze sprung up so we cut the motor and put out the genoa.
The breeze built up from NNW so we had to lay in tacks now.  Well heeled over Michael arranged tackes between the Solitary islands - south Solitary then North Solitary.  Slow going up the coast even though through the water the boat was sailing well. The tacking continued as we past Yamba in the night. The breeze grew then died as we put in reefs, furled the headsail and unfurled and took them out again.
The following day by late morning it was really on!
The breeze quickly increased until we had 2 reefs in the mainsail and were only using the staysail forward. The boat was moving nicely ,through the increasing chop was now giving us a hammering over the bow. Some waves lifted the bow then pitched the nose into the middle of the next one while some waves chose to break just about on the foredeck as Holdfast 7 steamed through them, splitting them anyway.
Michael stood watch into the evening as I tried to get some sleep so I could take the first night watch.  My sleep was almost non-existent as the motion of the boat pinned me and bucked me into the wall on a heavy lean.  Around 1800hrs I could hear Michael cursing the checkstay and the rigger who installed new checkstay blocks, as well as yell out to me that the ?!.. checkstay had broken. I put my gear on and got onto the deck, by that time Michael had found that the checkstay was still there but with a broken end and he was able to tie this onto the block and resurrect the much needed checkstay. The checkstay was vital, the rigger had said, anytime the shorter staysail was out but particlularly in heavy conditions. The stays come out of the mast behind where the staysail halyard comes out forward to counter the forward force of the staysail, and stops the mast from pumping  and moving in a sea.
The block had flown off the end of the checkstay itself and put a huge chip in the deck. It looked like the spliced loop had come apart rather than the spectra rope itself. Spectra is a synthetic rope with the same strength as steel for its diameter. The new blocks have a breaking strain of  8t and a working load of 4t while the rope is supposed to have a breaking strain of around 2.5 to 3t. Better the rope breaks than you have a block come apart with resultant high velocity parts flying around a boat said the rigger. Well that part had been true as when the rope parted the block had flown straight back to its anchor point while the rope must have harmlessly flicked upwards to the stars.
We arranged some food as the boat bucked and wheeled throught the waves. When I looked at our track I realised that despite Michael's efforts and energy, and the decent boat speed he had kept up, we were only making 2 knots in the direction we wanted to go, the current, wind and waves conspiring to keep us from rounding Cape Byron whose light we had been aiming for some time now. 
I had barely slept and could tell Michael was spent. While eating we had "heaved to". This was a simple technique which kept the boat parked bow almost into the wind as the waves passed underneath reducing nearly all motion the boat was feeling. I checked the AIS - the ships could obviously see our transmissions as they were all clearing us by several miles as they ploughed up and down the coast. The boat was making about 1.5 to 2 knots SE in the current while heaved to. I said to Michael to get some rest and I would nap and try to keep a look out as well while we heaved to for a while. We were safe, I said, because the big ships were going around us and we should be clearly visible to smaller vessels, not that we had seen any for some hours.  Our drift was away from land and we were already 10 miles out anyway.
Michael crawled into bed, it was 2130 -  9:30 pm.. I stayed in the cockpit trying to stay awake but it was no good. Exhusted I went below and lay on my bunk intending to get up regulaly to check our position etc. I awoke at 2:30am the following day.  I raced up on deck as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and found that the wind had subsided and left a good sailing breeeze and from the SE . I left Milke asleep and organised the sails for sailing now.  The staysail was furled and the genoa unfurled. I took out a reef and the boat sailed off heading nicely north in the left over chop, which was quickly dissapating. We had drifted 18 miles southeast and when Michael woke up 3.5 hours later we were only just coming up to the position where we were when we heaved to!  Light broke and we finally sailed past Cape Byron and Byron bay. 
The breeze now stayed with us although light at times. We hoisted the light airs spinnaker before Tweed Heads and it gave us a great sail before it became overpowered as the wind rose. We almost broached a couple of times before we finally relented and decided to drop it.  Michael went forward to wrestle with the sock as I tried to steer the boat so that the main blanketed the spinnaker helping it to collapse. It wasnt collapsing easily as Michael wrestled the lines with all his weight coming off the deck a few times before the sock eventually came down. Once the sock had come down around the sail it was an easy job to lower the halyard before we both stuffed the spinnaker back in its bag.
By sunset we were sailing slowly in a light breeze again just passing close to Gold Coast. We toasted the glitz with a short scotch before slowly heading up Stradbrokes then Morten islands overnight for Mooloolaba. Not long after we passed the Gold Coast we heard Coastguard Mooloolaba on the VHF issuing a bulletin about the bar at the entrance to Mooloolaba. I switched over channels to listen as they announced that the previous announcements regarding the depth at the entrance were no longer relevant and that the lead lights to the entrance were now switched off. This sounded like the entrance was possibly unnavigable! I radioed the Coastguard back but we must have been too far for them to hear so we had to leave it to the morning. 
 In the morning we heard the same announcement again but was still unable to raise them so we started to discuss alternative strategies. We were meeting Emily and one of her friends, Miranda, to come on board and they were already in Moollolaba since Friday. Should we go into Morton bay and tell Emily to come down and meet us there or should we head further north? The next stop north was either inside Wide Bay Bar or further up the coast the other side of Fraser island and Hervey bay. Mike suggested that we could stop at Mooloolaba and anchor off then still dinghy in to get the girls. The weather was calm so I thought this was a good suggestion so we kept our heading to Mooloolaba. As we moved closer I radioed again, this time raising them.  After some conversation it appeared the bar was OK but with a shallow spot near the entrance. After receiving the instructions about the approach we were now much more confident about getting into Mooloolaba river OK.
We now had the entrance in our sites as we sailed around Point Cartwright staying safely off shallow ground. We turned the motor on and dropped the sails then headed a little north before starting our approach,  heading south to the middle of the bay then west into the teeth of the entrance between the breakwaters.  To our dismay the engine died and I realised the starboard tank had run dry. We opened the tap to equalise the tanks and started our approach again. To our further and far greater dismay the engine died again! We must have used all our deisel probably because the previous time we had equalised we were on a fair starboard lean. I radioed the Coastguard requesting fuel but they replied they were unable to carry fuel and could only offer other assistance ( a tow or rescue etc). obviously not an option at this stage we decided to pump up the dinghy and take it in with our 44 before a friendly local fisherman, the only boat we could see in the open bay at the time, radioed us and said he had heard our request to the coastguard and could give us some fuel. He motored over and handed us his 4 litre emergency supply which we gratefully accepted and poured into the tank. After handing the container back while dropping the spout which he had to rescue with his boat hook, we mumbled more thanks with some extra apologies and, once we saw the spout was recovered, we once again made for an approach to Mooloolaba river. We came apon the entrance from the west as the dredge in middle channel moved over to starboard to let us by. I stayed near the middle but a little to port as we motored into the entrance when the boat suddenly kicked up and slowed - we had hit the sandy bottom. A small swell came through and lifted us a little so I accelerated and the boat hopped forward, now spun around towards the dredge. Another couple of hops on the next swells and Holdfast suddenly jumped free so I swerved to port releiving the dredge operator and gave him a wave before an exageratted mop of my brow. We motored into the river and tied up at the marina in brilliant sunshine. the dramas of this leg finally over.

slow day up coast past Sydney. Rain at times We poled out the headsail and had the preveneter permanently rigged to stop the boom banging across in the 3-4m swell. The swell smoothed out during the day. we were still getting effected by adverse current so tried to stay close to the shore - but not too close. 1-2 miles out feels pretty close esp when there's an easterly blowing you towards the shore.
I must have been tired in the afternoon. Michael cooked up some bacon and eggs. I had the headsail poled out but was concerned about an AIS target showing on my screen. a big tanker was ahead but I was concerned as I steered towards his stern that he seemed to be turning towards me.  We were still miles apart but I didnt want to cross his bow  as I wasnt sure of his final direction. The AIS kept giving me a CPA (closest point of approach) which flickred around but kept coming back to a distance of 0.01 of a nautical mile (ie 18metres) As Michael handed me some bacon and eggs I kept steering making sure I was going around the tanker, Steering with the left, trying to eat with he right. After the first bite the bacon flew off the plate onto the seat so I picked it up quickly just beatingt he 3 sec rule! As we grew closer to the tanker Michael informed me that the tanker was anchored. Anchored! I said - sure enough I could see the chain and when I selected the info on the AIS it told me the CPA and that it was  anchored but moving at .03 knots.