We just dropped anchor at Derawan and plan to stay just one night. We had a good time at Maratua Island but it's time to move on.

Yesterday morning, the crab man showed up about 0830 with two coconut crabs wrapped in a nylon reinforced bag tied tightly at the ends. These guys are nasty. They have an attitude and it's well earned. Their claws are so powerful that they can take off a finger and then go back for more. They can crush a coconut. Hence the name. They live in the groves burrow deep beside the trees and feast on all the dropped coconuts. While I had asked for just a kilo, I ended up with 2.5 kilos. Tracy grabbed the biggest pot and boiled the water. As she was taking the first one out of the bag, he(or she) reached up and grabbed hold of the tongs she was using and bent them. These guys can bend steel with their claws. In he went after a bit of fighting and a while later, his cousin(a bigger crab)got the same treatment though this one got off the tongs and started fighting back while sitting on the top of the stove. I reached in and grabbed him with the now bent tongs and plunged him into the water. Boy, he was not impressed. Again, a while later he joined his cousin on the counter and Tracy started smashing the shells to get the meat out. WIth my cold, I'm staying out of the galley as much as I can. Don't want to spread my germs any more than I have to. Still sleeping on the settee in the main salon.

Last night, a storm came through the anchorage with winds in the mid 30 knot range and a bit of a swell to make Zephyr roll about. Then the rain started and the night got even more interesting. I'm glad I dove down and freed the chain from around the coral bommie yesterday morning. Now the chain had room to swing freely in the wind. My hats off to Rochna Anchors. We didn't budge a bit. We'd set the anchor alarm at 150 feet and it never went off. Not the entire time we were at anchor and not even during the storm last night. We just kept circling the center point on the chart plotter. About 0330, the DuoGen made a strange noise and suddenly sped up the speed of it's propellers. I climbed out on the back deck in the rain and found that the main shaft had come detached from the propeller gear housing. It's happened before so I lowered the unit and tied it down. Well this morning I went out to inspect and repair what I though was the problem and found that the plastic piece that connects the shaft to the gears had snapped it housing. The DuoGen is dead for the time being. There is no way to connect either the water or the air unit to the drive shaft. I'll either have to get one made while we are in Tarakan or some where along the Malaysia many towns or get one shipped in some where where we will stop long enough to get it done. Perhaps in Kudat. I don't think I have a replacement for it in our box of spare parts but will look.

We are now in Derawan having crossed over with Azizah and we are all going to town shortly for a drink and drop off trash. They will be joining us for the trip up to Tarakan tomorrow. We expect to be stopping about half way up so it's not an over night trip. We have way points from another cruiser than came down that way a few weeks ago. Should be a fun trip.