Moving along again
03 September 2015 | Sakatia Island
Bill/ Sunny and hot
We pulled up the anchor and moved along again. We got to Hellville yesterday morning, did a bit of shopping for groceries, and had a great lunch at Papillion. Before we left Crater Bay, we checked on water for our next trip. We have a water maker but if I can get good water with out running it, I'll do it every time. We pulled out our test kit and measured it for pesticides, nitrites, bacteria, etc. The bacteria test takes 48 hours but it looks pretty good so far. We loaded up our jerry cans so we have 17 gallons to do laundry. We had Jimmy do some when we were in Hellville a few weeks ago but they apparently use a washboard and physically scrub the clothes. Several things came back with holes(we are tough as it is on clothes out here) so we will be doing our own now that we have a decent source for water. We had to purchase a card that the marina uses to keep track of how much we take on board. You get 1000 liters for $30,000A or about $9.50US. Running the water maker would use a bunch more power than that. We'll fill up before we take off. Our tanks are still about ⅗ full so we aren't hurting.
Anyway, we moved to Hellville yesterday morning as Crater Bay was just too rollie with Zephyr dancing all over the place, normally directly the opposite of the rest of the boats in the harbor. Our anchor was down in Hellville by 1030. It's not very far from Crater Bay. With Puff in the water, we did all our errands and were back on board by 1500 for a relatively quiet afternoon and evening. Still some rocking but not bad. We had the anchor up this morning by 0745 and were off. Last year, when I came back from the US, I brought a high pressure water pump that runs on 12 volts. It's hooked up to a long coiling hose and with it plugged in, I can wash all the dirt off the chain and anchor as it comes up. In the past, I've had to put a big brush on the end of the boat hook and scrub the chain as it came up. Now, a hose goes over board into the water. It brings water to the pump once it's plugged in(I installed a water resistant 12 volt outlet in the anchor locker)and with the sprayer, the mud just comes right off. We haven't used it in quite some time as we have been anchoring in sand through most of Southeast Asia but now that it mainly mud, I love it. So much easier.
We took off west(no wind of course) around the end of Nosy Be and anchored off an Sakatia Island just off Nosy Be. We get some nice breezes to keep the wind generator running but are away from the madness of Hellville harbor. We may be here a day, maybe two before we continue around the top of Nosy Be. Want to see more than the main harbor while we are here. In about two weeks, we will be taking off down the west coast for the jump off point where we head for South Africa. Need to be on our way by early October.
The picture today is of our lunch at Papillon in Hellville. A Zebu filet with potatoes. Also came with bread sticks before lunch and fresh bread. Not bad for just over $8.50/person. Zebu filet is cheaper here than chicken!