Wednesday 30 September 2015

After a bit of cogitating, ciphering and other cerebral calisthenics involving incorrigible impetuousness and a coin, decided to remain inshore to shorten distance and attempt Lovina sometime after dark. Discovered that with masterful tuning, radar could usually see FADs (Fish Aggregating (or Attracting) Devices) within a half mile. (Although radars "see" objects, they are frankly rather stupid and often require some human interface for full efficacy.) Made it past the northernmost tip of Bali before dark and there were no more.. or given a possible paucity of masterfulness, we were lucky. Anyway, arrival into the anchorage was quite easy with Google Earth overlays, radar and nearly full moon an hour and a half after sunset. Customary night arrival technique of running in until bumping into something, then firing an anchor at it was dispensable. Happy hour began a touch late, but lasted at least an hour and was happy, so nobody complained.

Speaking of which, large chunks of Kalimantan (Borneo) and Sumatra have been set afire with fumes rendering anchorages at Kumai and possibly Ketapang, among others, unusable. Pulpwood company execs are reportedly being prosecuted. This may prohibit the orangutans, a major reason for visit, from seeing any rally participants. Those that don't die from smoke inhalation will no doubt be devastated. Having no desire to call in at following stop, Karimata, will likely go directly from Karimun Jawa to Belitung where we now expect to clear out of Indonesia for Malaysia. Visa expires in 3 weeks allowing a week at each locale. Air quality around Singapore and southern Malaysia is also reported as hazardous, so everyone is hoping and/or praying for rain.

"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife." - Douglas Adams

Jack