Monday, 13th October 2008

Position: 03.04.28'S 109.53.48'E

We had a pleasant trip to Menjangan Island last Monday but ended up anchoring off the coast of Bali as it was more sheltered. Enjoyed a snorkel and a swim there and then next morning we went across to Menjangan Island and had a lovely snorkel and swim. There were dozens of tour boats there with tourists snorkeling. It was up with the best of snorkeling that we have done in Indonesia and Mary and Norman loved it - said it was one of the highlights of their trip away. We then carried on for another 25 miles further up the coast and found a nice anchorage for the night. Next morning (Wednesday) we went ashore to give the dinghy a clean and visit a small village and look around. Several small boys were playing in the sea, and were intrigued with what we were doing. They seemed unbothered by the fact they were naked, covering them selves then forgetting all about modesty. A parent came down to the beach and told them to get their clothes on. It was interesting to see how they set up cattle yards and most of the houses had thatched roofs and dirt floors. Pretty basic. We had taken some clothing items ashore in case they were willing to trade but in the end I just handed out pens to the kids. However, I did notice a little later that one child had managed to score three pens!!

After our sojourn ashore we journeyed on another four miles and anchored in a spot behind a reef. Went for a ticky tour in the dinghy further up the bay which was too shallow to go in with the yacht to investigate where some tourist boats were taking people to but the bay was surrounded by mangroves so picked they may have been taking nature lovers in amongst the mangroves.

By Thursday we decided we needed to start thinking about when and where we were going to drop off Mary and Norman so in the afternoon we anchored off a place called Jangkar where a lot of ferries were coming and going. Went ashore to find there was a ferry terminal and that was about it and managed to find out that no buses went through to Ketapang and then on to Bali. So we moved a little further up the coast and anchored off Kambargsari and Dave and Norman went ashore to investigate. There was a huge prawn farm and they got to talk to the manager of it and he said come ashore next morning at 9am and I will have someone drive you to Sitibondo to catch a bus through to Denpasar. So Friday morning we had Norman and Mary ashore by 9am for their ride and a couple of hours later we had a text from them saying that they were on a bus to Denpasar.

After leaving Norman and Mary, we up anchored and got underway for the long haul to Belitung - a distance of 540 miles so as I write this we are in the middle of the Java Sea and have 89 miles to go to get to the anchorage in Belitung. We have had some lovely sailing with predominantly south easterly winds but on Saturday had some big seas behind us. Eventually we just sailed on a furled genoa. Dave had done a temporary fix on the genoa in Labuan Bajo and it had been working well but the replacement steel ball bearings had rusted up and caused it to seize again. Yesterday it looked as though the weather was going to change so I had to hoist Dave up the mast so that he could release the furler so we could get the genoa down. He had to tie himself to the mast as well as the sea was quite roly. We were just dropping the genoa on to the deck when the wind and rain hit us and unfortunately the genoa ripped in the process. However, we managed to get the genoa into its bag and just motored with bare poles in pouring rain and 45 knot plus winds - our first tropical rain storm. We managed to put a handkerchief of a main up when the wind dropped a little and gradually as the wind dropped added a bit more main and put up the staysail. Within 2 hours it was all over and we had a flat sea and no wind!

The main auto helm decided it had had enough on Saturday so we had been using the new reserve one but then in the early hours of this morning it started to play up, This afternoon Dave has managed to rig up the main one by using a bungy cord and is now working like a dream. We think it has a corroded wire somewhere as it will not go to port. The belt is slipping on the wheel one which we think was caused by using it in the heavy following sea an Saturday.

Most of today we have been motor sailing as we have had very little wind, although this afternoon it looked like we were going to have another tropical storm and we reefed down as the wind picked up but we only ended up getting a light shower and 15 knots of wind for 3-4 hours and then it all died.

Each night we have really had to be on the ball as there were local fishing boats out everywhere as well as a lot of big commercial ships. Some of the fishing boats were only 50 metres away from us and at times it was quite scary. However, tonight there is absolutely nothing around and haven't seen another boat for hours. Discovered though this morning that one of the Sail Indonesia fleet is near us - 5 miles ahead so we have had several conversations on the VHF today. Catala went from Lovina Beach straight to Belitung and arrived there yesterday.

Am doing this while on watch tonight - first time I have been able to do it as it was too risky not being up on deck the other nights. It is good to be able to do it while on watch as it helps fill in the time and keeps me awake and I go up on deck every few minutes to check that all is okay. Unfortunately it seems we have the current against us and even though we are motoring we are only doing just over 4 knots but hopefully we will get some wind tomorrow and we can be in Belitung before dark.