Where is SV Merakai

Good night and morning at Favehotel, getting ready to give a lecture to Pak Imam's students. Imam picked us up and gave us a bit of a tour of the University Campus, which is quite extensive. On arrival, we were greeted by a big banner advertising the talk strung over the entrance to the building, another one in the lecture theatre, and about 80 students/staff filling the lecture theatre. My 45 min talk ended up taking about 2 hours because Imam translated every slide after I gave each explanation. Surprisingly, the system worked well, and the students were amazing - attentive and interested through the whole 2 hours. Then, even more surprisingly, many wanted to ask questions, which went on for another 20 minutes or so until Imam drew the line on questions. Then everyone crowded round while copious photos were taken. It was a great opportunity to sheet home messages about what they can do to minimise single use plastics, given the links between plastics and coral disease. I really enjoyed the afternoon and from all feedback, it was a success.

With our new plan in mind, the first order of business was to get Merakai's bottom anti-fouled, change the oil in the sail drive and increase the pitch on the feathering propellor. So we checked Merakai into PT Marine Engineering, up the creek in Lembar Harbour and headed over, saying goodbye to everyone at Marina Del Ray. After dodging ferries and big ships in the busy harbour, we were guided over sandbars and about 1 NM up the creek by Steve's lads to the haul-out area. We left Merakai with Steve to haul her out, and headed to Mataram with Pak Imam, one of Bette's early postgrad students, who is now a lecturer at Mataram University and kindly picked us up at Lembar. The plan was for Bette to give a lecture on coral health to undergrads and other staff at the University the next day.

Here we are back online after a wonderful, protracted Christmas season in Australia with family and friends. More later on this when we backfill the last 2.5 months. Merakai was gleaming when we arrived back at Marina Del Ray after copious rinses in the wet season. All was well onboard and all systems started up without issues - Whew! Spent a few days putting away all our stuff, inventoried food and gear onboard, re-jigged a few things with equipment bought in Oz, traded stories with other newly met yachties returning after the wet season break, enjoyed dinners at the marina restaurant, and generally switched back into cruising mode. We had a proper tropical downpour Saturday night, and the next day the marina was awash with debris and logs from the local rivers, which was held against the pontoon by the tide that floods and ebbs through the marina at some knots. Most debris was swept away within 2 tide cycles, leaving the beach littered. The marina lads managed a mammouth clean-up of the vegetation and plastic.

A fall Sunday morning on the the wet pontoon inflamed Bette's right shoulder issues and gave us pause for thought. In view of a handicapped right arm, the Covid 19 pandemic, and the general challenge of spending another 1.5 years in SE Asia if we were to join the Sail Malaysia Passage to the East rally, we decided to reassess our plans. Given that the weather window is appropriate now to return to Oz via Gove/TI, we decided to pull out of the rally and head home. Although there are many places in SE Asia it would be great to visit, there are lots of places still to explore on the east coast of Oz.