Chatty Log | Singapore to Sunda Strait

Singapore to Sunda Strait

8 August 2004

Caroline: Sunday 8 August is when we actually left. We had people coming by on the 7th, all set to wave us goodbye, but it was not to be. We finally left, nearly unnoticed, at about 3pm on Sunday 8 August, feeling too exhausted to be very excited. We arrived in Nongsa Point Marina just before sundown. We thought we would have one more meal ashore to celebrate finally having started our quest. Looking at the mediocre food in front of us made us realise that we had left the 'land of good food everywhere' behind us. Bed early tonight. It's hot and we don't have airconditioning anymore! The kids sleep outside on the coach roof. They are pretty excited about finally being on our way. John and I are really exhausted, but definitely relieved to have started the journey.
John: This trip has taken so much to set up, much more than our previous two voyages, and I guess we are still adjusting to what it's going to take from us this time. Caroline and I are simply worn out from the preparations, and not a little frightened of what more there is to face in keeping the many systems on Jocara running and coping with two kids of 9 and 11 years old, going on 3 and 16, not necessarily in that order (if you know what I mean).

9 August

Casper: Lots of fun!
First when we left Singapore I was astonished that we finally left on our cruise. When we were away for a while we had some lunch, bread with ham. When we finished that it didn’t take that long before we reached Nongsa. When we reached Nongsa it was almost dark and so we had dinner. We had dinner in the restaurant because we wanted to celebrate our leaving. The next day when I woke up from sleeping on deck, I asked: “ Can I go in the water?”. They said: “Yes”, so I jumped in and started going under the dock and hanging off the ropes, exploring and all that kind of stuff. When I swam for a while with my brother I asked my dad if he could come in the water, but he said: “No, I promised myself to do three jobs first.”. So I played around for a bit and soon we had lunch, bread with tuna and some home grown leaves. After that I had to do some schoolwork and some boat work. After that, again, I went into the water because it was so fun and we jumped off the spreader lines and we did a game where we had to hang onto the railing and see who fell in first. Sometimes I fell in first and sometimes Alex fell in first. Then when my dad finally came he was going to clean the hull so I went down secretly and breathed of my dads octopus (a breathing thing), but he noticed, so I pretended that I was cleaning the hull with him. When that was done we went for a little walk around the resort and had dinner, pasta with bacon and a salad full of greens.
John: Unbelievable! first day out and we discover that we've left a vital piece of equipment behind somehow... the fitting that allows us to clean the hull with our air tool and brushes. Since our space-age non-toxic antifouling seems to provide a nearly ideal surface for worms, algae and barnacles to grow, we have to scrub the hull every couple of days to keep her clean.

10 August

Caroline: Another sunny day in Nongsa Point Marina. There's still so much to do, we're just working all day long. And at the end of the day it feels we got so little done. In fact we have more jobs than we started the day with. When the generator and alternator were running, the blower got turned off by accident and the area under the cockpit heated up so much that the compressor hose developed blisters. John keeps playing with the fridge and freezer fans to get the best performance for the least power. The kids did some school work, but clearly didn't feel much for doing boat chores. In the evening Star was so attracted by the noises from the male cats on the beach that she wandered about 50 meters from the boat. The little flirt! Cannelle couldn't care less about other cats and is more interested in testing various cosy napping places.
John: Spent a good part of today trying to organise getting our air-tool fitting back, but it can't be found and so cannot be sent on to us so maybe we should just cut our losses and aim to get another down the road. This kind of thing is pretty frustrating, so early on. We want to get cruising and enjoying this trip!

11 August

Caroline: We could stay here for days and still not be done with the jobs, so let's just get on with the journey. We have a great urge to get some miles under the keel. Even if it is just 15 nm (nautical miles) around the corner. Arriving at Loban Island just before sunset we're looking for an anchorage. The windlass isn't working, so we don't want too much depth in case we have to haul in the anchor by hand tomorrow. We were watching the depth sounders and we're going slowly, but the depth came up very suddenly to 12, 6, 2m and then CRUNCH! We had run aground on our first attempt to anchor! Fortunately, with a lot of reverse power from the engine we managed to get off. Severely shaken and humbled we anchored in 20 m and quickly got diving gear on to check the damage on the hull in the fading light. Amazingly, the only damage we could find were a few scratches. We got off with this mistake very lightly.
Casper: First when we ran aground I didn't know what happened I thought that something was wrong with the anchor and that it got stuck. My mom and dad started running around madly looking at the depth gauges so I looked at the gauges and saw that we were aground! I didn't know what to think so I just stared. When it was over we all went in the water to have a look what happend underneath, but there were only a few scrathes. Fwewf!.
John: How embarrassing! With all our supposed 'experience' and more techological toys than ever before, we run aground on our first attempt to anchor in years! Not exactly a confidence builder... Having major pieces of equipment like the windlass fail so soon after leaving doesn't make us feel warm and cosy inside, either. Getting down to the Sunda Straits is obviously going to be more of a challenge than we had bargained for! Once again, the early days of a trip are turning out to be humbling... We had similar reality checks on our first two trips, but I guess the lessons didn't sink in deep enough!

12 August

Caroline: John manages to fix the windlass and we're happy to leave this anchorage behind us. There is quite a current going the opposite way of the wind and waves which makes it quite choppy. Alex gets seasick right away and throws up within an hour of leaving. Fortunately, there's a nice protected anchorage at Pulau Pangkil where we can stop for lunch and recovery. We give Alex half a pill and on we go. For the first time we are getting the main sail up which helps to steady the boat as we're motoring into wind to our anchorage for the night at Asunda Island. We arrive just as the sun is going down behind some kelongs and a little island. Very pretty.
John:At last, a taste of the island life we have been looking forward to. Away from maddening crowds, shopping malls and all the other complications of a 'civilised' life. The simple pleasures of a pretty island, a sunset, a peaceful anchorage.

13 August

Caroline: It's clear that we will continue to get the wind from the SE which is right on the nose. We get the main up and motorsail to our next stop at Kentar island. Alex is fine when he's had a pill. Casper doesn't seem to get seasick so easily. Kentar island provides a great anchorage in a calm bay strewn with kelongs. We watch another beautiful sunset. Singapore seems already so distant in miles as well as time. I feel we are starting to settle into the travelling life.
John: Today is Friday the 13th! So far so good. The cost of this reputedly unlucky day has been just one fishing lure, which we caught accidentally on a local fishing line as we passed close by. We would have given the little flag a wider berth, if we'd seen it first! So, instead of us catching a fish, the locals caught our lure and about 200m of line before I cut it free. One lesson we learnt was how long it is taking us to turn the boat around when she's under sail and powering along. If that had been a man-overboard, we would have had a hard time getting back before the unlucky sailor disappeared from sight! We are now at anchor in a protected bay of a little island near Lingga Island, just north of the equator. We just had Nasi Goreng for dinner with some ikan bilis we got from a lady in exchange for 2 old T-shirts Casper and Alex dug out of their clothes store. After 3 days of day sailing we are getting used to living on board whilst traveling - but we still need a good night's sleep at the end of it to recuperate from a day out on the water. We are beginning to find out what falls off what shelves, and where to put things so that they stay dry and secure. We are also slowly getting our sealegs. It is amazing how much harder it is to do anything when the boat is rocking and we're feeling on the edge. The wind is on the nose (coming directly from where we want to go) and the sea is quite choppy - not the best conditions for sailing. We're quite exhausted after 6 to 8 hours of this kind of passage-making. The boys (including me) have tried fishing, but haven't caught anything yet. The homemade bread is pretty good and we had it for dinner and lunch with basil olive oil. The basil plant is not standing up to the salty wind and we're eating as much of it whilst we can. As expected, a lot of things are breaking down or not quite working properly, including ourselves! Now we are about to set off on a longer leg of our journey south to the Sunda Straits - a leg of about 300 nautical miles (n.m.) which means sailing for two days and nights and running night watches.

14 August

Caroline: A lady comes rowing out to us and we trade little dried fish and squid for some T-shirts. We cannot keep motoring all the way to Merak in the Sunda Straits. Time to get all the sails up and sail as close to the wind as we can and do an overnighter towards Bangka Island. As John is trying to get the genoa sheet under control the rope flicks his sunglasses into the sea. We spend the next 2 hours trying to recover them and come very close at one point, but the net is just not long enough to scoop them up. Loosing sight of the glasses we zigzag for a while, but all this tacking creates chaos on deck. Alex's bike gets entangled in the sheet and rips the staysail, blocks and shackles are breaking. We have to give up the search. We sail in an easterly heading which becomes more northerly. Not a very good heading. The boat is bouncing around and in the afternoon Alex starts to get sick. At night we tack and make a south westerly heading.
John: We motored out of our pretty little anchorage, thinking that we had got off lightly on Friday 13th, and started putting up some sails. Time to try out our new Genoa (the largest sail we have) for the big overnight trip south... i still can't believe the Genoa sheet whipped around the back of my head and neatly flicked my favourite, very expensive, sunglasses into the sea about 15 m away from the side of the boat. They floated, supported by a special foam tube attached for that purpose, and we did get Jocara round to within 3 m of them on one pass, but could not reach them. Then we lost sight of them in the waves. We gave up looking after an hour and having broken so much gear on board in the process that it will take us a week to fix everything! Now we have some trouble with our engine, it keeps losing oil at an alarming rate and we only have 14 litres left to put in it, and the wind is still on our nose so getting south is proving difficult. Bah! Humbug!

15 August 2004

Caroline: Alex is sick as a dog and cannot stop throwing up. With the headings we make it will take days to reach Bangka. Everybody is feeling pretty miserable and tired after the night watches. John finds a little island on the chart to the southwest that we can make by late afternoon. As we approach Saya Island and the sea flattens Alex recovers almost instantly. We find an anchorage next to a fishing boat and near a little beach which edges are covered with big boulders. The skies are filled with hundreds of (frigate?) birds. It's a magical place. Time to have a swim, do some fishing and have a nice dinner. Alex: I was feeling very sick. And when we arrived at de islands I was so happy. I recovered very fast, and I had a nice swim, and a nice dinner
John: Out of sight of land, slowly moving SSW (220 deg. magnetic) at 0 deg. 20.95'S 105 deg. 15.98'E, having just sailed through the night, Caroline woke me up for my 0600-0900 watch this morning with a wonderful cup of coffee, courtesy of Spinelli in Singapore. Both Casper, and more so Alex, are feeling pretty seasick. Partly from tiredness. We'll have to see if they can recover enough to enjoy the sail a little, or if we have to get to the nearest anchorage for shelter to have them feel better again. Maybe if we succeeded in catching a fish... not so much as a bite so far on either of our fishing lines. Perhaps if we used one of the squid we bought from the Kampong locals as a lure...

16 August

Caroline: Before moving on we just have to explore the beach. We swim with our snorkeling gear to the reef and scramble to the beach. The kids are finding lovely shells and a dead crab. Casper has brought his camera and makes a funny movie clip of the crab. Seeing Jocara at anchor is a lovely sight. But we need to get some more miles under the keel. We head for a small reef to the east that might offer an anchorage. Halfway the sky changes colour and a squall (a sumatra) rushes in. Suddenly, we're scrambling to close all the hatches as the rain starts pouring down. The wind gusts from the west and we find ourselves sailing at up to 8 knots to the southeast. After a while the rain stops and Jocara is sailing well towards a different island more to the south than the one we were heading to before. It's nearly dark when we reach a swelly anchorage. With the use of the radar we anchor as far in as we can and have a rolly night. Casper: When I saw the beach at low tide my mind suddently swithed to exploring, so soon we snorkeled to the beach and explored it. Alex found a dead crab and started playing with it. I wanted to play with it too, so I got it and made a funny clip with it on my camera.

17 August

Caroline: In the morning we can see we're pretty close to some rocks we couldn't see last night. John forgot to take the fishing gear in last night before anchoring and it probably got wrapped around the propellor when reversing. He goes for a dive to see if there's anything to recover, but unfortunately, he comes back empty-handed. We've lost the teaser and 5 little squid lures. Bummer. With much difficulty we manage to get the anchor up which was quite stuck between the corals. Again we're making the best heading we can for Bangka. Alex does okay with the pills and Casper has definitively found his sea legs. He's also developed an interest in baking. He started leaving through our cruising cuisine book and decided to make pizza and cheese rolls. The pizza was absolutely fabulous with a topping of cheese, mushrooms, garlic and anchovies. The whole family is really impressed with his newly found baking skills. A bay that looked promising on the chart turns out to be no good as an anchorage for the night and we decide to sail on through the night. During my night watch with Casper more and more lights appeared on the horizon. A little later we were sailing through a pack of tiny fishing boats, passing some of them only about 30 m away. It sure kept us awake! Casper: When I looked in the cookbook I really wanted to bake something so I found myself some ingredients and started baking, it was quite fun! So some time later I take a big pizza out the oven with Warren's wonderful mushrooms. Then came the cheese rolls there were very crispy but cheesy. When we were doing the nightwatch (my dad and I) the GPS died so we had to change the batteries. When we finaly got it started it showed that we were heading for Java at 450 knots. My dad and I were very puzzled for a while and restarted the GPS and it was all back to normal.

18 August

Caroline: As soon as Alex gets up in the morning he gets a pill. But it's already too late and soon he's vomiting again. Our progress around Bangka is very slow as the direction we want is exactly into wind. We therefore have to keep tacking back and forth, getting a little further southeast with every tack. But at this rate it's going to take days to make it around the corner from where we can start heading southwest. Poor Alex keeps vomiting repeatedly. The wind is blowing at about 20 knots and kicking up a fair sea. We're heeling at an 20 degree angle bashing into the waves. I'm on the egde myself and can only go inside for short periods before I have to rush outside and point my nose into the wind and stare at the horizon. The cats are finding refuge in the aft cabin and hardly move. They're not sick, but have a hard time moving around the boat.
John: This is not supposed to be this hard... There are no anchorages to stop at overnight in this part of the world, off the east coast of Banka, about halfway from Singapore to the Sunda Straits. Alex is very seasick and there is no place to go to give him rest. We have 20 knots of wind on the nose and a current against us, so we can only make about 50 nautical miles (1 n.m. = 1.852 km) a day in the direction we need to go. Pounding into weather, first on one tack, then the other, is taking its toll on crew and boat. We have a lot of gear failure under the strain, but nothing life-threatening. Last night the big forward hatch came apart, the plexiglass separating from the frame. We have made a temporary repair, until we get to an anchorage to work on it. We found the problem with the engine losing oil, but it isn't easy to fix at sea. The inside of the boat is a mess now, no-one is up to cleaning things up and everything is falling all over the boat as we tack. Still, the sky is bright and clear, we have freighters bearing down on us in the night and fishing boats with odd (or no) lights to keep us amused on the night watch and the occasional 'Sumatra' squall (a line of rain and high wind) to keep us on our toes. Meanwhile, Casper is discovering a hidden talent for baking. He made Pizza and cheese rolls yesterday, both very good!

19 August

Caroline: After another night of watches and very little rest because of the bouncyness we're getting pretty tired. I'm getting worried about Alex who cannot stop throwing up and is getting dehydrated and weak. Casper is doing great and decides baking is so easy he doesn't need the recipe book anymore. He has his own ideas and creates a new bread: Casper's garlicky cheese braided bread. It's good. John is creative as well, on the second attempt he manages to 'repair' the hose that's leaking oil and stops us using the engine. This is very good news as now we can motorsail and head closer to the wind making a much better heading. Around midnight, during Casper and John's watch, we finally round that most easterly corner of Bangka we've been fighting for the last days. You would think it was quite a momentous occasion, but it turned out to be a 'so what' moment.

20 August

Caroline: At 3 am we reach Liat Island where we can find save anchorage. With the radar, foreward looking sonar and C-map we make our way carefully between shallows into a protected bay and drop anchor. What a relief to be able to go to a level bed and sleep! We really need some good rest. It becomes clear during the day that we have been stretching ourselves and are in fact very tired both physically and mentally. All the problems with systems on the boat and Alex's sea sickness are putting a lot of worry and stress on us. Alex takes until mid-afternoon before he starts to recover. Then John does something increadibly stupid. He falls down the lazarette and slashes open his foot. It's a very nasty wound and a big new worry. Alex: Papa's foot looks very bad! But the cats are doing fine, and Casper is planing to make a pizza tomorrow. I wonder wat it wil taste like.
John: We arrived at Pulau Liat (2 deg. 50'S, 107 deg. 01'E), a small island on the South East corner of Bangka, where we have found a place to anchor in peace. Bliss! Normally, we don't like entering an unknown anchorage in the dark, but the situation demanded extraordinary measures. Finally, Alex can rest and recover. He's been hanging in there for a couple of days now, praying for salvation! We motored the last 50 n.m. to round the SE corner and get out of the wind and waves. The cats are so happy, too! Casper has been expanding on his baking career, weather notwithstanding, and produced delicious garlic and cheese bread twists today under conditions that can only be described as 'challenging' in the galley. A slow day of rest and recovery, except that we had so many jobs to do and felt guilty as the day slipped by without significant action. After lunch I pressed myself into service to investigate why our primary autopilot has gone on strike and promptly did something spectacularly stupid... I free-fell down the open lazarette hatch I'd just uncovered and gashed my foot open on the top of the stainless steel rudder post inside. A nasty cut, slicing a big piece of flesh out of my instep, but apparently without damage to muscle, bones, tendons or anything important. It has put me completely out of action, however, and I am now hopping around the boat like a wounded bird emitting pitiful cries for painkillers and beer. This has convinced us that we should stay an extra day or two so the sail down to Merak will be a little easier. Alex spent much of the day still sick as a parrot, despite the boat now being anchored in flat calm, and still unable to keep anything down. After some serious words about his mental block on eating and drinking, he did force some pita bread and water down that stayed down, and made a miraculous mid-afternoon recovery, playing with Casper in the water by day's end.

21 August

Caroline: John cannot use his wounded foot at all and is hopping around the boat. The kids do some school work and I do some baking and messing with the hydroponics. Lots of fishing boats go back and forth and many come by really close to have a good look at us. We decide to stay another day to give the foot more rest. We enjoy some lambburgers and our last tomatoes for dinner and then watch 'Life of Brian' on the computer in the cockpit. Alex: Life of Brian was fun. And the food was great!
John: True to our promise that Alex could eat a juicy burger when he got better, Caroline baked some rolls and grilled some wonderful lamb patties for dinner. What luxury!

22 August 2004

Caroline: Under John's supervision the kids sort out and organise some of the many boxes and containers still strewn around the main cabin. This is to be able to get to the watermaker which is under the floor and we need to get to. We've got to find out whether it's working okay before we get to Merak, the last place we can have stuff send to before the Indian Ocean. The watermaker seems fine, there's just a valve that is leaking and needs fising. I'm finally getting around to writing up this log and putting images together. The kids get the shark out (a blow-up one!) and have fun playing in the water with that.
John: We're still peacefully bobbing at anchor in exactly the spot we dropped when we came in from our long beat to windward, occasionally waving at curious local fishermen in their outrigger pirogues, who pass close by with big smiles and sometimes waving small sharks and other fish they've caught; attempting to trade for them. Today we tackled the watermaker, tracing the tubes, hoses, pumps and wires to get it started up now we're in cleaner water and before we get to Merak so we can get spares in case we need them. It seems to work OK, despite its long hibernation, except for a leaky valuve in the compressor compartment. Another small job!

23 August

Caroline: We want to leave as soon as it gets light in order to give ourselves the best chance to arrive in Merak tomorrow before sunset. We're up at 6 am and quickly get the boat shipshape. Then when we start hauling in the anchor the windlass quits. Hauling it up by hand takes a long time, every haul gets us only 2 links in the chain and we've got about 60 m out! Eventually the anchor inches out of the water and we're off to Merak. Finally we have the wind at a good sailing angle and are doing 7 knots in the right direction. Alex is very drowsy from half the Stugeron, but perks up in the afternoon. The evening was very beautiful with Jocara under full sail, throwing up white foam and a bright half moon in the sky reflecting on the water.

24 August

Caroline: My watch from 3 to 6 am wasn't so pleasant. The moon had disappeared and there were a lot of ships to keep an eye on. It is really hard at night to see how far away a light is. At one point I thought I saw a light come up just over the horizon in front of us. In fact, it was a flashing light on a buoy and only 100 m away and we suddenly passed it only 3 m away. It gave me quite a scare. Alex was still feeling well in the morning. He was feeling so confident about feeling well that he read in his bed and promptly got sick again. However, he recovered very quickly, managing to eat a huge bowl of pasta only an hour after vomiting. Mid-afternoon we started to see the vague outline of land ahead and a couple of hours later we were entering the bay at Merak. We found an anchorage off the beach just outside the channel for the big ferries.
John: Caroline went off to bed and handed me the watch around 06:00 with coffee. The sun rose dramatically out of the sea to our left (would have been worried if it had been to the right), quickly bursting the bubble of night and bringing the temperature up almost immediately. The wind continued to ease, and we moved gently along on the last 60 miles towards Merak. By early morning we were at 5 deg. 04.1'S, 106 deg. 18.5'E, just about to pass between a couple of offshore oil fields. Merak by sunset?

25 August

Caroline: What an awful night! It started out calm enough, but at some point a swell came in and Jocara started rolling badly. We're all in a bad mood in the morning and depressed about all that is going wrong. Then we got a visit from Mr. Iwan, who presented himself as the local chandler and things started looking up. He and his brother take us into town, Cilegon, where a doctor has a look at John's foot and he gets an antibiotic. We have a nice Indonesian lunch in a leafy restaurant where you sit on the floor and can feed the leftovers to the fish. We tried for an hour to place an order with Port Supply at an internet cafe, but it took 10 minutes for a page to load and we had to give up. Shopping wasn't entirely successful either, we bought nice fresh stuff, but could not find cat litter. I've become convinced that I want 'real' cat litter. We've got little stones that we can wash and re-use, but trying this out found it to be too disgusting. And, we've found a place on the boat where we could store it, so space is not a problem. Finding cat litter in this part of the world, however, is a challenge. There isn't a tall building in sight, no cats around here that need a litter box. In the evening we use the HF radio to email our order to Port Supply.
John: Merak is quite a busy little port, ferries to and from Sumatra come and go all day long. Mr Iwan led us through to a better anchorage than the horribly rolly one near the beach we used on our arrival. From our new anchorage at 5 deg. 56.6'S, 105 deg. 59.8'E, we see a dozen or more wooden fishing boats resting at their moorings, and the undulating calls of the Imam echo out across the bay from three different mosques.

26 August

Caroline: Mr. Iwan comes with a hydraulics guy, Didi, who starts working on the windlass.
John: Mr Didi is supported by about 4 sidekicks, no-one seems to do anything without an entourage here. Several look on as one or two actually do the work. It's the same when we go into town or whatever with Iwan. His brother is always along for the ride and company. Their working relationship is unclear, how they really fit in with the supposed 'Creadible Ships Supplier' CV. Dian Pratama (sic) we don't know. Didi removed one of our steering rams (that was leaking) for repair and promised to make me up an oil hose for the engine.

27 August

Caroline: Another day on board. The kids do their schoolwork. A lot of time goes into preparing meals. Alex: I'm doing schoolwork every day, and enjoying the meals.
John: Exactly 121 years ago, on the morning of 27 August 1883 a tsunami wave over 40m high surged in from the Sunda Straits at 100 km/hr and destroyed Merak in an instant, killing all but 2 of its 2700 inhabitants in a swift fury of roaring water. An hour later, an explosion so loud that it was heard 3000 miles from Rodrigues to Perth, and clearly in Singapore, signalling the most spectacular, energetic event in recorded history - the detonation of Krakatau. Krakatau is now a peaky little collection of islands, visible mistily in the distance. Today, the most momentous event for us was that Didi took away our windlass and our leaky engine oil hose plus a hydraulic ram that operates our steering. So, until these are repaired and returned, we're not going anywhere! I went ashore to visit a doctor about my foot, and am taking the opportunity to rest it a little so the large cut can seal and recover. Casper and Alex spend their days playing, doing school work, some boat work, computer games and then watching episodes of 'Futurama' on our computer in the evening. They sleep in the cockpit or on deck, where it is cooler. Apart from helping the kids with their school work and trying to come up with tasty meals, Caroline is taking time to read Simon Winchester's book Krakatoa. It's fascinating reading, not just because it describes the eruption in great detail, but it also talks of life at that time. Caroline being Dutch and Indonesia then being a Dutch colony makes it all the more interesting to read.

28 August

Caroline: Mr Iwan, his brother, Didi and 3 other sidekicks come back to work on the hydraulic systems. Two guys do the work and the rest sits around. When they went back ashore the kids and I hitched a ride into town to have a look at Merak and buy some more fresh fruit and veg. Merak is not a tourist place, rubbish is lying around everywhere and the river is black and smelly. We got a lot of stares from people and the feeling that everybody wanted to make some money off of us. The produce did not look very good and the choice was rather limited. Still, we got eggs, green beans and fruit for a few days, and a look at the town. Alex: Everybody doing something. Im just doing my schoolwork.
John: Didi refitted our steering ram, sucking in a lot of air in the process because he said he'd filled the ram but he hadn't. So now we'll have a lot of air bleeding to do. Sitting around with the guys, working on getting the windlass off, they offered me a cigarette. I declined, they asked if I smoked. I said cigars, so Didi opffered to bring me a black Indonesian cigar and smoke it with me when he'd done working on our hydraulics, meaning a reefer, I guess. Not something I want to get into here!

29 August 2004

Caroline: It may be a Sunday (I think, I'm losing track of the date and day), but whilst we're stuck here in Merak it's a good opportunity to get a lot of school work done. Alex: Gggrr. Casper: Gggrr.
John: Got a call from Iwan around 6 p.m., wanting to come out to the boat and refit the windlass. Really too late today as there's little light left for a big job, but he insists. It turns out that he really needs to get the money for the job so he can pay Didi (who is not with them) Monday morning - don't know what the rush is about but perhaps they're also worried about us leaving now we have our equipment back on board. They make a pig's ear of refitting it. I surfaced after 20 minutes of ferreting about in the forward lockers to retrieve my 3M 5200 for the job to find they'd used a couple of little tubes of bathroom Silicone RTV to seal the base. Then I discovered the guy reconnecting the hoses inside the chain locker was tightening hose clamps down on soft hose beyond where the fitting was inside, squeezing the hose to breaking point and adding nothing to holding the hose on the fitting. It would have worked for a while then slipped off, spraying ATf all over our chain locker and rendering the windlass useless. A bit tense, here, as you can tell. at least the windlass seems to work, though it makes a new kind of noise, and the steering is back in action. The day ended on a highlight as Alex and I served up 'Jocara Juicyburgers' for dinner; marinated mincemeat patties with garlic, onion and other spices grilled and served on home-made brown rolls. Fabulous! OK, OK, so I lack modesty..., but really, there were very, very good.

30 August

John: We took a safari into the wilds of Jakarta in search of cat litter and LPG gas. A wild and crazy place, frenzied traffic edging its way around piles of aging rubbish, each view of a stream or river revealing a stinking sluggish grey/brown sludge, strewn with multi-coloured plastic bags like so much confetti cast on the water. So many people, each trying to scrape a living, hawking bottled water to vehicles stuck in traffic, babes slung over shoulders; herding traffic with whistles to find a way for cars to enter the foray from side streets, picking up 500 or 1000 Rupiah (a few cents) from each driver in passing. Few smiles or laughter, no sparkle in the eye. Mostly drudgery and an oppressive sense of being trapped. There must be more uplifting parts of the city, but we didn't see them. The best part of the day was a very traditional local Indonesian lunch, with many plates of weird and wonderfully spicy tid-bits, served with plain boiled rice and eaten with the fingers. The trip drained all of us and today we are subdued. Still, we got both cat litter and LPG!

31 August

Caroline: A day of school work, jobs, and cooking.
John: You know, some days just don't have very much to say about themselves. Not every day feels remarkable in this life. We're feeling the pressure of humanity and the frustrations of being trapped in this less-than-perfect anchorage (it rolls a lot, or at least, Jocara seems to revel in rolling to the SW swell from the Indian Ocean) surrounded by poverty (also of spirit) and rubbish. The people in this region seem so far from nature. We are all pretty burned out dealing with the various little adversities that have come our way and are tired of waiting for the real tropical adventure and fun to begin. Caroline hits some real lows sometimes, and wonders if this trip will ever develop the way we wanted it to. I am edgy and fall into an abyss of despair from time to time as I deal with the frustrations of my (hopefully temporary) immobility and all the mess and stuff that needs fixing; Also how the kids bicker and make life harder than it needs to be. We are also all a little depressed after out day in Jakarta yesterday.

1 September

Alex:I was in town with my dad when suddenly Iwan got a phone call from a local boatman, saying that the boat was moving when we where at anchor, because there was a lot of wind from a weird direction. When I arrived back at the boat with my Dad, Mom and Casper got the boat safe and anchored. We took the anchor out, and re-anchored. At the same time the wind got stronger. So we took the awning down, but that was hard!, because it was dark and with strong wind its a hard job. But in the end we went to bed.
Casper: When mum and I were waiting for my Dad and Alex we suddently noticed that were were not moving so wildly now and that we were about to run aground! So we practicly ran out to the cockpit and I turned on the engine while my mum was busy lifting the anchor. Very soon aferwards two boats came and helped us while I was at the helm steering the boat to safety. During the time that were were very busy saving the boat I heard a slight crunching noise, I thought 'what was that, is it the anchor? Is it a rock we hit?' The sound stopped and never came back, PFEWF! We finally got her out to safety. After we anchored we had to re-anchor because we were tied to a mooring wich we would have to pay for if we used it. It took a long time before we finally rested, and when we finally went to sleep we put the drift alarm on. During the night I couldn't sleep well because it was so rolly and the alarm went off a few times but nothing happened.
John: It could so easily have turned out differently, so we are thankful the windlass and engine were back in operation and that Caroline and Casper caught the drift in time. The wind came into the anchorage from the open side, bringing waves that made Jocara pitch and roll as if on the open sea for much of the night, spent nervously napping as best we could at anchor watch with GPS drift and depth alarms on.

2 September

Caroline: Fortunately, during the night the wind decreased and we could relax a bit. In the morning it was fabulously clear and we could see many volcanoes all around. We could see right across the strait to Sumatra with Rajabasa volcano on the corner. We could even clearly see Rakata, the remnant of Krakatau, at a distance of 35 nm. Mr. Iwan and entourage dropped off the fresh stores that will have to last us until Rodrigues. John is moving around much more easily now and is getting some jobs done. We've got the first package from Port Supply and a package from Singapore, now we're waiting for the inverter to arrive.
John: Today dawned beautiful; much calmer and with very clear air allowing us to see the many distinctive volcanoes around us on Sumatra, Java and out to Krakatoa itself. This is all likely due to Tropical Cyclone Phoebe that has developed 900 n.m. to our west, much too early for cyclone season. Phoebe is not likely to grow very strong (as far as cyclones go), 65 knot winds and 8 m seas perhaps, but would still be miserable (though not life-threatening) to get stuck in. I am now getting around the boat much more easily and am therefore able to take care of a few of the jobs on our long list. A care package from Singapore arrived and cheered us up with lots of important small items and a bottle of Brewerkz Indian Pale Ale, special thoughtful gift from Matthias. I also took the opportunity of increased mobility to take Casper and Alex for their first outboard motor dinghy lesson, learning how to get the inflatable on and off the davits, mount the outboard engine and drive around into weather and surf downwind. They loved it and are now highly motivated to get their schoolwork and boat chores done so we have the time to do it again!

3 September

John: Not so clear as yesterday, but we're just very relieved that the swell and wind has died down so we can move about the boat and sleep OK. Got a lot of jobs done today as my foot is now supporting my weight and I can move about the boat much more freely. Alex enjoys helping me work on things, and Casper joined in so the three of us were doing really well installing some lifelines for bad weather security. Casper and Alex took the dinghy out for a spin by themselves after work as the sun was setting, and had a ball working out how to get it to surf. Some local kids in a paddle-driven wooden Parang (right name for a narrow monohull with outrigger?) had a field day laughing at us bumbling over getting the dinghy in the water and the outboard on. Later, after sunset, the horizon was lit with over 40 of these boats fishing with lights for squid, we presume. A couple of the nearby Kelongs also had lights suspended underneath and had lowered their nets. It is a few days after full moon, so perhaps an auspicious night to fish!

4 September

John: A slow day as we wait, wait, wait for this infamous inverter to arrive. At last it seems we have a waybill number to track. It remains to be seen if we get charged import tax on this one... I spent most of the day preparing presentation materials for EnCana, part of an outstanding deliverable that pays some consultancy money we badly need. Casper developed a nasty headache and got overheated in this nearly-windless anchorage under a raging sun - we still have the awning down after the high winds and have been reluctant to put it back up since we are hoping to leave at any time. More a psychological defeat to accept we should put it back up, really. Let's hope poor Casper recovers for his birthday tomorrow, which we really wanted to spend in Krakatau, watching for eruptions. It seems that volcanic activity has increased recently from 3-4 burps/day to as much as 50+ last month. Could be spectacular!

5 September

Casper: Today its my birthday! When I woke up I saw my dad and my brother doing something and when they turned around they said happy bithday Casper! and so did my mom. I was still feelling a little bit sick from yesterday. For my birthday I got a great present that my mom got when we were still in Singapore. It's a remotely controlled flying saucer, it is great and I immediately started playing with it. It's quite tricky and I had to get the hang of it before I could keep it in the air.
Caroline: Casper is 12! I'm glad he's getting better, so he can enjoy his birthday. Yesterday he had a 39 degree fever and spent most of the day in bed. Today he's well enough to play with his present and bake that apple pie he's been talking about for days. Alex suddenly got a creative urge and made a kind of abstract creature out of wood which he then coloured. It's very interesting and he's very proud of it. Now that many jobs have been done we can begin to get the enormous mess under control. Casper gets some of his favourite foods for his birthday dinner in a decorated cockpit: lamb chops with baked potato slices and fresh pineapple with whipped cream for dessert.