Jocara Newsletter #2
on behalf of Caroline & 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
John 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.  At the time of writing
we are 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. Alex was sick the first day,
but now we give him half a seasickness pill which seems to keep him well
enough until he adjusts to the motion. The boys 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!  The first time we tried to anchor we ran
aground, even with all our fancy electronics and sonars.  Very
embarrassing!  Fortunately, we got away with just a few scratches on the
bottom of the hull.  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.

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