Jocara Newsletter
Aug 31, 2004

The Hydraulic windlass is fixed and back on board, the engine oil cooler
hose has been replaced, and the leaky hydraulic steering ram has been
sealed.  Some big jobs taken care of, though this has depleted our US
dollar resources to near zero.  Only problem is we just found out the
inverter ordered from the states somehow didn't get sent and now we'll
have to wait a bit longer for it to arrive.  Once John gets a follow-up
visit to a doctor out the way, maybe we can head out and anchor in the lee
of Sangiang Island for a few days and take some air samples for our
particulates and organic pollutant research collaborators.  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 took a safari into the wilds of Jakarta yesterday 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!