We wake up early and whilst I intend wriggling back under the sheet to try to go back to sleep, Mike gets up to make tea, so that’s me done for the night.
His first job of the day is to sort out the starboard engine room bilge pump. He has had to pump this out manually on the last few occasions that we have run this engine. He is successful in fixing it. He then heads off to customs to complete the clearing out paperwork leaving me with instructions to be up and ready asap as the marina guys will be delivering our fuel by jerry cans – they have run out of fuel on the dock and we will be using their emergency supply from the barrels around the back. Mmmm. All sounds a bit dodgy to me in terms of quality, but then I hear the guy on the boat next door complaining about the quality of the stuff that arrived on the fuel barge yesterday so I’m glad we weren’t around to take that on.
The first lot of cans arrive with the smiley but gormless marina guy (all the others are smiley and know what they are doing). I had expected the guy to pour the diesel into the tanks from the cans but no such luck. He pops them on the bottom step of the boat and stands around looking goofy, waiting for me to do it, the thought of which makes my stomach churn and the muscles in my back prepare to rebel as this is one of the things that contributed to my problems in Darwin. Barbara from Basia is just about to take the task on when Mike turns up. It’s a slow process but eventually all five cans are emptied, the guy goes off to re-fill them and the whole laborious task begins again.
Barbara gives me some cotton and needles as I have a whole load of mending to get through. Mike obviously has one bum cheek which is bonier than the other side (not that I’ve noticed when looking at him) and he constantly makes holes in his linen work shorts that need patching. That’ll be something to keep me occupied on the trip to Cocos Keeling.
Basia are still waiting for their electronic charts for their plotter to arrive and suddenly get the news that they have. This means that they can leave with us which will be great as it’s much better to have another boat within calling distance on a long passage. Unfortunately, Barbara’s euphoria is short-lived when they discover that ‘arrived’ means arrived in Jakarta not Bali and to add insult to injury, they discover that they have been sitting in Jakarta since Monday waiting for the import duty to be paid but the authorities only phoned this through today. They go to pay the duty and the charts are duly dispatched for arrival tomorrow. How frustrating for them.
Around lunchtime, the sky turns black and the heavens open, not quite as bad as yesterday but enough to hold us back as Mike doesn’t like the look of it. Instead he connects our new hose and we scrub down the cockpit making it sparkling clean. Good old Ajax.
The really stinky brie surpasses itself today. I remove it from the fridge and on inspection find it far too ripe for me, although Mike gamely tucks in and declares it OK. However, he only cuts off one piece and decides that maybe it would be better off going out with the rubbish. Thank god for that. Four down, one to go. The fridge smells better already.
Mike goes up to pay our millions of rupiahs for the marina and fuel fees, taking money out of the ATM three times to get enough money to pay in cash. I can’t believe the marina can’t take credit cards. When he gets back to the boat and checks his e-mails, HSBC had sent him an automated letter telling him that they have stopped his card because of suspected fraud – repeated use at an ATM. Here we go again. He tries to phone them using Skype but the connection is poor and he gives up. There will be no need for cards until we get to Mauritius – it can wait until then. In Cocos Keeling fuel has to be paid for in US or Australian dollars.
The crews from Basia and the boat next door arrive to let our lines go and we are off once more. We run the gauntlet once again of all the crazy water traffic in the bay, and avoid as much of the floating garbage as we can. Once out into the open sea it is quite rough and choppy. The wind and the sea are going in different directions and it only takes about 15 minutes for me to take to the sofa looking pathetic. After about an hour we change direction slightly and the discomfort decreases a little. By 4 pm we have the reefed-in main sail up for the first time in ages as well as the genoa and Mike cuts the engine. It immediately feels far more comfortable although I stay on the sofa until it is time for me to cook dinner.
The lurching around makes preparing, cooking and serving dinner quite interesting and when Mike gets me a glass of water he nearly throws it over me. Mind you, that might have been deliberate!
It’s a bit squally and unsettled so Mike takes the first watch. Listening to the banging and crashing taking place in the bow of the boat, I take fresh sheets out and make up the stern cabin where it will be marginally quieter and attempt to sleep. Amazingly I do, relatively quickly, until I am dragged out to do my stint at midnight.
Our position is: 09 deg 25 min S, 114 deg 40 min E
Distance so far: 12925 nautical miles
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