Day 251: Darwin to Bali – 14/09/10

Just over an hour into my watch, AIS springs into action and tells me that the cargo ship Boston will be too close for comfort in about half an hour, her closest passing estimate wavering between just over a mile (comfortable) and about a tenth of a mile (terrifying).  Given that I have been watching the blip on the radar and lights outside, this sudden information means that Mike is dragged out from his bed by his babbling wife who deems the situation so dire that she puts knickers on for the first time in a week.

Mike turns all our lights on and calls them on the VHF.  No answer.  After four tries he puts the engine on, alters course so that we will motor parallel to them and sits with our large spotlight trained on the sails making us as visible as possible.  Eventually the Boston answers.  Yes they know we are there.  Thanks guys.  We were sailing and had right of way – we shouldn’t have had to put the engines on and alter course. 

We watch their approach, our new course meaning that they pass us about two miles to port then Mike cuts the lights and the engine, puts us back on course and returns to bed.  Amazing.  As the ship disappears into the distance, her rear lights looking like the planet Mars (she’s just trying to confuse me) I give the crew the V-sign – sea hogs!

We continue to sail through the night, watching as fishing boats crop up, lights blazing, then disappear over the horizon.  None of them cause us any difficulty though.

I finish my watch at 5.45 am and thinking that I would sleep for ages, am severely disgruntled when I wake up just a couple of hours later.  By this point the wind has nearly died again and Mike has put the engine on.  When I get up I find we are surrounded by fishing boats, quite large ones which seem to spend their day going round in circles and getting in the way.

While Mike plays dodgems with the fishing boats, I tackle the problem I spotted yesterday with one of my dried food boxes, or rather, the stowaways in it – weevils, the little blighters.  When we went through the quarantine inspection in Mackay, my boxes were free of weevils and all the food is in ziploc bags anyway.  Suddenly one of these boxes has loads of these things in it.  They are not nasty, and if you accidently ate a few they wouldn’t do you any harm, but the idea isn’t nice.  I take all the bags out, flick the offending things off back into the plastic box then empty it over the side to feed the fish.

Photos:  Fishing boats of all description get in the way

As we approach Bali, we have loads of dolphins all around the boat, but they don’t act like any dolphins I have seen so far.  They are very shy.  They come charging towards the boat, leaping and pirouetting in the air, then immediately they get to the boat, they make a graceful arc in the water and swim off in the opposite direction.  How strange.

There’s also quite an abundance of rubbish in the water as we approach land.  I have never been anywhere quite so dirty.  The sea is strewn with plastic of every kind; plastic bags, food containers, bottles and such like, all caught up with floating dead sea grass, making huge streams of garbage.  Not a very nice introduction to Bali.

While the generator and water maker are on I do a load of washing and I am almost finished when I stupidly lean over the machine and pull out a huge sheet which is heavy with water.  My back shrieks in complaint and so do I.  Mike orders me to lie down immediately, but after about 5 minutes I get up and carry on – I want to get done before we get to the marina.

Photo:  Mike helping with the laundry

Approaching Benoa, it’s like being in Benidorm, but hotter and more frenzied.  I have never seen such a crazy entrance to a marina or such a crowded expanse of water.  You have to fight your way through water taxis, fishing boats, speedboats pulling people riding those stupid bananas, speedboats getting parascenders up into the air and small traditional one man fishing vessels.  In fact, from a distance, the parascenders look like a huge flock of large birds.

Photo:  Parascenders litter the sky

I go to make us a quick lunch.  Intending a salad, I turn the tap to wash the lettuce and no water comes out.  Given that we have been running the water maker and have a full tank, that’s very strange.  I go down to one of the bathrooms and try the tap there.  Same thing.  Terrific.  Water pump failure.  I shout to Mike but there’s no way he can do anything about it now so we end up with cheese, crackers and chorizo.

Wary of making my back worse, Mike helps me tie the fenders and lines onto the boat.  We are to go in a temporary position until Skylark leave as we are having their space.  I am so pleased to see Stephen waiting on the dock with Suzanna to take our lines.  When we are secure I get off the boat as quickly as my back will allow me and give him a huge hug.  I will really miss him and Ed as they are now leaving the World Arc and taking Stephen’s boat, Skylark, to Singapore.  I have always looked forward to seeing them whenever we arrive somewhere new.  And I never did get my curry Stephen, so yes, I will land on you in Kuala Lumpur one day!

We take on some fuel at the dock and when Skylark eventually leaves, we untie the lines and move a couple of hundred yards around the corner and into the marina and secure her once more.  Only Basia is left here, another Privilege catamaran, and she is moored next to us.

Mike tries the kitchen tap again and it works.  Strange.  However, ten minutes later it won’t work again.  He strips the starboard bed out to get down to the engine room and finds that the fresh water flush to the water maker has got stuck in the ‘on’ position and the pump has overheated and stopped working.  It also means that we have flushed 20 gallons of freshly made water out of the boat and now have the cleanest water maker membranes in the world.  He knows he won’t be able to get parts for this here, simple as they may be, so in the meantime will flush it with salt water until we get to Mauritius or South Africa.

He goes off with Paul to customs and immigration to sort the paperwork out but they only manage to get half of it done before the offices shuts so he will have to go back tomorrow.  All this for less than two days!

I go to arrange a sightseeing tour for tomorrow – a full day in a car with a driver and guide will cost about $40 US each and should take in most of the sights.  Talk about a whistle stop tour!!

We get some work done on the internet and then head for the marina restaurant.  With the ARC recently departed, we are the only ones in there.  We opt for local food rather than ‘international’ – I can’t see the point of going to somewhere like this and having a burger.  The food is excellent, and at around £3.50 a head, very good value although Mike’s beer costs as much as the meals.

Exhausted, we head back to the boat and crash.

 

 

Our position is:  08 deg 44 min S, 115 deg 12 min E

Distance so far:  12866 nautical miles

Day 250: Darwin to Bali – 13/09/10

Although there are rain clouds all around us, the little patch of sky above Jeannius remains resolutely blue.  Pity.  We could do with a little rain to wash the fish scales off the boat.  Yes, welcome back to the flying fish, big buggers these are too.  One lands on the large side cockpit cushion and another right by the open bathroom hatch.  I’m just glad it didn’t flap itself through the opening.  Imagine stepping on that in the middle of the night.  Ugh!  Mike chucks them overboard but leaves the fish scales for me to discover later on.  Nice.

We eat sausages, mash and caramelised onion gravy for lunch – real British cold weather comfort food, just what you need when you are sitting sweating in 35 degrees in the cockpit of a boat in the middle of the Indian Ocean.  Ah, we Brits do like our little bit of home!

We continue to sail with just the genoas out as the wind is virtually behind us, and it’s a nice comfortable sail.  Although I failed to sleep when it was my turn in the morning, in the afternoon, Mike has no such problem and I jealously listen to the melodic rhythm of his snoring accompanying the gentle lapping sound of the boat as she slips through the waves.

My failings as a nautical/domestic goddess are shown up in the late afternoon when I discover the source of the strange earthy smell in the galley – my six remaining potatoes have a strange soggy quality and are given a burial at sea.  If I could just stop the brie from stinking the fridge out, maybe I could redeem myself.  As it is, every time I open the fridge door I accuse Mike of having farted.  It’s a constant mystery that this triple cream (that’ll be low calorie then?) Australian variety doesn’t taste as strong as it smells.

I find two more flying fish on the trampoline and the remains of something unpleasant looking near the anchor chain.  I’ll investigate that one when we are safely in the marina tomorrow.

Photo:  Flying fish on the trampoline of death

I go to bed in the evening breathing a sigh of relief that we have got past the island where the boat following incident occurred without a repeat of the same.  I’ll live to moan another day.

 

Our position is:  09 deg 49 min S, 116 deg 08 min E

Distance so far:  12788 nautical miles

Day 249: Darwin to Bali – 12/09/10

Ever seen the movie, Groundhog Day?  Well that’s pretty much life on this passage.  The only difference is how many watches you do.  God I’m bored.  I even cleaned the cooker today!

We swap the Australian customs for the Australian navy today.  A warship calls us up and asks us to verify who we are.  They are on an exercise and I just hope we are not target practise.

I sleep in the afternoon for a while but it’s so bloody hot I wake up sweating so much I am a puddle of my former self, so I get up.  At least outside in the cockpit there is a little breeze, enough for us to sail at a speed which is on the low side of decent, but better than the dammed engine being on.

Mike empties the contents of five jerry cans of diesel into the tank using his new jiggler siphon.  He had to modify it because the marble kept falling out of the end into the can, and his modification works reasonably well, producing a steady, if slow, stream of diesel flowing from one to the other once it gets going.  At least it means only one of us has to do it and the other one (moi) is left to continue reading her book and supervising well out of diesel spurting range.  (Anything on our boat that involves diesel usually involves a lot of spurting and a massive cleanup afterwards!)

  Photo:  Look, no hands!  The jiggler siphon at work

I’m still nervous about the boat following incident and when on watch during the day, I scan the horizon more vigilantly than usual and at night anxiously watch the radar.  I’m such a wimp!!

 

 

Our position is:  10 deg 58 min S, 118 deg 15 min E

Distance so far:  12682 nautical miles

Day 248: Darwin to Bali – 11/09/10

We motor on through the night.  I can’t believe we still have virtually no wind, although it does pick up a little so that the genoas, goose winged out, are just about able to fill with air and give us a little nudge along.

Actually, I think the term “goose winged“ should be replaced by “ray winged”.  After walking beneath these ghostly fish in the aquarium thing in Sydney, I’ve realised that they are just what our genoas resemble and the term is much more nautical.  I wonder if it will catch on?

There’s a little more shipping activity, although it is all in the distance, until the morning that is, when, just after I have gone to bed after my second watch, a huge container ship crosses our path just 1.5 miles ahead of us.  I get up to watch it’s approach.  Before we had the AIS Mike would probably have changed course a little just to make sure we weren’t heading for a collision .  AIS told us that we weren’t and even though I stood there watching, urging Mike nervously to alter course just a few degrees, he watched AIS and stood his ground.  I don’t know.  The whole of the Indian Ocean and they have to pass that close.

  Photo:  Pacific Triangle crosses our path

The day passes in a hot sweat, a haze of reading and sleeping.  I actually do a little bit of yoga and am horrified at just how stiff my joints and muscles are.  Now that I have got the mat out I will try to remember to do a little bit every day, just to try to loosen everything up a bit.  No wonder my back is in such a sorry state.

The Australian customs plane doesn’t overfly us today.  I suppose that at over 300 miles from the nearest coast, they have passed us on now to some other authority or are we in International Waters?

In the late afternoon, the wind picks up sufficiently for us to turn the engine off.  The silence is heaven after four days of droning.  It doesn’t last that long, however, as Mike puts the engine on again after dark to charge the batteries.  We also need to keep our average speed over 5.5 knots to make it to Bali during daylight on Tuesday.  Getting that little bit of extra speed now (we motor sail at around 6.5 knots) might give us some time to sail later on.

Just before darkness falls I decide to do some housework.  I have been meaning to clean some of the internal stainless steel for ages and today turns out to be the day for the light fittings and door handles to get a seeing to.  God, I must be bored!

 

Our position is:  11 deg 40 min S, 120 deg 37 min E

Distance so far:  12550 nautical miles

Day 247: Darwin to Bali – 10/09/10

During the night we pass an enormous oil platform type thing, lit up like a Christmas tree.  At first I think it’s a large ship but when I realise it’s not moving I consult the charts and work out what it is.  I now even know how to take a bearing on the charts and set a course.  What a little navigator I am turning out to be – but let’s hope my newfound skills never have to be put to the test!

The day passes in another haze of inactivity with nothing to look at except the inside of a book.  At least I am managing to get to sleep – for now.

While Mike is taking his opportunity to nap, I flick through the skippers’ information on the passage to Bali, suddenly realising that by the time we arrive, the fleet will have left.  Up to that point I thought they would be preparing to leave – for some reason I had it in my head that we would overlap for a day.  Now I am really worried.  Not only has the incident with the boat completely unnerved me, but I am not good with totally new cultures and need a cushion of people around me for a day or so to get the lay of the land.  I realise how pathetic this sounds but I was just the same the first time I went to India.  I’m a very naive and cautious traveller and the thought of Mike and I being on the only WARC boat fills me with dread.

I talk to Mike about it and he says we have until late afternoon to make up our minds, but if we change our course to Cocos Keeling now we will run out of fuel.  I know we have no choice but to continue to Bali.  I am really nervous but tell myself not to be such a wimp.

My back continues to be sore.  Every time I turn over in bed I wince – it’s enough to bring me to if I am asleep but I go back again immediately after.

The Australian customs plane flies over twice today, once in the afternoon and then again in the evening.  Both times they call us on the radio and confirm who we are.  God, these guys are thorough - we are now nearly 200 miles away from their nearest bit of land.  It’s quite scary when you don’t hear their approach as they appear so suddenly and come really close, although they never actually fly directly over you, always to one side.  I’m sure they can see straight into the cockpit!

There are fishing boats around on my first watch but they are lit up well and stay a good distance away from us.  At least we have a little wind, just enough to fill the two genoas and help us along a little, although we still have to motor. 

 

Our position is:  12 deg 03 min S, 123 deg 10 min E

Distance so far:  12423 nautical miles

Day 246: Darwin to Bali – 09/09/10

At some time during the black, black night, we overtake the other yacht.  Nothing else is around.  Looking out into the blackness all around us is most disconcerting.  You can’t see where the sky ends and the sea begins.  I miss the moon but we won’t have one the whole way to Bali.

Photo:  The rising sun creates a purple sky

In the morning the customs plane goes over again but doesn’t call us this time.  We are over 100 miles from the nearest part of the Australian coast – I’m amazed they check this far out.

I am just nodding off to sleep after my second watch when I hear texts coming in on the satellite phone.  I smile sleepily as I know who it is – Johanne is the only one who sends these and I look forward to reading them when I get up.  When I do, however, it is not good news as her poor sister is beset with more health problems and Johanne is obviously upset and as soon as the time difference allows, I call her using the satellite phone.

On the boat, with hours and hours to do nothing but turn your thoughts inside yourself, it’s all too easy to let your own troubles and worries get out of proportion.  Our conversation gives me the mental slap in the face and kick up the arse that I probably need.

I spend most of the afternoon lying on the floor of the cockpit on my yoga mat not doing yoga but doing Sudoku, a mind numbing activity which is great for passing the time.  Every now and then I do a few stretches as my back did suffer again on our last day in Darwin, courtesy of the propellers and the shopping and is still giving me some jip.

We see and hear no signs of life.  It’s easy to feel that you are the only people on the planet.

Checking my e-mails, I see one from rally control warning of an incident that happened when one of the yachts neared Bali.  Apparently they were followed at a distance of 50 to 100 metres for over an hour by a boat with four men in it.  The guys followed their course, changing direction when they did, before eventually heading back towards land when the yacht turned south.  I am now very nervous about being alone on the sea but there is nothing we can do except plod on.  Although we are not heading towards a known trouble spot, you can never be 100% sure. 

We need to re-fuel in Bali as we have done nothing but motor since we left Darwin.  Mike has sat and worked out that we have enough fuel to to get there even if we have to motor the whole way, but I hope it doesn’t come to that – apart from the money it is costing us for the diesel, the incessant drone of the engine is beginning to get on my nerves and we can only use the air conditioning for a very short time each evening to conserve the fuel we need for motoring.

  Photo:  A sunset too – how original

 

Our position is:  12 deg 16 min S, 125 deg 33 min E

Distance so far:  12289 nautical miles

Day 245: Darwin to Bali – 08/09/10

At midnight the temperature is still nearly 80 degrees and muggy.  Ugh.  We are now in the Timor Sea, the first part of the huge expanse of sea that is the Indian Ocean.

In the pitch black of the cockpit (there’s no moon whatsoever) I sit and think about our time in Australia.  We spent far too much money there, and then even more cheering ourselves up about spending so much.  Our time here has been marred by problem after problem with the boat and therefore has been frustrating in the extreme at times, but there have been some amazing times too.  The magic of Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays, and the amazing experience of being Sydney, both made even better by being with Johanne, Steve and Isabella.  I would not have missed either for the world.  I wish I had seen some kangaroos in the wild (although many of them were seen by other crews as roadkill so maybe that sight was better missed) and that we had seen crocodiles on a sunny day rather than in the drizzle.  Too much time was spent hanging around waiting for the boat to be fixed – anyone who thinks that old houses are a money pit has never owned a boat!  I wish we had had more time to explore the interior and now understand why so many people leave these rallies and join the next one a couple of years later.

Apart from Sydney though, I really don’t think that it’s a place I could live.  It’s so similar to home in many ways but different enough to make me feel off kilter.  I don’t think I would ever get used to the ‘in your face’ attitude of the locals, the brashness which feels like rudeness but actually isn’t.  I’m obviously just too ‘English’.

A large ship appears on the radar and I get my first chance to use the AIS system.  I can see immediately that they are not going to collide with us so that’s good.  The wind has all but disappeared (we’ve had the sails out for a whole half an hour so far since leaving) and we are motoring with two knots of current going against us, and the weather files give every indication that this is the way it will be for the next few days.

At 4 am I go back to bed and when I wake, it’s 10 am and I have miraculously slept right through.  I get up and Mike crawls into bed.

We are still motoring and it is hot.  All around is the usual blue, white and occasional grey.  The customs plane flies overhead and calls us and until the evening that is all we see.  We catch no fish and see no evidence of any life in the water.

There is absolutely nothing to take photos of.  I certainly don’t want any photos of me looking sweaty and tired.  Thank god for sunsets and beautiful evening skies!

Photo:  Does it need a caption?

In the evening on the distant horizon, we can see a tiny light from another yacht, not one of ours but heading in the same direction.

 

Our position is:  12 deg 18 min S, 127 deg 58 min E

Distance so far:  12156 nautical miles