WIND, RAIN AND REPAIRS

3 march 2024

The weather is changing. The seasonal westerly winds have kicked in, much later than usual but they have arrived bringing overcast and cloudy conditions with rain.  The rain is most welcome, apart from cooling everything down a bit we now have full freshwater tanks again. All this water is great, I can do laundry on board and take nice long cool showers at night in the cockpit before slipping into my pajamas.

I have been moving about a bit, mainly between Gili Gede and Gili Asahan.  My favourite spot is Gili Asahan where it is sheltered and protected from the swell and seas coming down the Lombok strait.  I can see the waves breaking on the reefs off Gili Asahan but only a low swell gets into the anchorage where we are moored south of the island.

There are no roads on Gili Asahan, the only access is by boat.  There are a few small resorts on the island and one in particular where they serve an English breakfast with real pork bacon, That’s a special treat.  As there are no roads there are no cars or the infernal motorbikes that populate all of Indonesia.  It’s beautiful and quiet, I am usually awoken by birdsong in the morning.

A couple of days ago we had some very strong winds come through with torrential rain.  Of course, it all happened at four in the morning when it was pitch black.  It was hard to see anything through the driving rain, I was concerned about the boats around me dragging in the heavy winds.  I had everything ready should we break loose from our mooring as I tried to monitor the boats around us.  I saw forty-five knots on the anemometer and suspect we had a couple of fifty knot gusts at the height, but I wasn’t watching.  The village ashore took a pounding, I could see lots of flashlights through the rain as the locals tended their houses and boats. There is a rain radar on Bali and by logging onto the Indonesian BMKG app I can see the rain coming, usually from the North West.

The height of the storm only lasted for twenty minutes and by daybreak the wind had moderated to around fifteen knots.  One of the boats astern of me dragged the mooring close to the shore but fortunately didn’t go aground or hit the boats moored either side.  All the other boats remained secure.  In the morning light I can see the shore is a mess.  There is some erosion where water has flooded from higher ground and the rest of the beach is covered in wood and vegetable matter that must have washed out from the streams and rivers.  The plastic pollution is worse than ever. The villagers said it was the strongest wind they had ever seen, I am not sure that is correct but it certainly was strong for this part of the world.

The storm also damaged the Bimini cover over the cockpit, breaking one of the plastic tube supports.  It was bound to happen, any plastic fitting on a boat is going to fail – it’s just a matter of time.  After some thought I decided the best repair would be to apply a splint which would still allow the bimini to be folded when at sea if needed.  I cut up a spare (high-density polyethylene)  cutting board I had on board, they really come in handy for all sorts of repairs. Then I drilled through the aluminum tube and fitted stainless bolts through the plastic board either side of the tube to form a splint. Mindful that the stainless bolts will cause the thin aluminum tube to corrode I lathered on plenty of Duralac on the stainless bolts to hold the corrosion at bay. The finished result looks tidy and should last for a while until I can get a replacement plastic tube end fitting to replace the broken one.

I am checking the forecast every day, the wind is still constantly from the NW at the moment and looks set for a while.  I expect the season will start to change early next month when I can start moving on again.  I have so many options for a route out of here, although I am favouring one particular route, subject to weather of course.  In the meantime, I am happy with the chilled life at Gili Asahan.

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