The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson
Sailing Yacht Truce
As my shop bought bread had run out I decided to make some bread with fresh flour I had bought in Biak. When I opened the flour container I was greeted by whole bunch of Weevils. The second flour container was also similarly infested. I really dislike weevils, the flour went over the side immediately. Bread was off the menu but my craving for bread only intensified.
Social life on Belitung has been good with a few hardy cruisers passing through to have drinks, food and conversations with. The local village has an excellent coffee shop and café serving delicious Indonesian food. The girls serving were surprised when I ordered ‘local hot’ as they are used to serving bland mild food to non-Indonesians. The staff were very kind, helpful and interested in what I was doing. They sort of adopted this old man, on one visit they made me a special soup, it was delicious. I even left a tip which is usually against my religion.
The morning of the 13th of June, as soon as the marina office opened, I dropped off the gate pass and said my goodbyes. Ten minutes later Truce was passing the breakwater heading out of the Marina. I could not get away from Noumea fast enough. I am sure New Caledonia is a wonderful place (many people say so) but to me Noumea is just a frustrating expensive place.
A look outside this morning and a double take – thick fog. At 10:00 the anchor was aweigh and with radar on we slowly motored from Matauwhi Bay down to Opua. By 11:00 we were anchored off Opua Marina and the fog was lifting. With ships papers and passport in hand I headed off to custome to complete the outward clearance. An hour later I was back on board Truce and getting ready for sea, it was actually hot now that the fog had gone, a beautiful sunny day to going boating.
Another wonderful sailing day and night. We have the wind on our beam and are being pushed along nicely at six knots towards Suwarrow. Its almost too good to be true, this is the first constant weather we have experienced since departing from Honolulu. The wind went light for a couple of hours in the... Continue Reading →
The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson 