The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson
Sailing Yacht Truce
Once again, I have maintenance jobs mounting up. This light weather sailing with frequent squalls is taking its toll on the gear, sails and running rigging. Biak is a good place to do this, the anchorage for the most part is fairly calm and only transient squalls upset the equilibrium.
The plan now is to sail via the Basilan Strait, past Zamboanga and into the Celebes sea and then down to Biak in Indonesia where I can do a final reprovision before heading to Papua New Guinea. This route will give us a far better wind angle and cut the corner saving us a hard slog and many miles. When I informed my cruising friends of my intentions they all threw up their hands in horror and reeled off numerous stories of piracy and kidnapping around southern Mindanao.
checked the chart carefully for any off lying danger off the cape and thought I could safely round it half a mile off in safety. As I approached the cape a favorable current was carrying us along nicely. I noticed what I though was a tide rip ahead, but it looked out of place with the surrounding water. Through the binoculars I saw a low brown object in the water. For a moment I thought it was a whale, but there was no movement, the water was rushing past and over it. A rock awash!
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.
There it is, the last Extra Strong Breakfast Tea Bag. Before leaving New Zealand I took a good stock on board and then managed to top up my stock in Australia. The last couple of months I have been on rations and today, early morning, I enjoyed the last Bag. Some people drink coffee to get going in the morning, but for me it’s a strong tea with milk and honey that does the trick.
With Truce doing a more reasonable six knots I was dozing in the cockpit when I was awoken by a clattering and banging on the hull. My fears were realised, we had run over some floating bamboo contraption all lashed together with bits of rope.
Only a few fishermen more and the sun rose as we closed the coast of Bawean. By nine in the morning we were anchored in Teluk Promahan, a bay sheltered from the SE trade winds on the north of the Island. It had been a long, busy night and no rest. I was happy and relieved to be safely anchored and cracked a breakfast beer. Well, it was five o clock somewhere.
I have had a great stay at Medana Bay, so good to have an air-conditioned room for a few nights. The treat is over, I am on my way again, departing in the morning after breakfast and heading out through the outlaying reef into clear deep water, Bali visible ahead.
Both the snake and I did double take for a fraction of a second then things got a little wild. The snake shot out from the quarter berth towards me, I simultaneously sprang up the companionway. The snake was moving fast and headed up to the forward cabin, it reared up and headed back towards me at speed as I retreated to the cockpit.
For my upcoming trip I have bought four large Jerry cans to carry extra diesel. I dislike carrying Jerry Cans on deck and certainly would not do so on an ocean crossing. But, in the equatorial latitudes there are fickle winds and more motoring than usual can be expected. Having a larger reserve of fuel on board reduces the chore of running a dinghy ashore to find fuel and fill jerry cans.
The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson 