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.
MAINTENANCE IN CAIRNS
After the injury to my left arm I have been sailing with just the headsail. Most of the time I have poled out the sail as its been mostly downwind sailing to the SE trades. The trades at times can be strong, gusting to 30+ knots occasionally. It looks like I have stressed the spinnaker pole and opened up an old break in the carbon fibre. This needs repairing before setting off again.
HAVELOCK FOR SUPPLIES
Having sat through a dreary overcast day in Long Bay I decided that on Wednesday I would head into Havelock Marina and top up on water, diesel and get some fresh provisions on board. Havelock is a small town but has a Four Square store where all essential groceries can be obtained. To make sure... Continue Reading →
PREPARING TO DEPART HONOLULU
Last night we attended a great party at the Honolulu Yacht Club. All the Transpac race boats have now finished so there was a great celebration and lots of sailor stories. The food, wine and music were excellent with good company. This morning was a little subdued. We spent the day doing odd jobs and... Continue Reading →
BOAT ALONE
Today was my first day on the boat alone. I kept busy stowing all my gear and finding all sorts of new discoveries in every nook and cranny. At first the contents of my three large bags appeared to voluminous to fit the available space. However, everything go stowed neatly away with space to spare.... Continue Reading →
IRIDIUM GO ORDERED AND PROVISIONING
Another sparkling day at Canoe Cove, still and cold in the morning and warming up nicely as the sun gets some altitude. This morning I ordered an Iridium GO satellite communication package from Predict Wind. The Iridium GO will make communication much easier, no need to come ashore and hunt out WiFi hotspots. The package... Continue Reading →