| Mon 31 Aug 98 0430hrs: Someone hailing the boat from a small boat nearby. Martin’s firm voice booms out brooking no argument tells him to go away … or similar words to that effect..Dawn: The village seems to have partied most of the night. Possibly to do with all the baptisms. It’s now awake with all sorts of noises; music, chainsaws, chooks you name it.0830hrs: Boat slowly wakes up. Lambert turns up 1½ hrs before his 10am appointment. Have breakfast and coffees. Settle on a price with Lambert. He wants Rp30000 plus Rp10000 (total A$6.56) for his son who will come along to help with the boat. The price is all inclusive but we agree privately amongst ourselves to give him more at the end of the day.
1000hrs: Everyone climbs into Lambert’s boat and we start heading over to Nuyanat Is. Uneventful 10 min trip. Tide’s in but the water is shallow along the beach. A bit of exploration is in order so we walk along the beach around the circumference of the island. This takes a couple of hours beachcombing along the way.
At the western end Lambert shows us a gravesite nicely laid out and framed with stones. It’s well kept with sea shells at its head. He tells us this is the grave of 3 Australian soldiers from WW2. He doesn’t know how they died. The grave is located next to the shore in the middle of a small camp regularly used by local fishermen as an overnight stop. Quite a well established and well used place. Beautiful spot. It’s touching to think that the locals have maintained this grave after all this time.
1300hrs: Feeling hungry so sitting under a small palm frond roofed shelter we have a picnic of damper, salsa, rice crackers, tinned tuna, fresh fruit and lollies. Lambert and his son join in. 1400hrs: Feeling sleepy but the fleas and the ants chewing on the remains of someone’s past fish meals persuade us to leave our little hut and sit under a tree on the beach. Everyone to their own devices but mostly reading and snoozing.
1630hrs: The tide has gone right out and not much water to swim in. The troops grab some shampoo and wash their hair while sitting in what water is available in little tide pools. Everyone is freezing cold when they get out.
1700hrs: Back on Lowana IV Lambert is offered Rp50000 (an extra Rp10000). He promptly reneges on his original price wanting an extra Rp30000 for the boat as well. Great care had been taken this morning to ensure the boat and everything was included. It’s annoying, not for the money but for the principle of it so we give him Rp60000 (A$10.00) and refuse to give him any more. He then starts asking for apples and lollies. He’s firmly shown off the yacht. The frick! A youngish man comes out offering to sell us some weaving’s. He asks a ridiculous Rp500,000 which is refused under the normal conventions of bartering. A counter offer of Rp90000 is made which he in turn refuses. He returns to shore. 1800hrs: Now we have another visitor who wants to exchange an Australian 20c coin for Rupiah. No one is much interested but Martin gives him Rp1000 anyway to get rid of him. He then proceeds to stick around the boat as persistent as a bush fly. That in itself isn’t a problem but the sharp points on his outriggers are butting with the waves against the fibreglass dingy and Lowana IV’s hull, and it’s causing me some concern. He can’t be persuaded to leave by words, gestures or grimaces. At least not until a certain skipper directs a couple of choice and well known Indonesian words at him, at a volume sufficient to ensure he would hear if he were deaf. He then paddles away with feigned dignity and doesn’t look back. Today seems to be smarty pants day! 1840hrs: Martin washes our impressive collections of sea shells. Have some quite large clam shells amongst others. Each of the girls has almost collected enough shells to make an entire dinner set. Girls are cooking tea. No fish bought today so we’re having a dried meat dish instead. Looking forward to it. Evening: Some sundowners. A little less enthusiastic tonight. Lovely dinner of mince and pasta. The girls experiment with a damper made of bicarb soda, capsicum and olives. Ahh … no comment … 2200hrs: Listen to forecast. No messages for us. Variable SE winds up to 10 knots for our region. Tue 1 Sep 98 0900hrs: The chap with the weavings yesterday returns. He’s obviously been consulting the actual weaver ashore since he’s now happy to sell both pieces for Rp90000 (A$14.75). These weaving’s are original hand woven material made of cotton which they spin and dye from natural colourings. While not expensive by our standards it’s actually quite a handy sum by theirs. Can’t blame them from trying. You will often be quoted a price in Indonesia which on the face of it, by western standards sometimes seems quite reasonable. One must always keep in mind the average wage here, what constitutes a fair price and what the local cost of living actually is. When looked at in this light some of the initial bids can be quite outrageous. Our crew was mindful that if westerners simply pay out the first or even second price asked, even if they think they are getting a reasonable deal they will spoil it for those who follow. And the prices forever will be seriously inflated whenever a new visitor appears. 1000hrs: Breakfasting. Check charts and pilot books for navigation and anchorage details. Today we intend to head off to Olendir Harbour on the northern side of this island. Reasonable length sail. Just a gentle breeze at the moment. Glorious day. Seas calm. Quick swimmies beside the boat. Some local boats sail past. Looks like they are having a race.
1030hrs: Square everything away. Turn key to start the motor and it coughs. Oh no! Shades of Cullen Bay again! Decompress the cylinders then spin the motor which pumps out the best part of a cup or more of water out of the #1 cylinder via the air filter (unmentionables here from the skipper). This is the same new cylinder installed by our diesel mechanic before leaving Darwin. Get all the water out of the cylinders and re-lubricate them. Start the motor as normal. Big gush of rusty water spews out of the exhaust (unmentionables once more …. ) Not good. The salt water has probably been sitting in the cylinder barrel for the last couple of days! Test compression. No problem with either cylinder so at least we don’t seem to have any cracks in the block this time. The cause is either going to be a leaking gasket seal or the water has back-siphoned when the motor was last turned off. The seacock allowing cooling seawater for the motor had been left open so this is the most probable cause. The siphon-break system allowing air into the system must have failed although it seems to be functional. Am highly reluctant to pull the motor down to have a look for two reasons: Think it over. I’m fairly sure it will be okay to continue our journey with the motor. It seems to be happy enough but am not sure what, if any, long term damage is being done by continuing to run it. Would really appreciate a second opinion. Have no radio transmit facility so cannot make a Radphone call to our mechanic back in Australia. Decide my best option is to return to Saumlaki, have a chat to the mechanic on the phone and decide options from there. If we actually do need a diesel mechanic we should be able to find one there as well. Raise and secure the dinghy. During the process half the skippers fishing rod goes overboard into 15m of water. Gone … This is NOT a good day. At least the end with the reel manages to stay on board. Skipper is NOT happy today.
1105hrs: Anchor comes up clean. No mud. Turn the boat towards Saumlaki. Motor sailing at this time due to headwinds. Wind is ENE and travelling close hauled.
1430hrs: Drop the anchor off Saumlaki. Uneventful trip motor sailing the whole way. Motor seems to be working just fine with both cylinders functioning fully. Distance Adaut-Saumlaki 14.6 nm. Total motor hours 531hrs to date. 1500hrs: Lower the dinghy and Martin and I motor over to the Harbour Masters Office. Closed. Office hours 0800-1300hrs. Good hours for that job! Head off to the Telephone Office. Unable to get through to the mechanics mobile phone number. Leave a message on his home answering machine that we will call back again tonight. 1700hrs: Leave Martin at the Harapan Indah hotel. Take a cold drink out to the girls and on climbing back aboard find they’d been busy. They’d bought 16 fish for Rp3000 (A$0.50, cleaned them and are now baking them. 1830hrs: Everyone ashore for a mandy, a drink and for me to make my phone call to the mechanic. Meet Martin at the hotel who decides he wants to stay ashore for the night. Talk to Ronnie. This is Mama’s daughter and runs the hotel. She speaks very good English and tells us there is a very good mechanic with a workshop nearby if we need him. She said he works on all the fishing boats and coastal trader boats and is considered to be quite good. Dusk: Sit on the hotel boat deck admiring the sunset. Water is completely flat and still reflecting everything perfectly on the water. Picture postcard stuff. Lovely setting. 1930hrs: Ring our mechanics home number and speak to his wife. He’s in Perth. She gives me a couple of numbers to try. Manage to contact him in Perth. His opinion re-enforces mine that it’ll be okay to keep going, but adds I should keep an eye on the oil for any water. He suggests as an afterthought to re-torque (tighten) the cylinder head. So we go on. We will need to watch the oil and compression and we will turn off the sea cock every time with the motor. And we must check the cylinder barrels for water each time prior to starting motor. We subsequently had no hint of problems or any sign of water in either cylinder. 2000hrs: Inform the crew at the hotel that we’ll be continuing the trip tomorrow instead of going home. They greet the news with enthusiasm. Delma and Ann want to do some shopping for a few things before we go. 2045hrs: The terrible duo return to the boat. Get the fish warmed up for dinner and watch the Indonesian news on the TV. Later we sit in the bright moonlight in the cockpit enjoying the lights reflecting on the still water of the harbour, drinking hot tea and chocolate before going to bed. Wed 2 Sep 98 0800hrs: Almost completely still today. The sun has some bite already. 0900hrs: Hear a ‘cooee’ outside. Strange call for an Indonesian to use. Look outside a porthole and a young Aussie bloke named Anthony is sitting in a dugout with an Indonesian friend. Invite him and his mate aboard for coffee. He’d been in the Darwin to Ambon Race and has been island hopping on his way home. His mate comes from a village on the Tanimbars west coast but Anthony had met him in Ambon. They’d only just arrived in Saumlaki last night on a coastal trader from the village. Seems a nice fellow and he really appreciates the coffee. Seems to have been living a little rough lately and looking for a trip back home to Australia. Of course we can’t help him. We find out later he stayed for almost 3 weeks and left just 2 days before we got back here. The inter-island ferries and airplane services are not all that reliable here. 0930hrs: Girls take off to shore while I check the motor. No sign of any water in cylinders or in the oil. Starts good. Sounds good. Worries allayed somewhat. Everything looks fine motor wise. 1030hrs: Crew comes back with Martin. They’re carrying little cakes for the skipper for breakfast. Get a couple of small paint-brushes for Rp1500 each so that a small hole in the fibreglass dinghy can be repaired later on. Hoist the dinghy up. Stow away gear. Finish the washing up. All shipshape again. 1055hrs: Anchor clear of bottom. Start heading out of Saumlaki Harbour once more but this time heading for Olendir Harbour on the north side of Selaru Island. MORE TO FOLLOW |
Tag Archives: tiga rowa
An Eclipse and a Bash to Wetar
Standard
Tues 16/9/97 0545 hours: Early start. Dinghy up, secure the gear and winch the anchor up. On our way by 0630 hours.
0930 hours: Wind picking up already. Put the 1st reef into mainsail and put up the staysail. 1000 hours: Wind blowing hard. Put a 2nd reef into mainsail. Also put a reef into the staysail. That’s the first time I’ve ever had to do it. 1100 hours: Tacking now. Hard to make headway. Have travelled 15 miles over the ground but not yet at first waypoint which is still 5 miles away to the north and clear of the islands. Taking some spray over the bow. Ternate Island off the port beam. It’s known locally as ‘Crocodile’ island due to its shape when viewed from a distance. 1400 hours: Only made 3 miles northerly over the last 3 hours. Have completed 3 tacks trying to get out into the open sea. Strong winds estimated 30 knots with higher gusts on the nose. The big bow on Lowana IV giving lots of windage and simply won’t point up into the wind. Obviously a problem we’ll have to live with since we have tried several different sail rigs. Winds seem to be getting stronger at times and we’ve even tried the storm jib but no good. In fact if we put up any kind of headsail we get pushed off course to leeward. Unable to clear Ternate Island at this time. Best available courses are about 350 deg (NNW) True to 120 deg True (SE) giving a sail angle of 130 deg and even then only barely making headway. 1500 hours: Give up using any jibs but have made almost 3 miles in the last hour heading in a NNE direction with the mainsail sheeted in hard. Clearing the NW corner of Alor Island and finally getting away from Ternate Island which by now has a more uncomplimentary name given by the crew. Wind appears to be moderating and backing around easterly, allowing us to follow it around a little bit. Waves still pretty lumpy but no dramas, just a bit uncomfortable. Getting mostly spray over the bow with just one or two waves actually just dipping over the bowsprit. Reasonably dry boat in the conditions. Making steady progress 2.5 knots to the NE. 1700 hours: Gained 6 miles in 2 hours to the ENE. Steady progress. Getting back to our rhumb line towards Wetar Island our next stop. Seas mostly long low swells with the occasional big wave. Wind is 15 to 20 knots on the nose. 2300 hours: Situated 9 miles north of Point Babi light on the eastern end of Alor Island. Slow progress. Weds 17/9/97 0030 hours: Seas very rough. Getting hit by strong wind gusts which started when we came out of the lee of Alor Island. Have tried every sail combination possible to make ground but windage on bow just too high to maintain a reasonable course towards Wetar Island. We’re just being blown sideways through the water. I am going to have to put more ballast into this boat and maybe deepen the keel after I get back. In the meantime our only tactic is to reef the main, sheet it in and motor into the seas. Maybe we can get enough of a wind angle to keep the boat as steady in the conditions as possible. If the wind will only drop slightly it may be enough to put up the staysail and gain maybe half a knot. 0300 hours: Making barely 1 knot and positioned several miles to the north of our course. Lots of heavy shipping which tend to come too close to us for our liking. Beginning to wonder if our radar reflector is working properly or not. 0630 hours: Distance travelled last 24 hours was 65 miles. Still have 45 miles to go. Witnessed a full eclipse of the moon last night. Maybe it had something to do with the high winds? Can still see the coast of Alor to the SW. 0830 hours: Only 10.5 miles since 0300 hours. Average 2 knots or just under. Still 39 miles to go. Seas seem slightly calmer and we may be picking up speed. Getting back fairly well on course being just 5 miles north of our rhumb line. Currently steering parallel to our rhumb line as close to the wind as possible. Mainsail has 2 reefs and sheeted in hard. No jib. There is enough windage on the bow to balance the boat so no weather helm to speak of. Tried putting on the storm jib up again last night but it just pushed us off course to leeward about 20 deg, and we didn’t pick up any noticeable speed either. 1100 hours: Wetar Island is 31 miles off. Made 5.5 miles in the last 1.5 hours. Have picked up speed averaging 3.6 knots or thereabouts and holding a good course as we come further into the lee of Wetar Island. Take out 2nd reef leaving the 1st reef in the mainsail. Still no weather helm. Seas still lumpy but not so bad. Autopilot handling it perfectly. What a human energy saver those things are! Barbara is asleep. She’s been seasick nearly the whole way and has lost a lot of fluids but doesn’t complain. 1130 hours: Wind coming around. Small jib up and finally under full sail. 1400 hours: Wind dies down allowing a change to the genoa. Tried to catch the breeze but it only lasts 15 mins. Not enough wind to get more than 1 to 1.5 knots. Motoring again with 20 miles to go. Seas still a little choppy, clear skies, hot day. Now in the lee of Liran Island on the SW side of Wetar Island. Travelling ESE. 1430 hours: Wind back to NE. Genoa put back up. Under full sail again and getting up to 6 knots. Seas slight. We can hardly believe it after what we have been through. Need some sleep but can’t bring myself to go below. It’s just too good. 1600 hours: Still sailing averaging 5 knots. Wetar Island in sight but not clearly due to haze. The sailing is really nice. 1800 hours: Almost dark and within 6 miles of our intended anchorage. Decide to heave-to and wait for the full moon to come up above the haze. Have some noodles to eat and a hot drink before going in. 1830 hours: Very carefully approach our waypoint at Labuan Air Panas – Hot Water Bay. As the name implies there are hot springs here. Can’t see land. 2130 hours: Inside the bay but hard to judge distances. Can’t get a reading on the depth sounder until close in then it suddenly shows 197 feet. Have to get Paul to watch the transducer suction cup as it keeps coming away from the hull. Attempt to anchor in 35 ft of crystal clear water. We can even see the bottom by halogen torchlight. It proves to be too rocky to set the anchor and the boat drags towards the shore. Martin somehow sustains some fairly decent long scratches along his forearm from the anchor chain. I assume he was trying to hold the chain when the anchor grabbed on a rock at some stage and then let go. The sea bottom is very steep-to and by the time the anchor actually caught something, the rocks onshore are pretty damn close so I decide to get out of there. A villager comes paddling about while we’re looking around for somewhere else to anchor. He indicates a place about 100 metres away. After checking it out it proves to be a suitable spot and get ourselves anchored successfully. 2200 hours: Two locals came out in a tiga rowa – dugout canoe with 2 outriggers. Give them a New Idea magazine and a couple of smokes. Eventually show them politely but firmly off the boat so we can get some sleep. Martin carefully cleans and dresses his forearm. He’d once experienced a poisoned leg from getting scratches on a boat. Thurs 18/9/97
Wetar Island is one of the “Forgotten Islands”, an archipelago of undeveloped and remote islands running from Timor to West Papua. It’s about 120km by 30km wide, mountainous and a very small population of people. It’s also recorded as one of the world’s hot-spots for cerebral malaria. The bay we are anchored in gets its name from a thermal hot springs nearby to the beach.
AM: Fuel tank reading 235 litres. Used 50 litres for the 110 mile trip which quite surprises me. I had thought it would have been much more. Engine had been run for 32.5 hours. Fuel consumption 1.53 litres/hour. Not bad considering we’d been punching hard to windward most of the way. Had been keeping the revs below 1500 rpm though. Distance over ground 112 miles plus some miles tacking out of Pantar Strait. Sumlog shows 110.3 miles and chart distance 105 miles. Average fuel consumption over ground 3.5 miles/litre. Late AM: Relaxing morning on board. Everyone still tired from trip over. Scenery is breathtaking. Photos don’t do it justice. Typical idyllic tropical island scene straight out of a magazine. Can see the sea bottom in 20 feet or more of water. Watch some locals working the rocks on shore. One visitor comes out in a canoe looking for medicines, smokes and dry-cell batteries. Communication has to be by sign and body language since he doesn’t seem to speak the national Bahasa Indonesian. Pretty remote place this.
1330 hours: Get through to Delma at the Hospital in Darwin on HF radio Radphone facility using the 8 Mhz frequency. Communications are scratchy but workable. Give her a rough itinerary. Telstra only charges me for 2 minutes due to the scratchiness of the signal. Good to be able to have made contact from the boat ! Afternoon: All except Barbara want to go ashore since she’s still feeling a little weak getting over her seasickness. Explore the camp of the locals here. It’s not a village, just a collection of huts. Looking around there appears to be four families. Some attempt has been made after the last wet to plough a field but it’s still unfinished. Two Timor ponies are being led along the beach. They are used for heavier work and transporting gear around. Give some more New Idea and Woman’s Weekly magazines out to some of the people.
The village itself is about 7 km further inland apparently. We won’t be going there. I suspect the people living here near the beach are sort of like pioneers. Two small trader boats pulled in earlier and loaded some stuff up. No idea what it was, but at least they seem to be able to get outside services via these boats. Look to be extremely poor though. Subsistence living only. A young lad takes us to where the hot springs are. Don’t get to the head of it but the water is about as hot as a very hot bath. It’s anywhere between 1 and 3 metres across and knee deep in places. Coming back tomorrow for a longer stay
Evening: Paul catches a nice mackerel while casting from the boat. We have fish and chips for tea and it’s delicious. Later on some strong offshore winds get the boat rocking and skittering around a bit, but the anchor holds really well in the sand bottom. Worried about Barbara. Still complaining of being sick. Have run out of travel/motion sickness tablets. She sleeps up on deck overnight in the fresh air. Fri 19/9/97 AM: Barbara feeling lots better. She goes off with Paul to do some fishing in the dinghy and they catch a stripey and mangrove jack. Martin and I top up the fuel and water tanks and complete other routine maintenance tasks. Tweak up the stuffing box a bit as it started leaking for the first time during this last leg. Redistribute the weight around the boat to get her trimmed level. This makes more room available in the V Berth up forward so some of the water jerries lashed up on the deck are brought down and stowed under the beds. This helps to get more weight down low to reduce rolling in the bigger seas. Check water. Have used 40 litres Alor to Wetar.
It must be miserable here in the Wet Season. Lots of swampy areas about. No wonder its officially reported as an unhealthy place to live. Wetar Island is well known as a place for cerebral malaria for which there isn’t any cure. We’re taking every precaution and don’t stay ashore after dark. Martin and I re-attach the radar reflector which came loose after a shackle pin worked it’s way out. We listen to music, read books and just laze around enjoying the tranquillity of the it all. Late Afternoon: Visit the hot springs for a bath which was hard to drag ourselves away from. Watch the sun going down from the beach. Don’t see or hear a single mossie so assume the worst of it must be during the wet season. PM: Have dinner, then a kind of sing-a-long wishing I had brought the guitar after all and get to bed by 2100 hours. MORE TO FOLLOW |
Russ Swan 