HARAPAN KRAKATOA to COCOS KEELING July 2012

Jetty at Harapan anchorage

Sunday 15th

We sailed from Harapan to Palau Kali with only light wind but good current arriving at 4pm 5'53.97S 106'5.35E. We entered the channel from the west, the marks were wrong on the chart, however its pretty self explanatory once you arrive. This was our last anchorage, just 7NM from the entrance to the Sunda Straits. 

Monday 16th

Early start, and with some trepidation, as the current was expected to be against us all the daylight hours. We decided we would rather battle current than darkness. 

Amazing fishing boats off north west Java

The fishing fleet were out in force in the very colorful Javanese boats. Many crew frenetically casting and pulling gets all round us. Not difficult to see or avoid however. 

Hugging the East bank of the Strait we headed in. Sails flopping as the wind had died completely. Made about 4kn over the ground for the first  8 nm in very flat calm conditions. This end of Java is incredibly Industrial with huge power stations and refineries. Lots of ferries and miscellaneous small ships  plying back and forth to Sumatra. 

Following the coast south was very easy and on the edge we managed to avoid what was possibly stronger current in the deeper water. Progressing south we entered an area of the coast which is apparently popular with tourists and for holiday homes out of Jakarta. 

This area was decimated in 1883 when approximately 36 thousand people perished and there was extensive destruction to infrastructure and property  by the cataclysmic explosion of Krakatoa when 6 cubic miles of what was the mountain of Krakatoa was turned to  pumice, mud, dust and ash over a 24 hour period. The main explosion was heard as far away as Reunion Island, 2000nm south west. There was a measurable wave in the UK. Almost all the destruction of life and property was caused by Tsunamis generated by the sonic explosion.

Krakatoa by Simon Winchester made a very interesting read as we approached the anchorage at Rakata in what was the caldera of the volcano. Its a very good portrait  of the history, geography, geology, lifestyle and events of Batavia, (now Jakarta:) in the period leading up to and after the volcanic eruption.

After passing Anjer and Fourth Point Lighthouse, (both or which were destroyed by estimated 120ft tsunami waves generated by the final massive explosions on 27th of August 1883 at about 2 pm.) we turned west and headed out to see the new Krakatoa. Anak Krakatoa emerged smoking and frothing from the sea in 1927 and is growing annually. We arrived a little after 3pm and slowly edged into the anchorage of Palau Rakata with a good view of the volcano. We put the anchor into 21m of water just off the beach under the tall cliffs of Rakata. 6'8.68S 105'25.62E 

The SE Trades built up during the night , gusting downdraft's onto us. Fishing boats came and went and just on dusk two small power boats arrived, disgorged about 8 tourists and crew and set up tents and settled in for the night.

Tuesday 17th

We sailed past the volcano for a closer look but decided not to climb it as David has hurt his knee somehow and we did not want to risk further damage in view of our planned 4 day passage to Cocos being imminent. At 10.30 we set sail back towards the Java coast in a pretty frisky noserley!

 

It got pretty boisterous and dare I say, even uncomfortable! We made for a small bay called Carita 6'18.71S 105'50.10E and hoped it would suffice. Well it did, and proved a great stop with lots of potential if one had a visa! Its a tourist area and as its the last week of school holidays here, it was pretty busy with speed boats, jet skis and banana boat rides. The operator of one of the boats came to welcome us into town and showed us where to anchor, offering his services if we needed anything. Thenceforth all the banana boat rides came past and waved and called greetings.  A lot of fun. Pity we didn't feel we could go ashore as i'm sure there would have been good markets and restaurants. Its about a 3 hour drive from Jakarta so there are a large number of holiday homes, condos and resorts.

Wednesday morning we headed out towards Tanjung Lesung  about 20 NM south. We passed Labuhan, which has a big coal fired power station and the

Largest shed I have ever seen. It appears to be being constructed for the storage of coal. There are extensive sea walls and the area looked suitable for anchorage.

As we approached Tanjung Lesung we realised we were headed into the most densely packed fishing houses we have yet seen. There were at least 500 of them crowded into the entrance of the bay, at about 100m intervals.

They were easy to avoid but we had to be very wary of the remnants of old ones which leave poles in the sea floor and only stick out of the water a little bit. We made it into good shelter at 6'29.12S 105'40.88E

Thursday 19th

Early start and negotiated the sticks and fishing houses once again to open water without incident. Would not be possible in the dark. Upon rounding he next headland we came upon the perfect anchorage! One wouldn't pick it from the chart but it was lovely, with several large power boats moored deep into the tiny bay and restaurants and resorts ashore, Jetty and services looked available. Not a fishing house in sight! 6'28.70S 105'39.88E it would be well worth exploring but we had to press on.
 

First Point Lighthouse Java's western tip.

As we rounded the next corner we hooked a big yellow fin tuna which kept David busy for a good while.. Sushi sashumi and tuna steaks for the next few days.

First Point light house anchorage  06'45.33S 105'15.18E between Peucang Island and a big national park on the south western tip of Java. We anchored well out of the swell, in good clear water. There is a small jetty but there is no other sign of habitation here. Deer, pig, some exotic looking tall long tailed birds (maybe peacocks, but didn't look like normal peacocks), monkeys on the beach in the afternoon, and some big bats at dusk were our only company.

Friday 20th we spent the day getting tied down to depart for Cocos Keeling at first light Saturday.

Saturday 21st July

While you were having toast an coffee or even still making zzzzzzd's we were pulling anchor, hoisting and unfurling sails and setting off into the big blue briney to sail to Cocos Keeling Island about 600 nm to the south east. We put in one reef and sailed past First Point Lighthouse out to sea. Initially it was big southern ocean swell, quite well formed and easily managed but the current is awesome and with 20 plus knots abeam, current and swell we were soon doing hitherto undreamed of speeds for Taipan. For minuits at a time we were averaging 10kn. The further we got out the more confused the sea state became and the swell, still big, started to become confused.

In short is got rough, jerky and very unpleasant but at least the trip was fast! We arrived in Cocos Keeling dry and having never stepped out of the cockpit at 5pm on Tuesday 24th 12'5.59S 96'52.86E. So although it was unpleasant it wasn't unpredictable or demanding. The steady trades although fluctuating occasionally only demanded that the head sail be rolled in or out. No further reefing or deck work. We settled in for a quiet night and a big sleep. Customs were happy to leave the visit until morning.

Cocos being an Australian Territory requires no Visa from Australians (although other nationalities must have one) and the Customs inspections are pretty lenient. No food was removed but we were warned not to take anything ashore.  

There are no mobile phone facilities or wifi services but you can purchase an international call card and use the very convenient phone box on the beach here at Direction Island. There are internet facilities ashore on Home Island which is about a 15min dingy ride across the lagoon. The local inter island ferry then takes regular runs to West Island and return.

You have never seen water this color. Its luminous aqua through all the blue hues to navy blue. Fabulous. There are a great group of 7 yachts and their crews here at present and we are enjoying the break before heading on to Mauritius via Rodriguez, about 2000 nm to the south east.

More Photos of Cocos Keeling 

BELITUNG TO 1000 ISLANDS GROUP July 2012

Wednesday 11th July. This morning we left our beautiful north Belitung anchorage to start heading to Cocos Keeling. We only did  a 20 nm run to S2'50.48 E107'29.36 into the Perlak River mouth. Very calm and quiet. A few fishing boats left at dusk otherwise no one. We had our first rain while underway.. since Langkawi. It was really just a little spit and barely needed covers! 

Hariapan is the island below out anchor pin. Its built on a flat island and every square inch is built on. no cars or vehicles except motor bikes and trishaws. Extreemly friendly. This island group is about 40nm north of Jakarta and yet is is still remote.

Thursday 12th July. Moving on towards the southern end of Belitung. Beautiful sunny day with only 4 to 5 knots so we are motor sailing. Dolphins around but pretty wary! 

Anchorage at Seliu Isl at 3'11.67S 107'32.30E at the south end of Belitung. Small village ashore friendly waving. Rained at sundown.  

Friday. Left to head south to 1000 island group at 6.30 am Friday morning via the Chanel between Seliu and Belitung. Good clear run. Charts seem accurate. 150 nm to go.

Uneventful night. Good wind and we made good time in reasonable comfort.  

Local fishing boat off the Jetty near our anchorage at Harapan Island in the 1000 Island group

Saturday 14th we arrived at Harapan Island in the 1000 Island group at around 10 am. Coral reef islands everywhere Harapan is populated from edge to edge.   A young man named  Supardi from the National Park headquarters donned fins and mask and swam out to greet us as we dropped anchor in 15 m  S5'39.2   E 106'34 between Harapan  and Rakitiang. We gave him coffee and he took David to a very close fish farm to purchase a fish. An Indonesian patrol boat arrived  at  a nearby jetty and tied up there for a couple of hours within 200M of us  but no one came to check on us. Just as well because our visas had expired.

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Buhari and Captain

Its very beautiful here. Lots of coral atolls rising straight up out of 20M of water. Fortunately it was very fine and sunny by the time we were making our way in and the edges were easy to see. We are only a few meters from a fish farm and could easily swim to the reef but it's a bit busy with boats. 

Streets of Harapan

Bihari a local man introduced himself when we went ashore and then next day came out on a surf board to see us again. We got his phone number if anyone is interested in going to Harapan his English is pretty good. 

Buhari (62 ). O87881329233 

Others tolerated it while Mum loved it!

The visit shore-side to purchase eggs was a terrific adventure.  We were immediately made very welcome. A young fisherman tied our boat to his so the local children wouldn't use it as a jumping castle and kept shooing them off. 

Despite Mums insistence...some kids just were not keen to be in the pictures!!

We made our way up very narrow streets, about 6 ft wide. Paved in concrete bricks between a variety of closely packed houses mosques and small shops. The only vehicles were bicycles tri-shaws and motorbikes. Many, many babies all needed photos and some were very reluctant in spite of their mothers insistence. We encountered street sellers with delicious satay ayam. Chicken, and pastries filled with nameless yummy stuff but strangest of all was a contrivance to rival anything we have seen! 

This guy made yummy fried things???

It was a one man driven, musical children's ride, mounted upon a trishaws cycle. The whole contraption drives round the island selling rides to tots, 4 at a time, on small vehicles which go up and down like merry go round horses, but in one place.  Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming.

Man powered Merry go Round

There were lots of Mosques and the islanders are obviously devout, however, as we have often experienced in the more remote islands of Indonesia, we felt the Islam we saw in practice here was far less oppressive, and especially the women appeared to be free  of a  lot of the constraints seen elsewhere. 

Sunday 15th We are heading towards Sunda Strait and will go to Krakatau tomorrow. Everywhere in Indonesia needed more time!

A note on Charts
We have a Furuno Navnet 3D Chart Plotter running CMap derived charts from Maptec but the best charts we had for this area were on the iPad running in an App called JeppesenPlan2Nav. The charts are small area and reasonably pricey but very very good. 

More Photos from Indonesia 

BELITUNG BELITUNG!! July 2012

7th July

We had a big day on Thursday starting at the beach at 7 am First we went into Haruns office to drop papers for one of his staff to take to the officials to arrange for our clearance from Indonesia, Next we visited two traditional markets for couple of hours of vegetable and fruit shopping. It was great fun as everyone wants photos taken and to have a chat. I got my woven plastic basket for 15000 rup so smiling! I had seen one in the tourist shop but they were only for use within the store and wouldn't sell to me.

Wempi our driver with a local bike carrier called Ambong

After the market we went back to Haruns office to pick him up to take him to lunch.  Great food again at a Chinese style restaurant.Then it was off for more shopping for oil, beer, filters, relays, and other boat stuff! Haruns Hardware store has most of the things we needed and many more beside. We got the sail back all repaired for $15 so we will be able to put that one back on for a while longer.

Local boats builders on the beach.

On the way back to Taipan we stopped at a little boat building yard by the bridge for big chat an photos of course. There were a  group of children who were very shy for all of 2 minutes, then wanted endless photos taken and lots of laughs. Just lovely. It takes one man a month to build one of these boats. They cost about A$2500

We bought a fabulous Lino Cut from this talented artist  Check out his Blog http://mansyurmasud.blogspot.com/

We met Mansyur Masud a local artist there, and were able to purchase a lovely lino cut print of the bicycle Ambong basket, a very traditional Belitung item. He  is a really nice guy and great English. Explained that he exhibits in Jakarta an works here about half of the time. Most works go international. It turns out that he was born in Macassar, where we visited in 2006.
 Check out his web site.
Mansyur Masud 

He had a fabulous work on display at the Expo as seen in the photo. Anyway suffice to say it was a  big  day and we were in bed by 8.00

We got visa till Sunday even though  we were checked out on Firday, they stamped Sunday our last date so that's good

We loaded the CMap charts Plan2 Nav in IPad for the rest of the run because Haruns charts look much better for 1000 1slands. I hope they're  right!
 

Sunday 8th July

Beautiful day again. Harun came to dinner last night and we said our thanks and farewell. Harun is a Belitung treasure and will not be forgotten! Thanks Harun!!
Monday. Some internet jobs have come up and require attention. So internet and snorkeling again. Today fabulous as ever, even in the less than average light , as we have quite heavy cloud, we saw nemo fish we had never seen before and a number of new corals.

STILL AT BELITUNG July 2012

Tuesday July 3  Well the boat anchored off yesterday came in today. It's "Bombora" with Leon the Volvo agent from Boat Lagoon Phuket, and his wife and 3 children. Small world! 

We had another amazing snorkeling expedition again today. Each experience eclipses the last.  

Thats Taipan on the left

David went up the mast twice this morning to try to rectify a fault with the wind indicator. It's been malfunctioning for a while now and we don't seem to have repaired it so have to add to the list of things to buy somewhere. Harun has found someone in town who may be able to sew a couple of small rips in our head sail. It's getting old though and it's ripping at the stitching so probably need to add new one to go onto the shopping list too! May put the small one up instead. Will wait on weather report from Estrellita and Baraka before we decide. 

Many beaches just like this around our anchorage.

We had our first rain, and it was nice and heavy so we have clean decks again. Shared anchorages with Leon as they are going where we have just been and vice versa so it's good to get recent update . We  have been given 3 anchorages in the 1000 islands group north of Jakarta, 3 at Krakatoa and two more on the Java side of the straits before we head to Cocos Keeling. David cleaned terminals and redid the earth and altered revs on governor on genset  and now seems to be working better. 54 hz inst of 49. He's now wiring the auxiliary battery charges into a new location because old position caused damage from battery gas. Used to have sealed AGM but now have regular lead acid. 

Leon Bowles and Crew on Bombora.

Thursday 5th July  This morning at 7 am!! Leon pulled alongside and we boarded Bombora, a Whitby 43 and went over to the light house  a couple of miles off. Lengkuas lighthouse is 70 M high so its good climb and in this lovely weather the view is great. Lengkuas light house is made up of thousands of numbered sections of cast iron and  was bought out from England and erected in 1882 by the Dutch.  

On Friday morning  we will go to a morning market for fresh produce, then to Immigration officials and Port Captain to clear out of Indonesia, then see Harun, get more fuel filters and oil and pick up the sail which we hope has been repaired. We will then leave Saturday or Sunday towards Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java. About 200nm. -- 

 There are a lot more pictures in the Taipan Photo Gallery. See link 

More Indonesia Photos

Indonesia Phone No +62 81270155548

BELITUNG ISLAND INDONESIA

Officials in Belitung have inspected our papers.

We are still at Belitung and will stay until our visa expires. Unfortunately we didn't get the tourist visa before we came to Indonesia  so cannot extend the Visa on Arrival. 

We have had a fabulous week here with Harun as our guide, translator, driver and friend. Almost every day he picks us and takes us to another awesome place or places. Bali village where Balinese were encouraged to move to Belitung to live and have built Bali style village and temple. 

Dutch colonial buildings from last century,  preserved and in great condition. We visited the Bugis village  of the Madurese descendants  bought to Belitung  by the Dutch as mine workers.

A highlight was lunch as guests of the Belitung Regent, Ir. H. Darmansyah Husein, and the head of the local Tourism authority. We were invited to contribute ideas and feedback to these officials to help promote and improve facilities for visiting yachts. We hope they will build a marina here in the future and thus encourage yachts to extend their stay. It is a short 45 min flight to Jakarta and therefore easily accessible. There is some potentially lovely cruising grounds around here too.

 All the restaurants we have been to have been outstanding. Not one failure! Chinese and Indonesian cuisine. There are also some pretty good supermarkets and lovely fresh market so we are not wanting for anything. 

L to R. Harun Dave Jan (Baraka) Bill Amy (Estrellita) me David.

Jetties at the Bugis Village. Lots of salting fish.

The snorkeling is excellent, and  in clear water with very unspoiled coral, right off the back of the boat here in the anchorage.  Sunday we had  a BBQ on a nearby beach on an island with Harun and the crews off Estrellita and Baraka, It was a relaxing afternoon on an idyllic little secluded beach. We haven't  done much of that in Asia because it's hard to find a deserted beach.  The other two boats Baraka and Estrellita have had to check out because their visas expired and they left today for Cocos Keeling.

One night out with Harun, Amy and Bill 
we visited Haruns Workshop .

We waved them off in pretty boisterous weather and wish them well on their next leg of about 800+NM.  This afternoon another ketch has arrived and anchored about 3 miles out. Maybe they don't have charts or maybe they are keeping a low profile and going to sail right on by. Their loss to be sure! .
More Indonesia Photos 

KOBA TO BELITUNG June 2012

23rd June KOBA south end of the east coast of Banka Isl  2'27.909S 106'25.630E It was only about a 25nm run today so we took it easy and arrived around 1.30pm after  a pleasant sail through the beautiful azure blue waters of this coast. The anchorage is reef free and very calm with the main town just slightly inland. There were lots of families gathered in small groups enjoying a day at the beach. In the evening after the mosques it sounded like there was a Bob Marley concert on! Lots of drumming and reggae type music, it went on into the small hours. We were tempted to go take a look but resisted as we had an early start next morning to go to Gelasa Island. 36nm east 24th and 25th June  At dawn we were headed to Gelasa. 

This very elaborate fishing house near Koba where there were a number of  floating houses.

The  wind was such that we could do it in one leg. That was a short lived assumption as the wind continued to head us all morning and it all went down hill from there! Seas got shorter and steeper and the current got stronger against us until by 3pm we decided to motor to the anchorage. No to be! 
The fuel filter on the Yanmar somehow got blocked even though the Racor filters it before it gets that far. Then things got really bad when we discovered that the spare fuel filters were oil filters not fuel filters!  Just to make matters worse we couldn't get the generator water pump to prime in the heavy seas so power became precious! 

We decided to sail all night and get to Belitung where we hoped to remedy the situation. Well it took 26 hours to do 86 nm as the crow flies... But with all the tacking we did 120 nm thanks to the adverse conditions it was a dreadful leg! We were pleased to sail into the anchorage and drop that pick! 

NORTH BELITUNG 2 33.4824 S, 107 38.9479 E, Baraka and Estrellita are already here and have arranged a trip in to deal with all the officials and we tagged along. It was a great day with Mr. Harun Cahyadi, our guide chauffeur and adviser interpreter. He has an amazing hardware store in town and business exporting quartz sand and silica sand to Java with his own barge and tug. 

Harun organized new fuel filters for us and they should arrive from Jakarta tonight or tomorrow. After extensive research he has been unable to locate steering chain for us as its an  imperial size so we will have to hope it hangs in there to Cocos. Back from town pretty late and aboard again.  Fridge and freezer off till we sort out the power issues The solar panels made some improvement in the power position today but tonight they are getting low again. As I write David is in the engine hole plumbing in a new pump for the generator. 

By 2am this morning David had the genset running again and the batteries back into good condition and was ready for a well deserved sleep?   Today has been house chores and getting fuel aboard with jerry cans.  We, also with the assistance of Barakas dingy, moved in closer to the beach. I think this is the most beautiful anchorage we have ever been in. It's crystal clear, huge granite boulders scattered around on 4 sides, pure white sand beaches, and warm with a great breeze day and night. There are some reef areas close by which we will have to explore when time permits

BANKA ISLAND INDONESIA June 2012

Tanjung  Genting  1'41.46S. 105'2038E    Is our favorite anchorage  since leaving Nongsa Point. It provided a peaceful and pretty stop for a couple of days to recover from David's flue, catch up on chores and just relax after a hectic week of sailing long days in sometimes uncomfortable conditions.

Hundreds of these tin dredges operate off the north Banka coast.

On Tuesday 19th we left to sail to Mengkudu on the northern tip of Banka. Only 36 NM so an easy day.  After rounding the first headland we discovered tin mining Indonesian style! There were about 300 + huge dredges working the offshore sand, countless numbers, in the thousands, of small one man rafts with pumps, working around them, and numerous small fast boats rushing here and there doing something! This section of the coast for about 25NM is tin mining country. The mine camps ashore, where there are also big sand diggings are a mess of canvas and stick tents, thatch cottages, and hovels. The overall feeling is frenetic. This is all new since 2006 1'30. 89S. 105'52.50E Mengkudu 

There are thousands of these one or two man operators on this coast. This is dangerous but very lucrative work for enterprising Indonesians. Making as much as Rup. 6,000,000 per month between two or three people. Equivelent $600. The average daily wage is less than $5 per day.

On passage today we passed what looked a beautiful and interesting stop, worthy of further investigation. Penyusu.1'36.45S.  105'43.37E is roughly the area. Pretty white sand beaches, strewn with huge boulders, fringed by palm trees. There is a small port and town just near here. 

Dropped anchor in a nice protected bay we visited in 2006 1'30.786S 105'52.460E. At the northern tip of  Banka.   This once deserted bay is now host to a range of dwellings, of dubious architectural merit, and a dusty sand pit. It's still a good haven from the relentless south east trades. 

Wednesday 20th June was a big sail down to  PANJANG    2'8.761S  106'15.816E We had to sail  71 nm  to get here. Wind as ever, on the nose. Didn't spare the ponies for the last 3 hours as we left late and could see we were not going to make the anchorage before dark without assistance. It's a great shelter with a big sand spit and a lot of reef around it. Plenty of fishermen coming and going but no one came to visit. We are off shore from  Panjang  Pinang the biggest city on Banka, and see many large ships and ferries in the southern channel on their way into and out of the river there. Our chart doesn't show a lot of depth but there must be good water. 

This small fishing house not far from our anchorage at Panjang. Each morning someone came to pick up the occupant who had worked through the night lowering and retrieving the under slung net using a bright light to attract fish.

Thursday 21st we got away early but  9 miles out we came to a shuddering halt at about  8am on a reef.  There was a small asterix on the chart, some distance from where we hit but the reef area was extensive. The charting is somewhat inaccurate in Indonesia? After a half hour of bouncing on the reef we caught a wave as the tide turned and lifted clear. The steering chain broke as in the panic we tried to steer the boat with the auto pilot engaged.... so we hand steered back with the emergency tiller. It wasn't until we set to work to repair the broken  chain that we realized we could have steered with the auto pilot. Its amazing how rusty you get a t tiller steering after using a wheel for years.
We returned to Panjang to survey the damage and were relieved to discover nothing bar a few minor scratches, a broken steering chain and a few jangled nerves .  Friday we decided to stay as Baraka and Estrellita with whom we are loosely traveling stayed in north Banka. 

NONGSA POINT to BANKA ISLAND. INDONESIA 10th June 2012

We cleared in at Nongsa Point Marina on the northern tip of Batam. Dewi was most efficient and helpfully organizing the clearances and visas. We had arranged to pick up our Indonesian cruising permit CAIT here and all the formalities were simple.  

Marina facilities are excellent with pool, laundry, restaurant, and shop within the resort. Docks are well built clean and well maintained. 

There is also a fuel service but we didn't use it.

A typical Riau Village

Sunday we went on the resort bus to the Batam Centre Megamall which is a big modern complex with a great Giant Supermarket. The bus runs on Friday & Saturday and Sunday only. If we wanted to go any other day we would have needed a taxi for the 20 min ride each way.  

We cleared out of Nongsa to Beletung , our departure port, on Monday and sailed south for a couple of hours to anchor for the night. There is a noticeable improvement in the living standard here since our last visit to the area in 2006. We are seeing better clothing, housing and the level of sophistication of the various fishing craft is generally higher with a greater number of outboard engines instead of longtails.

We decided to head west through the densely packed islands of the Riau group and go west through the passage passing under the Baralang Bridge  000'46.973N 104'10.390E. H 27M. It proved a very easy passage, well charted and with interesting traditional villages. Well worth the trip. Emerging from the passage we sailed south west to an anchorage in a deserted bay at 00'21.12N 104'19.01E . There are several stilt houses in the bay and we saw some dive boats with very large crew presumably harvesting the reefs and sea bottom. Everyone waves and smiles here. 

Traveling further south and east next day passing west of Sebanka we sailed down some very pretty channels and passed numerous villages finally anchoring at Kentar. 00'3.12N 104'44.69E. This is a well protected anchorage in the SE season. 

Linga was our. Next night stop at 0'16.01S104'58.03E yes we are in. The southern hemisphere. There is a fishing camp here and three teenage youth paddled over to see if we had any whiskey for them! After a friendly discussion and photos they paddled away empty handed! A stern anchor that night would have been  a good idea to counter the rolling. 

Baralang Bridge #3

The winds have been steady and about 15 + KN from the south east so we decided to sail west to Selat Berhala on the coast of Sumatera. This was a long but fast and comfortable day and the anchorage although apparently out in the middle of no where proved quite good. 0'59.66S 104'20.30E. 

Next day was fast but not so comfortable, making South in strong wind and short steep chop. 76nm in daylight however and an amazing night in probably one of our most remote anchorages Teluk Sekanah 1'51.834S 104'31.876E we had not even dropped the anchor when a large runabout full of people arrived alongside. Two young adult males, one older man and about. 7 young boys between 3 and 12 years. They were so excited! We managed to keep them on the deck and in their own boat but their delight at the opportunity to spy through the deck hatches into the boat was obvious. They were all very polite and well behaved, not taking liberties and most grateful for the sweets and a few shirts we found for them. There are only about 5 small houses comprising the small stilt house. Complex on the edge of the bay, all built in very traditional style. I was so surprised by the suddenness of their arrival however I didn't get any photos! 

Sunday we decided to abandon our attempt to pass south through the channel between Banka and Sumatara as the adverse wind and sea state was just so contrary to our comfort! Also if your were going to attempt this route you would be well advised to wait for neap tides.

Typical fishing platform.

We turned east in perfect weather for the direction and sailed to Tanjung Genting  1'41.468S 105'20.380E a beautiful and peacefully spot with a long white sand beach and only one or two people combing the shore at low tide. 

 David picked up a flue in Singapore and so we laid low and enjoyed the view for a couple of days after a busy week.

SINGAPORE

Pankor to Singapore was remarkably uneventful and leisurely. One stormy rough anchorage off Port Dixon otherwise pleasant. No rain during the day, only an occasional evening shower. We stopped in Danga Bay Marina and made the run to Singapore by bus on Saturday to spend the night with Rex and Susie Whistler aboard their beautiful boat, Ariel, at One 15 Marina. We had such a lovely time we stayed two nights. Returning to Taipan on Monday, we checked out on Tuesday and headed out to anchor ready for a quick getaway to Singapore on Wednesday. Such a fast run in to Singapore with great wind and current. Into One 15 Marina and secured by 1.30 pm, having first completed all the clearance formalities at Western Immigration anchorage.

 Wednesday and Thursday getting supplies and preparing to leave for Nongsa Point Indonesia. Planned departure Friday afternoon aborted due to inclement weather! Just as well because we had bananas on board and it was a Friday!!

Nongsa Point Marina Batam Indonesia

Saturday however was clearer and we made it out of One 15 to clear out by 12 mid day. There wasn't much shipping traffic and we had a pleasant if somewhat slow run to Nongsa Point Indonesia against the current a lot of the time.

The marina here is very nice. Pretty and clean. A busy resort forms the backdrop ashore with a nice pool and small shops. This morning we did a run on the shuttle bus... only on Friday Sat. and Sunday so that was lucky....to the Mega Mall about 20 min away at Batam Centre. Its a very large and modern facility with an excellent supermarket. We got SIM cards for both the iPad and the Phon

We plan to leave tomorrow and start making our way south to Belitung where we will clear out.

SINGAPORE AND A QUICK FLIGHT TO BALI. NOVEMBER 2006

While we were in Singapore we explored the city, ate amazing food and went to the Zoo. 

The Harbour Front Shopping Mall had a huge fire works display one evening. 

There is plenty to do in Singapore. 

It is a beautifully landscaped city with stunning gardens and some amazing architecture.

Sentosa Island is a fairly elite area with high rise apartments going up everywhere. There is a beautifully manicured golf course and a number of tourist attractions being developed.

New Dingy Chaps. Think they worked out pretty well!

I filled in some time on the sewing machine making dingy chaps from Innova Marine Hooding. This is a great Australian product and is relatively easy to work with as its a coated material so does not require hemming or hot knife to cut it. 

 

Being spoiled by Ron and Sally at Lembongan Island on board their Bali Fun Ship.

Flying down to Singapore for a week we spent time with Ron and Sally. Our good mates on Magic, Christo and Daun were on the way through Indonesia following their trip to the Louisiades. It was fun catching up with everyone there. We spent a couple of days at the Coconuts Beach Resort again and had a great time.

More fun in the sun! Front to Back. Ron, Kris, Christo, David, Daun and a crew member.