We left Nongsa Point Marina, Batam Island on 16th April and arrived at Lovina Beach, Bali on 7th May, where I am writing this post. We expected that we would likely have headwinds or no wind at all and we were not far wrong in our prediction. It was a very tiring trip. The heat & humidity was quite unbearable at times and we could not get any relief from this apart from travelling at night when the air is cooler and often their is a little breeze that we could take advantage of and turn the motor off and sail for a while. However, sailing at night has it’s disadvantages in this part of the world as there are always many fishing boats of all kinds out for the nights catch. Trawlers, long liners, squid boats, not to mention the fish stakes and FADS, oil and gas rigs and logs! Also as we found out that the many tugs we saw towing a barge did not have AIS fitted or a light so tiny on what they are towing it is almost impossible to see until quite close up, which can give you a bit of a fright!
We travelled a total of 1021nm. Actually on the move for 221hrs of which 156hrs we had the motor running and only 64hrs of sailing without it. Not very pleasant! However, I did catch a couple of mackerel, one kept us and another yacht fed for a few days and do some essential washing with the rainwater we caught.
Our trip took us through the Riau and Lingga group of islands and then down the Bangka Straits We anchored at the towns of Mentok and Toboali on Bangka Is. Hoping to go ashore at Mentok as we had been told it was a nice town with quite a bit of history, but we arrived at spring tides and it was too low during the day for us to get ashore. We did try but when we got out of the dinghy to drag it up the beach our feet just sank in thick gluggy mud. Soggy Moggy who were also there with us managed to stop a local as he passed in his boat and arranged for diesel to be delivered out to both of us. Toboali was a very nice small town where we were able to get a new starter battery and stock up on fresh fruit & veg at the markets.
From the bottom of Bangka we were hoping to get to Karimanjawa Island but the wind was a very strong easterly that day and we decided it was easier to head towards the coast of Java and work our way along the top of Java in hopefully calmer water with the possibility of some offshore breeze. We had been getting a lot of rain squalls, thunder and lightening since leaving Nongsa but we noticed as we left the bottom of Bangka the squalls were not so frequent and any rain we did get was just rain with no wind attached to it. The rain was very pleasant as it cooled the boat down and filled the water tanks.
The problem of course with being near the coast is the fishing boat activity at night and the fishing floats that you can dodge during the day but can’t see at night. It all makes for interesting night watches and there’s no chance of dozing off while on watch.
Near to the end of Java we had the choice of travelling along the north coast of Madura or taking the shorter way through the Madura straits between Java and Madura. We chose the latter and it was a very interesting journey. At one stage we had 126 ships within a 6 mile radius of us, fortunately most were anchored. It was like we were travelling through a ships graveyard. Sad to see were the huge barges of logs waiting to be loaded onto ships. I guess these were all rainforest trees, so sad to see the evidence of the logging that is happening up here.
At the end of the straits is a bridge connecting Java to Madura, its quite impressive and we decided to anchor close by for the night, rest up and see it in all its lighted glory that evening, we had read it was quite spectacular. However that was not to be as not long after we dropped anchor along came the Navy and said we were in a restricted area and had to move on. But first they needed to see all our paperwork and while that took sometime they were happy with what we showed them and we moved on. It was now 4pm and we had the tide with us so took advantage of that as at one stage we were travelling at 8kn.
It was a very busy night as far as negotiating fishing boats and at one time I noticed we passed a squarish shape at a fairly safe distance. In the morning we discovered what this shape was and realised that we must have passed quite a number of them plus bumped a few too as Jerry did here a few thuds on the side of the hull! They seem to be for the fisherman to tie up to and fish,fortunately only during the day, we think!
Our final run as we rounded the very bottom of Java and headed towards Bali we got a bit of a breeze and had a nice sail for an hour or so. We were also greeted by dolphins who came and went and played on our bow.
Heading into our anchorage at Lovina late afternoon our water pump drive snapped and caused the engine to overheat. Luckily we noticed the change in engine noise before any real damage was done and even luckier is the fact we had a spare onboard. At first we thought we had sucked up a plastic bag and Jerry jumped over board to take a look, quickly surfacing again to remind me to drop the sails! Luckily there was very little breeze and we had stopped when we turned off the motor!
He spent an hour swapping pumps, imagine hot engine that has been running for best part of 24 hrs. It was a sweaty job and a few fingertips got a little burnt in the process.
By this time it was getting dark and I thought we would have to spend the night outside the anchorage but when I checked with the binoculars I saw a little local boat heading our way and just knew it was Abdul from Lovina. We met Abdul in 2013 and he is like the guardian of the anchorage here guiding people in through the reef and then getting diesel, water and anything else you may require. He stood by the boat while Jerry finished fitting the pump and then in the dark and a rain squall (just to add to the adventure) he guided us into a safe anchorage. Things were a little tense onboard by this time so we had a couple of beers a shower and bed for some much needed sleep.
A few days here relaxing and enjoying Lovina, topping up diesel and water and we are now on a mooring in Serangan harbour at the bottom of Bali near to Sanur and Benoa harbour. It’s good to be here.
31 days since leaving Malaysia and 1148nm.
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