Day 156, Year 3: First Day of Passage to Belitung
Date: Hari Minggu (Sunday), Bulan Oktober 12, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: Totally Overcast with No Wind; Tropical Rain Storm Early
Latitude: 03 degrees 19.857 minutes S
Longitude: 110 degrees 55.872 minutes E
Location: On Passage from Borneo to Pulau Belitung, Indonesia
Miles to Go: 212
We have started our trek to Singapore. We will first travel almost 300 nautical miles to an island called Belitung. From there we do another two-day, two-night passage to Pulau Lingga off the east coast of Sumatra. It is a long day sail from there to Batam Island, close to Singapore. And from there we head into the Singapore Harbor. We had thought we would go around Singapore and anchor in the river between Singapore and Malaysia, but we’ve decided that a few days at a marina would give us a
little break before we start the trek up the Malaysian coast to Langkawi.
We woke to overcast skies this morning and soon after exiting the Kumai River we got hit with a good little rainstorm-lots of thunder, loads of rain, and 25-35 knot winds. This continued for an hour or so and completely soaked everything in the cockpit as it was coming from behind us. After the storm, the winds completely died, so we have been motoring since early afternoon. It is getting dark now and the clouds are so thick that it is hard to see the moon. There are dark clouds above, so I imagine
we will have more storms tonight. As we were eating dinner in the cockpit, a small land bird came to visit us. We are still fairly close to the Borneo coast, but when land birds try to perch on your boat, it usually means they are exhausted from fighting strong winds. I’ll be happy is this doesn’t prove to be true this time.
I’m having a tough time adjusting to life without Justin and Jo. Cruising is wonderful, but it is so hard to be so far away from family. Having them here was so special, but it will take a few days for me to adjust. In the meantime, we’ve got this yucky weather to keep us focused. I’m hoping for sunshine tomorrow.
