Date: Hari Minggo (Sunday), Bulan Sèptèmber 7, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: No Wind AM; Windy, Windy PM; Current With Us Today!!
Latitude: 08 degrees 24.218 minutes S
Longitude: 116 degrees 04.371 minutes E
Location: Teluk Kombol, NE Lombok, West Nusa Tengarra Province, Indonesia
It’s tomorrow and we are not in Gili Air. As you must know by know, we do sometimes have to go where the wind blows us and that is what happened today. We left our mid-channel anchorage at 5:30 am after getting up every hour all night to do anchor watch. We were fine, but we wanted to make sure. There was just no wind this morning, so we didn’t even put up the mainsail. We just motored west. A boat from Australia, Harbor Lights, lost their prop in the Komodos and are trying to sail to Bali
without a motor. They are racers and not used to going slow, but this morning I felt terrible when we passed them just as the sun came up. They have been getting up in the middle of the night and taking advantage of the winds, but it didn’t work this morning. A boat named Glass Slipper from the US is accompanying them, and I talked to Tom of Glass Slipper on the HF radio this evening to see how they are doing. He thinks they will make it here tomorrow, but I’m not sure after the news I had to
give him. That ‘no wind’ syndrome ended just as we were going through the pass between Gili Air and Lombok. We went from no wind to 20 knots right smack on the nose. We did have a knot of current with us, but it will be a tough sail in a very narrow channel between shoals and reefs on both sides. If it were me, I’d head straight to Bali, but maybe the wind will be different tomorrow.
We talked to Jean-Pierre on Safina this morning and found out that the small Gili Air anchorage is just full of boats. There are a few moorings, which are taken, and now other boats have anchored in between. And the anchorage is very deep so if you do anchor there you have to put out lots of chain. So boats on moorings are touching boats at anchor when the boats swing. Add to that the fact that there was and still is 20 knots of wind blowing straight into that anchorage, and that was enough to
cause us to change our destination. We’ll get there, but just not yet. We are just two miles from the Gili Air anchorage and can see it from here. We are in a bay surrounded by pearl farms, but the bay has about 17-18 mooring balls which is great. So we are hopefully secure on a mooring ball and will stay here for at least a couple of days. Tomorrow we are going on a full-tilt island tour of Lombok and the next day we hope to hop on a local boat and spend the day on Gili Air. At that point,
we’ll decide what we are doing next.
We arrived here in early afternoon. While we were eating lunch in the cockpit, a young man came by in a pink spider boat but was polite enough to say he would return after we finished eating. Actually Mark met him in the bay as he was traveling over to Shirena. The young man’s name is Mohammed and he is the man to see for everything-trips around the island, diesel fuel, laundry, expeditions to the markets, and he even sells pearls. So Mark arranged to get diesel for Scot Free, Shirena, and Windbird,
and made arrangements for the island trip tomorrow. Gerry and Klinton on Scot Free spent the entire afternoon working on Shirena. Shirena is a new Bavaria, but new or not, the fiberglass housing holding the windlass (the absolutely necessary item that raises and lowers the anchor) had cracked badly in two places. Upon inspection, it was obvious why this had happened. The windlass was attached to the fiberglass housing with only very tiny bolts and with no backing to spread the weight. When the
windlass is pulling up 150 feet of heavy, heavy anchor chain plus a heavy anchor, there is a tremendous load on the windlass. Robert was afraid it was going to ‘pop’ right out. But with marine plywood from Windbird and fiberglass work done by Scot Free, we think that situation is under control
While Mark was on Shirena I finally realized what the strange smell was that I had been smelling all day in our aft cabin. I thought it must be coming from the engine room, but when I would open it and put my head in, the smell wasn’t there. I don’t know why we hadn’t figured it out sooner, but it was our batteries. They had overheated terribly and were in desperate need of water. The fumes were actually making me nauseous and it was then that I realized it was an ‘electrical’ kind of smell and
that cued me in to the batteries. Mark is actually still working on that problem as I am writing this log. I have mentioned before that the batteries are over five years old and need to be replaced. We have high hopes that this can wait until we reach Singapore or Malaysia and it will be much cheaper there, but we will have to baby them and fill the cells with water more often. They, too, realize just how hot it is here.
Lombok is a 90 per cent Muslim island and even though we are anchored off what appears to be a small fishing village with no apparent mosque, I have heard the call to prayer loud and clear three times since we arrived. So as I finish this log, I am once again hearing the call to prayer. It is a very peaceful and reassuring sound and one that we are coming to expect in Indonesian anchorages.
Yesterday was our daughter Heather and her husband Jed’s fifth wedding anniversary. So happy anniversary to Sam’s mom and dad. We hope you had a wonderful day.
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| 080907 Day 121 Lombok, Indonesia–Gili Lawang to Teluk Kombal |
