Aug 10 – 18
Hi All,
Well……back to doing “repairs in exotic places”…….arghhhhhh!!!! We did leave Telaga North on Thursday Aug 10 as planned for the big west Island of Jemaja and an anchorage called Ayam (means chicken, we do not know why???). After 2 days of rain we were ready for some sunshine……hmmmm……NOT. We did the 12 nm passage in very calm, trawler like conditions and mainly sunny….but, hmmm, look at that cloud ahead…..oh, it looks small, maybe a quick shower…..no worries…..yeah, right……just as we pull into the anchorage where you must navigate around some reefs it starts to pour…..like visibility down to nothing….ugh….but wait, what’s that smell….it’s electrical…..oh, crap…..where is it coming from…..a quick run to the ER and yep, it’s there….shut it all down….breathe deep…OK…..a better look in the ER reveals nothing……but, at least nothing is burnt or fried……still raining……can’t see anything, but we are just drifting in 50′ water so no worries……start the Cummins….it starts, ok, good, not the starter….look at the battery monitor….good, we have amps so not the alternator…..ok, I give…..what can it be……back to the ER…..use the temperature gun and check everything…..hmmm, alternator is maybe 20 deg hotter than normal but everything else….bearings, pulleys, batteries, starter et al are all normal…..ok, increase the Cummins rpm…..yikes, smoke out of the alternator…shut it all down…..good news honey, found the problem:)))))
OK Captain, we still need to anchor and we can’t see more than 50 yards…no worries….we start the “little engine that can”….Mr Get Home Yanmar…….we creep into the anchorage….still can’t see anything…..hey Admiral, how about we anchor here in front of all the reefs, still 50′ no worries……sounds good as she is soaked….can you say wet t-shirt:)))))) So what do you do after all that excitement…..PK makes Bloody Mary’s…..of course……too hot to work in the ER today so will get to all that manana!!!!
And did it rain…..all day until about 3pm……then, blue sky…..wow, this is really a beautiful anchorage….maybe close to our favorite……time for a beach walk….two pretty long beaches and we find some of the best treasures yet…..many big various kinds of conch shells, sand dollars et al……and monkey tracks!!!!
The next day we wake up to dark clouds all around us…..but, we get in 2 more beach walks before the rain starts…..too dark to snorkel or dive……seems to be a pattern…..clear at night, clouds up in the am and starts to rain hard around 10-11am!!!! OK…..let the games begin on the alternator…..now, we have done this before……also in an exotic place…..Tuamotus in 2013, again in the middle of no where with no help available…… but, we now have the tools and know how….well, sort of…..last time it took us 3 days…….this time half that time…..we got the alternator off, the pulleys off and the spare back on the first afternoon…….the second afternoon we installed the belts and electrical and started it up….we have amps and no smoke……all is well!!!! This alternator is maybe 30-40 pounds and of course you are stretched and in awkward positions to get it in and out….2 people job……the Admiral did marvelous:)))))
One morning we wake up to blue skies……there is a small island called Pinanang about 2 miles away we passed coming in…..look likes a good place to dive as well as 2 lovely beaches…..but wait, here comes the clouds…..let’s go now and beat the rain…..so away we go…..I snorkel to check out a potential dive site…..Kathy does the beach…..what does she see….3 big turtle tracks leading to nests……still fresh tracks……looks like the eggs are buried……they need 2 months to hatch…..sure hope no predator…..mainly man…finds out…..in the meantime John is observing a huge giant bumphead parrot fish…..a meter plus….whoa…it is beautiful!!!! But wait, what’s that……something pelting my back….OMG it’s raining hard….look towards the beach and PK is standing on the beach by the dinghy….gulp….she is totally drenched….and looks cold…ok, race back to the dinghy……kept my snorkel mask on to see……Kathy jumps in the dinghy and away we go….and, you guess it …we get lost….can’t see a thing…..Kathy thinks she sees land and we head that way……we eventually make it back….only went 40* out of our way and to the wrong side of anchorage and Ayam island…..fist time we have done that…..yikes!!!!
Penang Melang: Another lovely anchorage in a huge bay with a small village where we anchored for 2 nights. It rained hard all day….so not much to do but read the first day and work on Mr Alt. The 2nd day was partly cloudy with no rain….yeah. There is a 4 mile long beach which Kathy was itching to walk…..and, so we did….maybe did half of it so got in a good 4+ mile beach walk. Lot’s of baby conch….called gonggong……and the most sand dollars we have found on any beach, but on the small side……we also met a nice young man named Gusdi….the local tour operator with broken English…..we had a nice chat and then he said there was a young Italian couple down the beach….we looked and said yes we see them….well, after many attempts at telling us the problem (took about 10 minutes to parse out through the broken English) we figured out that the couple needed to buy their ferry tickets this am before the office closed…..but, he being Muslim, could not go down the beach to talk with them as the young woman was inappropriately attired….as in a skimpy bikini…..oh, ok, no problem we will go tell them…..he was so relieved and most gracious…..so we walked down the beach and told the young couple…..she did look somewhat embarrassed but I’m not sure she really cared…..so sad, but once again Western culture not respecting the local customs….arghhhhhh!!!!
After the beachwalk we walked the village……a very clean, well-built village……wow, very different from all the other small villages……and a lot of kids and “halo mister”….but then one young girl said “halo GrandPa and GrandMa”…..yikes…..they usually say Uncle and Auntie but we now have graduated…..well, if the shoe fits:)))
We found a restaurant full of people…..turns out it was all the teachers from school so the restaurant really wasn’t open…..but the proprietor sent us a plate of boiled gonggong….the baby conch….then a man came over and showed me how to eat…..really just like a Caribbean conch….it has a finger/hook that after the conch was boiled is quite easy to pull out…..and you get a bite size of conch….dip in several of the hot sauces and voila…..it was delicious!!!! We tried to converse with the teachers but alas no English…..eventually they all left and the proprietor comes out and asks if we want some chicken nasi goreng…..sure….we think she had some rice left over and WTH…..again, delicious but a tad on the hot side:)))…..cost for all that plus 3 sodas (she did not serve alcohol) was USD5…..whoa!!!
Tukan: Our last anchorage before heading back to Tarempah…..again, lovely wide open bay…..we stayed for 2 nights……about 4nm from Melang….another long passage:)))) There were several very long beaches that Kathy walked….she found a pretty nice Nautilus shell…… while I did a few snorkels…..not too bad, brilliant coral followed by dead spots….maybe 30-40% damaged….visibility so/so……but I did see twice some razor fish…..wow, cool, a first for me….pretty rare…wish I had my camera:((((
Weather: After our first 2.5 weeks of mainly hot, sunny, dry weather the last 1.5 weeks have been mainly dark, cloudy, raining maybe 75% of the days…..and this is the dry season……that Italian couple was most depressed….it had rained 4/5 days of their holiday…..and several cruisers we met were all complaining….even Gusdi was not happy!!!
Alternator: Hmmm…….why o why….here we were so proud of doing this job on our own…..but……our friend Caz’s favorite phrase comes to mind……it will all work out at the end and if it has not worked out, then it is not the end…….so, the alternator puzzle continues. When we passaged the 6nm to Melang I noticed the alternator was not putting out enough amps….maybe 50% of what it should be. So, the next several days we ran a bunch of tests, cleaned all the electrical connections, changed some et al……and wrote emails to the Balmar tech and MMTAB (Mystic Moon Technical Advisory Board)…….AND…..the rebuilt alternator was done wrong in NZ…REALLY……arghhhhhh……hooked up for 24volt or did the wiring wrong……we are still in contact with Balmar so not sure if we can rewire or if we need to send to Alt Dr….ugh…..in the meantime we will run with the Cummins Delco alternator and the 50% Balmar which will give us just enough power to not run the GEN unless we need to make water……yep, livin the dream:)))))
The Plan: We made the 31nm passage yesterday to Tarempah……today we get 320 gal of fuel…..always an adventure in Indonesia……then tomorrow, Saturday, Aug 19 we check out of Indonesia and start to head east towards Borneo. We will island hop the ~300nm to Kuching……Saturday go 19nm to one of the far west islands in the Anambas area…..Selai, then Sunday 80nm to Midai, Monday 85nm to Serasan, then on Tuesday 100nm to outside the Sarawak River, then on Wednesday, August 23 make the 14nm run up the river to Kuching after we time the river tide and then check into Malaysia again.
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
Tarempah Anambas Island Indonesia
PS: Internet is still at glacial speed so not able to upload any pictures
