Aug 2-8
Hi All,
Another action packed week and now we think the pace might slow up a bit!!!!
Our passage from Kupang to Kalabahi was a good one except from midnight to 6am the winds blew 15-20kts right on the beam which meant for a very rolly motion. Poor Kathy did not get much sleep on her off watch from 2-6am. Of course, I was wide awake:)))) After I just took over watch at 2am I notice a target on the radar that kept blinking in/out……right on our bow about 1.5 nm away….yikes…..so I get out the binocs and search and finally see a very faint red light….WTH…..we had been warned to avoid traveling at night as there are many fisherman with sometimes unlit vessels……ok, I make a sharp turn to port and keep tracking the red light……and it’s still coming our way……make another 30 deg turn and the light goes out….ugh….then about 30 secs later I see a green light and it’s moving away…..ok, that’s better. Indeed it was a local kloktok (the engines do not have a muffler and make a klok, klok sound) and it goes down the starboard side about 200 yards out. I go outside and wave and I’m met with several men yelling “hello mista” and waving madly to say hello!!! OK, there you go, The adrenaline rush has me wide awake and I still have coffee/tea but this time to calm down!!!!
We were trying to time the channel entering Alor, called Selat Pantar at slack tide as the current can run up to 4 knots. Well, once again the counter current we expected in the Savu Sea was not as big as expected…..we had anywhere from a 1.5kt adverse current to a 0.5 kt favorable current. We arrived about 1 hour ahead of desired time and indeed, the current was against us. We hugged the east shore to hopefully get into the counter current….we were maybe 200-300 yards offshore and while we still had a counter current it was much less. We made it to the anchorage around 11am and proceeded to anchor in 80’……oh joy, just like in the PNW. Well, almost….at least in that area boaters know how to anchor in deep water and give lots of swing room. Well for whatever reason Mystic is a magnet and and several boats came in after us…..we had one boat 20 yards away and another boat in front that when we picked up our anchor was 10′ away……arghhhhhh!!!! When we told the boat that was 20 yards away we were a bit nervous all we got was “no, no, we are ok, just fine”……TG we did not have any strong winds or it would have been a mess.
Diving: OMG world class diving for sure…..well, at least for the coral and amazing variety of small reef fish…..no big fish as we are being told Indo is way over fished. We did 2 days of 2 dives each with a German named Thomas. He has been in the Alor area for about 10 years and seems to be the only dive operator around. The coral was brilliant, extremely healthy, colors of all variety, hard and soft, with many big and beautiful basket sponges. The small reef fish were plentiful and we saw many new varieties. We have not seen reefs in this good shape since Fiji and maybe West End in Roatan. But, there was some tricky currents and up/down drafts so you had to pay attention……so glad we went with a local operator as this would have been very challenging on our own!! Unfortunately both days I forgot the Go Pro to take some pics so that will have to wait until we dive again!! We were given Thomas’ information in Kupang by another dive operator and several other Rally boat dove with us……it was a lot of fun and we were so thrilled to see healthy reefs after our Great Barrier disappointment!!!!
Fueling: Well….we say cruising is a lifestyle with the good, the bad, and the ugly……we had all that in one day!!!! We had arranged with the local “guy” Amahd to purchase 1250 liters (330 gals, ~$3.17/gal). It was quite the ordeal to figure out how to do it. At first he was going to have us tie up med moor to the sea wall and fill with barrels but then said we are not taking enough so will have the containers in a boat but we have to take Mystic a short ways to meet the boat……ok, no problem. This was over several days and many conversations….it seemed to change each conversation. He also had to get a permit, which at the end, we are not sure he ever did. The morning we were to get the fuel another boat comes over and tells us they got very bad fuel the day before….it plugged up his Baja filter several times and was cloudy….oh no….something we can not let happen. So we go to shore where Amahd has setup a little greeting spot and tell him we are going to cancel….we can’t take the risk…..oh no, he says please don’t do that….he was crushed and out quite a bit of money. We continue to talk and he insists our fuel is clean, it is from the petrol station and we use very clean containers. And, he has already filled the containers…..ugh!!! We agree to go see the containers and we will inspect each one…..there are 37 of them.
So off we go on his motor bike, me with Amahd and Kathy with a young man……about a10 min ride……if you recall, Kathy does not like bikes any more having broken her shoulder on a bicycle a few years back!!! She was….well, petrified comes to mind….but she did it and lived to tell the story!!!! We arrive at a modern looking petrol station and we ask where are the containers…..oh, not here, on the boat already……ugh!!! So back we go and we agree to take Mystic “around the corner” to meet the boat……we could never figure out why the boat could not come to us…..and now we know as “around the corner” was 8 miles down the channel to another but brand new petrol station. We believe that once we said no fuel, Amahd changed locations to this new station with new equipment and tanks, but we really do not know for sure. Anyway, we proceed to anchor…..FOUR TIMES….this is the ugly part…..it was all coral and coral rubble…..we just dragged and dragged and dragged……all in 60-100’……we tried many different locations but could not find any sand or mud. We finally said the FIFTH TIME is it……and lo and behold we dragged and then caught something:))))
The guys on the wooden boat were great…..friendly and efficient with no English. I first jumped in their boat and using our siphon hose inspected several containers by siphoning some diesel into a jar. It was very clean!!!! We then used our new pump bought for this purpose…..about 10 gpm…..it all worked great and the guys knew not to pump all the fuel leaving the bottom dregs in the container. We paid for 1250 liters and got about 1225 liters so left a liter or so per container which was great!!! The had 20 containers on the boat, we emptied them in about 30 min….they then went to a pier 200 yards off and a bemo came and took the containers to the new petrol station and they were back in 30 min with the other 17. We were underway back to the anchorage in about 2 hours.
We get back to the anchorage and find several Rally boats have come in and taken our spot…..so we go further out and it is 100’…..nope don’t want to do that so we move over to the other anchorage which is actually quite nice with a wonderful view down the channel. And it turns out the authorities had asked everyone to move out of our first anchorage anyway and they had us all anchor in this big anchorage so it all worked out!!!! Amahd then wanted me to take him to some of the new boats so we made the rounds and I get back to Mystic around 6pm……so a full day……from 9:30 to 6 for 320 gals of fuel…..yep, it’s a lifestyle:))))
Boat Stuff:
Alternator: the regulator quit working again on the run to Kalabahi….no light on the regulator. I spent a half day cleaning all the connections on the Balmar, changing the belts, testing it all but no regulator. So I changed the regulator and voila we have power!!!! I then had to program the regulator to our specs on the batteries which 12 years ago was very difficult as it is a reed magnetic switch……but this time Max Charger had marked the spot so holding the magnet on the red dot made things much simpler!!!!
Watermaker: man is this one killing me…..whaaaaaa!! The watermaker would not run at all when we got here and we were into the second tank so we really need water. So, I changed the membranes and you could hear the aarrggg throughout the anchorage……it did not solve the issue…..now what!!!! So we slept on it and get up and try it and voila it at least runs albeit at high pressure. We run for 6 hours but the tank is not getting full. We check the product water going into the UV light and no product water…..WTH…….I check a few more connections…..all fine…..s/u again and we have water now…..WTH……so we run another 6 hours and we get about 3/4 full. We have since discovered the unit will run in the mornings but not at night….that is very weird indeed…..maybe it’s a heat thing as the laz is cooler by about 5-10 deg F in the am. Unfortunately Spectra doesn’t know what to do….that’s never a good thing when the experts are at a loss. We have concluded that maybe something in the manifold, like the divert valve or a solenoid is partially failing or some partial obstruction is in the manifold so on another day when I have lot’s of time I will go into the “hole” again and take everything off the manifold…..about 6-8 connections and hopefully find this pesky gremlin!!!
Health: hmmmm…….well, on the other rival Rally there are reports of 19 people getting malaria….they are about 300 mile north and it is wetter there but yikes. We will not be going into that area but we have stepped up our mosquito guard!!! Several people on this Rally have had some stomach/bowel issues that has knocked them down for a few days…..maybe it’s the food???? Kathy woke up Monday feeling horrible…..nothing specific just very tired….we have been at it hard for 2-3 weeks, a bad headache and just not feeling good. So, we stayed on the boat and she felt a little better by night. Me…..well, yep like any good husband, I started to feel queasy, nausea and aching in the afternoon….yep, sympathy pains which did humor Kathy at all.
I’ll stop the blog here. We will stay another day and attend all the Rally festivities…….welcome, dancing, cultural exhibition and then a dinner. Then the next day we will start to day hop our way along northern Flores making our way to Labuan Bajo on the western part of Flores and next to the Komodo NP. We will do some diving and of course see the dragons! It will take us about 2+ weeks to make the 350-400nm. A lot of the Rally boats have already left, maybe half of the Fleet and many of our close friends, so we maybe on our own for a while!!!!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
PS: No pics yet…..hope to get that done on Part 1
