9-04-00 Arrived in Bawean (pronounced BAH-wee-ahn), Lat 05°42.5'S/Lon 112°40.2'E after 58 hour sail from Bali. The majority of our passage was spent avoiding Indonesian fishing vessels - small sailboats, large sailboats, motor boats, canoes, outriggers, seems anything that floats they use as a fishing platform! And all made of wood, so they don't show up on radar too well. It was quite a hectic passage. But now we're here and Bawean is our first Indonesian out-island. It is located about 60 miles north of eastern Java. The villagers here are very friendly, but don't speak much English and our Indonesian (Bahasa) language has not yet fully developed! But they do get a few laughs when we say "selamat siang", or "good day" to them. They love to say "hallo Mistah!" They even call Colleen "Mistah". One local that spoke fairly good English took us to his house, introduced us to his family and offered us fresh coconut water. Then he scampered up the backyard palm tree and gave us one to take back to the boat. Very lovely people. We made them popcorn and offered our American treat in return for their kindness. The village has a Muslim mosque and we can hear the praying 5 times a day through their loud speaker system. The Muslim women are all covered up, even in this extreme heat (it has been sweltering). Colleen has worn long pants/skirt and a long sleeve shirt when visiting ashore, but no head covering - it's important to cover ankles and shoulders. We also visited the morning market in the next village. What a busy, dirty, claustrophobic place. But it was a great experience. Live chickens, fresh fish, vegetables and fruits we didn't recognize, pastries, bread, eggs, gasoline, clothing, shoes, anything you could think of. All outside along a small, dirt road with vendors crammed along both sides. While you shop, numerous people, motorbikes, rickshaws, peddlebikes, minivans, all try to run you over. It's quite a challenge, almost an athletic event. We lasted about an hour and only bought some bread . It was the only food item covered in packaging to keep the flies off.
9-07-00 Offshore in the Java Sea, Indian Ocean (Lat 02°26.2'S/Lon 109°16.8'E). We're sailing in the Karimata Strait between Sumatra and Borneo and heading NW toward Serutu and Karimata islands for a rest stop. We've enjoyed lovely sailing weather since we left Bali - no diesel engine needed. We're still traveling in company with our "buddy-boats", catamarans OCEAN SWAN and LIBERATOR. There's safety in numbers. We're on a 350 nm passage from Bawean and we'll arrive sometime this evening, after 3 days of sailing. This area is not a relaxing part of the world to sail - heaps of boat traffic. From wooden Indonesian fishing boats to large freighters. Seems we spot a vessel on the horizon every 10-15 minutes, keeps you on your toes. Last night we had to change course several times for large ships. This is our practice session for Singapore Strait, coming up in less than 300 nm with it's very heavy ship traffic. Not exactly looking forward to it.
9-09-00 Anchored at Karimata Island, (Lat 01°35'S/Lon 108°48'E). Our friends on LIBERATOR are having a problem with the drive shaft for their engine. We had to tow them about 5 miles into the anchorage at Serutu the other night (in a thunderstorm). Sailing in company does have advantages. We're putting our heads together and trying to come up with a short term fix - hopefully attaching their outboard engine from their dinghy to the catamaran. The passage from here to Singapore is a very difficult stretch of water without an engine - lots of ship traffic, strong currents in the straits between the islands, and high incidence of thunderstorms for the next 400 miles.
9-14-00 Offshore in the South China Sea (Lat 00°29.5'N/Lon 106°43'E). We're back in the Northern Hemisphere, having crossed the Equator last night at 8:30pm along Longitude 105°45.5'E. And then less than half an hour later, we achieved another milestone and crossed our halfway around the world point at Lat 00°01.7'N/Lon 105°43'E . It was a strange feeling knowing Toms River, New Jersey, USA was located exactly on the opposite side of the world! Now every mile we sail, we are getting closer to home, instead of further away. Yesterday was a very eventful day - the Equator crossing, the halfway-around mark, and a torn mainsail. We experienced a nasty South China Sea thunderstorm at sunrise with wind squalls to 35 knots. We had the mainsail reefed down to a smaller sail, before the wind hit, but when jibing the sail (bringing the boom from one side of the boat to the other side), the wind ripped a 3-4 ft. tear in the sail. The tear is not along a stitched seam, but we can still repair it. We have sail tape and extra sail material onboard to patch it. Just have to find another yatchie with a sewing machine, since we don't have one onboard SIMMER. Most larger boats carry sewing machines, so it shouldn't be a problem finding one to borrow. Worst case, there are plenty of sailmakers in Singapore that will repair it for us. For now, we'll just sail with our headsails - genoa or spinnaker.
9-17-00 We're in Nongsa Point Marina, Batam Island in the Riau Archipelago (Lat 01°11.86'N/Lon 104°06'E). Yesterday we had another mishap during our passage through the Riau straits on our way here. Our steering cable (stainless steel wire) broke while we were sailing along at about 6 knots under spinnaker with heaps of boat traffic all around! Luckily our adrenaline kicked in and we had a speedy recovery. We got the spinnaker down and packed in the bag, dug the emergency steering tiller out of the bottom of the cockpit locker and connected it, and started the engine in less than 5 minutes. All the time, fast moving ferry boats and local fishing boats were zooming all around us! We steered SIMMER with the emergency tiller the last 15 miles into the marina. The tiller is just a piece of aluminum tubing with a 90° bend that fits on the top of the rudder post. First thing this morning, we replaced the broken cable with our spare and we're back to normal. Not sure why things are breaking lately??? We've actually been very lucky so far with so many miles under SIMMER's keel. But we're happy to be tied up in a marina for a few days. Nongsa Point is a resort with a beautiful swimming pool with waterfall/sunken bar, golf course and a lovely restaurant. It's so decadent, we almost feel guilty. Almost. The marina fee is very reasonable, so we're content for a few days. Batam is one of the larger islands in Indonesia's Riau islands. We're just south of the Singapore Strait and we can see the lights of Singapore at night, only 20 miles away and the constant stream of shipping traffic. In the next couple of days we will clear out of Indonesia and sail across the shipping lanes (between huge vessels) and into Malaysia just a few miles north of Singapore island. We understand the spacing between most ships is only 5-10 minutes. Wow. We'll let you know from the other end how our crossing was. Pat will stay in Malaysia with the boat while Colleen flies home for 2 weeks (Sept 26th- Oct 10th).
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