Tuesday, 21 September
I slept well whilst lying a-hull, waking at 0530 to find i had drifted some 6 miles to the west since stopping. As the sun rose I set about transferring all of the fuel in the containers to the sump tank. I calculated that I now had 312 litres of diesel remaining which meant I had consumed 276 litres on the voyage so far; and I was now about half-way into the passage to Lombok.
The weather was cloudy but fine, with light SE’ly winds when I began motoring again towards the main island of Karimunjawa at 0942. I identified the Kura Kura resort as I passed south of the small island immediately to the west of the main island. It appeared to be deserted and was surrounded by reefs, so I decided to proceed instead, into the main harbour. That too, is surrounded by reefs but there are two anchorages shown on the chart plotter, both in about 10 to 20 metres of water, and I intended to anchor in one of these.
I arrived off the main harbour of Karimunjawa at 1400, and stopped outside to plan my approach after checking the anchorages were clear. I then proceeded inwards and let go the anchor in position 05˚53.1S; 110˚26.3E, in the anchorage to the north of the ferry terminal, putting out 35 metres of chain. With the echo sounder not working I had no way of knowing the actual depth of water. It was clearly deep as the water in the harbour was crystal clear and the anchor chain was visible for a long way down but I could not see the sea bed.
Having anchored I was about to make arrangements to launch the dinghy when I saw a local fisherman passing by in his boat and called out to him. He came alongside and although he didn’t speak any English, he understood from my actions what I wanted. He was a real diamond, taking me and my 8 fuel containers ashore in his boat taking special care to see I did not get wet. We had to cross the reef to get to the shore, and he used a long bamboo pole to manoeuvre us over the reef and onto some steps in the low quay wall. Once ashore, he called his brother to help. His brother spoke English and got his small cart which we used to carry the fuel containers up the side street onto a main road, and a 100 metres or so down this main road to the nearest petrol station. There we filled up the 8 fuel containers with 120 litres of diesel from the pump which was metered, so I knew there was 15 litres in each container. During this process my fisherman friend told the manager of the petrol station that my boat was anchored close to the reef. The manager spoke excellent English and informed me of this. I asked how close and learned the edge of the reef was about 7 to 8 metres away. I had planned to spend the night at anchor in the harbour but decided now, to leave as soon as the fuel containers and I were back on board.
The fisherman and his brother transported me and the fuel containers back to Shahna Bacal. I gave them a healthy tip, and showed them around the boat; and they were so pleased they gave me a bucket of fish. I will be forever grateful to them for their help; bunkering went better than I could have imagined.
The wind was now starting to pick up, so I quickly stowed the fuel containers on deck and then started weighing anchor; and at 1800 I was motoring out of the harbour, back the way I had came in. Once clear of the harbour and whilst still in range, I stopped and called Sue and Alexandra using FaceTime on my mobile phone. It was great to be able to see their faces and speak to them both.
By the time I had finished these calls the wind had strengthened and was now ESE force 6. The sun had set and dark clouds were approaching so I motored out away from the island. The first rain squall of the night passed overhead at 1900. With the winds now gusting over 30 knots I was struggling to maintain course and decided to heave-to. I lashed the tiller over to port and adjusted the engine speed so as to keep the wind on the starboard bow whilst waiting for a lull when I could raise the sails. Shahna Bacal is much easier to handle under sail in heavy weather and under sail I could be making progress in these conditions.
It was 2100 before the wind moderated enough for me to venture forward to raise the sails; and 2200 before I had all the sails up. By this time the wind had eased and was now SE force 4, and I put the boat on the port tack heading south away from Karimunjawa towards the island of Java.
A surreal day.
