To Kumai 3
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Thu 29 Sep 2016 22:57
To Kumai – Day
Three
At 04:30 I was enjoying listening to
The Steel Kiss by Jeffrey Deaver when I saw bright
lights behind us two miles off. The AIS showed
that Global 1201 was not only a very big
chum but was heading straight for Beez.
Call me chicken but not wanting to
spoil a perfectly good audiobook I took a right turn. There is something a
little unnerving when you can see red, green and white lights in perfect harmony
– yep, still coming straight at Beez Neez at a thrusting 11.2 knots or
twelve minutes to potentially being run over – much as I love my chums I have no
need to want to lean out and stroke them whilst underway......... Unperturbed
our faithful girl silently and efficiently stood off and slowly the giant beasts
lights changed to green and white. As the behemoth passed behind I don’t think I
have ever seen so many lights on a chum. Global
1201 was on her way to Johor, due in on the 2nd of October at six in the
morning. A hefty 162 metres in length, 34 metres across the hips and a draught
of seven metres.
At 05:20 the sky
looked very busy, a harbinger of what was to come in the early hours of
tomorrow.
As day began and now some way off my
chum did indeed look impressive, a huge dangly bit hanging
from her rear end ???? Time for me to get to bed.
I got up to find us some way off the River Kumai entrance but already the depth
below us had dropped to less than thirty metres.
A ‘deep patch’ for a few metres as we
went above thirty metres. We were puttering along at just over four knots with
not a breath of wind.
Well, jobs to be done. First, the
skippers hair and beard mow – after he took the bin liner
off his head............then he beat me at backgammon which put me right
wrong. Humidity rose like a cloying cloak and we both put our feet in a bowl of
cold water and drooped wet flannels on our shoulders.
17:21 seems too
early for sunset but that shows we are closing on the equator, just three
and a bit degrees away to the north. A quiet start to the evening with just one
squidman on the horizon.
17:28,
17:29 and 17:32 took us through the pretty
colours of sunset. Miles in twenty four hours = 107 miles in odd
currents.
ALL IN ALL A WINDLESS DAY
AN EXTREMELY HOT DAY
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