In Langten bay

S/V Galatea update
Neil Scott
Sun 29 Mar 2015 05:08
Hi all, Galatea has been safely anchored in Langten Bay (sp?) off Pulau Simuelucut, which is in turn just off Simuelu Island, which is in turn just off the west coast of Sumatra. We arrived here around 12.45 yesterday afternoon after a 2 nighter, 200-odd mile trip down the coast of Sumatra from our previous anchorage at Rubiah island near Sabang.

The trip started off with a good steady wind which unfortunately vanished shortly after rounding the tip of Sumatra proper. From then on it was a matter of motoring until being hit by blasts of wind emanating from the many thunder heads and squalls that tend to materialize in the early morning, predawn hours in these close to the equator parts. During that activity, we stick our handheld phones, gps and satellite equipment in the microwave oven to safeguard them against a lightening strike, which, should that happen, could wipe out the permanently installed electronics on the boat. Always a little nail-biring!

Anyway, Langten bay is very pleasant - well protected from the Indian Ocean swells (which are the source of good surf breaks around these parts), with clean blue water (little visible trash on the beaches compared with the dismal situation on the Java sea side of Sumatra and the rest of the Indonesian Islands east if Java and Sumatra) and a nice little reef waiting to be snorkelled. Teague and Mike swam across to the beach yesterday for a brief foray into the heavily coconut palm treed island. Nobody living on the island.

Boat is presenting a few issues in addition to the underperforming fridge/freezer - the engine start battery could well be on it's way out and the engine alignment which I had checked a few days before departing from Phuket needs rechecking, as we seem to be experiencing more vibration than normal when motoring. We will check the alignment and try to diagnose the battery today. Won't leave much time for snorkelling.

We depart early tomorrow morning for a 50-odd mile trip down to pulau Lassia where there is supposed to be another nice bay.

Other than that, all's well on Galatea.

Neil, teague and mike