Hoga Island position and Equipment update!
Vega
Hugh and Annie
Sun 25 Aug 2019 00:16
When we arrived at Banda Island we had great trouble setting our anchor until we found a suitable patch of soft sand for the Bruce anchor to dig into. I determined to replace our 15kg Bruce with a 20kg Rocna or equivalent. However, at Tifu village we easily set the anchor into the soft mud bottom while many around us were dragging and re-anchoring.
Here in the lagoon at Hoga Island we are anchored in 20m depth over soft sand and the anchor set immediately and thus far has held well. I still need something to fret about of course and now it is the new stainless steel link I put in at Cairns to join the 50m and additional 30m length of chain that we have. The previous link inserted in NZ was galvanised steel to match the chain to avoid corrosion between two different types of steel. This nevertheless rusted to the extent that it was fused to one of the adjoining links and so I replaced it with a Chinese made stainless snap link. Chinese steel equipment does not have a good reputation but it was either that or a new chain. In 20m depth with all our chain out I wish I had gone for a new chain! I have in addition tied a Dyneema strop around the new link that in theory will hold if the new link breaks or comes apart. This has to be untied/retied each time we use more than 50m of chain as the knot will not feed through our windlass........
Sailing around Indonesia keeps you on your toes. There is so much plastic line and other waste in the water you are in constant fear of getting something around the prop when motoring. In open water you may come across fishing boats and nets and in coastal waters you have the added spice of FADS - fish attraction devices that are tethered wooden rafts. Two boats thus far have been caught in nets until released by fishermen some hours later. The sail from Tifu to Wangi Wangi involved two nights at sea. The first was in very deep water where we hoped that nets might be the only danger - at least they are illuminated with flashing lights at night. We timed our arrival at Wangi Wangi to avoid being in less than 1000m depth in the dark in the hope that there wouldn’t be FADS in greater depth and as we approached the island after dawn were surrounded by rafts that would have been impossible to detect in the dark!
On the equipment front we have lost the use of our Duogen generator. The “sealed for life” main bearing in the alternator has worn and the unit makes a horrible grinding noise in use. It turns out from other Duogen users that this is a common problem and the older bronze bearings (that we probably have) have now been replaced by stainless steel. Disintegration of the bearing could cause damage to the alternator and so we don't use it pending delivery of a new bearing to Lombok Island. As it happens the loss of wind mode is not a problem because the two solar panels together with their new regulator are keeping the batteries fully charged, even when there is cloud. Not having the water turbine mode is a problem, however, because when sailing at night the instruments and fridge draw heavily on the batteries and if we are using the radar and/or the autopilot this draw increases significantly. Without the Duogen we need to run the engine for an hour or so overnight.