Of gala dinners, Baja filters and transmission systems

'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Sun 4 Aug 2013 00:14

Where to start, an action-filled previous 24 hours!

I decided to relocate nearer to Calypso, for two reasons. The first was two boats had dragged from the spot where I was anchored and the second being there is a 'fee' of roughly US$5 to land your dingy on the beach (actually it is 50K Rupiah, yes that's 50,000). For that your dingy is carried up the beach, guarded and you can land as many times as you want in 24 hours. Of course it's also launched for you when it's time to leave. A good deal except that's virtually all of my daily budget. Most people seem to be combining dingy loads and splitting the cost. Works for me and it works for Calypso.

So, 0600 yesterday in the early morning flat calm start engine and check forward and reverse. Both present and correct so up anchor. Ironically it's well dug-in and took some doing but eventually with half a ton of gloopy mud it sprang free from it's gelatinous home and we were off. Or rather we weren't. Forward gear had gone walkabout. We drifted with the tide  the 100 metres to the chosen spot and dropped the hook. It dragged for a bit then set. I checked it in reverse and it was set. Hmmm, was this a mistake?

A little while later I had a technical consultation with Cape Technical Services (Paul Calypso). I thought the Morse cable might have stretched a bit (optimistic as ever). He had a couple of jobs, one of which was dropping Maureen ashore and getting some more fuel for the outboard. I amused myself by transferring 40 litres of diesel from jerry cans to the tank via the Baja filter. I have discovered an alternative to watching paint dry although it's possibly slightly less interesting. I cleaned the filters then put in the second 20 litres. Cape Technical Services arrived. Just possibly the physical connection to the transmission selector, a thing which looks a bit like a connector on a battery terminal, had worked loose. Or rather the nut and bolt securing it might have done. Or maybe the thread on the bolt has worn and it won't maintain tension. For the moment it has been fixed and I have an at-the-moment redundant bolt on the other engine.. I'm happy with the thought that the transmission is OK until it turns out otherwise.

The big event of the day was the gala dinner and 'we wuz done proud'. The transport left the dingy dock at 1800 and a mere 3 kilometres later after the usual slightly hair-raising drive through downtown Kupang in the rush hour we were at the dinner venue. I'm not sure that it was meant to be 'all you can eat' but yotties being yotties we all (or most) went back for seconds then complained of having eaten too much! There was a pay bar and the prices were reasonable ,$4 for a large(500ml)  beer and apparently $7 for a bottle of wine. The food was excellent, the subsequent speeches were short but by the time the cultural show started it was well passed 'yotties midnight' and you can only listen to so many songs about how proud a shepherd is of looking after his flock. The dancing before the speeches was graceful and on a par with Polynesian dancing if perhaps not quite so attention-grabbing. I put a short video of Polynesian dancing on facebook for those who haven't watched it.

Right now Sam of Sail Indonesia is on the radio (it's 0630). Today we are supposed to be leaving Kupang as it's the official start of Sail Komodo, the government sponsored part of the rally. Apparently at 0700 there is a ceremony on the beach with a government minister and dancers. I wasn't aware of this until just now and I think most others weren't either. Some dingies are going ashore. I feel I ought to go but I also feel I should finish this and have a shave etc first. My plan was to go ashore mid-morning and fix up Internet access. For $60 I can get a dongle and sim card with no credit. For $65 I can get a wifi device that will work up to 5 devices (inc IPad) and has 6GB of data pre-loaded (2GB a month limit). Although it's a big hit it solves my connectivity problem for the entire stay in Indonesia so it has to be the way to go. As for the ceremony I'm going to feel guilty but I can't quite face it right now, particularly as the dongle-stall won't be set up until about 1100. I also doubt that I'll be leaving today. It's an over-nighter (96nm) to the next scheduled stop and if I was going to do it today I'd want to leave withing the next hour before the wind picks up in the anchorage. With 80 boats packed fairly closely together and one engine with possibly forward gear I need to pick my time!

So far 10/10 to the rally for enthusiasm and value for money but 4/10 for communication and time awareness. I understand the fluid nature of arrangements in Indonesia but if people are leaving today they won't want to be messing about ashore at 0700 for a couple of hours. I also understand that we should appreciate what's been laid on for us but I now see what Sam meant when he told us not to try and attend all the stops/events!!!

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