It's Lagoi Jim but not without a drama

'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Thu 24 Oct 2013 09:23
1:11.08N 104:19.35E
Arrived 0400 23/10

Well I didn't linger in Lingga but left the next morning, aiming for an overnight anchorage 27nm up the road called Kentar. Kentar is NW of Lingga and the wind was NW but you knew that. I wound up 10nm abeam Kentar so mentally flipped a coin and decided to continue to Lagoi. It should have taken two nights/three days.

For part of the trip the wind backed to the SW and I was able to sail but essentially most of the 120-odd miles were a motor sail. A fair number of electrical storms added to the interest but none too close and what squalls I encountered were mainly non-events. To make a long story short I was 7.28nm from the anchorage at 1430 on the 22nd when the engine lost power and went back to idle. Fuel filter I thought and was going to leave it but there was so little wind that I really needed some revs to keep moving. I had put in my 2 litre reserve that I'd held back once I thought I was going to make the anchorage so I was fairly certain that I had just enough fuel. I switched off the engine, changed the filter and.....couldn't get the engine going again. I bled the engoine so that shouldn't have been an issue. I connected up the emergency Elektrikery but it wouldn't chuck out the amps...must get that fixed in Malaysia, if I get there.

So, no engine and no damn wind. I drifted some 7 nm back down the way I had come and thought that maybe I had better try and get ashore. Couldn't get close enough to droip the hook and row in. OK never mind, the tide will turn and it duly did. We started drifting back up the coast in the right direction. Night fell and with it an offshore breeze so a bit of sailing. I arrived 1.25nm off the anchorage at Lagoi around 2200. The wind died. We drifted [past the anchorage and on to the west. If I dropped the anchor with no engine I might not be able to retrieve it if there was a wind so I just drifted. No wind but some lightning. Never a squall around when you want one, is there? We were now at slack tide and stationary. I had forty winks. Woke up and still in exactly the same place.

Now a mere cats paw of wind and the tide turn. We mainly drifted but with steerage way back towards the anchorage, which I duly managed to squeak into at 0400 and dropped the hook just behind a boat that subsequently first light revealed as Calypso!

I dipped the fuel tank and there was very little in there. Hopefully it was a coincidence that the fuel level dropped below the fuel take-off as I switched the engine off to change the fuel filter. Yesterday I ordered fuel and today it arrived. As I type still no working engine. Possibly/hopefully the starter battery doesn't have enough oomph to get the engine going after it ran dry, if that is what the problem is. I have borrowed Calypso's portable generator and using the DC circuit am charging the starter battery. I tried to start using a combination of starter battery and house bank whilst Paul Calypso monitored. He thinks it's just a matter of battery power. I will shortly find out if he is correct.