2:33.38S 107:40.51E
Tanjung Kelarang. 12/10/13
Oh brother! Well I floated off the putty in Manggar harbour around 0800 on the 11th and with a moderately over-heating engine struggled out against an incoming tide. With 56nm to go I knew that it would either be an over-nighter or anchoring somewhere en route so I left as soon as I could hoping to make around 30/35nm before stopping. I don't think I mentioned it but I was requested to shift my position in the anchorage on the morning of the 10th, the last day there. In doing so I swung on the anchor and went aground on mud at low waterwhich wasn't a particular problem. It did mean that I had to wait the following morning but in the event I would have been hard pushed to find sufficient depth to get out of the river mouth at low water so no real harm done.
In the event, I sailed very slowly for about two hours then started the donk. There was one obvious possible place to anchor at the 'top end' of the island but it looked a bit reefie on the chart and it was getting towards dark when I was in the vicinity so I reduced the old rpm a bit and aimed to make 2kts sog so as to arrive at Tanjung Kelarang at first light. There hadn't been too many fishing boats about, then I turned the corner...WOW! Lots of fishing boats. Then the batteries went dead and the lights went out all over Troutbridge..
I connected up the engine-driven alternator to the house batteries but that didn't seem to make much difference so I connected up the 'Emergency Elektrikery' and that slowly put in some wiggly amps. Of course, during this process I had no autopilot, depth gauge or running lights. What fun. Eventually things came back to life but NO autopilot. Great! Tired and the prospect of 10 hours hand steering. Oh well.
On the approach to TK the batteries once again went dead. The important thing here was no depth gauge and coming into a shallow anchorage. This time I couldn't get the depth gauge back online nor could I get the autopilot electronic compass back up either so it was steer the old fashioned-way, but gently wobbling standby compass and Mk 1 eyeball. Oh OK, I did have the IPad up and running.. At least it was now full daylight but the sun wasn't up and yes there are extensive reef areas in the anchorage. I anchored by the '5X hand over hand' method and it remains to be seen if I'm clear of a reefie bit when the tide turns.
Although I was pretty well knackered I had a quick look at the battery situation. The engine-driven alternator was chucking out the amps OK and to make a short story 2 out of the 3 house batteries were indicating 13V but the third was just below 8V and that seemingly prevented the various 'bits' coming online. I isolated that battery and lo and behold, volts were restored. I now have (fingers crossed here) a working autopilot, working instruments and I can power the inverter. Plus I have one very duff battery.
I'm writing this after a five hour deep sleep. It looks like a couple of hundred metres to row to the dingy area so not too bad and hopefully the dingy will go over the reefie bits between me and the beach. It should because I now realise that Trouters did on the way in!!! To be fair I did see it and rapidly turned away. The clearance looked ample and obviously was enough but I can't help feeling that yet again I've had a 'close encounter of the reef kind'.
Maybe a beer ashore this afternoon and see what's going on. I heard over the radio that the next stop has events planned from the 18th to the 23rd then we still have about 150nm to go to Lagoi, Bintan Island where we check out of Indonesia by the 25th. I feel more hull scraping coming on!
