|
07:35.30S 127:21.89E
Hila Town, Romang
Monday 6th
September
Captain’s Log: Sunday 5th
September 2010 Towards Terlang Utara
Up at first light all ready to go and
engine would not start - found the starter motor hanging on by one lose nut! Also
saw that all the bolts for the fridge compressor were missing- so
that’s why the engine seemed to rattle so much at low revs the last
couple of days! Fixed the starter and finally left by 0615. With 68 miles to
go to a little island called Terlang Utara. Motored all day with very little
wind and arrived off the island at around 15.40 who ever recommended that as
an anchorage must be from another planet!
When we arrived with less than 10
knots of wind there was a big swell and breakers from the tide rip! So an
instant decision to continue overnight to Romang -our next planned port of
call. Only 70 miles so with the little wind we had were able to sail
overnight to arrive at our first waypoint by 0630 on Monday morning, a very
easy slow sail, most enjoyable.
Monday 6th September – Romang
Arrived in the anchorage of Hila at
0750 and found a spot to drop our anchor in 19m. Nice little town.
Valerie and Ollie went ashore
This is the Harbourmasters building,
with a good view of the anchorage.
while I proceeded to re-bolt the
fridge compressor, check the starter motor, replace the alternator etc. Soon
had a call from Valerie over the walkie-talkie that the local harbour master
wanted to come onboard! So stopped everything and got all the mountain of
paperwork out that the officials so love.
He then went ashore with Valerie &
Ollie to issue our port clearance, for which he wanted 350,000rp because
Romang was not on our cruising list, Valerie said she only had 150,000 so he
settled for that all in his pocket of course!
I was able to get back to work and
finish all the jobs including replacing the fan belt on the generator.
The other motor boat is owned by a man from Jakarta, he bought an
Australian Motor boat, called Lady Linda. He’s visiting this island
for 2 weeks
The Hila village sits on a hill, with the Church under
construction half way up the steep hill. Plenty of water here, piped running
from the top of the hill
Bamboo scaffolding surrounding the Church under construction
Small round thatched house next to the Church. The coast guard
fancies Ollie
Cloves have just been gathered from the trees in the forest.
There were sheets of them drying out in the sun along the roads and outside
houses
I was taken to this shop to buy some more antibiotics for David
But was impressed to see they had a smart Clinic like this one
A great view up the hill
For this smart house in amongst the thatched poorer ones
But the local food seemed to be abundant, cashews and plenty of
oranges and grapefruit trees around
The local primary school
The Teachers insisted on a photo with Ollie
Whilst a boy was reading out to his class
I was asked to take a photo of each class being taught, with just
20 children per class, that seems to be as good as private school education?
The school had just stopped for lunch, hence the group staff photo
I couldn’t resist a photo of these old desks in an unused
classroom, probably from Dutch colonial days
The secondary school teachers here in their classroom seemed to be
able to speak a little English, although they did not have to go away to the
larger Islands to finish their teacher training.
The secondary classes had 30 students to each class
Valerie was very disappointed with the
coral close to the town, as a lot of it had been bleached to kill the fish,
which also kills the coral!
 
Sea slugs are as rare here as in PNG!
 
The coral shelf just behind the boat
was endless however, and it was enjoyable for Valerie and Ollie just to drift
along with the tide and watch the fish at close hand at low water over the
coral.
Position : 07:35'.308s 127:21.891e
Distance run: 135 miles Average speed
5.25 knots
Discussing
the days events over a sundowner
|
