Saturday, 31 July 2004
Departure, Singapore
[Natascha >>]
There we are, ready to go and leave
Singapore behind us. We've worked so hard over the past couple of weeks that we
almost forgot that we are actually leaving Singapore. It’s quite a mixed bag of
feelings: Exited, sad, anxious and of course a bit scared. All in all, it has
been an extremely valuable experience at which we look back with great joy. It
certainly opened the door to any future overseas assignments should the opportunity
arise.
Quite a number of friends showed up at the dock to wave
us farewell. It was a bit of a pity that it rained as it can only rain in Singapore,
which in turn delayed us a bit this morning so that we had to sort all kind of
stuff last moment. Add the excitement of actually leaving and it was a intensive
morning so to say.
A couple of friends are joining us for the first short
leg to Batam, Nongsa Marina where we have to check into Indonesia. Besides Iain
and Sandra on Espiritu we have Kent sailing his own boat Solarmax together with
Keith and later Sharon. As it turned out, Ken our neighbor is taking his 60 foot
Antares out for a week to Tioman, just as we did some weeks ago. It was a nice
sail, working hard to stay ahead of Ken, who should in principle be faster as
he is bigger.
 Once
through the Sentosa channel, we want to put her on the autopilot. It engages,
but then, after 15 seconds drifts off course without the slightest show of corrective
action. Damn it! It worked brilliant for a full week up and down to Tioman and
now it starts playing games on us. I tell you, we have some germs in our systems.
Anyhow, better here than in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Just have to wait
till Monday to call the guys from Raymarine and get a spare.
The last night isn't as big as you would expect, simply,
because we are dead tired at 11 pm - we didn't even finish the last bottle of
wine!
Sunday, 1 August 2004
Nongsa Marina Batam, Indonesia
 Kent,
Keith and Sharon return to Singapore on Solarmax and Iain en Sandra catch a ferry
after lunch. Weird, now we are really on our own.
Plenty to do though, one of the outstanding is the cleaning
of the hull, which is definitely not something you want to do in a Singapore marina.
Although the flat surfaces are still clean, the little barnacles still seem to
love any odd shapes such as inlets, the shaft and the propeller. Quite convenient
to have our own diving gear so that we are not dependent on some local guys who
rip you off for 30 minutes of work simply because they know you need them.
[<<Natascha]
[Stefan >>]
It rains again, but no worries, more
than enough inside jobs are still awaiting completion. The fresh water pump was
a bit dodgy and the electrical toilet kept on filling itself slowly resulting
in a full bowl after a couple of hours. Thank god the boat is loaded with supplies
and spares. That valve which seemed never to serve any purpose just came in handy.
Monday, 2 august 2004
Nongsa Marina Batam, Indonesia
Called the guys from Raymarine to see if they had any
ways of reviving the autopilot. Mr Lee was most helpful and asked me to do a couple
of tests to detect the failing component. It turned out the electro motor of the
linear drive did not work, in fact it even gave an open circuit when measuring
the resistance. Interesting. It would better have been the course computer since
he would have had a spare for that one. The linear drive will have to be send
up from Australia which will take a few days. Bugger.
 It's
a bit sad. Lying in a almost deserted marina, only 20 miles from Singapore, sitting
in the rain waiting for a spare to come in. Hope we won't have too much of these
experiences. A slight feeling of misfortune starts affecting our mood.
On the other hand, we are now forced to take a rest and
let the reality of leaving Singapore sink in. It's just so nice to wake up a bit
late, read a book, have some breakfast and start making plans for the day at about
11 am. And as fortune has it, there are always more boat jobs to be done-:). The
pictures evidence my ability to create maximum chaos in minimum time. This all
to the frustration of Natascha who loves a tidy boat.
Tuesday, 3 august 2004
Nongsa Marina Batam, Indonesia
Although the discharge hoses for the aft head had been
replaced, the lockers still spread quite an unpleasant odor. When I was lying
in the aft cabin looking at the autopilot, the automatic bilge pump switched on
and there was the locker smell! So it wasn't the head, it was the bilgepump hoses
that where polluting the air on our boat. Now that we had some time to kill, we
decided to get some new hoses so that we could continue with a fresh boat.
About smells. How about a cloaked toilet? It has to happen
once, and you know the golden rule: the one who blocks it, is the one who resolves
it. No technical skills required, just some hard labor… And it’s not me! Natascha
flushed the toilet but forgot to open the inlet valve and there it was, a bowl
nicely filled with water not going anywhere. I will spare you any further details…
[<< Stefan]
Wednesday, 4 August 2004
Nongsa Marina Batam, Indonesia
[Natascha >>]
Good news: the linear drive was delivered in Singapore this
morning and the guy from Oceantalk will come over tomorrow to fit it. Given the
distance, we could have picked it up ourselves, but that would have required us
to check out of Indonesia, which costs us, being Dutch, US$ 75 per head. Some
Indonesian minister openly declared he hated the Dutch and imposed these new visa
rules earlier this year. Guess our countrymen upset him or his family some years
ago and he still isn't over it...
[<<Natascha]
 Thursday,
5 August 2004
Nongsa Marina Batam, Indonesia
[Stefan>>>]
The autopilot works! Time to go.
It will be beating into the wind again which probably
means a slow start. We already decided to skip Christmas Island because it is
too much southern which would mean another 500 miles beating where we can reach
Cocos Keeling on a run. Diving should be unique down there, but hey, you can’t
have it all.
[<<<Stefan]
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