After only about 2 months of procrastinating, I am finally sailing out of Bali Indonesia! Like many aspects of sailing, and this circumnavigation, I have some mixed feelings. On the positive side, it is actually nice to be sailing again! Conditions are very good right now and the forecast is promising fair and following winds for the foreseeable future. It’s also somewhat of relief to be underway on a passage after having Salsa ‘parked’ in Serangan, Bali, Indonesia, for nearly a year! And what a year it was. My first month in Bali was just a brief introduction that induced me to tack on another year to the originally planned 3 year circumnavigation (now 5+?) with an amazing detour all over Thailand outlined in a previous blog, and then another six months back here in Bali. It really feels like home here, and thus, it feels like I’m leaving my home, friends, and family all over again, ahh the trials of the solo sailor. But seriously, the friends I’ve made here I’m sure I will have for a life time and my promises to return to Bali someday hopefully in the near future are weighing heavily on my mind even as I am still sailing out of sight of the Island. I could and should write an entire entry about living in Bali, but that will have to wait, as this is supposed to be a sailing blog, so let’s get on with it;
July 19 1030AM, started the motor and dropped the mooring lines for the last time. A group of some close friends had prepared coffee and doughnuts early in the morning so we could say our goodbyes one last time (I think that was or third or so ‘goodbye gathering’, no wonder it’s so hard to leave!). Then to my surprise, everyone jumped onto another sailboat and followed me out of the harbour! What an amazing send off complete with an escort!! Once out of the harbour I cut the motor and started the serious business about tacking my way up wind just enough to clear the southern tip of Bali while my friends sipped beer and lazily sailed along the coast, presumably watching Salsa turn into a tiny red speck and then disappear. It only took 3 tacks over about an hour to get off shore enough to be certain to clear Bali before I could turn from South to South West and then eventually West by South West, all the way to Christmas Island or Cocos Keeling depending on how I feel when I get there.
By 1PM I started to clear the East coast of Bali and began turning South West, There were several small fishing boats, and a few larger ones, and I could see the swell and wind were both picking up as I increased my distance from land, so I put the third reef into the main and was making an easy 5kts on a broad reach.
320PM Seems I have cleared the fishing fleet, and the swell is still growing so it has gotten very rolly out here, very happy to see my batteries are topped off for the passage, and even happier not to see any boats in sight, maybe I’ll get a nap!? On a side note, the original plan was to weigh anchor at first light, around 630AM. This would hopefully get me around Bali and the headwinds before the daily breeze filled in, also it would have helped me to get further offshore before dark and therefore (in theory) further away from any fishing or shipping traffic south of Bali. Since I’ve gotten a late start I’ve opted to sail further south then needed just to get a little sea room before dark. Well not so late of a start as I set out at 10:30am, and of course it was worth it to spend a little time with my friends before heading out, oh yeah and one last shower!
As the sun set I could see more stars than I ever remember seeing, however I’m sure it’s just that it’s been so long since I’ve been offshore and the moon won’t be rising for a few more hours. This absolute darkness has also revealed the presence of the fishing fleet, I can see three or four boats (well just there very bright lights) at any given time, and of course even though these boats have huge lights are easy to spot visually, they are only around 45′ wooden boats, and don’t show up on Radar, so I guess I’ll have broken sleep tonight if any at all.
By 11:20PM the wind was getting light and I was very tired so I didn’t bother un-reefing the main, and let the jib luff just a little from the rocking of the swell, still making a respectable 4.4kts.
July 20 (DAY 2). 720 AM, only making 4kts over ground, what the heck!?!? Looks like I have about 1 kt of counter current against me, when I should have a favorable current. Not only is it slowing me down but the wind against current effect is making these 2 meter waves really stand up tall! Maybe it is an effect from the southerly current in the Bali Straight between Bali and Java, I don’t know, but it shouldn’t last and I’m still getting a little extra soothing in to escape the still lingering fishing fleet.
For lunch I had Randang, my favorite Indonesian food! For all you back in the USA, that I’m sorry to say that may never get to taste this amazing dish, basically it is a LOT of spices, like garlic, Chilies, salt, ginger, onions, and a LOT more all ground up into this dark sauce with coconut milk and then simmered with beef for hours, then served over rice, it’s amazing, and my wonderful friend Wiwn, made me a huge jar of the sauce to take with me, so my project for lunch was a modified Randang (on potatoes rather than rice) and to preserve the rest of the bottle by re-cooking it and sealing it in the pressure cooker, by the way, this has worked very well for me in the past for preserving all kinds of meets, even cheese, bacon, etc… One of the jars was getting old and didn’t quite seal, so I guess I just need to eat that one ASAP, no complaints here!! Only spotted one boat today, so I’m hopeful for more sleep tonight. These fishing boats are not so intimidating as they seem to be squid fishing which involves a LOT of light, you can see it miles over the horizon before you see the boat, plus they are mostly drifting or moving slow, so they are easy to avoid and never threaten to sail into you, however I’m just not used to this 30 minute napping between watches and I just want to sleep for a few hours! Maybe tonight…
July 21, well there were more boats last night but at times I could see none and felt it was safe to sleep an hour between watches, I just can’t rely on the radar to see these boats as they are wooden and small. I’ve been averaging about 4.5 kts, closer to 4kts at night and 5 kts in the day time, I’m so tired at night I don’t mind slowing the boat down so I don’t have to deal with reefing when the wind picks up, plus I guess it is a little safer moving slower when its dark, you’re tired, and there is a fair amount of traffic around.
July 22 1:25AM, Well I can’t sleep as another fishing boat is in my path and I need to stay awake at least until I steer clear of him as I can’t yet tell if he is moving, but I think not. There are two other boats (lights) that I can see but they seem well clear of me. Maybe I’ll get back to sleep after I’m clear, only going 4.2kts and really haven’t noticed the 0.5 to 1kt current that I was expecting out here, I even double checked the pilot charts to make sure that there is supposed to be a westerly set in the current (I was later told that there is a counter-current setting Easterly just south of the Indonesian Islands, but I never read of this anywhere but certainly seemed to experience it).
July 22 7AM (DAY 4 at sea), 9.48.5 S, 110.46.9 E, course 264 true, 4.7kts over ground, I ran my watch in 40 minute shifts last night so I’m not very well rested but I’m feeling good after two cups of coffee now. I didn’t even bother running the radar as these boats can really only be seen by eye, I guess I should just be happy they are so easy to spot. This trip has been a bit weird so far, I really thought once I was about 100 miles offshore that I wouldn’t see any traffic, and I still haven’t seen one freighter, just these little fishing boats with big lights. Occasionally I spot them during the day but they are very hard to see until it gets dark, then I can see them over 5 miles away, just a glow on the horizon until you get within a few miles and you can see the actual lights blinking between the ocean swell. Last night was a little scary. I woke up in the middle of the night, and bolted up the companion way stairs into the cockpit and was scared out of mind. What was wrong you ask?? I forgot that I was underway. This happens to me sometimes, disorientation due probably to sleep deprivation, and it’s a serious thing. Normally it takes only a few seconds to realize what was going on but I was convinced that my mooring must have broke and that I drifted out to sea! So I ran back down the steps and checked my GPS to see where I was and just before I could run back up to the front of the boat and drop the anchor (yes I was seriously thinking about this) I realized that the sails were up and ahhh… yes that’s right, I’m supposed to be sailing!! Wow, that kind of thing freaks me out. I never knew that I took so long to ‘come to’ when I’m in a deep sleep until I sailed to Thailand on my friends boat, and he told me that I really need a few minutes after waking up to have a clear head. By the way, normally this phenomenon happens the opposite way, I wake up somewhere secure on the anchor, and think that I am supposed to be at sea, then, the other boats, lights and land scare me into thinking that I’ve sailed into danger, it’s just weird but I’ve heard from several other sailors who experience the same thing. I’m a little nervous that one day I’ll do something really stupid while disorientated, but so far so good, except maybe during that 11 day passage from the Bahamas to Panama when I seriously hurt my finger and still don’t know exactly how, but I won’t go into that as it is in an older blog.
530PM, Just had my bucket shower with my 1 liter fresh water rinse. One day I’ll explain my patented shower technique that gets you 100% clean AND salt free using just 1 liter of water, it’s just a little time consuming. So I am now 228 miles from Christmas Island have been sailing just over 4 days, with 2 more to go, assuming I stop. I think I’m leaning more towards going non-stop to Cocos Keeling, another 5 days past Christmas Island. I feel I’m a little late in the season plus why deal with more Australian Bureaucracy then absolutely necessary right? I don’t want to give up my fruit and veggies quite yet either and it has been more or less smooth sailing so unless the ever present Indonesian fishing fleet keeps me up for the next two nights and I need a rest, I’ll just sail on. Besides I haven’t seen one fishing boat all day. I think I could have made Christmas in 5 days but I guess I’m becoming a more relaxed and conservative sailor. Everything just seems happier when I’m closer to 4.5kts rather than 5.5kts. Plus with this swell, even at an average speed of 4.5kts, I’m doing around 7kts down the waves, and the wind vane really struggles to keep the boat straight in those conditions, but hey I can’t complain, 4 days non-stop steering and never gibed or broached yet, this is a good run.
July 23, 9AM, 157NM to Christmas Island, and heading for a waypoint about 10 miles north of the island so I have the option to pull into the one anchorage (Flying Fish Cove) but leaning more towards just sailing past on to Cocos Keeling. I copied several sailing blogs about these two destinations and even though Christmas Island had good reviews, Cocos Keeling seems to score quite a bit higher, plus I’m thinking back to Australia prices again and just to have a beer in the pub or a meal in a restaurant can be so pricy I think I will not only make better time but help my budget as well if I just continue on. Last night only 3 or 4 fishing boats and none on my course so at least I didn’t have to avoid anyone and by late at night I was sleeping in 1 hour blocks, and to my surprise the radar alarm even went off when it caught a signal from one of the wooden fishing boats, even though it was only showing up very sporadically, and thankfully none of the very small boats (very hard to see at night) and no big ships (moving fast and more difficult to avoid). Nothing too exciting to write about here, the only thing I’ve had to do for days is a very slight tweak to the wind vane to the left or right to stay on course, and occasionally let the jib in or out just a little bit to maintain 4.5kts. Actually I don’t do anything unless I’m around 10 degrees off course, or if my speed gets under 4kts or over 5.5kts, That means I’m only making adjustments a few times a day, lots of time to relax. Plus with the very good sunlight I’ve been having and not using the radar so much, I’ve been able to watch several movies a day and the batteries are still full since leaving Bali! I’m thinking when the power starts to drop some I’ll switch from movies to books as I’m am well stocked and even a few that I’m looking forward to starting. The plan is to start fishing either today or tomorrow as well since there is little to do and I didn’t bring any meat, sorry there isn’t anything more interesting to write about!
July 24 720AM, only 50NM to CI (Christmas Island), 558NM to CK (Cocos Keeling). FINALLY A night with no ships in sight! I was able to sleep in roughly one hour blocks between quick watches as I wasn’t quite ready to sleep longer than that in case I wasn’t truly free of the Indonesian fishing fleets. I might mention at this point that It has been a pretty lonely sail, more so than I remember in the past mostly because I have NO contact on SSB radio, plus it feels weird that I cannot send my position to family via my ‘Spot Tracker’ . So basically no one knows exactly where I am, and not even I know where I’m going right now! I’ve been trying somewhat desperately or pathetically to make contact with other cruisers on the radio by scanning different frequencies and I even made a list of over one dozen different cruising and weather nets in advance that I planned to contact once underway, but not ONE of them work. I’m sure my radio is ok because I get plenty of stations coming in clearly from all over the world however I’m not licensed to talk on those frequencies and I mostly want to make contact with other yachts and get some weather (something else I’m not used to not having access to!!). At least the weather has really been Ideal so far, has never changed more than a few degrees from E/SE and has always been between 10 and 25ish NTs, mostly right between 15 and 20, so this is great downwind weather, only complaint is the large swell has got Salsa rolling around a LOT but hey, I can live with that, and now on my 6th day out I think I’m finally getting used to it, and getting a little more sleep. So the plan is pass within 5 miles of CI, maybe make radio contact with them just for fun, but probably not stop. At the same time I want to keep the option to stop open so I want to keep my speed over 5kts to arrive (or more likely pass) the island in daylight. Also, as I said yesterday I was planning on some fishing today, but this morning there were three very big flying fish on the deck! People always talk about how great they taste but I’ve never had one big enough to bother trying to cook it, plus let’s face it, it is dead fish that’s been laying on deck all night. WELL, I decided to scale and gut them, then fry them up, just oil, nothing else as I wanted to see how they tasted. They were great! And three was the perfect size breakfast. Funny how I sat outside in the cockpit eating them right out of the pan watching hundreds more fly across the water, if they only knew :-). I put the fishing line out anyway in hopes of a more substantial meal later on.
709 PM. Only about 5 miles off of Christmas Island, and 523 from Cocos Keeling. Today as I approached CI I did all the things you do when you approach a landfall after several days at sea. I did all the dishes, cleaned up the boat, took a nice shower, shaved, etc… As I was ten miles out I attempted to call the proper officials on the VHF, with no answer, I was over flown by some airplane, I mean the kind of over flown that you usually get in Australian waters where the plane makes a point to make sure you know that they know you are there by flying right over you at just a few hundred feet. Normally this kind of action is immediately followed by a call on the Radio so I got ready to tell them who I was but the call never came. Not that I really care, I wasn’t really planning to stop, more like pretending. Funny how I think I knew all along that I was going to sail straight through to CK, but I still wanted the option to stop, I was really hoping I could somehow get a weather forecast to finalize my decision, surely someone on this damn island would know the weather or the radio channel to get it right!? But nope, after several calls on the VHF directed eventually to ANYONE that could hear me, I got no answer! I wonder if I sent out a mayday if I would get a reply!? It is Sunday afternoon, maybe the missionaries have been hard at work and everyone is in church?! Anyway, doesn’t matter what the weather is now, It’s almost dark and I’m now downwind of the anchorage so there is no way I’m going to heave to or drift all night then fight the wind and current to get back in the morning, So I guess the weather is more or less irrelevant as well, whatever I get, I get. A good Aussie friend of mine, Paul once said that you don’t really need weather forecast on this route though the trade winds anyway, he was probably right as the risk of exposure to sever weather systems are very remote, besides now that I’m in the lee of CI it is so perfect out here, just sailing along but without the nasty roll from the swell of the following seas. I have noticed a BIG swell out of the south that I read all about in the guide books. It’s pretty cool, you get this little swell from the trade winds behind you then off your port beam (the left side from the south) you get these BIG swells that lift you up so high you can see everything and then slowly set you back down again. This swell so far is kind of a gentle giant, big but so slow and smooth you wouldn’t notice it if you didn’t actually see it with your own eyes. A lot of the guides say that this swell can make this passage unpleasant but as long as it doesn’t change we’ll get along just fine, I’ll keep you posted. Even though I didn’t stop it was nice to do all the pre-landfall preparations, I feel nice and clean, even shaved my head! Since losing sight of Bali about 6 days ago I’ve had only one beer, so I thought this landmark might be an appropriate time to have a few beers, especially with the batteries full I didn’t mind putting them in the fridge then a few rum and cokes and I’m feeling pretty good, hopefully not quite drunk, but just a nice buzz, something to break a bit of the monotony, and I’m watching a terrible movie, I hope this solar power doesn’t keep up so I can start reading books ha-ha.
July 25, 1230pm. I’m Soooo glad I bought an extra bottle of Kikoman Soy Sauce! So this morning, no more gifts of flying fish on the deck, well yes there was probably a dozen but mostly the size of my little finger and not so appetizing. I put out a fishing line just after sunrise, with some pink hairy looking lure, I’m not even sure if this thing was meant for trolling or casting or what but it was in my huge arsenal of fishing lures that my brother Craig (the fishing enthusiast) bought for me before I left. Actually I was running very low on my favorite lures, the pink squid. But this thing was pink and slightly squid-like. Anyway the Yellow Fin Tuna in my belly liked it :-). I was just setting up the second fishing line as I was getting serious about catching some protein when as soon as I had the bungee and clothes-pin trip line (my patented fishing method) all set up, I noticed the first line was already triggered, and viola, a perfect size little tuna! So I already had the first course of sashimi and seared a little as well, I think I’ll keep the lines out of the water for another day or two until this guy is finished up!
July 26 9AM. I haven’t written in two days mostly because there is not a lot to write about, at least not much new. I still haven’t managed any SSB contacts or even a weather report, but I’m within 48 hours of my destination and the weather has been sooooo steady. I just finished reefing the Jib slightly, even though It wasn’t really needed, this morning I woke up with Salsa rocketing along at 6kts, and doing just fine (meaning she felt under control) however I realize that assuming the weather doesn’t have a major change in the next two days I’m going to arrive at Cocos sometime in the middle of the night as long as I maintain a speed over 4kts. In order to make it tomorrow before dark tomorrow I would need to make 7kts or so (impossible) and the following day light arrival window requires an average speed between 3.5 and 4kts, so point is, running along at 6kts is a little pointless as I am relatively sure I’ll spend a portion of tomorrow night hove to waiting for daylight to enter the Atoll at Cocos Keeling, and thus I see no loss reefing down to the 5 to 5.5kts I’m doing now. Normally I try hard not to speculate arrival times this far in advance because so often after you slow the boat down, or speed up, you get a wind change that made your strategy a total waste, however in this case, these trades seem so steady that’s hard to even imagine a change.
One thing I have been doing for the last two days is eating a LOT of Tuna! I finally finished it up last night, all within with 36 hours of catching it, not bad at all but I think I’ve been deprived of fresh fish like this for a long time, so I was literally eating it for every meal, and loving it! I thought I ran out of fresh fruit a few days ago after eating the last oranges, there are some brown limes, tomatoes, onions and potatoes, garlic, but no really fruit until I finally realized that I had an entire watermelon and a green melon that I stashed away because they were too big to go into the fruit net! What a find! So after this blog entry I’m cutting one of them up for breakfast, and probably lunch as well, maybe I’ll even put some in the blender for juice!
July 29, 7AM 12’01 S, 097’06E, Just 15 miles from the anchorage at Cocos Keeling! It’s actually been a somewhat interesting the last few days but I’ve been keeping my paper ship’s log book up to date more than the blog so let me fill you in. I haven’t seen any fishing boats since passing Christmas Island which has made getting sleep a lot easier, sometimes even for a several hours at a time. Usually a few hours before sunrise the radar alarm goes off alerting me of an isolated rain storm a few miles off but they are usually small and scattered so I haven’t gotten any rain or serious weather changes at all on this trip. I was almost lulled into a false sense of security regarding ship traffic until I saw another freighter just 10 miles East of Christmas Island, and the next day the radar caught a second one heading straight for me. It was actually hard to identify it visually at 9 miles out since I could not see the hull at all (being beyond the horizon) I could only see the bridge deck and it looked strange, almost like an airplane from a straight ahead view, at about 6 miles out (only minutes later) I realized we were on a collision course and with my down-wind set up I would be a serious pain to jibe the main sail and the Jib in time so I called the ship on the Radio VHF 16 and to my surprise they not only answered but offered to change course to avoid me, The “London Courage” was a huge tanker, even at a speed of around 15kts in moderate seas he was breaking up waves on the bow that were spraying 50 to 100′ into the air! Makes me glad to be running down wind, as the the 6ft swell form the East and the 9ft swell from the south often combine to make an occasional 15ft swell, not something you want to be fighting.
My next contact with a boat was even friendlier. Early on the morning of the 28th, I saw a funny looking star on the horizon that didn’t rise up with the moon and other stars, plus I thought maybe it was a little green but I was very hesitant to identify it as a ship since a lot of lights look odd in the dark especially at far distances. I tried to tweak out the radar settings and eventually got this small boat to appear and decided it was another sailboat on the same course as me, probably heading to Cocos Keeling as well! I figured I would wait until sunrise in just a few hours to call them on radio to say hello when all the sudden for the first time in many days as I was sitting in the cockpit watching the moonrise my VHF startled me with a voice calling ‘west bound sailboat this is the “Wombat of Sydney”… Turns out the Wombat is a 48′ Bennateau underway from Christmas Island (which I just passed) and yes, underway to Cocos Keeling. It was good to chat with another cruiser finally! Not only did Mike give me an update on the weather, he gave me the frequency and times for a small cruisers net he and a few other boats (turned out I knew some of them too!) were using to stay in touch as they all were transiting the South Indian Ocean. By the way his weather forecast was for more wind and bigger seas, up to 15 foot swells, great. Sometimes it really is better not to know the weather when there is little you can do about it. Back to the present for a moment, just now starting to get enough light to see the conditions outside and the waves are BIG but not breaking too much, probably around 12’ or so, and I’m making 5kts down wind, with a triple reefed main and no jib. I’ll be anchored comfortably in Cocos in just a few hours so these seas aren’t too much of a problem as long as they don’t give me any grief when I enter the atoll, I think it should be ok.
For the last few days I confess to watching a lot of Movies and TV on the laptop since I still have plenty of power, the only reading I’ve done besides guide books is James Baldwin’s book ‘Across Islands and Oceans” which I downloaded off of his website (www.atomvoyages.com). The book has been an excellent read, but I was SO disappointed when I realized that he didn’t have the entire book uploaded, only half, so now I’ll have to wait god knows how long to finish it!! Also the Moon has gotten very very small and is not rising until the early morning so star gazing has been amazing, without even really spending much time I’ve seen half a dozen shooting starts, just from sticking my head out the hatch to check on the conditions! Seems lately the Sunrises have been more spectacular than the sunsets as well and since every day the sun rises later and later as I head west. It seems I’m always on deck at first light, and pointing my solar panels east to catch the morning sun. Oh, one last thing, I put the two fishing lines out again yesterday, and something BIG hit on one of my larger lures happened to be looking outside at the time and saw the line and bungee go so tight I thought it was going to stop the boat! Then a fraction of a second later it went slack, which doesn’t always mean the line broke, sometimes the fish is just swimming towards you so I start pulling it in and of course, the lure was bit clean in half leaving me with a rubber fish head only and no hook! Well that’s it for now, next update I’ll be anchored finally, even though I feel pretty good, I think I could carry on to Madagascar without too much trouble, but might as well take a break and see what all this fuss is about Cocos Keeling!
Finally safe and secure here in Cocos Keeling. Wombat of Sydney, the boat I spoke to on the VHF made it in the night before me just before dark and two other boats are here in pristine blue water, amazing you can easily see the bottom in up to 30’ of water, crystal clear, and there is a great beach with soft white sand, BBQ pits, toilets, even a rain-collection system so you can rinse off or fill jugs with water for you boat. Over all it took me almost exactly 10 days to get here, including nearly 8 hours of heaving to, waiting for daylight. So far having a good time and the wind has picked up a bit so I’m reluctant to leave to head west but the plan is to only stay here up to one week. Don’t expect any updates for over a month as I plan to arrive in Madagascar in about 5-6 weeks and I am not sure if I will be back online before then!
Take Care,
Life is good! –Kirk
