Season 3, Episode 1 - We're back!

We’re cruising on Pegasos again!

It took a while to get back here. We had a seven month break in Cape Town. Traveling back we endured two crowded and uncomfortable long-haul flights to Bali, an hour long grilling by customs and a three hour wait for passport control in this queue. The self-important neat mustachioed Indonesian custom man wasn't at all happy about all the boat parts in my luggage. 

But then we were in Semanyak Bali! We stayed for three days to enjoy this international tourist hotspot with fancy drinks at decadent pool bars, warm beaches, great food and the chaos and confusion of South East Asian cities.

Insane wiring, but no at least they don’t have Eskom style load shedding.

A snack called Yuk! No I didn’t try it.

 

The Sushi was certainly not yuk!  

Then we left the bustle behind as we jumped on a fast ferry 40 km eastwards to to Gili Gede, the tiny island just off Lombok.

There’s a marina of sorts here, Marina del Ray, where we had left Pegasos in September last year tied to a mooring buoy. We had taken down all the ropes and sails and tent canvas and everything else that we could on the outside of the boat and along with the kayak and dinghy we packed it all away inside the cabins. We locked it up and hoped for the best. After seven months of tropical monsoon season heat and humidity we were quite anxious about what we would find.

When we got on the boat and opened up almost everything survived quite well.

Marcelle’s sunglasses had melted! 

Cape Union Mart hats had  decayed.

We knew it would take a fair bit of work to make the boat habitable and so we booked to stay for 4 nights at the nearby Pelangi Homestay. That's our room behind the hammock.

 

Anton, the proprietor and his boat. He collected us in this thing from the fast boat's jetty at the other end of the island. Amazing what you can organise through booking.com

 

Meals were very simple, though surprisingly good. Anton's wife produced some of the best grilled fish I've ever had.

Things are a lot more rustic on this island! This is the morning bus taking kids to school on the nearby big island of Lombok.

After a few days work things were starting to shape up. The sails were fitted, the cockpit-covering tent rigged, dinghy inflated and it's outboard motor mounted, all interior surfaces got scrubbed.

The easiest way to get anywhere on this island is by small boat. We used our dinghy to get around.

A small reef of marine growth on the boat's undersides and especially on the propeller needed to be scrapped off. Its a good pastime for anyone who feels they have too much skin on their knuckles.

 

The engine gearbox got reinstalled – and it works fine! It got damaged last year when we caught a big plastic carpet in the propeller while the engine was running full tilt. I took it to Cape Town and back in my airline baggage to get it fixed properly.

Soon after we moved on the fridge packed in. We did the obvious thing and drank the beers before they got warm, and then set about getting a technician to braze a copper pipe that had corroded.

There are no cars or roads or schools in the village of Pelangi where we were based on the island of Gili Gede. There is however a mosque. And another four just across the water. And they all broadcast calls for prayer at full volume five times a day. Melodic chanting from one distant mosque has a quaint exotic charm, the first few times that you hear it. But when there’s five of them with open unobstructed line of sight from mosque megaphone to boat cabin then it all becomes a bit too much. During Ramadan, which started while we were here, they read from the Koran till late at night, often till after midnight. And everyone has a go: teenage boys with breaking voices, screechers, tuneless shouters and frantic wailers. Having the Koran read out loud to you is apparently as beneficial to your soul as reading it yourself, and so of course being considerate kind people they want everyone to share in the blessing.

Marcelle says my god is Diesel – I’ve been getting down on my knees in the engine bay 5 times a day, or more! My delight that the engine started first kick was short lived. Now that we’ve used it a few times some of the usual problems are appearing: water is leaking from the cooling pump and a fuel filter clogged up.

We did a little test sail that didn't go too well and a bit more fixing here and there was required. But soon enough we felt ready to move on. We did a trip to the nearest local market to stock up on groceries. Public transport in Lombok relies on a three wheeler scooter-cum-bakkie thing.

And then we cast off, leaving Gili Gede and Lombok marina behind.

The sails were unfurled. The flags were hoisted. 

It was good to be sailing again!

 
Our first destination was Sanggigi on the west coast of Lombok. At 18 nautical miles, it wasn't a very long journey but long enough to make us feel like we were moving on. There wasn't much wind but it was enjoyable and we sailed slowly and tried to avoid using the engine.

We crossed over the same point where last year we had our disastrous encounter with a big plastic carpet and we noticed that there was an extraordinary amount of plastic and rubbish floating in the sea in the same area. There must be an ocean current that directs a river of garbage along this stretch of seaway. The Indonesian island of Java is one of the most heavily populated and polluted places on the planet and it is only a couple of hundred kilometres away.

 At Sanggigi we anchored off the beach in front of the Sheraton resort.

 

We spent only one night here. The next morning we went ashore, walked around a bit and found an ATM and a small and expensive western-style supermarket with luxuries like butter and honey. Sanggigi caters for well-heeled tourists.

And then we sailed on, past mountainous Lombok to the Gili Islands ten miles to the North.

We found a mooring buoy at Gili Trewangan and settled in for a few days. On the way in the engine played up.  I had to hand pump the manual diesel pump to force fuel through the clogged-up filter while Marcelle steered, nervously but expertly up to a free mooring buoy! Cruising has been described as boat maintenance in exotic locations and that is how it is turning out for me right now.