My OperaIndonesia Hazards
Monday, September 26, 2011 11:30:03 AM
We are currently in Indonesia, still. At Nongsa point marina in Batam just a few miles south of Singapore. What an impressive skyline Singapore is from here. We will just have to visit that city.
Our journey here from Lovina beach, Bali has been slow, we still have almost all our fuel; we last topped up our tanks in Darwin back in June. We tend to sail rather than motor although we could make better time if we used the motors more. I like to keep them for emergency - when we really need them. Fortunately the journey for us has been uneventful. Along the way others were not as fortunate.
We sail with our AIS switched on especially at night, it helps with our watch keeping and avoiding collisions at sea. We picked up a signal before light one morning that a ship whose lights we could see up ahead was aground, we altered course anyway. We were not sure if the AIS was operating correctly as we have had some anomalies with the instrument in the past. But, in this instance, one container ship was firmly aground on an uncharted reef. It made a sorry sight, the crew were still aboard and presumably trying to arrange some sort of salvage/rescue. I spoke to the captain briefly on VHF, they had run aground on or about the 20th September, a few days before we got there. This happened in the open ocean, 50 miles from the nearest coast.
Then yesterday, a few miles to starboard we saw the first sailing yacht on our journey since Australia, just before a vicious thunder storm hit along with a waterspout throwing water about a hundred foot in the air. It was a mile or 2 from us but through the binoculars it filled the view and seemed so close that we could touch it. Menacing and scary not only for us but also for small fishing boats were in the vicinity. I wonder if they experience this often. Here in the doldrums it is never dull, only the wind is sometimes light. We anchored about 20 miles short of the marina near a small island, not ideal but ok as it gave us a break from a night sail in trying conditions. Rather keep the squalls, thunder, lighting, shipping, shallow water and visibility hazards for the day light.
As we approached the entrance to Nongsa point marina this morning we saw the yacht that was sailing near us yesterday embedded on a reef near the entrance. Another sorry sight.
The Indonesians trying their best to salvage Maralinga
Our journey here from Lovina beach, Bali has been slow, we still have almost all our fuel; we last topped up our tanks in Darwin back in June. We tend to sail rather than motor although we could make better time if we used the motors more. I like to keep them for emergency - when we really need them. Fortunately the journey for us has been uneventful. Along the way others were not as fortunate.
We sail with our AIS switched on especially at night, it helps with our watch keeping and avoiding collisions at sea. We picked up a signal before light one morning that a ship whose lights we could see up ahead was aground, we altered course anyway. We were not sure if the AIS was operating correctly as we have had some anomalies with the instrument in the past. But, in this instance, one container ship was firmly aground on an uncharted reef. It made a sorry sight, the crew were still aboard and presumably trying to arrange some sort of salvage/rescue. I spoke to the captain briefly on VHF, they had run aground on or about the 20th September, a few days before we got there. This happened in the open ocean, 50 miles from the nearest coast.
Then yesterday, a few miles to starboard we saw the first sailing yacht on our journey since Australia, just before a vicious thunder storm hit along with a waterspout throwing water about a hundred foot in the air. It was a mile or 2 from us but through the binoculars it filled the view and seemed so close that we could touch it. Menacing and scary not only for us but also for small fishing boats were in the vicinity. I wonder if they experience this often. Here in the doldrums it is never dull, only the wind is sometimes light. We anchored about 20 miles short of the marina near a small island, not ideal but ok as it gave us a break from a night sail in trying conditions. Rather keep the squalls, thunder, lighting, shipping, shallow water and visibility hazards for the day light. As we approached the entrance to Nongsa point marina this morning we saw the yacht that was sailing near us yesterday embedded on a reef near the entrance. Another sorry sight.
The Indonesians trying their best to salvage Maralinga
Anonymous # Thursday, October 13, 2011 4:41:12 AM