After few more days of trying to fix the leak in the engine with no luck, we decided to leave. Next stop Belitung. About 240 nm.The wind was getting increasingly more northwesterly which meant banging into wind.
The day started ok but oh man what a shit night we had. 30 knots of wind, on the nose of course and big waves. I remember thinking: This wasn’t on the weather forecast. We had so much water coming over the bow and slushing down over the decks. Surely the water would get in somewhere? I didn’t want to go down and check but had to. Yes, water was dripping in from the hatches in the heads ( toilet. ) Well, not a lot that I could do at that point, just more cleaning later.
We anchored on the northwest side of Belitung and was greeted with these big boulders scattered everywhere. Beautiful clear water and a nice beach. Anchorage a bit rolly but not to bad.
We only stayed for 4 days so it was a quick trip down to the big town to a lovely vegetable market, few lunches on the beach and furry friend. Of course the day before we left Alice made friends….
The next trip was to an island called Pulau Mantang, a 2 day trip of 270 nm. For once we had no wind on the nose but also no wind at all. Motor sailing is hard work to listen to but it was nice to have a break and not to have to worry. Beautiful starlit sky and no waves…
As we approached the next island we had a huge squall coming our way with lots of rain but it didn’t last too long.
Didn’t go ashore as we were only staying for 1 night. Just got to keep going.
After one more night stop we arrived at the Batam island where we would check out. Unfortunately out Indonesia time was very short, sadly, as there was so much more to see and do.
As we approached the marina entrance the wind and waves were quite horrible. We got in to the marina area but weren’t allowed to go into a berth so had to anchor and then sit and wait for calmer conditions. It irritated me as I wanted to go ashore straight away to the pool and bar.😀
Few hours later the wish became true.
moodyfinn 