Belitung to Java

We haven't seen an overpass like this since Bali

We are heading to Krakatau and one of our rest stops (near Pulau Merak Kecil) was also our first visit to the island of Java, where most of Indonesia lives. One cruiser that we met before we came to Indonesia, told us their opinion that all Indonesians are lovely people, except people from Java (I'll leave out the colorful details of how he thought they should be treated).

Canal lined with houses and filled with boats and trash

I don't have enough information to generalize, but the area we have visited is much more crowded and congested than any other Indonesian city we have visited. It seems that the shy and friendly smiles we usually encounter have been replaced by fewer smiles and bold shouts. But so far, we have continued to encounter polite helpfulness, if maybe a bit more beaten down by the hustle of big city life.

As I sit here writing this, I can hear the ferry horns in the distance (this is a major exchange between Sumatra and Java), with a railway running through the towns. After the relief of Belitung, where an effort was made to stem the tide of garbage, there seems to be rubbish everywhere.

The refinery near Panjang Island. All so new that some of our satellite images don't show it.

This morning, as we left the anchorage near Panjang Island, an Indonesian Navy boat pulled up behind us and questioned us. They even wanted to come aboard (as we motored past the refinery). We politely declined, saying that it would be too dangerous to have them board as we dodged the numerous container ships, tugboats, and fishing boats casting and pulling nets (there were 84 targets showing on our AIS). We feel much more comfortable saying 'no' to the Navy after our experience in Donggala. They were satisfied with pictures of our boat and family (we had to call the kids to come topsides for the photo) . They were polite and it was a relatively minor distraction, but it's becoming a bit tiresome to have to answer to every bored and curious official we encounter.

Curious Navy boat

On the plus side, we found a doughnut joint that Google thinks is Dunkin' Donuts, but isn't. However, it does have donuts. This is what happens when you're away from civilization for long stretches: you get excited by a fake Dunkin' Donuts.

Krakatau is reportedly erupting now, so we should get some good pictures. Conrad is a bit paranoid after reading an old National Geographic article about volcanologists that were killed by a volcano. It didn't seem to bother him to walk up to the edge of a volcano or have chunks of flying lava landing nearby. He must be getting older or, more likely, wiser.

Belitung

Belitung resembles Virgin Gorda, with its gigantic granite boulders and white sand beaches. The area near the anchorage is busy with construction of new sewers, sidewalks, and an update to the central plaza. The Indonesia rally is also here, so there are plenty of other cruising boats (not to mention the constant stream of local tour boats that ferry people to the various islets and clusters of rocks).

The kids are having fun climbing and jumping from the big rocks.

When we arrived, we apparently brought some much-needed rain with us and it has been windy and overcast for the past several days. The string of cloudy days is most likely due to Matt's statement that we haven't needed the generator to charge our batteries much lately. Now that our charger is down for the count, we have had to run the engine a few times to keep the batteries charged.

Tour boats lining up to drop hordes off on this tiny island

Unfortunately, the cloudy days did not bring enough rain to fill our tanks. Luckily, we finally have ocean water clean enough to run the water maker. Unluckily, adding to the recent spate of breakages, Matt discovered that the high-pressure pump has a strange vibration. After some trouble-shooting and emails with the always-helpful vendor, we're pretty sure we know what the issue is but will need to get parts flown in. Hopefully Matt's Mom can bring them when she visits us in Phuket. In the meantime, we have pickled the water maker and will buy water from shore when we need to.

The boys are having fun climbing the big rocks and jumping off (good thing our health insurance is paid up). We have checked off some minor boat projects in an attempt to feel productive: replacing the anti-torsion cap at the top of the roller furler, retying the chafed main halyard, cleaning the bottom. We will also renew our Indonesian visas here. Our friends on Field Trip gave us a heads up that the process is a bit challenging in Pedang, since the immigration office there wants an original (not photocopied) sponsor letter with a stamp and the whole process takes several days longer than other offices.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop...

Bananas!

Conrad's latest obsession is 3D modeling and he could easily spend all day on the computer. This has us all vying for computer time on our sole laptop (we have another one that we keep as a spare). That time has become even more precious with the recent demise of our battery charger.

A view from our kolotok (of another kolotok)

Our last few passages have had good wind but usually start with our being tossed about a bit. The rough seas and the resulting banging around seem to speed the breakage of various boat bits. On one of the nights of our passage to Kumai, Matt had to work on the generator, deal with water in the starboard engine room, and a blockage in the raw water intake for the fridge (the constant thorn in our side).

It started with the generator cutting out on our second night out of Mamuju, on the way to Kumai.  Going down into the engine room, Matt discovered water sloshing around under the engine and dripping off most surfaces. Too much water to be good, but not quite enough to trigger the high water alarm.  The water was the result of the convergence of a small leak in the shaft seal, a faulty bilge pump, and an oil absorption pad that floated on the rising water and got caught up by the shaft and windmilled around at a high rate of speed, flinging salt water everywhere. The oil absorption pad also was torn to pieces and conveniently clogged up the manual bilge pump, so we had to pull out our auxiliary electric pump to get a handle on things. After cleaning up all the water and making sure there wasn't a big leak, we turned our attention to the generator and found out that the impeller needed to be replaced.  Normally not a big deal, but it turned out we didn't have a spare since the 'drop in / direct replacement' pump we installed last year used (of course) a different sized impeller.  Thankfully there were only a couple more underway repairs (how long do relay contacts last after being sprayed with salt water? Oh, about 24 hours), and we eventually made it to Kumai, dodging some rather large boats as we made our way up the river.

Praying mantis added to the list of critters that like Mark's head

We caught up with our friends on Field Trip in Kumai, which made our children (and us) Very Happy. Mark on Field Trip is also the King of Spares and generously gave us a spare generator impeller we could use. It was then that we found that the battery charger was no longer charging. So when solar isn't doing well, we will have to charge the batteries with our engine until we can get somewhere to have someone fix the issue or buy a new one at a relatively reasonable cost (which excludes Indonesia and Thailand, which have very high import duties).

Cool jungle caterpillar, but don't touch

While in Kumai, we took a 3-day trip up the river to see orangutans and other wildlife. It was interesting to be on a different boat for a couple nights. As advertised, the trip delivered orangutans (including a pair mating and one wearing a hand of bananas on its head like a hat), proboscis monkeys, Langur monkeys, long-tailed macaques, fresh water crocodiles, and our first owls in Indonesia. Conrad even got to see his first tarantula in the wild. I was glad to get back to our boat because between fighting proboscis monkeys (sounds like cats and goats yelling at each other), chatty boat staff, and a snoring husband, I did not have the most restful nights.

Safe but sad

We missed the earthquakes and tsunami in Donggala and Palu by about five days. We had already moved on to Kumai when we heard the news. Although the resort area where we were moored escaped with relatively minor damage, the surrounding areas were devastated. It is awful to see images of the destruction and to read about the deaths.

We are currently in Belitung, having covered many miles since Donggala. Updates coming...