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.