Phuket to Sumatra to Cocos Keeling Sept Oct 2017
Posn 07 19N 09736E 11 Sep 1630 hrs
Roger just landed a nice striped tuna, breaking a 2 year drought of no fish aboard Mustang Sally. We left Yacht Haven yesterday afternoon and pulled into Chalong on the SE corner of Phuket to anchor overnight as a black thunderstorm rolled over us heralding the start of the rains after 2 weeks of hot and sunny weather.
Roger’s Tuna
We left this morning at first light, or what there was of it, bound for Sabang in heavy rain and poor visibilty, the wind blowing force 5 gusting F6 – should have continued on last night as originally planned. With 2 reefs in the main we cleared Phuket, the wind and rain easing during the morning as we cleared land. Spring tides appear to be generating powerful tidal streams offshore, especially on the edge of the continental shelf, where we passed through bands of overfalls and confused water. Towards midday we went to motor through a particularly confused sea as we were tossed around going nowhere, but the raw water intake was blocked and we had to immediately stop the engine. Eventually we sailed clear. Trish dived on the intake to find it all clear, whatever it was that blocked the intake floating free, but the impeller in the raw water pump was cooked. Our first small drama of the day, but resolved when I replace the impeller. We are now motor sailing over calm seas with 6-8 knots of wind on our quarter. A high veil of cloud is keeping the sun at bay, the rain has stopped, Roger has recovered from his mal de mere (the stong coffee I made him) and life is quite pleasant on board. Our ETA Sabang is currently 1500 hrs tomorrow. You might need a good atlas to find Sabang – it’s an old coaling port, from back in the days of steamers, on Pulau Weh, a small island off the northern tip of Sumatera (or Sumatra). We will spend a couple of days there before moving on towards Cocos Keeling and Fremantle on Mustang Sally’s homeward passage. And yes, we still have Kanaloa, now extensively refitted and almost ready to move aboard on our eventual return to Phuket. Its been a year more or less to the day since we moved off her to return by plane to NZ last year, and we are looking forward to making her our home. Still its fitting we get to take Mustang Sally for a final voyage before finally parting with her.
Sabang 07 53.3N 095 19.3 E 13 Sep 1630 hrs
Dropped anchor in Sabang 1615 hrs yesterday at the head of the bay forming the commercial port. Spent 2 hours yesterday and another 3 today clearing in, the 5 hours being a vast improvement on the 5 days it took in Bali 2 years ago. We registered on line before we departed Phuket and no longer needed to apply 6 weeks in advance for a cruising permit. Sabang has a developing reputation as being yachtie friendly and doing much to make itself a sailing destination, hosting a Festival of Sail at the end of this year.
Although strongly Muslim with a plethora of mosques competing for the faithful, there is laid back charm to the town. We were met by Ai on the dock who has been our guide, transport and mentor – immigration, customs, and the harbour master and port health are spread around town and not in easy walking distance. Instead Ai zipped us around in his motorcycle taxi, all 4 of us perched in his side car – he is definitely the man around town with a friendly wave and toot to many and deep time consuming conversations with the officials. Looks as though we will clear out of here and head more or less direct to Cocos, even if we take the passage down the inside of the islands. I need a day or two to recover (feeling rather poorly again) plus some business to attend to before we get going again, but will look to clear out Friday if government departments are open, Friday being prayer day. We are no going to move to a better anchorage and hopefully escape the plastic trash that rides the tide in the bay. Also quite exposed to the prevailing wind. Last night was very jobbly. Morgan was first on deck this morning only to report the dinghy gone! The double painter had snapped – it should have been replaced sometime ago! Fortunately, it had blown into the seawall 100 meters away, along with a mass of garbage, where some kind soul had tied her off to a mooring buoy. Roger hailed down a passing boat and for 100,000 Rp gladly forked out we had it back – no one was game to swim ashore, and even the dinghy couldn’t make 50 meters without the prop being fouled by plastic bags.
Siaba Bay, Nias Island 01 30.5 N 097 23.2 E 20 Sep 1300 hrs
Dropped anchor in this land-locked mill pond surround by mangrove forest into which the local fishermen mysteriously disappear on their way home. A haven after 18 hours of sailing with following winds building to 20-25 knots over the second night, a very black night of continuous thunderstorms and rain. Made our planned anchorage 1000 hrs yesterday, 48 hours after departing Sabang. The first 26 hours were under the iron main (engine) after we cleared the tide wracked Aroih Raya (pass) between the islands immediately off the northern tip of Sumatra. We planned for slack water but the tidal stream had already turned against us as we entered the pass to fight the 3-4 knot seething currents and overfalls. Once clear of the pass we headed and stayed well off shore to stay clear of the worst of the evening storms and debris washed out from the rivers in the rainy season. Unfortunately our destination was not and anchorage for deep keeled yachts in the transitional months from SW to NE monsoon (Sep-Nov). Very open and really a surfers venue on catamarans, with all the surfer charterers now departed for the season and the homestays on the shore closed up. Managed to briefly run aground on an invisible bommie on a falling tide, but fortunately able to crunch ourselves off in quick time and made a hasty retreat back out to sea. So much for the new anti-fouling, further bashed and scraped down the length of the hull when we hit a large floating bamboo pole later in the day on our way across to Siaba. Roger caught a nice mahimahi 5 miles off our new destination – his first, and proof the tuna of a week ago was not just luck. Deliciously fresh off the BBQ but I have some sort of bug, and tossed my share up a couple of hours later. Locals very friendly and curious – Trish progressively giving away all my T-shirts – she needs to develop a trading instinct – coconuts for rokoks and shirts!. Very isolated, but a cell phone tower a mile to the east with no internet connection. We plan to depart 0300 tomorrow for Sibolga on mainland Sumatra to clear out if possible, rather than continuing on another 300 miles to Padang. We have decided we want to get south of the convergence zone and out of the rain and electrical storms as quickly as possible.
Sibolga 01 43.4 N 098 47.4 E 21 Sep 2000 hrs
Departed Siaba 0300 hrs and after 13 hours of largely motor sailing dropped anchor at Sibolga late this afternoon in a tannin brown, plastic bag ridden inner harbour surrounded by fishing boats, ferries and stilt houses, the stench of fish meal or drying fish wafting across the bay. Highlight of the day was drifting off an amazing waterfall cascading down the forest clad mountain straight into the sea on the coast of Pulau Mansalar about 20 miles off Sibolga – a totally unexpected sight one doesn’t read of in Lonely Planet. As we drifted, hove to in the gentle breeze Trish and Morgan swam in the limpid blue waters – magical. Having said all that, Sibolga is also off the tourist map and cruising guides but we understand we can clear out of here. Roger and I dinghied ashore on arrival to find the Harbourmaster, a helpful and friendly man, and fingers crossed, we will finish clearance formalties tomorrow morning. Bigi is picking us up at the wharf tomorrow morning in his motorcycle taxi to take us to Kantor Imigrasi, Bea dans Cukai (Customs) and Karatina (quaratine & Health) before the Harbourmaster gives us clearance to Australia. Tonight we have been regaled by the calls of many mosques, the ultimate surround sound, with additional chants and broadcasts of what seemed to be full services. There is an exotic, hypnotic appeal to the muzzeins song on the still sultry night and one can almost understand the power of its influence on daily lives. We could spend much more time exploring this largely untouched part of the world. Yesterday evening we ventured out in the dinghy to penetrate the apparently solid ring of mangrove forest into which we saw fishermen disappearing. A small dark break led into a winding creek under a canopy of arched mangrove trees up which we wound for fifteen minutes to a landing marked by boats and a large school built on very swampy ground that looked as though it would be inundated on king springs. A short walk lead us to a paved highway and a strung out kampong full of friendly people keen to practice English, take selfies and ply us with banana fritters on our jalan jalan or wander. Our remote anchorage was not so remote after all!
Sibolga 01 43.4 N 098 47.4 E 23 Sep 1200 hrs
A frustrating day, yesterday – we have been cleared out of Indonesia by Immigration but Customs won’t give us clearance because they are on a manual system and we are in the new electronic yacht register. We now have a letter authorising us to proceed to Padang for Customs and harbourmaster clearance. We will depart at 1600 hrs for Pulau Pini 110 miles south, and then on tomorrow night to Padang where we should arrive Monday morning. If all goes well we should be on our way to Cocos that afternoon.
Despite the final frustration at the end of a long and tiring day, it was not without its humour and entertainment. Bigi, our motorcycle taxi driver, proved to be a well known Christian alcoholic with a strong liking for local whisky, not that he got to touch a drop during the day. His steed was the most ancient, decrepit motor cycle in town yet he insisted taking us all, except for the run back to the port from the market when there was just no room for 3 adults, Morgan and the vegies. Morgan continues to attract admiration despite his curly looks now a tarnished golden brown. We met Bengbeng, the local yacht agent while having kopi waiting for Immigration to open – he proved very helpful but couldn’t fix our Customs problem; in a way it was nice to see bribery and corruption don’t prevail everywhere. But he helped with fuel and found us some good Sumatran coffee and a slab of Bintang. We are now anchored outside the harbour amongst the myriad fish platforms and a pleasant escape from the trash and fish stench of the harbour – fishing is very big here with boats of all sizes and fishing platforms almost filling the bay.
Sibolga is 50:50 Muslim:Christian although when it comes to the airways, its all Muslim, the loud speakers turned to maximum, distorting the muzzeins’ calls. No noise control officers here! Would have liked to spend more time exploring the town and hinterland. Its a busy little port servicing the offshore islands with a couple of larger passenger/vehicular ferries per day. Lake Toba is only 5 hours drive away but too late now – officially we are not here.
All the officials we have met have been Christian, well spoken and some remarkably well-informed. The highest ranking Custom’s officer we met has been interviewed for a scholarship at Victoria University in Wellington studying public policy – I wish him luck.
Posn01 11 S 100 18 E 0900 hrs
Departed Padang 0750 this morning bound for Cocos Keeling, ETA Sunday a.m. Alls well. Crew in good spirits and glad to be on the way. Skipper will be fine once he has had a good sleep.
Posn 03 16 S 099 39 27 Sep 0500 hrs
The Indonesian flag is down and we are well into the Indian Ocean with 554 miles to Cocos Keeling. With a full genoa and reefed main we are sailing slightly cracked above our course with a lumpy sea on a 2-3 metre swell under our keel. Not a pleasant motion and one that has kept Morgan awake much of the night – especially when Roger was in racing mode, slamming us over the waves, sails on hard – “could you start the engine, Dad, to hide creaks and bangs”, a plaintive request in the wee hours of this morning – that was resolved by giving him the earphones and some soothing music We haven’t really experienced working to windward for over 2 years but we are going to have to adjust to the heel, noise and liveliness over the next 3 weeks – it will be par for the course. As I write a grey dawn has broken, the wind has eased to a benign 8-9 knots and the seas have smoothed a little as we we dance along at 6 1/2 knots.
We motored all day yesterday over a silver sea under a silver sky. We didn’t start sailing until we picked up the breeze after dark in the strait between Sipura and the Mentawis to the south. The lines were out all day without success but in the late afternoon we were joined by pods of small grey dolphing putting on a wonderful display of synchronised swimming and leaping, 5-6 shoulder toshoulder abreast. And then “there she blows” as we had a close encounter with 2 enormous blue whales basking together in the late afternoon cool snorting away – magic!They must have been over 100 feet long, their heads and tails drooping at the extremities, their long smooth backs broken only by a small dorsal fin
Better have a look around. Roger is asleep in the cockpit and the rest of the crew out to it below.
Posn 005 24 S 099 10 29 Sep 0500 hrs
Steady progress trying to stay as far east as possible to give us a easier reach to Cocos when the wind increases as forecast. Yesterday was uncomfortable – the confused seas remained on top of a 3 metre southerly swell, but by late afternoon the swell had eased and the seas flattened to give us more enjoyable conditions. To get that easting we are sailing pretty close to the wind – that doesn’t add to comfort. Morgan tells me “I don’t like this sort of sailing.”
As you may gather I have the 0300 watch until the crew re-emerge. At least I get to see the sun rise and put out the fishing lines. Didn’t cover myself with any glory yesterday morning – must have got a big strike not long after daybreak that took Roger’s line, reel and all! The skies are clear overhead with puffy cumulus forming in the afternoon – we have left the silvery yellow grey overcast skies of Sumatra and are now entering the trades proper.
Posn 09 44 S 097 59 E 30 Sep 1800 hrs
A more pleasant day after Force 4-5 all day yesterday and last night on the wind on a very lumpy sea – no one wanted to share happy hour with me. Today the wind was a pleasant Force 4 slowly backing east on a more regular sea – even Morgan joined us in the cockpit. A slow moving squall line crossed us from the west late this afternoon bring a 180 degree wind shift and heavy rain, but is now clearing to the west and and the wind has moved back to the NE. We are now 155 miles out of Cocos with an ETA mid-afternoon tomorrow. Still no luck fishing, another lure severed from the trace. Hopefully we will get a big wahoo or spanish mackerel as we close the islands. Looking forward to flat water!
Cocos Islands 12 06 S 096 53 E 1 Oct 2100 hrs
Wow that was a bit premature. The wind built back up to Force 5/6 (20-25 knots) for a fast, wet and boisterous close reach to Cocos in 3-4 metre seas over the last 18 hours. Did 190 miles in the noon to noon run finishing today, with a double reef in the main and a scrap of genoa. Needless to say, crew did their watches and returned to their berths, food not being a priority. Morgan has been a bit crook last 2 mornings but has bounced back chirpy enough. We flew over the final few miles as we cracked off for the entrance to the atoll’s lagoon. Much to our surprise many yachts started to appear on the AIS in the anchorage. The Australian patrol ship Bathurst hailed us at 1300 hours as she crossed to enter ahead of us and seemed satisfied with our response. We lost time looking for a non existent marked entrance into the inner anchorage at Direction Island bur eventually made our way across the shallow sand bar dodging bombies with a minimum of 2 feet of water under our keel at high tide. Bliss, anchored in flat aquamarine waters shared with 17 other yachts, mostly belonging to the ARC World rally. Always my luck, just when you think you have the world to yourself. Haven’t been for a swim yet – there is as a school of small sharks (1 metre) swimming around our stern – but showers to wash off the salt of the last couple of days were great. Roger has repaired the cockpit table which I broke off its brackets in a great lurch while clambering back into the cockpit earlier on in the day. Customs will come and clear us in the morning after which we will ponder our next move. Telecommunications aren’t what I was led to believe – there is a local network but it looks as though you need a special SIM card. Time for a good night’s sleep.
Cocos Islands 12 06 S 096 53 E 6 Oct 0630 hrs
Big change in plans. We have a delivery crew flying in on Saturday and we fly out Tuesday night for Perth after handover, Inshallah. Virgin has a reputation for canceled, postponed and delayed flights in and out of Cocos and there are only 2 flights a week. We are running 3 weeks behind schedule (originally planned to be in Perth before Morgan’s birthday, which is tomorrow) and other commitments are building. We get back to NZ on Sunday 15th.
Won’t be sad to leave here. As I write the dawn is grey and it’s blowing 20-25 knots in the anchorage with the wind swinging southwards to give us less lee behind Direction Island. Although the waters are crystal clear, the wind has blown more or less an unabated Force 5 since we arrived and is expected to continue so until Sunday. The only redeeming benefit, it is cool – in fact, showering on the aft deck in the evening can be quite a chilly experience. Still, Morgan loves the water and occasionally entices me in for a swim, black tipped reef sharks and all. We thought the sharks may have been trained by customs to keep us aboard our boats while waiting clearance, but Dan, the AFP officer responsible for clearing us in last Monday assured us they were harmless. Nevertheless, with 5-6 circling the stern at times, you are never quite sure!
Direction Island is uninhabited and the only anchorage in which yachts are allowed. The ARC World Rally fleet that monopolised most of the anchorage on arrival left the day after bound for Mauritius, 14 yachts en masse followed shortly later by the remaining 3, leaving the anchorage to just 3 of us – Jackie on ‘Shianti’, an ex Bucklands Bay girl from Melbourne attempting to sail her Sadler 32 single handed around the world, and ‘Tangled Up’, a Lidgard 17 owned by Tony Williams returning home to England with a mixed crew of 5 after 15 years in Queenstown. We have been joined since by 2 solo German sailors anchored within spitting distance of each other – Wolfgang and Klaus are joined at the hip, anchoring and sailing in tandem for the last 12 years, even sharing watches when at sea on their respective yachts – and a French boat anchored some distance from us, and I see another yacht has arrived overnight in the outer anchorage. Should be a jolly pot luck dinner ashore tomorrow night to celebrate
Morg having fun with the French kids
Coming into Home Island on the ferry
Morgan’s 8th birthday. Never realised it would be so busy here with 7 yachts now anchored in transit. The monthly freight ship arrived yesterday morning to anchor in the outer anchorage half a mile from us to discharge is cargo by lighter to West and Home Islands and there is a large cable or survey ship anchored outside the reef 3 miles away with its imposing helicopter platform dominating the foredeck, and most nights the Australian patrol boat ‘Bathurst’ returns to keep an eye on us from the outer anchorage.
It’s hard to believe that for 60 plus years Direction Island was a thriving community running the cable station at the junction of cables connecting Australia to the rest of the world. It finally closed in 1966 but today there is barely a trace, the island over-run by coconut palms. It is administered now by the national parks of Australia with well signed heritage trails and recreational areas along the shore used by locals from West Island. A big bonus is the freshwater collected off the roofs of the recreational shelters that have allowed Trish the dubious luxury of hand washing 4 weeks of accumulated linen and non essential clothing with overtaxing our on board water supply. There is a a remote WiFi station to which we are connected with an intermittent connection as we swing at anchor – it is much better ashore but I’m loath to move the office from aboard.
Yesterday we took the bi-weekly ferry to Home Island, a mile and a half to the south of us, although the distance steamed around reefs was significantly greater. Hordes of West Islanders and children poured off the ferry for the day, it being school holidays while Jackie, Klaus, Wolfgang and we 4 were the only passengers embarking. Home Island, the former centre of the Clunies-Ross copra empire, is home to the now Australianised Malay population, descendants of the those originally brought to the island to work the coconut plantations. The town is well laid out, clean and tidy, with employment now dominated by the local shire and island cooperative. We found a surprisingly well stocked supermarket (though very light on fresh fruit and vegetables), 2 stroke oil at the marine centre and will be able to get diesel and fill our spare gas bottle Monday for the departing crew. We enjoyed the best donuts ever made – sugary fresh that melted in your mouth – and enjoyed “Cocos-style” chili chicken and rice with our companions before returning to the boat in the afternoon, having completed the mandatory jalan jalan around the island and
the “Big House” once the seat of the Clunies-Ross feudal state! The next ferry on Saturday will bring Leszek and Wendy, the new crew.
It’s a pity about the wind – it restricts what we can do. Its too far to Home Island and far too windy for the 2 HP outboard on the dinghy (the 8 hp Mercury’s shaft seized and was not reparable before we left Phuket) so we are stuck in the anchorage dependent on the ferry, although we will hire a local from Home Island on Monday to take us ashore to catch the ferry to West Island for the night. Well that’s it for the day. I have another demon making demands on me which I have to attend to today.