We were both up early today eager to finally get going. We had a nice relaxing breakfast in the restaurant, then we donated a flag to be hung in the bar as a memento of our forced imprisonment in paradise.
After the flag raising ceremony, I went to the office to pay
our remaining bills and of course the EFTpos machine wouldn’t work, so after
many attempts, we had to get Putu's brother in Jakarta to pay for us.
When we went back to the boat, I started both engines to warm them up, and then I went down below to get my SIM card packet for Michael (from Cosmic Drift) so he knows what phone card to buy, and when I came up the marina boys had already untied all my mooring lines before I was ready to leave. So now it was a rushed chaotic departure trying to remove the steering lock and switch all my instruments on before we drifted into the pontoon, while dodging mooring lines etc. Not exactly the relaxed graceful departure I was intending.
We did a slow pass of the marina waving good bye before slowing making our way through the deep channel separating the Island from the mainland and then set a course towards the Gili Islands 30 miles to the North.
I was going to spend the night at Gili Air, but Luke wanted to see Medana Bay marina, so that was to be our destination for the evening. After an hour or so motoring in zero wind the port engine temperature alarm went off, so I shut the engine down and went down below to see what the problem was.
It turned out to be the raw water engine cooling pump V-belt slipping and so in the extreme heat and humidity, I attempted to tighten it up, and after struggling for a while, put things back together and I restarted the engine and all seemed to be fine again.
The 30-mile passage to Medana Bay was uneventful and it was a hot but pleasant trip until we were making the final approach into the bay through the dangerous coral reefs at the entrance.
As I reduced the engine revs, the port engine temperature
alarm cam on once again, so I had to immediately shut the engine down. Several
minutes later the starboard engine temperature alarm came on, and I quickly
looked for a suitable location to anchor and then shut down the other engine.
Luckily, I found a place that was only 7m deep, as most of
the passage that day was well over 600m deep, so we dropped the anchor and I
put up our Indonesian flashing beacons as the sun was about to set. We were
only about half a mile from the marina moorings.
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