Saturday 23rd April 2022 – Gili Lawang to Palau Medang

Last night the lagoon was very calm and peaceful, and for a change the night was cool and I got a good night’s sleep. The lagoon is well protected and I woke to the lovely sounds of many exotic bird calls.

After breakfast I tightened the STBD engine raw water V-belt and then we headed off. It was another 40 mile / 6+ hour passage, similar to yesterday. Early in the morning the wind picked up to 17 knots right on the noise with a nasty white cap swell, making the ride very unpleasant.

After a while I raised the main sail and altered course by 30 - 40 degrees to increase the velocity made good and to dampen the ride a bit. Not long after raising the sail, the bloody STBD engine over-temperature alarm went off. I went down stairs to take a look and the new raw water pump V-belt was totally shredded after only about 60 nautical miles or about 8 - 9 hours of use. This was very concerning.

 

I spent the next 3 hours getting bashed around in the hot greasy engine room trying to fix the problem. I wire brushed the hell out of the 5 pullies and tried to sand them as smooth as possible with wet & dry sand paper, but they were so difficult to reach in a very confined space.

I managed to improve the raw water pump pully quite a bit, but the pully on the engine was in really bad condition and was corroded very badly. I started the engine and being very careful not to lose a finger, I used a screwdriver (and the tang of a file) as a lath to remove the big rust chunks, rust was flying in all directions, then I used a round file to smooth it out, followed by the wire brush and then finally the wet & dry sand paper.

 

I made a vast improvement to what it used to be and I'm hoping it's enough to stop wearing the belts out. I then installed a new belt, tested it and it was working fine. Another hour was spent cleaning up and by then I was totally wasted having lost a bucket of sweat in the process.

An hour or so later as we were approaching Palau Medang, we crossed a line on the Navionics chart (on the chart plotter) and on the Eastern side there were no depth contours, so I had to navigate with my Navionics chart on my phone. It was 2 1/2 years ago since I last navigated through here and I can’t remember if I had charts for East Indonesia or not? I was sure I bought a new chart for Indonesia before I left Australia

I dug through my chart table drawer and tried a couple of different chart memory cards and yet I was not able to find a working map with depth contours, this had me totally confused. We were now on the final approach to our anchorage for the night and it would be dark in about 40 minutes, so now it will have to wait until tomorrow as I have many other things to do.

The entry into the Palau Medang anchorage was strait forward, but I took it nice and slow just in case and we made our way into around 5 meters of water and dropped the pick on a large patch of sand in a beautiful location a few hundred meters off a lovely palm lined beach. I would have liked to have gone ashore for a look around as it looked so nice here, but we have to leave very early tomorrow to get to our next destination before dark.

The chart was not accurate and showed us anchored in the middle of the Island 

Immediately after anchoring I got the water maker going as we had run out of water today, as if we didn’t have enough problems. When we had enough water, I then washed all my sweaty cloths from today and then had a shower.

Luke got bitten on the nuts by something last night (maybe a spider) and was feeling tired all day and so went to bed early, while I sat up with the water maker running. I wrote some notes, checked the weather for tomorrow and our passage plan and feasted on some cup noodles.

There was a heavy rain squall that passed by and cooled things down for a bit, but mostly the night was hot and jet black with no moon to be seen. Every bone in my body was aching and my fingers were cut and infected and hurting like hell, so after filling our 750 litre water tanks, I crawled into my fart sack for some pain relief and hopefully a good night’s sleep. We have a 4am start tomorrow morning to try and get to Kilo which is 66 miles away, and if everything goes OK, this should take us around 13 hours.

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Friday 22nd April 2022 – Finally on our way

We got up at first light and went ashore early so we could have breakfast with the Bali boys and thank them for their grand effort in bringing our spare V-belts all the way from Bali. It cost me $100, but it was money well spent as we need to get out of here. After a good breakfast, the boys were keen to head off as they had a long trip back home while I picked up my coconuts and bensin, while Luke went to the shops to get some pegs, batteries and food.

 

I felt confident we had enough spare V-belts to get us safely back to Darwin

After paying the bill, we finally headed off around 10:30. After about an hour of motoring, the bloody port engine over heated once again. I tightened the raw water pump V-belt even though it seemed fine and then check the impeller which also looked fine, but I replaced it anyway just to be on the safe side. 

After doing all this, there was still no water pumping through the system which had me scratching my head? After removing the intake hose, I discovered there was a blockage in the water intake, so I dived over the side in 600 meters of water to check for plastic bags wrapped around the sail drive, but there was nothing. 

After blowing as hard as I could, I finally managed to blow out whatever it was that was blocking the water intake and after connecting everything back up, the cooling system was working fine once again. 

Gili Lawang - Our anchorage for the night

Our destination for the night Gili Lawang was around 40 miles, 6 hours & 40 minutes and just before we arrived the bloody starboard engine overheated and I had to shut it down. We managed to get through the dodgy reef at Gili Lawang using satellite imagery without incident, but once inside the lagoon I nearly ran aground at the far end of the lagoon before slamming on the brakes, then backing out and anchoring in a beautiful shallow lagoon amongst some small fishing boats that departed shortly after. 

Luke made some lovely fried rice for dinner and after dinner I was too tired to give a shit about the dam engine, and so after a nice cool shower on the back deck, I went straight to bed.

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Thursday 21st April 2022 – Waiting waiting waiting

 After a coffee, Luke headed ashore to wait for Agok the mechanic while I setup the generator once again to charge the batteries and then I had my morning coconut. As usual the 8 am meeting turned into a 10 am meeting and I spent the morning cleaning up around the boat. Finally, we got two new raw water pump V-belts and I spent an hour or so fixing up a leaking water pump hose that Agok had damaged two days earlier, then I cleaned both engine rooms spotless. 

I checked the weather and made plans for tomorrows passage, ordered some bensin and coconuts to be delivered tomorrow morning and then we waited for a couple of young lads from Klungkung to ride across to Lombok to deliver all the new belts coming from Australia, Bali and Jakarta. I had such a good backup team; everyone was doing so much to help me and I really appreciated the assistance.

The guy in the office at Marina Del Ray had forgotten to give my spare set of boat keys back when we left last Friday, so I had to organize and pay for a rider to bring them all the way from MDR to Medana Bay which was costing me $35 and would take a few hours. 

There were still so many things to do, check, fix but not enough time, some things would just have to wait till I had time on the trip home. For example, everything that had a battery in it was either damaged or ruined. So far, I had fixed the fridge remote, the mozzie zapper and a couple of torches, but there were still many items I hadn’t had a chance to look at yet. 

Some of my communications and navigation systems were quite complex and as I hadn’t seen them or used them for over two years, there was a lot of things I had to relearn and teach myself all over again. I had to find which hard drive has all my KEP files and learn how to use the IRIDIUM satellite phone apps again and I needed to ensure that I downloaded all apps and satellite imagery I will need while we have good cell phone coverage here. 

At least all the passage planning was done in advance before I left home, so I don’t have to stress out about that, but there is still quite a bit of work involved in deciding where to go and what anchorages to head for which all depended on the daily weather forecast. 

After a nice evening shower on the back deck, we went ashore to have dinner with Greg & Sev, a couple of cruisers repairing their covid boats, while we waited for the Bali boys to arrive around 10 pm with our special delivery. 

While we were having dinner, the boys sent a photo of a huge tree down across the road, it turns out they were having a hell of a trip with bad weather and they didn’t arrive at Medana Bay until midnight after leaving home in Bali at 3 am this morning. Luckily, we managed to get them a nice air-conditioned room at the marina for the night.

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Wednesday 20th April 2022 – Still at Medana Bay waiting for spare water pump V-belts

Hasta in Bali messaged to say that he managed to find 4 belts in Bali and he can order more from Jakarta, while around the same time Rod (in Perth) also messaged me saying that he has sourced several V-belts in Perth. Before I could message Rod back, he sent another message saying he had just purchased them.

Around the same time, I got a message to say Komung’s friend in Labuan Bajo had also sourced several belts, so it looks like after waiting all this time here we are going to end up with about 20 bloody belts.

Not long after, Agok the mechanic called to say that he wasn’t coming to the marina today but wanted to let me know that he had also found a couple more belts. It looks as if our luck had finally turned. 

It rained all day today and it was really rough with a big swell rolling in from the north and the closed boat was hot and humid. I had to run the generator all day to try and get some charge into the batteries that were now down to around 56%. 

 In the late afternoon when the wind had died down, Luke and I raised the main sail to see how it looked. Everything looked OK and it was still pretty clean with no mold, although the sheets were putrid covered in black and green slimy mold, so we spent an hour or two washing most of the sheets. 

After the third time Luke dropped my good stainless-steel bucket overboard, and making him dive in after it, we called it quits for the day and both jumped in for a quick swim to cool off. 

After a shower, we headed into shore to the sailfish cafe for a feed. Once again, the Muslims were having their fasting meal and we were not welcome until after 7 pm, so we had a couple of beers and a chat with some other cruisers while we waited. After a nice meal and a couple of beers, I was totally wasted and we headed back to the boat for the evening. The swell had dropped off as it usually does at night and we had a nice cool sleep.

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Tuesday 19th April 2022 - Medana Bay Marina - Searching for V-belts

Well, I managed to get hold of Hesta in Bali today and he seemed very helpful and confident that he could locate our hard to get V-belt. In the meantime, Agok the diesel mechanic showed up with two new raw water pump belts that he managed to get from another yacht he had been working on. What a top bloke, I take it all back champ, you’re a fabulous diesel mechanic and a bloody good bloke. 

Agok came out and while he fitted one of the raw water pump v-belts, I fitted the other. As I was loosening one of the two studs holding on the water pump, one of them decided to commit suicide and simply broke off and fell into the bilge. Oh shit, I hope this one stud will be strong enough to hold the water pump tight all the way to Darwin?

Make sure that you follow the leading light in & out of the marina

I asked Agok if he would be able to weld a new one back on and he said he cannot and wanted to go back in as his new assistant was sea sick and about to throw up. So that was the end of that. 

At least I now had two working engines, but I wasn’t confident to head off without a handful of spare belts as we had well over a thousand nautical miles ahead of us through some very remote regions if Indonesia to get back to Darwin. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and doing a few small boat jobs and just for something different, we had been told there were some nice restaurants on the beach at a place called Tandjung just a short walking distance up the road. 

We set off just before dark, walking the dark streets of Tandjung, getting blasted by Muslim chanting blaring from all the loud speakers beaming from the many mosques in the area. Eventually we managed to locate all the small restaurants on the beach.

 

Most of them were packed full of young Muslims sitting there patiently stairing at their food going cold. It was Ramadan and no one was allowed to eat until the sun goes down. (including us) Not wanting to interfere with their Ramadan meal, we walked past everyone and picked up a bean bag at the far end empty restaurant and ordered a meal. It was extremely hot and humid and I was sweating from the long walk. 

The meal was OK, but the price was even better. We decided it would be shorter (and safer) to walk back along the beach. All was going well until we came to a small fast flowing river. It was shallow and looked clear and safe, but half way across we realized it was a river of piss, so once across it was a mad dash down to the ocean to wash off. 

After this, the walk was pretty uneventful until we got back to the marina and there was a mad rabies dog fight on the rickety old jetty where our dinghy was tied up.

We managed to sneak past the dogs without getting bitten and head off into the dark to hopefully find Sirocco.

The blaring chanting seemed to go on all night as the weird fishing boats rowed around in big circles with their generators chugging away powering their huge light. It seemed like I had just gotten to sleep, when it all started again at 4 am. We even started to recognize individuals doing the chanting. Some thought they were pretty good, a bit like a drunk with a karaoke mic, not giving anyone else a go.

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Monday 18th April 2022 - Medana Bay Marina - Sea sick mechanics and searching for V-belts

It was another lovely morning and we eagerly awaited a phone call to say that our V-belts had arrived and that the mechanic was ready to install them. unfortunately, this is Indonesia and we waited all morning for nothing. 

After 12:00 I went ashore to see if I could find out what was happening. After a bit of running around and more waiting, finally our V-belts arrived, six for the raw water pump and two for the alternator, so along with the three spare belts I already had, I felt confident we had enough to get us safely back to Darwin.

 

I also met Agok, the Balinese diesel mechanic. He was quite a big lad and I was wondering how he was going to fit into my small engine rooms, he must have been wondering the same thing as he said he was staying on shore and he was sending two of his assistants out to do the job. 

I wasn’t happy with this and I told him I’m paying for a mechanic so either he comes or doesn’t get paid. Next thing you know, all three of them were coming out. I said I only need him, but he wasn’t taking no for an answer and eventually I backed down and all five of us got into my small dinghy with all his tools and off we headed. 

I was a nervous wreck trying to prevent them from walking all over my beautiful clean white boat with their black greasy bare feet and black greasy hands. They couldn’t care less about making a mess and it was pretty obvious right from the start that these guys were pretty useless. 

He was trying to polish the rust off the pullies with a small piece of rope which was making no difference, then a head pops up out of the deck hatch to say the belts are no good, they don’t fit. Then one of his assistants staggers out and collapses on the cockpit floor. It turns out he was extremely seasick, so Luke had to quickly run him back to the beach and I think his marine mechanic aspirations were over. 

The mechanic also wanted to leave and I insisted he remain to do an oil change on both engines and sail drives before leaving. He stayed and replaced the oil in the port sail drive and engine then refused to do no more. As he was pretty useless and making so much mess, I took them all back to the beach and he charged me $80 for his services. 

I was happy to see them go, and I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up their mess and changing the oil in the starboard engine and sail drive myself. After this I spent the rest of the day measuring my two V-belts, looking up part numbers and suppliers and I also had my friends back home in Australia also trying to find a supplier in Perth. (Thanks Rod) 

It turns out the alternator belt was a pretty standard common size and relatively easy to obtain, but the raw water V-belt was an unusually small and thin belt that was extremely difficult to track down. Even all the Yanmar dealers had no stock and it was just ridiculous how hard it was becoming trying to source some. 

Late afternoon after searching all day for these bloody belts, I gave up for the day and headed into shore to have a couple of beers and some dinner. 

Chris & Alex from "The Ed" on their way back to Carnarvon.

On the way in we randomly bumped into some people from another yacht passing through and after telling them of our dramas, one of the guys suggested we call a guy called Hesta in Bali who was pretty good at getting all sorts of difficult stuff. 

I got his number and headed off to dinner. I would give Hester a call in the morning and see is he could help us.

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Sunday 17th April 2022 - Medana Bay Marina

It was a typical beautiful Asian morning, with a huge fire ball sun rise, with roosters crowing as the pleasant smell of burning coconut husk permeated the humid air as I sipped my coffee. 

I was about to make an embarrassing call to the marina to ask them to tow us in so we could pick up a mooring ball. It was the first time in my life that I had to be towed, but shit happens. 

Shortly after, 5 guys arrived in a dinghy and towed us the short distance back to the marina. We were very lucky; it could have been a lot worse. Once securely moored to the swing mooring, Luke went ashore for breakfast and a look around while I started sorting out the engine problems. 

The problem was severe corrosion on the raw water pump and alternator V-belt pullies. I saw this at Marina Del Ray and it didn’t appear to be a real concern when I was running the engines before leaving, and I had assumed it to be only superficial surface rust and would most likely wear off pretty fast once we were underway. 

Unfortunately, it was quite severe on both the engine pulley and the raw water pump pullies, and both were extremely hard to get to in the very confined space in the engine rooms.

 

I had brought two spare belts for both the alternators and the raw water pumps with me and wasn’t too concerned, but after realising I had already used one of each on the way up, I need to get some spares for the long trip home. 

After replacing one of the raw water pump belts, I went into shore to track down Peter, the marina manager to ask if he could order me some new belts.

 

I finally caught up with Peter and he was more than happy to help out. He placed an order with one of his suppliers and they would arrive some time tomorrow. As it was such a difficult and shitty job trying to reach into such an awkward place to replace these belts, I thought I’d try and locate a mechanic to perform the work for me at hopefully a reasonable rate. 

If I could locate a mechanic, I’d get him to first clean the rust off all the pullies before installing four new V-belts, and also get him to perform an oil change on both engines that I had intended to do myself when I had some free time on the journey back to Darwin. 

Luck was on our side and we located a Balinese diesel mechanic who was available tomorrow, so it was all coming together and hopefully we could be on our way again Tuesday morning. 

Medana Bay Marina hadn’t changed since I was there two years ago before the pandemic, but there were quite a few yachts still sitting up on the hard stand, some were in a pretty sorry state and there were a few owners working on then who we socialized with. 

Being stuck here also allowed us to stock up on a few last-minute items now we had easy access to shops and the marina restaurant was handy for two lazy cooks. It also allowed me to get more boats jobs done in a relaxed atmosphere rather than while we were underway. 

When the sun went down, lots of small fishing canoes came out all with a petrol generator running and a huge bright light on the bow, slowly moving in big circles around us searching for squid and schools of white bait. None of them appeared to be catching anything and it was the most unsustainable method of fishing I have seen so far in Indonesia.

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