Chinese New Year - this time of the Horse

This time at the Hanoi Ethnological Museum. Many traditional games, performances and entertainments at the museum. This singing troupe leader's face was very expressive.

Another B.O.A.T* experience

Under test at Jasons

The Inmarsat C transceiver, which provides an important safety link when we are offshore went on the blink.

The first symptom was a triple beep, sounding repeatedly some time after switching on the unit & not cancellable - very irritating! Further investigation revealed that the unit would play hide & seek with the satellite signal.

Thinking that this might be a cabling issue several days were spent remaking antenna connections (soldering is not our strongest skill) between the chart table & the gantry but to no avail.

Perhaps there was a hardware fault?
We knew of a Mr Ho at Jason Marine Services Singapore - he had condemned the sat phone antenna which was sent from Thailand last year!  Mr Ho's office conveniently has a window facing west, towards the Indian Ocean Inmarsat satellite, that he opens so that the antenna can pick up the signal. He thoroughly checked out both the antenna & electronic unit.
The automatic gain control on the antennae had died, well it was 13 years old.

The shock - we baulked at the replacement cost over SGD 3000, not much less than a new, up to date unit from the US. After discussion a refurbished antenna was found for SGD 1700, plus a service charge.

Over the next 24 hours we visited  ATM's to get the cash together, collected and installed the equipment before leaving Singapore.  It works! 

Jason's service was excellent.

*B.O.A.T = "Bring Out Another Thousand"

Pinnacle Rock in Paradise

Four Friends

Towards the end of our visit Four Friends, a charter schooner based in Singapore, arrived with fourteen 17-year old students, all girls except for one, from the Arts School in Singapore together with teachers and kayak instructors.

Pinnacle Rock

We were fortunate to be invited to join them in scaling what the skipper of Four Friends calls Pinnacle Rock, a small , 67 metres high, island at the NW of the group. The top part of this involved a traverse up a fissure in the rock, for which ropes were laid. Richard opted to miss out this bit! Susan sat up top and leisurely watched a shoal of fish meander by.

Setting the ropes

Susan on the climb

View from Pinnacle Rock

It is also possible to get to the top of a rocky outcrop on the main island for a good view of the main lagoon. The path starts between two palm trees at the western end of the beach.

The outcrop

Pulau Bawah, Anambas, Indonesia

Our first over night passage since our return from Borneo at the end of 2010 of 145 nautical miles was to Pulau Bawah. This is in the Anambas archipelago which is not much visitedby yachts as there are no check-in facilities. You have to have a CAIT or a Riau Islands permit and check in or out of Indonesia in Batam or Bintan. As we were in Batam, checked in and aiming to return, this was not a problem.

Sea Bunny at anchor

However, yachts that have decided on the spur of the moment to visit the Anambas while on passage from Peninsular Malaysia to Sarawak (East Malaysia- Borneo) have met with a less than friendly reception from the local authorities.
We had acquired a waypoint for the entrance from friends, together with warnings not to try to enter the large deep water lagoon, which is totally surrounded by reefs with less than 0.5 metres of water over them at low water and less than 2 metres at high water.
The smaller, accessible, lagoon has an entrance, marked by two floats, with about 3 metres depth at low water in the deepest part. It then deepens to 17-20 m with no bommies.

Foundations for a resort villa

We had been told that the islands are uninhabited. Not so!  On our first evening we were presented with fresh coconuts by the construction crew from central Jarva here to build a 14 beach villa resort with attendant infrastructure. Occupation at the end of 2014 and intended for clients flown in by seaplane.
There are plans for moorings in the lagoon and yachts will not be discouraged.

Up to 10 of these shelter most nights

Up to 10 small fishing boats manned by the Orang Laut, sea people come in each night and wave to us.  These either raft up if conditions are suitable or anchor separately if there is a bit of chop the people never going ashore

Susan enjoys the clear water

We spent our time going for a daily walk on the beach, snorkelling and, of course, doing boat jobs.
Chilling out listening to a daily feed of Desert Island Discs and playing board games.
The snorkelling was the best since, probably, East Malaysia with visibility outside the reef over 10 metres, a little less inside. Richard even put on SCUBA gear to start a hull scrub, while Susan cleaned the topsides.
According to the construction manager  liveaboard dive boats rarely visit..

Soft corals in the lagoon

Yachtspeople may be interested in our anchorage notes for Pulau Bawah 

Waiting in Nongsa

As with most countries Indonesia has regulations governing foreign boats and foreigners in the country. In the case of Indonesia they can cause some frustration.

Clear to go!

Firstly, as foreigners we need a visa. There are essentially options. the first is a "social visa". This is valid for an extendible two month stay and is obtained from a consulate overseas on presentation of an invitation letter from a sponsor or agent. The second is a "visa on arrival". This is issued, to certain nationalities including British, at the point of entry on payment of a fee - USD 10 for 7 days, USD 25 for 30 days. Being close to Singapore we are using the visa on arrival approach - requiring a ferry trip every month - return fare SGD 40 each and using half a page in the passport each trip. The social visa, while allowing a longer stay, is single entry, so a new sponsor letter and application would be required on each entry.
As for the boat - to enter Indonesia, to cruise in Indonesia or to leave requires a CAIT (Cruising Authority for Indonesian Territory). This is be obtained through an agent, and requires the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Transportation. It takes 4-6 weeks between application and issue and costs IDR 2,200,000 (£ 125/USD 200). The CAIT is valid for 3 months and can be extended for a fee of IDR 1,800,000. It is also single entry; if the boat leaves Indonesia a new CAIT is required to reenter. Confused so are most people!
Our CAIT, originally obtained to cover our trip through Indonesia on our journey to South Africa, expired on 10 October. We should have applied for a renewal when we headed off to the UK but our minds were on other things and did not apply until after our return. Consequently we have been waiting for the renewal to permit us to leave Nongsa for a trip to the Anambas Islands. There were jobs to keep us occupied.  With the CAIT we could now apply for a port clearance, which takes only a few hours. Getting the marina bill right so we can pay it takes somewhat longer!

The American School Singapore

While waiting for Sea Bunny's CAIT, we needed a visa run to Singapore. Ley, on Crystal Blues, had agreed to look after friends children there & invited us to join her for a few days. This gave us an opportunity for shopping - fuel cans & metres of hose filled the spare bag.. Fresh fruit & veggies filled other bags, these are very watery in Batam.
The photos were taken when we visited the largest international school in the world with 3,6000 expatriate students The American School in Singapore to watch the younger child play soccer.The school site is 37 acres & has a strong athletic tradition. A shipping container had just delivered the pumpkins that the students are washing to sell for Halloween. In the UK Susan would probably have been escorted off the premises for taking the photos!

The cheerleader team

Track and sports hall

Ready for Hallowe'en

UK trip no 2 of 2013

There could not have been a warmer day in the UK for the funeral of Susan's mother back in her home town of March in Cambridgeshire & to be surrounded by so many supportive relatives.

Max and Archie

An upside of the unscheduled trip was the opportunity of extra visits to our children and grandchildren, so we set off on the well-travelled circuit via Bransgore, Edinburgh, Bath and Epsom, taking in a couple of stopovers en route and spending our wedding anniversary at the same hotel we were at for our 25th. Unsurprisingly there was also shopping for boat bits to do, mostly on the Internet, despite the significant amount we had done on our first trip!

The Water of Leith, Edinburgh

Swinging on Corstorphine Hill

On 25 September we were back on Sea Bunny in Nongsa Point Marina.