Passage from Thursday Island, Australia to Debut, Indonesia…. Keeping “Storm” close!

The weather and swell looked good for an early morning departure on Saturday on July 21st from Thursday Island, Australia….10-15 knots of wind from the SE with gusts up to 20 knots.   We left with 3 other boats: 2 participants of the Sail 2 Indonesia rally (SV Starry Horizons and SV Storm of Lynton) and Thom on SV Fathom who was headed to Darwin, Australia.  We anticipated downwind sailing the entire 675 miles and estimated it would take us about 4-5 days at the most going about 6 knots per hour.

Sunrise with SV Fathom…saying our goodbyes and see you laters….exchanging photos via Facebook while we were still in range of internet.
SV Starry Horizons (David and Amy – 45 ft Fountaine Pajot catamaran) catching up to SV Fathom (Thom-28 foot Vancouver monohull)…I absolutely love this photo…it makes me smile everytime I look at it!

SV Storm of Lynton – However….early into the passage we were hailed by SV Storm of Lynton (SV Storm) who said they were taking on water and had a tear in their jib/head sail.   We discussed them turning back to Thursday Island but they were indecisive.  We decided to hail them on on the VHF radio (range of about 1-10 miles) every hour until they felt comfortable.  Ultimately, their bilge pump was keeping up with the water and they reduced their head sail to minimize further damage and seemed to be moving along quite nicely.  

UNTIL…the first night we got a frantic call from them stating their boom had snapped in half.  Trevor and I have never experienced this ourselves nor have we ever really discussed what we would do if our boom snapped in half…so the best thing we could do was ask if anyone was hurt, try to have them stay calm, secure any loose sheets or ropes or lines and make sure the boom was secure enough so that no more damage to the boat could happen, and if they could drop their main sail.  They confirmed all of this but could not drop the mail sail as it was stuck and it was in the middle of the night.  They decided to wait until daylight to try to unfurl the tangled mess of the lines etc.  We suggested maybe going to Darwin, Australia where they could do repairs and Darwin is well equipped with skilled labor and materials.  Heading to Indonesia, we were told that spares and materials were hard to get and that fixing boats here, for some reason, was more difficult.  We can’t make a decision for anyone else so they had to make it on their own….they decided to head for Indonesia regardless, after some rest, and so it was decided that we keep close to them.

In the morning, we sailed right up to them to try to see if we could assess the damage ourselves. You can see the main is still up and the boom is bend in half.
The arrow is pointing at the break in the boom. The main sail lines were a mess but they eventually got it down. The sailed with their job sheet the rest of the way.

Diesel transfer-epic fail!!! – We continued the passage staying only 4 miles from them so we could give them weather updates every morning.  We also thought it would be a good idea to get them more diesel in case they needed it.  The weather was fair and the wind was predicted to pick up the next few days but the sea state was not great….but today was a good day than any other to try to get them more fuel….what else were we doing?!

DO NOT TRY THIS!!!!

First we dropped the dinghy, without the motor of course, into the water. This required Trevor to get into the dinghy and off the boat to “surf” the dinghy with 2 seperate lines tied on close to the boat. Then we tied long lines to the jugs of diesel and put a loop at the end so SV Storm could hook the loop with a boat hook and lull the jugs off the dinghy and pull it into their boat. You can see here Trevor laying out the end loops for “easy” access and organizing the lines for each jug. The dinghy was recoucheting off our boat and was extremely uncomfortable to be in….
We then let out lots of line to tow the dinghy full of jugs and headed towards SV Storm.
The plan was to get the dinghy right next to SV Storm at their bow so they could hook one or a few jugs…..they were under sail and we were motor sailing.
The tricky part was getting the dinghy heading in the right direction without hitting SV Storm with our boat….the waves of course didn’t help swinging the dinghy all over the place. Here is Andy ready with the boat hook…..
YES!!! We got the dinghy close enough so Andy could get 1 jug of deisel…however the jug, water tight, dropped into the water and he had to pull all 15 feet of line as they were sailing 4 knots…not an easy task. The full jug is heavy enough let alone pulling it against a 4 knot speed over ground!….
Then shit hit the fan!!!! SV Storm would dip in the waves pushing the vessel right over the line that was attached from the dinghy to our boat which sent the dinghy, with jugs of diesel, to go completely underneath SV Storm! We had to steer to make sure the dinghy and the line didn’t do damage to Storm’s rudder/propeller and…… had to retrieve the floating diesel can that were slowly floating away from us. The dinghy was completely full of water as we are towing it to retrieve the now floating jugs of diesel in pen seas. Trevor had to hook each one in and pull it on board. THIS HAPPENED TWICE!!!!! We decided to stop while we were all ahead and nobody was hurt. They got 1 jug at least. In this photo….you can see the dinghy right before it goes underneath SV Storm. The red line is where our rope was which was attached to the dinghy and to our boat.

Fishing vessels and nets- If that isn’t enough excitement for you….there is more!  We had heard about fishing vessels being a problematic issue during this passage.  For well over 2/3 of the passage we were in about 150-250 feet of water…nothing deeper until we were very close to the Indonesian islands.  The fishing boats drag nets behind them and of course some of those nets get loose and float just underneath the surface for your propeller to get caught in….we call these ghost nets.  Fortunately, we found these fishing vessels well lit in the dark and generally come up on radar.  However, we found ourselves utilizing our radar during the day to spot fishing vessels miles away so we could keep our distance and charge course if need be.  The other factor was that these fishing vessels did not come by themselves….they were in huge fleets.  SV Starry Horizons said they were surrounded by 47 boats at one point…we were also surrounded twice of about 15 or so.  One day SV Storm ran over a net…to their defense, the fishing vessel was making very erratic movements, they were turning left and right and at one point headed straight for SV Storm.  We all tried to hail them on our VHF radios to see what their intentions were but there was no answer.  No damage came but it is still very unnerving to be that close.

Here is what some of the fishing vessels we saw. They were actually very pretty.
One night we saw on our radar about 30 boats…all in a circle around us.! We proceeded to dodge them but as the night came, we saw this amazing display of squid boats on the horizon. We were traveling near a shoal that on our charts said the depth at it’s shallowest point was 22 feet so we stayed clear of it. It was also a full moon. We figured there must be some kind of natural phenomenon to bring the squid up from the depth and to the surface (lights of course aid in this) but it was truly a spectacular sight to see. In this photo…we were trying to capture SV Storm in front of the horizon of lights…we were all in awe!

Slow Fight sailing – For most of our passage, we were only sailing about 4 knots during the day.  We kept the main double reefed and the mizzen reefed and would use our jib sail to control our speed….mostly sailing with a wing on wing sail configuration as the wind was mostly behind us. At night, to keep a 5 knot average speed, SV Storm would crank up the engine and motor.  We were able to keep up with them just sailing…we would just let out our jib sail.  Our days were spent rolling in/rolling out our jib sail to keep SV Storm within our agreed 4 miles range.  It was the most work we have done on a passage to date…calculating our speed compared to thiers and getting the sails trimmed to keep us from turning on the engine.  Generally we just set sails and go…this was much different for us.

Photo courtesy of SV Storm: Main double reefed, mizzen reefed, and a sliver of jib out
We finally turned to a more northerly direction which took our wind angle to a broad reach which meant we experienced more of a lean in our boat to starboard…the swell still holding a 1-2 meter height…perfect conditions for flying fish to hitch a ride : )

Making landfall and checking in – We arrived near the Kei Islands and our destination was a small village named Debut.  We were pretty much the last ones to arrive on July 26th.  Our waypoint to anchor that was given to us by the rally was way off…it was actually on an uncharted reef, but since we were late….we were given that information and was able to set anchor in 27 feel of water with no hassles… the benefit of not being the first to arrive : )

Flying the Indonesian courtesy flag with the “Q” flag (Quarantine flag – we have to fly it until we are cleared in and declared safe to set foot onto land). Also flying is the Sail 2 Indonesia rally flag. the sun was shining and the smell of land was sweet and floral…. always love the smell of land coming in from a passage.
Hard to see but the landscape with all the rally boats in front….altogether there were about 35 boats anchored here.
I guess we got lucky…some boats had to wait a long time for all the officials to get to their boat to clear in…we dropped our anchor and had some official (Bio-security) at our boat within minutes. The next officials (customs and immigration) came aboard and checked all our cupboards and searched the boat. We were asked if we had any cocaine or narcotics on board. We said no of course. But during the inspection, this officer was skeptical of our baking ingredients we had. We did joke a bit with him to taste it if he liked. I had to help him open the containers of flour and powdered milk and explain what they were…he would sniff it. I asked if he could do it again so I could take his photo…he smiled and agreed….. Each boat had a slightly different experience and different questions asked.  Some had to seperate medications that were out of date and those medications “bonded” and sealed.  Welcome to Indonesia : )

It’s been an interesting transition into South East Asia….it’s always fun.. and an adventure!  One of the most incredible qualities about sailing/cruising is the community and the willingness to help out other fellow cruisers….be it at sea or on land.  Trevor and I have been huge beneficiaries of this type of kindness and generosity over the years as we started out on our journey and it was time to pay it forward.  Andy and Leslie on SV Storm of Lynton were appreciative of the company during their passage….Leslie cried twice when we saw each other on land…I totally get it!  Just pay it forward : )

Slow Flight always offers Cokes or sodas and Oreo cookies to officials…it has worked well for us in other countries and Indonesia was no different. By the end of our last inspection, the officials wanted to take photos with us so I asked them if he could take one with my camera. Further, the immigration folks took our passports to get stamped on land and we were to return to their office to pick them up that night, however we were talked into attending a dinner that night with the rally and thought we could pick them up tomorrow am. The kind immigration officer found us at the Hotel we were all having dinner at and returned our passports to us with all of our clearance paperwork personally! We asked other cruisers if they experienced this and they all said NO…it must be the sodas and cookies : )

Next up…Debut…our first Indonesian village and the slight chaos of the rally….Welcome ceremonies and wonderful new foods!

 

 

9 comments

  1. I love your blogs. Have you ever considered marketing your blog for wannabees? I have heard that some travelers actually help pay for their travel by doing so. It would be good for those sailors still in the thinking stages.

    1. Well….we do know lots of people marketing their blogs and videos however….it is way too much work for us. We can barely keep up with just photos and such. Not sure how much we can contribute to the sailing community but we are ALWAYS open to anyone with questions or general curiosity. Hugs!

  2. Kimi and Trevor,
    I’m not sure if I can every pay forward what you did for us, however,it will be my mission to seek every opportunity to try.
    Your compassion, care and the twinkling light of your mast on the horizon for 5 days saved my sanity and potentially our lives.
    One way or another I will find ways to pay your deed forward be it on land, air or ocean.
    Thank you from the bottom of my heart ❤️.
    Lesley

    1. Great reply Leslie, I have been worried and concerned about you both since you left Cairns, I think is time now to keep in touch.

    2. Lesley, please contact Lynda.thompson@ato.gov.au when you can with an address to send your bunker fuel refund letter to as no address was listed on your application.
      P.S. glad that you are safe and that you had wonderful people help you out during what must have been a stressful time at sea.

  3. You two are so incredible with all of this sailing. You will be so bored when u get back to the states. What on earth will you do? Besides holding your new niece… and hugging your papa!!! And celebrating with us as both of you have parents going into that great aging journey of no return…. wider if u thought of making a documentary of all of your adventures… it truly is amazing to read and see the photos. I feel almost there with u at times. WOW! Keep keeping us posted. Just heard about an earth quake there oh dear. Hopefully not near u…lots of hugs n love….

    1. We are fine…well away from the Earthquake but will be in that area in about a month. Yes it will be hard to return back to the grind but I am sure we will get involved with all that we have missed. Hugs back at cha : )

  4. Great reply Leslie, I have been worried and concerned about you both since you left Cairns, I think is time now to keep in touch.

Leave a Reply to Claudia Manning Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.