A 50’ catamaran called “Sharky” belonging to ex South African Craig turned up one evening with three teenagers onboard Sunchar and twins Sealand and Starron – all keen surfers. They were on there way to Padang to pick up their mother. They had bought the Catamaran in Cape Town a year before and were sailing it back to Australia. Apparently, they had had no previous sailing experience and were as sick as dogs when they set off from Cape Town other than Craig, the Farther, who had been in the Navy. What a learning experience for the kids.
Telos is the larger town in the Batu group of islands. I needed diesel, supplies and fresh vegetables. I was very grateful for Rachael and Mark who speak Indonesian very well. I was a little dubious of the diesel as it is measured by litre jugs from an open drum – it also did not smell particularly good. I did not have a great deal of choice. Since leaving Cocos (Keeling) Islands I had used approximately 90 litres of fuel in 95.7 engine hours, giving just over a litre an hour. With the fresh vegetables I was able to cook Nasi Goering – fried rice and other stir fry dishes.
On Sunday August 15 “Glayva” and “Sadiqi”, sadly, departed Sipika and crossed the equator into the northern hemisphere, on our way to Sibolga. A mementos occasion. I was busy setting sails as we had some wind for a change. Rachael advised me on the VHF. I saved the celebration for the evening by cracking a can of Bintang beer. The crossing was pretty uneventful varying between sailing and motor sailing as the wind permitted. I did see a very large log behind Sadiqi at one point! The log would have been as long as Sadiqi – 9 metres and half the beam width – 1.5 metres. With the motor running so much as so much rubbish in the water it is amazing the boat had not picked up any. A heavy plastic bag had been picked up by the prop earlier in the day – fortunately this had disentangled itself. The trip to Sibolga, 110 miles away, took 26 hours.
