Wednesday, August 20, 2008

3 August 2008 Sunday

3 August 2008 Sunday

Towing a boat is quite different from towing a car….
John Beale on Cloudy Bay offered to tow us back to our former position so we could tend to our damaged rudder. That was an experience – obviously something he’s done before because it went off without a hitch, just a lot of breath holding on our part to get attached. Dinghies came out from lots of other boats to guide us in and help us re-anchor. Lex had snorkelled on the rudder at first light and could see that the rudder was jammed into the hull fitting above – the constant bouncing on rocks had done the job. Wayne Huxley off Cruise Missile brought his scuba gear over and dived on it, and assisted by Craig, a marine engineer, managed to free it enough so that we could keep going. Looks like we need to pull Malaika out of the water first chance we get and do a more permanent repair job though.

Patsy, Ali and I went into town for provisions while the repairs happened, and found ourselves at the Matahari shopping centre. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a noisier, more confusing place. It’s not so much the crush of people as the loud disco music that seems to be the Indonesian equivalent of elevator music. It was pretty horrendous. We managed to buy some fruit and vegetables, and had lunch at a tiny 3 table café run by a delightful young Muslim woman, who giggled her way through our language difficulties and brought us tea, buns and omelettes. Actually Patsy is very good – she has enough Bahasa Indonesia to get by in most situations which has been terrific – Richard too.

Sunday evening was the race farewell, but we didn’t feel like leaving our boat unattended so we had some rice at the local stall and remained on board.

No comments: