While our spare gearbox which was stored under our son’s house in Brisbane, Australia, was in the process of being collected and hand delivered to our boat (thanks to our daughter), we took the time to do a few boat jobs.
We had been very occupied with the Wonderful Sail Kalimantan Rally in the previous couple of weeks so it was good to have a few days to do some essential maintenance and to relax a little.
One of the local men, Afui, who had taken us under his wing and had been very kind, was a regular visitor – always bringing fruit or fish but refusing payment.
We decided to give him an old battery driven hand drill that we no longer used. He was delighted with it.
Less successful was the laundry. Anxious to repay Afui’s kindness kindness and enable him to make a bit of extra cash we gave him our washing which he said he would deliver to a laundry (in reality we would have preferred for one of the local families to make some extra money.)
It ended up rather badly as he tried to charge us hotel rates (i.e. per item at inflated prices) although he agreed to ask the “laundry” to see if they would charge for it per kilo as is normal in most places . Not only that but it came back so damp that we had to ask him to take it back to hang out again (our hanging space is pretty limited and there was an awful lot of washing). It was still damp when we finally got it back two days later so I think the “laundry” also had space issues! He was a lovely guy though so it was hard to be grumpy about it.
While we were waiting for our gearbox to arrive we had some terrible swells that made our boat rock and roll crazily which was extremely uncomfortable and very wearing. I have to admit there were moments when I wished it was me flying back to Australia!
We also had torrential rain but after the rain a day when the mist rolled in and swathed the surrounding hills in its damp skirts.
Mike and Jill on Yantara had very kindly stayed on to stand by in case we needed assistance if the weather became wild. It was fortunate that they did because they had problems with their anchor winch and ended up needing a new part for it.
We contacted the young man who had arrived on the fishing boat to translate for the crew the day after they had towed Bali Hai aground (https://dotsailing.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/repair-or-replace-gearbox-saga-continues/).
We asked him if he could help with translation but he had other arrangements so he put us in touch with the lovely Angie who was locally born but had spent her high school years in Australia.
It was excellent to have Angie translate for us as her English was perfect and she also had a group of friends who had useful contacts that could fabricate a new part required for Yantara’s anchor winch.
One of Angie’s friends also ran a very nice vegetarian restaurant where we enjoyed eating a couple of times.
Our daughter had left for Brisbane on the previous Wednesday and by Sunday she was on her way back to West Kalimantan with precious cargo – our gearbox!
The anchorage had been so rolly and we knew how exhausted she would be so we decided to stay in a hotel in Singkawan and have a girls’ night off the boat.
Our guide from the rally Iwan had organised a car for us to pick up our daughter but once again generously gave up his precious time to meet her at the airport at Pontianak with the driver and escort her all the way back to Singkawan. It’s this kind of kindness that we are constantly surprised by and grateful for, here in Indonesia.
Before retiring to her bed our daughter handed over her precious cargo so that the skippers of Bali Hai and Yantara could start work on replacing Bali Hai’s gearbox first thing in the morning.
While they were beavering away our daughter and I had an early birthday celebration for her in the rooftop restaurant at the Hotel Singkawan where we had a magnificent view of the surrounding countryside.
Salty tales from Bali Hai on Sunday 