Boatyard Blues
02/01/2020 East Coast of Waigeo, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
Recovery day. Yep, a pretty boring day of just lying around watching the waves crash on the nearby beach. The anchorage we are at is listed in the “Cruising Guide to Indonesia” as a rest stop only and they are right on the money. The anchorage is as rolly as we’ve ever had before. Occasionally a set will come through that looks like it‘s going to break right over us, but just at the last minute it rolls under us like we weren’t even there. Hopefully the change in tide won’t topple us over in the middle of the night. We’ll just have to wait and see.
03/01/2020 Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia
Yesterday we ended up moving to a new bay just around the corner of where we were to see if we could find a nicer spot to anchor, and swim for that matter. Turned out the anchorage was better, but the swimming was none existent. We tried taking the dinghy to shore for a bit of beach time, but after 3 attempts at landing the dinghy amongst the breaking waves we gave up and went back to the boat for a swim. That swim was cut short as the fear of crocodiles swept over everyone as there was a river entrance with suspicious looking water less than 50m away. I’m sure it was just in our heads, but we have been reading lately about Raja Ampat and the crocodiles and it doesn’t leave much to the imagination. A German tourist eaten here, a Danish one there. We don’t want to add Australia to that list.
So after a night at the reasonably calm, but decidedly boring anchorage we left this morning to head to Sorong. We’re booked in tomorrow or the next day to be lifted out of the water once again. I can’t say I’m all that excited about it. The thought of being in a boatyard yet again, with all the filth and dust being washed into the boat, does not have me sleeping well at night. We have to get our rudder fixed though, no doubt about it. It looks like someone went to it with a sledge hammer, in anger. Poor little rudder.
We are now tied off at a failed resort on the outskirts of Sorong. It was kind of strange coming in. We entered through a very narrow human made entrance to what looks like a resort lagoon. But all the resort bungalows are only half finished, making the place look like a bit of a ghost town, or ghost resort as the case may be. The manager of the dock, Wick, is an Australian expat who’s been living in Sorong for 35 years. He seems really nice and helpful over the phone which is usually a good sign, but I’ll wait and see before passing firm judgement.
We went to dinner tonight at the restaurant at this “resort”, which seems to still be in business. It was quite funny as when we went up to order we were the only people there, but they were happy to seat us as well as get some photos. We were sat in a humongous hall next to a large stage all by ourselves. A few local cats came to see if we dropped any food on the floor, but that was it. No other people. We couldn’t complain though, the food was excellent and at a very nice price.
04/01/2020 Tampagaram, Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia
Family Circus joined us today in the resort! It’s nice to have some familiar faces around. It’s been great being out on our own, but there’s nothing like the feeling of close friends or family showing up on your doorstep to say hello.
So far this failed resort is providing a very nice spot for us to sit and take stock for a while. There is a reasonably clean swimming pool nearby and a very decent restaurant to boot where we can all be fed for less than $AU10. What more can you ask for? Aside from that Wick has given me a list of places to visit for all the parts I need to fix the raw water pumps in the engines as well as some other modifications we want to do while here.
Tonight we went on an adventure to town for dinner with Family Circus and crew. Juliet and Mateos have been here before and highly recommended a restaurant in town. TripAdvisor had the same recommendation, so it looked like we were in for a treat. As it often does though, restaurants can change. First of all, they didn’t have any cold beer! How can you come highly recommended without cold beer!? Secondly, Chris would’ve ordered close 10 dishes before striking on one that was actually available. Then when all the food came out, they forgot Jakes, and it didn’t come for another 20 minutes! If I knew the name of the restaurant they would be getting a sour review from me. Still, it was a good adventure getting there and home, so at least it was still worth it.
05/01/2020 Tampagaram, Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia
Looks like we won’t be hauled out until Tuesday now. A bit of a bummer considering the rudder is most likely going to take a week to fix, but we’ll just have to live with it.
I went to town today to try and find some of the stuff we need for all the boat projects we want to get done while out of the water. There are three types of transport here; moped (cheap), shared taxi (less cheap) and personal taxi (super expensive). I managed to find a moped to drive me all around town to a dozen different shops over a couple of hours, and it cost me a measly $AU5. I felt a little guilty about it since when we first started riding I remember thinking how nice the driver’s hair smelt, like he had just taken a shower and shampooed his long black hair, but by the end of the day all I could smell was dust and filth. Hopefully he can just have another shower.
06/01/2020 Tampagaram, Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia
Tomorrow is the day. We will leave our current anchorage and the disheveled resort and head South for an hour to be picked up by a guy who’ll lead us up the river to Helena Marina. There was a brief period where it was going to happen today, but due to a squall and a flat tire it won’t happen until tomorrow. Oh well.
We haven’t been doing much really, just hanging out on the internet and getting our blog sorted, catching up with family and eating out at the local cheap restaurant. Chris came over tonight to see if we could order some food and get it delivered. He found an app today called GoJek which is basically an app to end all apps, or rule all apps, whatever your preference. It’s the goto app for anything and we thought we’d give it a try. We spent a few minutes finding a restaurant, and then ordered the food. Within 20 minutes a scooter appeared across from the boat with a bag full of delicious food. All during a massive squall too. Brilliant.
07/01/2020 Helena Marina, Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia
We made it to Helena Marina up the backend of some river in Sorong. Not a bad trip at all especially since Wick sent us a pilot to drive the boat through the hairy bits and get us safely to the marina.
So, here is the list of things we have to get done while out of the water:
- Fix rudder
- Fix crack on starboard bow
- Anti foul the bottom
- Change gear oil in engines
And if time permits:
- Install the water maker somewhere permanent
- New tabletop for saloon
- Update current tabletop to be used in cockpit
- Fix raw water pumps in engines (if parts can be sourced)
- Change gear oil in dinghy
Since getting out we have already taken the rudder off and it is now with the expert carpenter / “pretty good worker” Ayim. Hopefully he knows what he’s doing.
08/01/2020 Helena Marina, Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia
Well, after inspecting the hull today I have to add a couple more things to the list:
- Fix cracks on both bows
- Fix stupidly humongous crack along the whole port keel
I managed to grind away the cracks on the bows and get them fibreglassed today, but I didn’t notice the keel until this afternoon. So all I got to on that was the grinding. I tell you, there is nothing worse than seeing your hull split open. I guess technically it’s not the hull, but still, seeing any part of your boat split open is not nice. I do wonder whether it‘s because of the way the boat was lifted out of the water here and chocked up. They use the relatively primitive method of hammering an angled piece of wood sideways under the keel to chock it. That could’ve easily exposed a weakening join. I suppose it’s a good thing in the end to fix it while it’s out of the water and not have it come apart on a benign grounding somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
09/01/2020 Helena Marina, Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia
Smashed it today. Both bows are now bogged, the keel is fibreglassed and bogged and the watermaker install is 70% done. I just have to figure out how to get water to the watermaker and run the hoses and it should be good. Man that will be nice. I think the most annoying job for me so far is making water. We have to do it every 1-2 days, not because we use that much water, but because the filters foul up if we leave it too long in these hot conditions. That wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that I have to get it out of it’s locker and lug it up to the front of the boat, run all the hoses and stand in the sun while I turn it on which takes about 5 minutes. Then when it’s finished I have to pack it all up again and put it away. It probably only takes 10 minutes each way, but it’s bloody heavy and awkward to carry and I always hurt myself doing it somehow. Well anyway, not for much longer. I have found a nice little place for the pump in the bathroom, and the filters are now mounted on the wall. The hoses will all be plumbed in and the switch will be mounted on the wall. So not only will I gain myself 20 minutes every day or so, the pump is now out of the saloon where it was always in the way. Bonus!
10/01/2020 Helena Marina, Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia
Today was a running of errands day. We hired a really nice driver, Aska, for the day at a cost of $AU55. Totally worth it since his car had aircon. I probably would’ve paid that just to sit in his car next to the boat all day. But we had stuff to do. We set out at about 10:30, went to Wick’s place to drop off the table, though he wasn’t there. We then went to Tampagaram to drop of Vanja and kids to play with Family Circus. Aya, Sayo’s other daughter is back on the boat. She’s almost 9 years old so fits perfectly in with the group of kids. Lara and Jake were so excited to meet her. And all reports are that they all got on like a house on fire.
Anyway, I then went with Aska to the hardware store, back to Wick’s, to another hardware store, back to pickup Vanja and kids, to the Jotun supplier to get antifoul, off to another hardware store and finally to a fruit stand that doesn’t have a white skin price. It was a hell of a long day and unfortunately I am missing one part for my engine pumps which means I can’t fix them yet. Oh well looks like we’ll be sponging salt water out of the bilge for the foreseeable future. I did get all the plumbing parts required for the watermaker install though, so that is awesome.
When we got back to the boat I sanded all the repairs and they all look pretty darn good if I don’t say so myself. By the time I was finished the local guys were all out around our boat doing their usual evening routine of lighting small fires to keep the sandflies away. It’s pretty funny really and it took a couple of nights for us to work out what they were doing. They make a small fire near the water with whatever garbage they can find then sit practically in the fire for about 45 minutes. At first I thought it was maybe some sort of prayer thing as it happened around the same time as the mosque sends out it’s call. But no, just sandfly time.
The rudder came back to the boatyard today with a piece of wood shaped to fit. Ayim was busy epoxying it onto the original rudder when I went to have a look. I have to say it looks pretty good, though he was using straight epoxy without any bog to fill holes, so the stuff was going everywhere. He was catching it with his hands (without gloves) and trying to get it in the right spots. I hope that is just because he doesn’t have any bog, and not because it’s his first time using epoxy. Well, either way it should be pretty good by the time he’s done. The fibreglassing guys should get to it tomorrow. It will be good to see it back in all it’s glory.
11/01/2020 Helena Marina, Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia
Have I mentioned how bloody hot and sweaty this place is. When I was working on the water maker this morning I was sitting in a puddle of my own sweat and my clothes were soaked through. Sweat was dripping off every part of my body. I think I was drinking about 1L of water ever 30 minutes. The humidity must have been up around 99%. And it wasn’t raining.
Even with all that sweat though I finished the water maker install. The filters are now mounted in the bathroom and the pump is tucked away in a little cupboard and I’m pulling water in from the same through hull as the kitchen sink. I’m very excited about this. On top of that I managed to get 3 coats of high build primer on all the hull repairs meaning I should be able to sand them down tomorrow for the final coat… which will probably just be antifoul, since I have no other paint to use.
You wouldn’t believe what I found today while rummaging around in the hulls looking for painting equipment. I found a bunch of spares for the engines, one of which is the seal for the water pumps that I have been looking for all this time in town! I couldn’t believe it. I was high fiving the kids and Vanja for the next 5 minutes along with many a fist pump, though they couldn’t really care less. But it was one of those times when fate smiled on me and threw me a bone. I just couldn’t believe it. Anyway, after I cleaned up all the sweat from my excitement, I decided to go and see if I could take the pump off the engine and get it fixed. Well, 2 hrs and 4L of water later I had the pump off. By that time though I was buggered and decided to leave it until tomorrow morning where I could go outside and work on it in the relative cool air.
I didn’t manage to get a look at the rudder today, but Wick assures me it is looking good. I’ll wander over and try and find it in the fibreglassing bays tomorrow.
12/01/2020 Helena Marina, Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia
Another day in the yard full of blood sweat and tears. At least the temperature was down a bit today to an almost bearable 30° due to a rain cloud hovering over us.
I spent the day at the “workshop” next to the toilet trying to get the engine water pumps taken apart. Now that I had all the parts I might as well fix them, right? Well, it took me all day, and I have a bunch of skin missing from my hands and my fingernails are black. Not to mention I stink of grease, oil, sweat and blood. Vanja is super impressed.
Well, after much swearing and bleeding I am happy to say both engines are now whole again. The starboard engine also got a new belt for the water pump as the old one was falling apart. It’s a bit tight compared to the old one, but hopefully that’s just because it’s new. We’ll see when we’re back in the water. Hopefully I’ve improved things and not made them worse.
Apart from that it’s a Sunday today, so not as much happening in the yard making it a bit more peaceful than usual.
14/01/2020 Helena Marina, Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia
Still in the boatyard. The last couple of days have been busy and exciting. The rudder, which looks really good, was installed yesterday afternoon and I finished sanding the repairs to the bows and keel. I’m still at a loss as to how to finish off the bows as I don’t have the proper paint. I did buy some cheap auto spray paint as a last resort, so I might just do that if I have time. That’s right! We’re going back in the water tomorrow morning! Woohoo!
This morning was a hive of activity with boatyard guys painting the hull then buffing the topsides. While they were busy doing that we went to town to do some final provisioning of heavy stuff and get some gear oil as I wanted to change the oil in the sail drives while they were out of the water.
Once back at the yard I set to work changing the oil. I’ve never done it before, but once upon a time I was in the company of someone who did, so I consider myself experienced. Unscrew a plug, open up the dipstick and out squirts the oil. Simple. And that part did go well, except I dropped the plug in the container and had to go feeling around in dirty stinking oil for it. Ugh. Once I got it out and had a good look at it though I realised I had forgotten to buy the very tiny and cheap, yet crucial spare that is the drain plug o-ring. Christ! Lucky, or not as it turned out, Dalhan, the head boatyard guy, went on his trusty moped in search of said o-rings and came back with a pair that looked like they might fit. I didn’t really want to use o-rings that might fit though, as slowly replacing all your gear oil with salty sea water seems like a pretty stupid thing to do. So, off to the trusty internet to find a solution. I saw one guy posting all over the place that he uses marine sealant for this job. Voila! Problem solved. I thought it was such a good idea that I did my leaking outboard gear oil plug as well. Sweet.
Ok, one more night of biting sandflies and sleeping in a sauna and we’re outta here!