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| Day 91 |
06 July 2000 |
| Kai Besar |
| "Heading For Home" |
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Captain's Journal
Day 91
Duyfken
Kai Besar
7 July, 2000
We have proved it can be done. Through the night we have beat to
windward across Selat Nerong (Selat Strait) to the island of Kai
Besar. Beating is an appropriate term-- it is a painful process
if you don't love sailing. It means taking a zig-zag track to
work the ship against the direction of the wind. Each time we
change tack (go from a zig to a zag) we have to call all hands
on deck to haul the sails around to catch the wind at the new
angle. The crew are all short of sleep as it is, so it is a
bleary little group of sailors from the 'watch below' who
stumble on deck each time we tack.
We are only a couple of miles off the beaches at sunrise. Kai
Besar is a spectacular island, rising steeply from the sea, its
precipitous slopes covered by thick jungle. We spot a nice
looking deserted beach and sail in to anchor.
There are villages all along this coast but no roads connecting
them. The terrain is too rugged even for very many tracks, so
most travelling is done by boat. Our deserted beach is not
deserted for long. A school of sampans (dugout canoes) soon
paddles into the bay, curious about the strange perahu for a
while before getting back to the serious task of catching the
day's fish.
On exploring the bay Greg finds a gap in the rocks at the south
end of the beach and takes the dinghy through. The narrow
entrance opens up into a lagoon, a flooded valley, surrounded by
dense jungle on all sides and fed with fresh water springs. It
is a beautifully tranquil place, sheltered entirely from the
wind and waves, the only sounds the calls of birds, delightfully
exotic in their songs.
After our short break we pull the dinghy back aboard, and line
up along the deck to heave up the anchor, perhaps for the last
time until the Pennefather River. There are only 13 people on
board now. That is one steering, eleven heaving on the rope
cable, and one hammering the cable down to the end of the
windlass drum that's me I give myself the easy job so I can keep
an eye on the situation. That's my excuse anyway. The eleven
heavers have a sweat up by the time the anchor is home. We set
the foresail and mainsail and start creeping towards Australia.
By sunset we are becalmed in a light drizzle. The one thing we
have on our side is time.
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Peter Manthorpe
Master
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