Sail with Jenny in the fjords of Norway

Left this morning 28.08 from Danga Bay after some very nice days with the crew on Nightfly. We have been hanging out at Rusty’s place, a small restaurant (shed) on the beach close to the boat.
The food was good and very cheap, we payed 180 NOK for food and beer for the five, and it was plenty.
For the first time for a long time we have seen clear water and we did some snorkeling but did not see much coral or fish, but it was a good
feeling to see the anchor again on 6 meter of water. The anchorage was a little bit “rolly” but it was not difficult to put up with it when we had such good company.
Yesterday Maria and Warren sailed off to Malaysia and we rented a car and a driver to go to town and visited the marked which was a lot of fun. I bought some bananas at the marked so maybe there will be some banana pictures taken the next couple of day on the way to Jakarta, so you just have to wait and see Margaret 🙂

Today we have very little wind and it feels good not the have it strait on the nose. We have decided to sail to Jakarta instead of Bali, we do not want to tack all the way upwind 600nm to Bali (getting to lazy). Warren had a good contact with a nice marina in Jakarta and we will sail from there out in the Indian Ocean. We may take a plane and explore Bali for some days, but have not decided yet.

After a couple of hours with little wind it came again and so strong we had to put in two reefs, so the feeling of no wind was very short as we have experienced on the whole trip. We anchored behind Seliu Island after a good 50nm sailing and made the boat ready for the crossing to Jakarta (stowed away the dingy and serviced the watermaker).

This morning 29.08 at 07.00 we lifted the anchor and set sail for Jarkarta and we hope to be there tomorrow afternoon.

Wind on the nose again…. and we have not seen anything else.
At the moment we are sailing on the west side of Bangka.

Yesterday we stayed in the river of Blinyu. We had a little walk ashore and got some eggs and potatoes, the houses we saw looked in very good shape (new and very nicely painted) and people was very friendly as usual, but they do not speak any English.

We took down the aircon unit and deflated the dingy before we left and sat sail towards Belitung, but after 1 hour we made a U-turn because
of big waves and 25knots of wind on the nose. We decided to sail on the west side of the island instead of going back in to the anchorage again. We had all kinds of wind and after 50nmil we anchored in a little bay and had a nice evening in the cockpit. After passing the equator 2 days ago the temperature specially in the evening is a lot more pleasant than in Singapore.

After 2 days sailing (200nm)hard on the wind we got some shelter from Belitung island and set the anchor after dark. We all felt desperately for a shower and an anchor “dram” and some food. We have had the wind on the nose more or less since we left Nongsa point and big seas. We have to consider if we will beet upwind the next 600nm to Bali, but first we will talk to Maria and Warren on Nightfly and hear about their experience from Jakarta.

This morning (Sunday 25.) we left early to sail the rest of the way to Dang Bay on Beilitung where we will meet up with Maria and Warren and we really look forward to it, last time was for Christmas 2011 with the best sailing friends every Monica and Jan (Blue Dame), Brandy and Mark (Restless) and Maria and Warren (Nightfly). We hope to see them all again in Norway when we get back home.

Lots of love to all from
Jenny’s crew

Arrived Bangka Island

After a good night with engine and sail (headwind) we are now at
anchor in the river outside Pulau Bangka.

We had a nice and friendly visit to the village on the island Baru.

A lot of children met us at the key and took us to the school. We had coffee with the teachers (3 men and 3 woman + the head master).
We gave them a ball and some candy’s and had a look around in the village, got some nice pictures of the kids. We where also invited in to a house and where offered drinks, they have no furniture and no beds but a TV! There was several boat builder at the island and the boys where impressed with their work.

After the visit we left and anchored off an island with a nice beach,
and took the dingy in to the shore to have a look – we saw a fishing hut but no people. Back on the boat we started working on the water maker (never ending story) but discovered suddenly that we where almost grounded, so we very quickly lifted the anchor and jumped over some rocks before we got out in the open sea again.
Not very nice and the rudder was not happy about it at all, but it survived with small damages.
We found a new anchorage and stayed there for the night and left next morning to Kongka Besar where we stayed behind the island for some hours and left before dark, for our overnight sail to Bangka.
Here at Banga the beaches here looks great so we will take the dingy to shore and have a look around and maybe go for a swim. We can see a lot of fishing boats on land so we may be lucky and get some fish and vegetables.

We have had mail and radio contract with the crew on Nightfly (Maria and Warren) and are meeting up with them this week and hopefully spend the weekend together. We really look forward to meet them again – last time was in NZ where we spent Christmas 2011 together.
We first met them in Chile in 2010 and had a great night at a “private” island restaurant, and Warren have told us that he had found a similar here in Indonesia which could be very exciting knowing Warren. It could be another life time experience (as it did last time). You have to read the travel letters from Chile to see what happened.

Sailing again

After almost four very nice months in Singapore it was time to start
sailing again. We left Singapore Wednesday 14. August with new crew
onboard – Svein Jarle from Kvinesdal.

After the check out at sea in Singapore 2,5 hours motoring got us to Indonesia – Nongsa point marina on the island Batam, a nice marina resort.

We will not have a good wind angel down to Bali so we filled our diesel tanks and set the course south Saturday morning. We motor sailed the whole day with lightning and thunderstorms around us,one strike just a few meter behind us, but overall a good day – nothing hit us.

Today we have sailed against the wind for the first time for a long time and are now at anchor outside a small village on the island Baru with approx. 150 people.

We have already got some visitors from the
village to the boat and promised them to come and visit them in the village, but at the moment we have a problem with our fridge and it seems to be a serious problem.

Good for us we have a very practical skipper with lots of repairing skills so after 1,5 hours of work the fridge is working again but need some spare part and maybe replacement. But it will keep the beer cold
on the way to Bali so the big crisis is over for the moment.

We will visit the village tomorrow and give a report in the next update.
All well onboard.
Svein-Jarle, Jan and Eli
Jenny’s crew

PS, these updates were previously sent by radio mail and without pictures