At some stage during the race to Singapore we literally entered
uncharted (badly charted) waters and the reason for this must have
reached you all by now and may have even been forgotten already. An hour
before I was supposed to get up on watch I was pulled from my bunk to
get on deck and assist in an attempt to help out Cork. They raised a
panpan stating they hit ground and had water entering their hull. All I
could do was curse really loudly in Dutch. Water ingress is not good
news! It was pitchblack outside and the winds were gusty and visibility
was poor. There was no way of spotting a reef or island in the
prevailing conditions and I was furiously hoping we would not make an
attempt to get close to their boat. Luckily that didn't happen and we
waited until daylight to get a better idea of the situation. And it was
bad, really bad. The boat was pushed onto a reef and right next to it
was an island sticking maybe 3m out of the sea. To stress the
dangers associated with the island there was a fishing boat 'high and
dry' on the western tip of the island. A lot of radio telephone and
email communication went on and the mean time we could only sit on deck
and watch the Cork guys evacuating their boat and making a transfer to
the island and then in the life rafts towards us. It is incredible how
utterly useless (machteloos) I felt as I sat there watching them hauling
their life rafts onto the island and launching them again on the other
side of the island. All credit to them!
Once on board (we took 8 people) we could offer them more than just our
presence and hopefully we have managed to lend them an ear and
make them feel comfortable which is something you do not do on a daily
basis. They were a great bunch to have on board and we did have lots of
fun despite the drama.
The real test however was how to live on board with 25 people in
tropical heat in a badly ventilated boat on which the hatches could not
be opened because we were beating into 15 knots of breeze and
charging through very uncomfortable Java Sea Chop (short pointy waves).
It is a miracle: we did survive and we are all still friuends but the
smell on the boat was absolutely nauseatingly horrendous! 6 days with
barely any fresh air is killing for an environment with sea water
infested clothes, 25 sticky overheated human bodies, cooking vapour and
smells for 25 people, engine (the generator failed, off course!) heat,
and no rainy squalls when you need them. Everybody was so glad we made
it into port and the swimming pool was an instant success. Unfortunately
I had to say goodbye to part of my front tooth but that has all been
sorted now. I was elated the big test was over. Alcohol cured the soul
and my again inflamed bottom lip was the only bad thing left after a few
days in Batam. Over to Singapore for a bit of retail therapy..
