Stop 12: Lovina Beach, North end of Bali Island, September 11 - October 12 2016

Our journey over from Medana Bay, Lombok to Lovina Bay, Bali took us just over 11 hours. We anchored at 08 09.64S & 115 01.26E in around 9 meters of water. Very good holding here. Crossing the Selat Lombok (Lombok Strait) gave us a great sail for several hours and good practice for crossing between ships. This was especially interesting as one ship had its AIS outputting incorrectly. A few rally boat stopped about half way at the oad-stead anchorage of Amed. Reports of this anchorage were all favorable and worth a visit if you don't wish to do a long day run to Lovina Bay.

Bali is both a joy to arrive at and a stark reminder of where we have been. Bali is very busy even on the north end at Lovina as it has become very westernized. If you travel down to Kuta, Seminyak area for a visit its even busier. This is not a remote village as we have been used to, its full on busy and we love it. Bali is not that big, you can easily drive from the one end to the other in about 3 hours, making day trips very enjoyable.

Arriving here means we are close to the end of the S2I rally and close to Malaysia. At this point we have decided to join the Sail Malaysia Rally. The rally commences on November 7 from the Puteri Harbour Marina and finishes December 7 2016 at Langkawi - Rebak Marina. Quite a few rally boats are also doing this rally.

We spent a total of 29 days from September 11 to October 9 2016 at anchor here. It was hard to leave Bali. At this point we confirmed we had decided to not sail onto Kalimantan and do the trip up the Kumai River to see the Orangutans. A personal decision and not an easy one, but once the decision was made, we felt relieved and happy with our choice. Many other rally boats also made the same decision and like us will sail to Baewean, Karimunjawa and via the Belitung Islands onto Bangka, which is reported to be like paradise .

At the time of writing this blog, most of the fleet have left the anchorage. Actually only us and one other vessel remains. A part of staying behind was to see more of Bali for us, never having been here before and also to boat sit our friends yacht while they went home to Australia for a bit. We are keen to hear from those who went up the Kumai (not in their vessels) how their trip was, as we are keen to fly back sometime and to experience the Orangutans.

While in Lovina we did a few day trips around Bali and spent a fair bit of time down south at Seminyak - just up from Kuta. We explored temples, hot springs, had massages, pedicures, manicures, hair cuts, saw the world famous rice paddy fields, much of the local area, ate and enjoyed the local food and explored Seminyak over two visits.

We found Lovina to be very hot but the great thing about being there is the location. Everyday we took the tender ashore to the Seabreeze Inn which has a pool. If you buy a drink there you can use the pool, which a lot of the fleet did on a daily basis. There was also another good pool around the corner at Astina. Same deal here, buy a drink and swim till your hearts content.

Lovina itself has everything you need, and you can walk to most of it. Loads of cafes, restaurants, markets, pharmacy's, doctors, little supermarkets, shops that sell wine (but its very expensive), shops selling clothing, sarongs and even hardware shops. Data is easily purchased here and there is a very good supermarket next to Hardys, called Carrefour in the main town of Singaraja (you may need a car to get here, its a bit of walk). The markets and local fruit & vegetable shops all sold very good quality produce and had a great variety available.

Our first trip down to Seminyak saw us gone for 4 days. We enjoyed the air conditioned room, large pool and king sized bed at the Horison Hotel. A great location down a small alleyway beside the street 'Double Six'. We enjoyed walking around the local streets, window shopping in shops which all mostly sell exactly the same thing and drinking 'dingin sekali'  (ice cold) Bintang's while watching the sun set over the beach - a famous moment for anyone visiting Bali. The sun setting over Kuta is legendary as the view is totally uninterrupted and spectacular.

We had to laugh at the items for sale at the supermarket here named: Bintang Supermarket. Due to it selling all the 'treasures' we had been previously offered as very special items from the men in boats who zoom out to you in anchorages to sell you diesel (solar), water (air) and take your laundry (cucian). Every single item we thought were being made by local villages was available in copious amounts at the Bintang Supermarket - we must of had 'come in spinner' written all over our foreheads!

On the way home we stopped at the Bali Zoo. Actually we had breakfast with the Orangutans here. The zoo itself is small and very well done. Neither of us are zoo fans but this zoo is a bit different. All the funds raised support the preservation of the Green Turtle program. The zoo's moto is: Love, Conserve & Share. The zoo only houses animals who can not be released into the wild while also rehabilitating those who can be released. They are doing a very good job.

Another day we had a long but lovely day trip around a few of the sights of northern and central Bali. Our driver took us to temples, hot springs and rice paddy fields. The drive alone was fantastic, some of the scenry is breathtaking. We got to see a lot of Bali on this day.

Another trip down to Seminyak, saw us again enjoy the air conditioning, sights and sounds of local busy streets. This time we stayed at the Puspa Bungalows at a third of the cost of our previous stay and the room for what it was worth, was a great spot. This time we went to see more temples and the Bali Bird Park. It was amazing.

Leaving Bali was bitter sweet. We loved it here, but we must push on. Heading out to the Java Sea had us both reading weather forecasts for the immediate area and both chatting about plans for the predicted 'unpredictable' weather out in the Java Sea. Some of the fleet ahead of us and in the other rally had all experienced: strong squalls, 30+ knot winds out of nowhere, loads of rain and sometimes quite a decent swell. Not to mention more FADS, fishermen in unlit vessels and more worrying was all the reports of floating drift nets. So it will be interesting to see how go, we plan on making most of the journey via day trips with the odd night trip due to distance.

Loved Bali!

Tef - Gel Vs Duralac

Are some of us following the flock and not asking the right questions.

Tef - Gel vs Duralac, appears to be a debate

Does it have to be a choice? Perhaps the correct answer is to use both in the right application.

I have had several rigging problems I would put down to the use of or should that be misuse of Tef-Gel. Don’t get me wrong it’s a great product, but now it gets used in applications it wasn't meant for or was appropriate for. I know this because once I started to have problems I asked around and had similar stories told to me.

Having just completed several long passages, you can imagine my horror as I needed to keep re-tightening nuts and screws on the rigging during a passage. Then the odd machine screw and bale rained down from different parts of the rigging mid ocean. Yes I would say it was lube crated failure.

There are a lot of places on a boat where you need a galvanic barrier. At the same time, there are applications where you want that electrically isolating barrier and absolutely need fasteners to stay put until you put a spanner, screwdriver or hex key on them. Other times you will need an electrically isolating barrier and want the fasteners usually stainless to not gall or seize when hardware must be dissembled.

Duralac is a chromate containing jointing compound designed to inhibit electrolytic decomposition between dissimilar metals. Duralac is a free flowing paste based on a synthetic elastic resin and barium chromate. This elastic resin when set acts as a thread locker and at the same time keeps electrolytes from entering the interface of the metallic surfaces. The thread locking properties is not listed in the product description but as we have found out is very effective.

The function of Tef-Gel in eliminating dissimilar metal corrosion is the elimination of electrolytes from entering the interface of the metallic surfaces. The product information states Torque requirements may have to be altered according to application of thread lubricants e.g. tef-gel.

Alter the torque settings on screws going into aluminium they say. Well I am a fairly big bloke and am not afraid to crank the spanner that last little bit. But I won’t go to the next step and put on a helper bar over the spanner.  If I need to apply that much torque then it must be coming close to stripping the thread in the hole or shearing off the bolts and or screws.

If you are not worried about the part turning or want it to turn (think turnbuckle) then Tef-gel is great. If it is a fastener you want to stay put but still be able to remove down the road then Duralac is great for things like machine screws in the furler, boom fittings, spinnaker bails, screws holding on spreader lights and pin keeper screws up a rig.

I use both, each has its benefits but they are not interchangeable.

Yes Duralac jointing compound is a hazardous product, just like a lot of products we use for vessel maintenance. But don’t let this stop you from using this product.  Read the MSDS which is available on line.  Do a simple risk assessment and put in control measures.  Then there is minimal danger unless the simple safe working procedures are not followed. 

For those of you who are blindly following the flock and falsely believe Tef-gel is a totally safe product to use and no safety measures need to be put in place. Please read the product Safety Data Sheet or Material Safety Data Sheet (SDS or MSDS) again available on line. I know the control measures to work with either product are very similar.   

I have also heard the argument for using Tef-gel is due to its non polluting properties and Duralac will kill the environment. I am not sure who thought this one up. However if you think about it neither should be used in a manner that will cause pollution. Both are man made products, so clean up after use and dispose of the waste properly. If used correctly the risk of marine pollution from either product is almost zero. 

So back to our trip, once we were anchored and rested up we took stock of the situation and reassessed what needed to be cleaned up and have Duralac jointing compound applied. It did take a bit of doing cleaning up the threads and screws with solvents. However since doing this we have logged over 3000 nautical miles and nothing has come loose. 

As a side note, one of the bales I am talking about coming loose was our spinnaker halyard block bale at the mast head. It did had new nyloc nuts fitted because it was replaced prior to leaving Brisbane for our run up the coast.  So perhaps it's time to look at the use of nyloc nuts differently when using thread lubricants. 

Other items to keep in the tool kit are thread locker and the most recognised brand would be Loctite, but I do know most generic products work well. A simple example is Blue Loctite. Works great on threaded parts that you need to take apart later, but can't have coming loose. And you'll notice that Harken includes little tubes of it in with a lot of the furler hardware which they sell.

If you’re assembling the anchor swivel and don’t want that little machine screw falling out in the middle of the night then red Loctite is what I would use. However it is more than likely heat (blow torch) will need to be applied to aid disassembly later, however the good news is that if the instructions on the bottle were followed it’s highly unlikely it will ever come loose on its own. 

A post detailing a handy grease we use on board for a multitude of assembly and protection use is here .

Stop 11: Medana Bay, Lombok Island, September 10 2016

The trip to Medana Bay, Marina - Lombok Island took us 7.5 hours from Gili Lawang. We motored all the way. We anchored at 08 21.68S & 116 07.73E  in 20 meters of water using our Google maps overlaid on Open CPN.

You need the way points to enter this area safely as it has many reefs to navigate:

Way-points:
A 08 20.07S / 116 08.36E travelling 242 T to way-point B.
B 08 20.43S / 116 07.69E

Once inside you have 3 choices: anchor, pick up a mooring ball or pull into the 'marina'. The anchoring depths are deep as the moorings have taken up the shallower water, some boats did drag anchor. The moorings you pick up at your own risk. During our time here none of our boats had any issues with the moorings. However, the rally from Darwin who were here a few weeks earlier had a mooring break and a boat drifted into the berthed vessels. The marina is dodgy to say the least. Its very basic, you risk rats climbing aboard, theft (one of our rally boats had its outboard engine stolen here) and its a stern in - drop anchor out the front type berth. We preferred (as we always do) to drop our anchor.

This is the entire marina.

That said, the restaurant has cold Bintangs and great good at a good price. Its a good spot to stop for a while. We only stayed the night as we were running out of time to put in our application for our visa extension and did not want to incur a fine, which at the time was AU$25 a day per person.

Marina/hotel restaurant, with a few of the fleet enjoying a cold beer.

A few of us walked up and out of the marina/hotel grounds and walked through a local community out onto the street in search of data. We all got data and we all had issues once we left Medana. We learnt a lesson here, that is you need to be very exact about the questions you ask when buying data, we do not want local data (unless of course you are staying in the area for a while).

The data shop with some of the fleet buying data.

A caged pussy cat.

Servo - Bensin = unlead petrol.

Egg delivery.

A common form of transport.

A bunch of blokes making bricks - one at a time!

Quite a few of the fleet did some day trips and thoroughly loved it, loads to see here. Some also went over to the Gili's (Trawangan, Air and Meno) which are less than 1 hour away (you can see them) in their own boats and some just chilled and stocked up on supplies. Keep in mind that there is a very good supermarket in town with most things at very good price.

A common sight.

Extra Stop: Gili Lawang, Lombok Island September 9, over night stop only

The trip from Kananga to Gili Lawang Island off Lombok via the Alas Strait - Selat Alas (Indonesian) took us 12 hours so quite a long trip and we motored most of the way. We anchored at 08 17.91S & 116 40.01E in 7 meters of water under yet another volcano - the massive Rinjani.

As a point of interest Rinjani exploded 20 days after we left the anchorage, a new reports can be read here.

Matilda entering the anchorage with Mt. Rinjani in the background.

Sun setting over Mt. Rinjani

Two rally boats sustained damage to their sails ripping the webbing off at the head of the sails as they transversed Selat Alas so take care here. The winds can catch you by surprise as they funnel through.

There is also a wonderful anchorage between the reefs on the western side of Gili Lawang and a few rally boats who got in early to see the reef loved the anchorage.

Fishing boats on Lombok Island side.

We anchored on Lombok side just up from the worlds largest oyster farm producing the worlds most sort after pearls. This farm is owned by the Japanese. At first we actually thought the oyster/pearl farm was a prison, as the security surrounding it is pretty full on.

Oyster farm. Pretty impressive security complete with guard houses and incredible amounts of wire fencing.

The fence surrounding the oyster/pearl farm.

A little rolly here but a good secure anchorage.

Sun setting over Lombok.