chopstick goes for a sail
07-14-2016
, 05:52 AM
07-14-2016
, 10:45 AM
07-14-2016
, 08:59 PM
Nhlnut - it would get 1.5 stars. I've never seen barracuda swarm, but they swim in schools all the time.
problemeliminator - barracuda have a bad rep because they look fierce, always seem to be stalking you, and are a little quick to pull the trigger when they see something shiny. In reality, they are curious, shy, and fairly docile. Those girls were like 10-12 years old.
amead - fair question. I spent over a month on the boat trying to help them sail safely and having most of my suggestions, warnings, or comments disregarded or ignorantly rebuked. Usually their choice to do this resulted in a negative outcome. You'd think crashing the boat into and getting it stuck on a reef due to doing the exact opposite of what I told them to do would get them to start listening to me, but you'd be wrong.
I feel no further obligations whatsoever. You can't live someone else's life for them. I'd say they are in somewhere between mild and moderate jeopardy at this point.
Here's a shot of how the cabbies (driver is on right side) close their doors on Biak:
See that string? When the passengers get out, he pulls it since he can't reach the door itself from where he is. All the taxis here have this same setup. Taxi fare to/from most places is 4000 rupiah, which is about $0.31usd
Speaking of rupiah, here is the 1000 rupiah note:
Yes, that dude is totally wielding a machete. Definitely bringing back some of those as souvenirs.
problemeliminator - barracuda have a bad rep because they look fierce, always seem to be stalking you, and are a little quick to pull the trigger when they see something shiny. In reality, they are curious, shy, and fairly docile. Those girls were like 10-12 years old.
amead - fair question. I spent over a month on the boat trying to help them sail safely and having most of my suggestions, warnings, or comments disregarded or ignorantly rebuked. Usually their choice to do this resulted in a negative outcome. You'd think crashing the boat into and getting it stuck on a reef due to doing the exact opposite of what I told them to do would get them to start listening to me, but you'd be wrong.
I feel no further obligations whatsoever. You can't live someone else's life for them. I'd say they are in somewhere between mild and moderate jeopardy at this point.
Here's a shot of how the cabbies (driver is on right side) close their doors on Biak:
See that string? When the passengers get out, he pulls it since he can't reach the door itself from where he is. All the taxis here have this same setup. Taxi fare to/from most places is 4000 rupiah, which is about $0.31usd
Speaking of rupiah, here is the 1000 rupiah note:
Yes, that dude is totally wielding a machete. Definitely bringing back some of those as souvenirs.
07-14-2016
, 09:50 PM
07-14-2016
, 11:08 PM
07-15-2016
, 12:06 AM
07-15-2016
, 04:02 AM
Nhlnut - they know. She is on the fence about it, but his ego won't let him hear any of my warnings.
nn99 - it's sailing slang for getting hit by a wave such that water enters the boat.
Here's an example of one of the many dumb things. We approached the Hermit Islands from the east. There is a massive reef covering almost all points of entry from that direction, other than a small 10 meter wide cut. The cut is the only feasible way inside the reef from that direction. Once through that cut, you need to turn about 90° hard to starboard, move up to a second larger cut, then 90° hard to port to go through the second inner cut. Think of it as two rings, one inside the other, with an opening on the inner ring that is just north of the opening on the outer ring. If you miss either cut, you're going to hit the reef.
So you would think you want maximum visibility for this, right? You want someone as high as possible as a spotter, and you want to enter with minimal sun glare. This means a mid day approach with someone in the crow's nest. You also want to enter at high tide to maximize water depth.
They instead decided (against my explicit warning) to enter just after dawn, with two spotters in the exact same place on the bow. This meant close to maximum glare on the surface due to the angle of the sun, as well as spotters about as low as you can get them, minimizing visibility. Tide wasn't ever even considered.
When approaching the cut, I pointed out the channel marker, which was a pole sticking up out of the water in the middle of the cut. They immediately told me that it was a reef "danger" marker and we needed to stay far away from it. I was almost speechless at that assessment because you could literally watch the waves breaking everywhere along the reef except for where the cut was. It was blindingly obvious that the pole was a channel marker.
So we get close to the cut and they finally realize based on the breaking waves that the only place they could enter was the cut. They decided to enter the cut as close to the reef as possible, staying as far as they could from the channel marker. I was in actual disbelief of this despite being there and seeing it with my own eyes.
Once through the first cut, they knew from the chart that they needed to go hard to starboard to make it up to the second cut, but once they turned, low and behold, there were TWO channel markers ahead of them marking both edges of the second cut. I told them to head for those markers, but they decided these were reef "danger" markers to be avoided at all costs, and instead just turned right back to port, determined to somehow make their way through the reef. Of course, about 90 seconds later they hit the reef and got stuck on it. Then blew the engine trying to fruitlessly reverse off. Then he blamed me for "giving bad directions" lol. Only I got blamed, despite her standing right next to me doing the same useless thing. Once he decided to avoid the second cut, the boat was 100% ending up on the reef, it was just a matter of when.
Oh, and I forgot to mention they were driving the boat at a good 3kts during this entire exercise, about six times as fast as they should ever try to negotiate something like that.
This is what being stuck on a reef looks like when you look down:
nn99 - it's sailing slang for getting hit by a wave such that water enters the boat.
Here's an example of one of the many dumb things. We approached the Hermit Islands from the east. There is a massive reef covering almost all points of entry from that direction, other than a small 10 meter wide cut. The cut is the only feasible way inside the reef from that direction. Once through that cut, you need to turn about 90° hard to starboard, move up to a second larger cut, then 90° hard to port to go through the second inner cut. Think of it as two rings, one inside the other, with an opening on the inner ring that is just north of the opening on the outer ring. If you miss either cut, you're going to hit the reef.
So you would think you want maximum visibility for this, right? You want someone as high as possible as a spotter, and you want to enter with minimal sun glare. This means a mid day approach with someone in the crow's nest. You also want to enter at high tide to maximize water depth.
They instead decided (against my explicit warning) to enter just after dawn, with two spotters in the exact same place on the bow. This meant close to maximum glare on the surface due to the angle of the sun, as well as spotters about as low as you can get them, minimizing visibility. Tide wasn't ever even considered.
When approaching the cut, I pointed out the channel marker, which was a pole sticking up out of the water in the middle of the cut. They immediately told me that it was a reef "danger" marker and we needed to stay far away from it. I was almost speechless at that assessment because you could literally watch the waves breaking everywhere along the reef except for where the cut was. It was blindingly obvious that the pole was a channel marker.
So we get close to the cut and they finally realize based on the breaking waves that the only place they could enter was the cut. They decided to enter the cut as close to the reef as possible, staying as far as they could from the channel marker. I was in actual disbelief of this despite being there and seeing it with my own eyes.
Once through the first cut, they knew from the chart that they needed to go hard to starboard to make it up to the second cut, but once they turned, low and behold, there were TWO channel markers ahead of them marking both edges of the second cut. I told them to head for those markers, but they decided these were reef "danger" markers to be avoided at all costs, and instead just turned right back to port, determined to somehow make their way through the reef. Of course, about 90 seconds later they hit the reef and got stuck on it. Then blew the engine trying to fruitlessly reverse off. Then he blamed me for "giving bad directions" lol. Only I got blamed, despite her standing right next to me doing the same useless thing. Once he decided to avoid the second cut, the boat was 100% ending up on the reef, it was just a matter of when.
Oh, and I forgot to mention they were driving the boat at a good 3kts during this entire exercise, about six times as fast as they should ever try to negotiate something like that.
This is what being stuck on a reef looks like when you look down:
07-15-2016
, 05:07 AM
07-15-2016
, 05:00 PM
5s - most paper charts still us the compass heading approach, but it's mixed for electronic. They had both paper and electronic, so no excuse. 270° entry, bear 345°, 260° entry if I remember correctly.
Nhlnut - pretty much exactly that, yes.
pe - an enormous amount in a very small area. About 25 gross weight in tons concentrated impact in an area a couple of square meters in size. Not much to the reef as a whole.
Currently in Biak airport getting ready to take a flight to Sorong via Jayapura on Sriwajaya Air. They have the lowest possible safety rating on airlineratings.com (1/8) and are banned in the EU so we'll see if I make it there alive or not.
http://www.airlineratings.com/safety...irline.php?l=S
If I make it to Sorong alive, will ferry over to Palau Kri and find a homestay there to spend a week snorkeling and diving in the Raja Ampat islands.
Nhlnut - pretty much exactly that, yes.
pe - an enormous amount in a very small area. About 25 gross weight in tons concentrated impact in an area a couple of square meters in size. Not much to the reef as a whole.
Currently in Biak airport getting ready to take a flight to Sorong via Jayapura on Sriwajaya Air. They have the lowest possible safety rating on airlineratings.com (1/8) and are banned in the EU so we'll see if I make it there alive or not.
http://www.airlineratings.com/safety...irline.php?l=S
If I make it to Sorong alive, will ferry over to Palau Kri and find a homestay there to spend a week snorkeling and diving in the Raja Ampat islands.
07-16-2016
, 12:15 AM
07-16-2016
, 06:43 PM
07-25-2016
, 03:34 AM
Made it alive to Sorong, spent a few days there eating better Indonesian food. Took the ferry from there to Waisai, which is a town on an island to the northwest. Then took a tiny speedboat over to Pulau Kri, a tiny island that is part of the Raja Ampat islands.
Been staying on PK the last six days in a little beach bungalow. It's about $27/usd per day, including three meals a day. Dives are about $40/each including equipment rental, snorkeling tagalongs are lol$3. Electricity is only available a few hours each day via generator. There is fresh water to drink but all washing is with either salt water or slightly less salty water. The toilet is not OOT-friendly.
The snorkeling and diving are ridiculous. I've snorkeled in a bunch of sweet places, including the Caribbean, Thailand, the Maldives, French Polynesia, etc. Raja Ampat blows them all away. Lost count how many turtles I've swam with, let alone seen. The sharks (mostly blacktip, some whitetip) haven't let me swim with them but I've seen a ton of them and gotten as close as two meters away. The barracuda schools have let me almost join their schools, just a meter or so away. Then there are the bazillions of reef fish all over the place. Have seen three wobbegong sharks so far, which are curious creatures. Moray eels here and there. It's a special place. Really glad I'm here now, before humans inevitability discover, commercialize, and destroy it.
Here I am swimming with one of the infinite turtles:
Mosquito netting covering simple floor mattress in the bungalow:
The main jetty & eating area. This is where the speedboat dropped me off:
Typical lunch here:
The internet is super slow. Project Fi delivers yet again thanks to some cellular tower somewhere. Managed to injure myself yesterday so spending today healing & slow internetting before going on a night snorkel tonight in search of walking sharks, lobsters, and octopi.
Will most likely stay here another 4-5 days, then either somewhere else in Raja Ampat or on to another country. The Philippines are pretty close by..
Been staying on PK the last six days in a little beach bungalow. It's about $27/usd per day, including three meals a day. Dives are about $40/each including equipment rental, snorkeling tagalongs are lol$3. Electricity is only available a few hours each day via generator. There is fresh water to drink but all washing is with either salt water or slightly less salty water. The toilet is not OOT-friendly.
The snorkeling and diving are ridiculous. I've snorkeled in a bunch of sweet places, including the Caribbean, Thailand, the Maldives, French Polynesia, etc. Raja Ampat blows them all away. Lost count how many turtles I've swam with, let alone seen. The sharks (mostly blacktip, some whitetip) haven't let me swim with them but I've seen a ton of them and gotten as close as two meters away. The barracuda schools have let me almost join their schools, just a meter or so away. Then there are the bazillions of reef fish all over the place. Have seen three wobbegong sharks so far, which are curious creatures. Moray eels here and there. It's a special place. Really glad I'm here now, before humans inevitability discover, commercialize, and destroy it.
Here I am swimming with one of the infinite turtles:
Mosquito netting covering simple floor mattress in the bungalow:
The main jetty & eating area. This is where the speedboat dropped me off:
Typical lunch here:
The internet is super slow. Project Fi delivers yet again thanks to some cellular tower somewhere. Managed to injure myself yesterday so spending today healing & slow internetting before going on a night snorkel tonight in search of walking sharks, lobsters, and octopi.
Will most likely stay here another 4-5 days, then either somewhere else in Raja Ampat or on to another country. The Philippines are pretty close by..
