Be The Jam

Work today. Fiddling. If anyone ever tells you they would get bored on a boat all day, they are not boat people. There is always something to do on a boat. They don't keep themselves. So far on this boat I have repaired or help repair three water pumps, two sails, sheets - splicing, Desk light, spreaders lights, nav. lights, water out of the exhaust, filter on the engine, batteries - changed water once and then replaced with acid - this meant taking three tractor size batteries out three times, all sails taken out inspected and replaced, food shopping 6 times, water fill up endless times, fixed the log (Speedo), replaced the anode, patched the hull, scrapped down the hull, painted it......the list is too long to remember. This is on top of your everyday living, cooking, cleaning, washing, sleeping Not boring. It's quite difficult to find the time to sit down and write.

Anyway we are getting into a routine of going and eating at Mrs Esther. Her food is excellent. These aren't typical Indo dishes, but a bowl of rice and a selection of meats, fish and vegetables. Excellent! I prefer this kind of cooking to the traditional dishes of Nasi Goreng or Gado Gado; these mostly consist of peanut sauce.

The people of Karimun Jawa are friendly and most welcoming. Hardly any of them speak English, so we are all picking up Indonesian slowly. One chap called Bang Bang, is acting as an agent for us. He speaks quite a few words of English, in fact compared to my Indo, he speaks excellent English. He will be supplying us with a variety of things we need. We have ordered, 3 spear guns, a valve for the exhaust, Bamboo, wood, charcoal. I'm sure a few other things will be added to the list. Quite how he is going to acquire all these things I'm not sure, there are no shops, even the restaurant isn't really a restaurant it's Esther’s front porch to her house.

I’m rambling, enough.