Midnight swimming in the Java Sea

As our anticipated anchorage was a no go due to the weather, we were again faced with sailing on through the night. No big deal, but beginning to get a bit tedious. We are cruising, not completing a record breaking global circumnavigation, however if you can't anchor, it is equally pointless just to float about for the 12 hours of darkness, so onwards, onwards.

A pair of spear f.a.d.s in daylight

As dusk had drawn in, we had noticed that as we were close into the coast at the time, a couple of  the large vertically deployed bamboo 'spear' contraptions, another type of  FAD , we had first encountered north of Penang in Malaysia, were in the vicinity. That being the case , best option was to go further out to sea and hope they were closer to the coast.

Single vertical bamboo poles, sometimes with a palm frond or piece of material at the top ate hard enough to spot in broad daylight, and no chance at night.

Yes dear reader, we found one! Or at least the pole part of one.
I suspect the bit we found- the bamboo pole , had actually been hit by a ship and  thus the pole was detached from “what lies beneath” and was free ranging around the ocean – well until we passed by.

Then it decided to hitch a ride with us.

I’m not sure what the skill base of a bamboo pole covered largely in barnacles really is, but to have managed to position itself as it did, fair and square across the starboard sail drive leg, without any means of manoeuvring itself, is quite a feat and obviously I need to give random poles more respect!

So mission impossible was to remove said bamboo pole from its current resting position. The pole I would estimate was about 10 -12m long and the circumference of the thickest end about 6-7”. it had neatly bent itself in two around the leading edge of the saildrive.

I’m sure I've mentioned it before but a saildrive leg looks just like an outboard motor leg, it is just permanently (she thinks hopefully) attached through the hull to the engine and at the lower end in the water under the hull is the propeller.

First things first. Get rid of the headway. That meant dropping the main and furling the jib.

Then drifting in a swell of about half a meter and a sea state on top of that of about 30cm , we attempted to lasso the out board end of the pole, some 5m away.
As the boat drifted in the swell, occasional the out board end of the pole would swing from aft of us, to abeam of us. The attempt to lasso the end proved fruitless. Meanwhile the end that was across the leg and now stretching towards the port hull as we lolled around ,was just short enough (about 4m of it, was between the hulls) to not quite manage to be destroying the anti foul or gelcoat on the port hull.

This fruitless attempt could have continued for some time but I wanted that thing gone before it could do further damage. The quickest way I could think of to do that was by getting in the water and manhandling it off the sail drive leg.

With no debate, as I knew Peter would disagree, I went and got ready, togs ,face mask and snorkel, knife and torch and slid into the water for a midnight dip in the Java Sea.

My first assessment was, that it didn’t look too bad, and the sail drive  didn't appear to have sustained damage.
I swam back towards the thin, out board end which was trailing at about 45 degrees astern, swam it forward to the saildrive  and started to physically push the damn thing so that it would all end up between the hulls and drift away.

That done, it was back under the water  for an inspection of the damage sustained. Clearly we had lost anti-foul off the rudder blade, where the inboard section had been rubbing and also the leading edge of the actual saildrive leg and the bit of the hull at the point where the leg appears through the hull. This was the very point where the rubber 'boot' which Steve had so painstakingly glued on back in Phuket when we were out of the water was.

He had done such an outstanding job that all was in tact.The rubber still stuck tight ,albeit now sans
anti-foul.

After the pole was gone, a quick dive seemed to indicate ,that no twine rope net,etc. was wrapped around any part of us it shouldn’t have been and  then we tested the propellers, so with me in the water still, and at a sensible distance from whirring turning things, but still close enough to see with the beam of the torch, Peter started the engine and engaged the propeller both ahead and astern. Everything looked ok to me visually. As i was there, we did the port one too, just in case.

Note to self; when engaging in midnight dips in less than calm conditions- remember to tie up ones board-shorts first, the elastic in the waist band could not deal with the surging water as I bobbed around!

Apologies once again at the total lack of foresight in filming the  event– I really should have taken go pro with me, along with torch and the knife!!!!

Once back on board a check of the starboard engine and the top (inboard) end of the saildrive appeared to indicate all was well.

Onwards, onwards, into the night!

Post the event, I did think about the number of sea snakes we had passed during the day. They scare me more than sharks up in this part of the world, mainly as we see them and apart from my baby black tip, sighted in Thailand I haven't seen a shark in 2 and half years up here.
Peter tells me not to worry, as its highly unlikely one would bite me- but highly unlikely isn’t good enough odds for me, especially as they rate amongst the most venomous snakes,  after all what where the odds that it was “likely” I would be taking a midnight in the Java Sea in the first place?