Calypso's new home for the rainy months

With the approach of the wet season and its prophesied seasonal storms, we'd finally been given the go ahead to move our girl into the Kartini Harbour in Jepara where she will be protected from the worst of the winds and given better holding than our one anchor can offer.

Saturday morning was moving day and we knew we'd have to clear two months worth of growth from our props and anchor chain.  Harry, a South African chap here on contract to the power plant, offered to help and help he surely did.  The poor chap sat out on the bowsprit, a most uncomfortable perch, and proceeded to scrape away more growth than we have ever seen attached to the chain.  We have, on several occasions, stayed in a single anchorage for many many months but have never experienced such heavy growth and this just after two months.

While Harry battled away with the chain, Paul dived down to clean the prop and water inlets and I had a much easier job just getting things ready to remove.  When it came time to lift the final few metres of chain, we tried to motor forward but simply did not move.  I was convinced we had grown to the bottom.  We were just about to drop anchor again when I noticed slight movement so, at full revs we tried again.  Well, with a bit of imagination, we could just see some progress so we persevered some more.  It was only 2.4nm to the harbour and it took us more than 3/4 of that distance to get up to a speed of 2 knots.  There's definitely advantages to having a clean bottom.

En route we managed to touch bottom (the charts aren't particularly accurate around this part of the world) but as we were moving so slowly, it wasn't serious and we simply backed up to take a wider route to the harbour.

A wonderful reception committee awaited us as we arrived; Rob, Peter, Harry and Rere and Fidoli from the factory, so there was no shortage of helping hands to bring us in.  They also had a pickup truck to help move some of the bigger items off as we want to remove anything and everything that we can.

Calypso is now safely tied up to the concrete pier and, if the huge ferry stays where it is, she'll be given protection from the winds during bad storms.  We hear the ferry doesn't go out in stormy weather so we're holding thumbs.  She's been a bit of a novelty since our arrival and now even more so tied up in the harbour.  Yachts aren't a common sight right here and we miss seeing her lying at anchor outside our little home.  The view is definitely missing something but we feel much relieved to have her finally tied up and safe.