Pulau Sipika on the Equator

It's wet!!

Rain, rain and more rain!  In fact, more rain than we can remember since our time in Jepara during the monsoon season.  We left Lagundri after just a couple of days, primarily as there was no means of getting the dinghy ashore in order for us to wander around the village so we left in the good remaining light of Friday afternoon in order to arrive at our next destination, Pulau Sipika, in good light the following morning.  Ha!  We managed to arrive at seven thirty in the morning in the midst of a howling gale, torrential rain and so overcast, it may as well have been nighttime: and six days later, it was still raining!

We had agreed to meet Zoa here after they'd had to go off to mainland Sumatra to renew their visas and thought they'd make it down by the weekend.   They arrived in Sumatra in plenty of time to go to the immigration offices on the Fiday but, true to Indonesian bureaucracy, they were messed around and told to return on the Monday.  When Monday arrived, they were told to return on the Tuesday.  It seems that the new government regulations favourable to yachts has not quite filtered down to all the departments around this vast country.  Suggestions of greased palms entered the fray but they eventually got the necessary stamp in their passports and high-tailed it down to meet us on the Wednesday where, of course, it was raining.

Pulau Sipika is a tiny island popular for its surfing and lies virtually right on the equator and a very pretty spot if it would just stop raining.  Yes, we've crossed back into the southern hemisphere, undoubtedly for the last time aboard Calypso.  There's not much on the island, just a surf camp and a few houses; no shops, restaurants and no internet or phone connections.  Crikey, a whole week without knowing what's going on in the world!  

Sadly, the unfortunate thing for us as we prepare to cross an ocean is - we have no means of sending or receiving emails en route.  Our previously faithful modem which we used for linking to our ship's radio, has died.  We are going to try to contact other boats who can perhaps post messages to our blog site for us but there's no guarantee as there are too few boats following this route with us.  We'll do whatever we can but may not be able to update the blog until we reach civilisation again.