Location: Underway to Bali
About three years ago, in one of the most beautiful bays in St Vincent in the Caribbean, my anchor shenanigans saga began on Ocean Star. Little did I know it would follow me for the majority of my time here and somehow onto all 3 Seamester boats. After losing (and finding) Velas anchor and then having the chain get stuck around a rock in Antigua slipway in the spring, I said ok, cool, cool, cool. Ive got one more semester and one boat, and I havent had to do any anchor shenanigans on (aka Argo). I was like theres no way its going to happen, Im turning over a new leaf. But alas, they follow me wherever I go. I am the bad juju. Good luck to whatever boat hires me next! Did I also just out us for a good amount of anchor issues? Yeah absolutely. Do we fix them every time? Also absolutely. But dont worry, Ill be gone soon. So now Im just a pro at it. Anyway, this is just the prologue. Well get to the shenanigans after the first bit of the day.
My day actually started at 330am when watch team 3 got awoken for the final time (mine for real this time) for our 4-8 sunrise watch. Im not going to lie. This was absolutely the best watch to have on this little 26-hour jaunt from Sumbawa over to Bali. We got on deck to total darkness and epic stars, and our student watch team leader, Lainey, briefed our squad, making extra note of the wild and crazy boat traffic they had had on the 12-4 watch. In case youre wondering, Indo is kind of like the Wild West when it comes to colregs, aka boat rules of the road (sea?). Sometimes, there are lights, sometimes not, and sometimes, you get flash-banged when a tiny fishing boat is about 100 feet away from Argo. So we knew we would be in for an entertaining watch with all of these boats around. Thankfully, they decided to wait until after the sun came up a bit to really go crazy. We probably had one of the most epic sunrises I have had in a while on 4-8. It was beautiful pink and orange all around Lombok, which has Indonesias second tallest volcano on it. Then we waved to friends (hi Ash) as we passed by the Gilis. Then it got interesting. Throughout the next two or so hours, we had small fishing boats directly b-lining for us; we had a sailing race, with boats and buoys, happening next to/within a TSS (essentially a big boat highway), and had to do two donuts with Argo to avoid various boats. To say we were *awake* would be an understatement; everyone was on high alert our whole watch. We did get a lovely watch snack of red bean and matcha mochi made by Kelsey, which helped ease our stress a bit, but by the end, we were all ready to go back to sleep.
I took a quick hour or so nap and then woke up to Gabes lovely face around 915 so I could finish out his watch while he proctored the Navmaster exam. I very peacefully got to helm past multiple volcanoes and more islands with friends living on them (hi Yas) all by myself on deck and really soaked in my last bit of time behind the helm on Argo. This day did have a lot of lasts for me. Last watch, last helm, last place, last docking, last sail drop, last movement on these boats. And I didnt even cry once! Emma, you should be proud.
Ok, back to the regularly scheduled programming. Lunch was a fan favorite: brunch. By fans, I mean me. We did our last cleanup underway, and then it was time for more Navmaster exams. During the second round, the rest of the students, led by the watch team leaders, got the sails down, got the dock lines out, and pumped up fenders ahead of our arrival onto the dock in Bali. When the second exam was done, it was time to wriggle through the channel and put our booty safely and securely on the dock. I got to be on my favorite job for stern-to-docking, the anchors. For this dock dealio, we drop one anchor, then sit back a bit, then drive forward towards the other side, drop another anchor, and then sit all the way back to the dock where we tie our lines. Thats in a perfect world. A perfect world does not include 1. A 60m super sailing yacht next to you on the dock 2. Low tide and 3. 10-15 tiny boats and mooring balls all right exactly where we want to drop our anchors. But such is life. We wriggled our way in and around and had Anna as our push boat to help us spin and navigate through all the aforementioned crap. When we were mostly on the dock and mostly attached, I was asked to take up on the port anchor until it was tight, which was a very normal post-stern to docking task. So thats what I did. No more than 1 minute later, we were looking at the port anchor hanging at the water line.
Cuuuueeee anchor shenanigans!!!
Good on you if youre not my mom and still reading this. Did I do a good job of making you want to keep reading until you figured out what the shenanigans were? I will admit, most shenanigans in the past have included scuba diving, this one was just free diving. Anyways, the plan was to attach our mega lift bag to the anchor, slowly drop the anchor into the water, fill up the lift bag with a scuba tank, and then swim/pull the anchor out as we eased the chain out of the boat. Picture this: water so green and full of questionable things I had to tell myself it was just Antigua slipway (also a place few people would agree to dive in, but I have spent many hours in) to get myself to jump in the water. But you just dont think about it, and its all fine and good! Luckily, Anna jumped in to help. Friends always make it better. We enacted the plan and got the anchor where she needed to live for the next month or so. Then, she climbed out of the water, all delicious and slimy from this water. Honestly, a low-key level of anchor shenanigans if I do say so myself. But would it really have been my last docking on my last skipper day, even if this didnt happen? Quite classic, I feel.
Right after we were all secured and the boat was off and at home, we did a quick boat to bed and then got ready to head to the night market!!! Props to Sidney, who, almost two months ago, said hey, its my literal dream to 1. Swim with whale sharks (check), and 2. Go to a night market in Indonesia, particularly to eat meat on a stick. Ok. Challenge was accepted and secured. A simple Google did the trick, and we were off to the Sanur night market. Meat on a stick was eaten, as well as fried noodles in a paper bag, multiple smoothies, this fried bread thing with jam and frosting of sorts, and various goodies from a giant table that had absolutely no labels on anything aside from sweet and salty. And the best part is, no one got explosive diarrhea the next morning. Big win. After the night market, we headed home, and all enjoyed our first full night of sleep where no one on the boat was awake at any point throughout the night (:
Alas, I am not in an emo mood at the moment to get sappy about my last day as skipper and last blog, which is perfect because I have the benefit of getting to tack on a bit on the very last blog. See you then, folks.