Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
There is never a dull moment on Argo, especially not when it is a departure day! The morning began with surprise shore time, which was completely thrilling. I may have been a tad overexcited and motivated everyone to be on deck eating breakfast about 15 minutes early… but hey, it was our first chance to be on land in almost three weeks! When we got to the marina, I was thoroughly impressed with how nice it was. Of course, most people were thoroughly impressed that the ice cream shop was the first thing they saw when they entered the building. We each spent our mornings enjoying our rare shore time playing pool, ordering pizzas, Skyping loved ones at home, eating ice cream, and getting a guided tour of the marina (which included lots of little boat models in a sort of museum). For me, the chance to eat ice cream AND be in contact with family from back home was by far the best combination possible to kick off our (albeit short) passage to Borneo to see some orangutans! Finally, we managed to locate a barge that was able to sell us the fuel we needed, so we headed back to Argo to get ready for a fuel transfer and prepare to set sail again. Onboard Argo, the checklist of things to do before getting underway was enormous, as always. Still, with stellar teamwork and unbeatable attitudes, everything that needed to happen was taken care of quickly and easily. Once the fuel transfer was completed, we figured we would be on our way, but we were surprised! A part in the engine room sprung a leak and needed to be replaced. Luckily, one of our very own – Desiree- had enough Indonesian up her sleeve to negotiate. So we sent her off with Jack to bargain for the part with the fuel barge we had just left. We all took advantage of the downtime to have our deck showers, and before we had even finished, they came back victoriously holding up a spare part. While the new part was being rigged up, we enjoyed a lovely dinner of fish tacos and a gracious goodbye present of Jakarta – some menacing-looking squalls. I’m happy to report that we avoided the squalls and are currently on our way to Kumai!