Black Dot Philosophy: A boat ride across the Strait of Sunda

First, an explanation of the pictures. First one, see the cigarette in his right hand? And then see the black rubber tubing near it? That's the fuel line. Under his feet? the fuel tank. Scratch that I meant a10 gallon water jug that is full of fuel with a hole punched out for the fuel line and the lid not quite tight (I can smell the fumes).

Second one, focus on the young man with a small water container. yep, he's bailing water out of the boat. And at this time, the water was calm so no, the water in the boat was not from the waves.

Third one, it just shows the state and size of the boat.

That night was a bit of an adventure. We chartered a small boat to go to this island across the strait. Well I guess we stayed too long and when we came back, the evening winds were picking up. Basically we were in the white caps condition on this rickety boat with a small, old outboard motor. One guy was bailing water out of the bottom of the boat. It's open so we were all getting wet. But we made it safe and sound.

When I saw the guy with the cigarette, my brain calculated many scenarios as to what might happen and what I would do if such event occurs. I would dive to catch the cigarette as it falls INTO the fueltank...I would grab the wet blanket they used to cover some dubious pile of stuff on the side...I would grab the water container and threw water at it...I wasn't that worried about having to swim, I can see both the island we're going to and the island we just left. So I can swim toward the closest one if the boat was gone. The boat ride was over an hour long so at worst I'd have to swim for an hour or two.

Once we arrived at the island, snorkeling, seashell hunting and exploring ensued. I was told that the Japanese (who used to occupyIndonesia for 4-5 years) used this island as a lookout station.

Since we stayed a tad too long, our ride back was risking the darkness (no lights on the boat, either indicator lights or to see with). Though there is a lighthouse, which I was hoping was still functioning if it came to that. *It was*

But the worst bit of news is the fact that we'll be sure to face the evening winds that will whip up the ocean, plus the currents. This is not the open ocean, but a strait (look up Sunda Strait). So there area lot of conflicting natural forces at play here. Hence the whitecap conditions that is sure to happen every day past 5:00pm.

While it doesn't take much for the waves to be bigger than this boat...it was still unnerving for some people on the boat. Even my thoughts of just swimming to shore is now a scary proposition. So again my brain came up with several solutions to different scenarios to ensure our survival. But I didn't count on the freight ships crossing our path! And the wakes they leave that are even bigger than the size of the waves (it got bigger after the ship's wakes).

I picked the windward side rather than the lee side of the boat. So as the boat crashes into the waves, the wind would blow the spray onto my side of the boat. This way I figured I would catch most of the water spray and save the children from it.

When we arrived back on shore, we were about 4 miles from our hotel(we could have taken the boat directly there but everyone was scared so we crossed the strait in a straight line). We then took a public transportation that is a minivan with bench seats around the edge rather than in rows. It fit 11 of us in the back, the driver, and the boat driver safely inside. The other 2 deck hands on the boat were hanging on the door throughout the whole ride.

I wasn't worried or anything for me. I was sure I could survive anything this little adventure threw at us. But it was both funny and disconcerting to watch how worried other people were (luckily the boat crew wasn't worried, if they were, I would be too).