The weather remained committed to doing absolutely nothing useful. We carried on with around 10 knots of apparent wind directly behind us, which isn't enough to get this boat moving with any real enthusiasm. So we continued towards Singapore, burning diesel and watching the miles disappear at a rate best described as "eventually."
I saw a bunch of dolphins which i was a little surprised about although they looked like they'd been surviving on an intermittent fasting diet they hadn't signed up for. Can dolphins get ricketts? Later in the morning I spotted a couple of pilot whales, and they looked equally undernourished. Perhaps that's just what marine mammals in the Java Sea are supposed to look like, but they certainly weren't the glossy brochure versions.
Then - absolutely nothing.
Now, you'd think nothing happening would be a good thing. Experience in the Java Sea suggests otherwise. After enough time out here, a long period of peace starts to feel less like good fortune and more like the sea quietly lulling you into a false sense of security before introducing its next little surprise. Who knows if that's pattern recognition or paranoia.
The Java Sea didn't disappoint.
As darkness fell I spent the entire watch playing what felt like an increasingly complicated game of "identify the target." At one point there were six fishing boats on AIS, eight sets of lights I could actually see, and ten radar returns. None of those numbers agreed with each other, which really helps inspire confidence.
Hovering in the back of my mind the whole time was the knowledge that fishing boats and FADs often arrive as a package deal. Somewhere amongst the lights and radar echoes could easily be more of those floating platforms sitting inches above the water with a flag approximately the size of a tea towel. They're technically marked, in much the same way a landmine with a toothpick stuck in it could be described as well signposted.
By sunrise nothing had been hit, nobody had needed fresh underwear, and we'd made a few more nm in the Java Sea, that counts as a successful night's work.
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| You cant even take a picture of the sunrise without a Tug and barge photobombing it |