Our stay in Cirebon was 1day longer than planned, due to strong and contrary weather.

On the night of the 30th, the weather seemed to better a little, and the monsoon rains didn't show up at their usual time...so we set sails toward Jakarta.

All was fine, the wind was with us (at least not too much AGAINST us), and the waves not too big.
The night was looking promising...and it was, but not as we thought it'd be...

Romain was on watch when we suddenly heard him shout; "come on deck, we're tangled in a fishing net..."
The net was wrapped numerous time around the propeller, both ways, because we tried to put the back gear in order to get out of the mess...and the whole keel was sort of wrapped up like a butterfly in a spider net...

With no lights and no boat around, those fishing nets are just inpossible to see...this is one more danger of the Java sea. We were lucky so far, but we had to experience this once...

So there we go, Vincent got in the water and started entangling and cutting the net, while we tried to help from the deck by providing light, vocal support and pulling hard on all the net bits he managed to untangle...


Vincent getting out of the water with his knife and bits of net (the crime scene was re played the next day at the port, as we weren't in the mood for pictures on the spot...)

After an hour of fighting with the net, while the boat was jumping up and down in the waves, which wasn't helping, we managed to set the yatch free and started motor-sailing again.

But a fishing boat (where was he when we fought against the net???) started chasing us...The captain was really angry as he shout that his net disapeared after we freed ourselves.
Romain was quite angry too and shot back "you didn't have lights so fuck off" (in INDONESIAN...a very pissed off Romain can become suddenly bilingual!!!)

But we could'nt really argue in a foreign langage, with that angry guy, the boats beating in the waves and the motors roaring...so we just gave them 300 000rp (about 30euros, which is probably 1 week of work for them) and they stopped following us...

But it wasn't the end of our worries; the monsoon rains came in, later than usual, but stronger ever, and we had to reduce the sails to the minimum.
We went back under way and had to helm all night long, as Tequila was bounced off the bearing all the time by side waves...
Morning rose on a knackered crew and a boat that hadn't made 1mile in the right direction since 4am...

Tequila had sort off beat into a "wall", and she just couldn't get further, despite full motor and sails with strong winds...the current and sails comming the opposite way were just too strong for her...

We tried to beat this wall for 8hours, without success, and at 12am, we decided to go back to Cirebon.
It took us 6 hours to do the distance which took us 14hours the other way...and we got to Cirebon soaked, exhausted, hungry and quite depressed...

So here we are, back to the beginning and waiting for the right "window", which would enable us to make it to Jakarta (only 165miles away)

Cirebon is not a very charming city, a part from the few Sultan's palaces dating 1529...but it has all the services and a good port (althought very corrupt)...so we can happily wait for the right window, while enjoying the nice and cheap seafood restaurants...

Will Tequila and her crew make it to Jakarta on time to meet the captain's program? You will find out in the next episode of "Tequila on the java sea..."