{"id":9116,"date":"2024-08-02T19:38:05","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T05:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=9116"},"modified":"2024-08-02T19:38:05","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T05:38:05","slug":"life-in-the-off-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=9116","title":{"rendered":"Life in the Off Season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Since we started living here almost two years ago, we\u2019ve never been in residence in the \u201coff\u201d season – the months of June, July, and August.  This is traditionally the low season for tourism due to the rain and strong southerly quadrant winds, with most of the liveaboard tourist boats moving to Komodo for this period. In 2022, we were back in Australia selling \u201cToucan\u201d, and last year we were once again back in Australia while I recovered from my knee replacement surgery.  So this is a first for us, and it\u2019s certainly been an interesting change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re not unhappy about the lack of tourists, although there are still a few hardy souls walking the beach or trying to snorkel in the rough conditions. Most are Europeans, and it amazes me that people spend so much money to get here without doing their research on the climate at this time of year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weather has definitely been challenging.  In June it rained a LOT – almost every day and every night.  It certainly tested out our roofing, and after a few nights of dodging the leaks by squeezing onto the edge of the mattress or down the end of the bed, we decided that repairs were in order.  I\u2019m pleased to say they\u2019ve been successful and we now sleep comfortably when it\u2019s raining.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fencey doing a great job of repairing our roof on a rare sunny day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the rain was welcome for the plants and I now have a bumper crop of chillies and kangkung (water spinach).  Even the recalcitrant banana plants are starting to grow, and the canoe planter is filling out with marigold seedlings.  Unsurprisingly, the grass has gone a bit crazy so we\u2019ve put our push mower to the test and found it actually works quite well. How ridiculously suburban is that?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The beginning of a bumper crop of chillies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The marigolds are coming along well, hopefully soon they’ll provide a colourful display<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The pot plants are doing well too – aloe vera, hibiscus, and petunias are just some of the recent additions. I can’t plant them in the ground because occasionally we get big tides that come up and over the beach embankment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bruce in the backyard with his mower!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

July had less rain but a lot more wind from the south\/south-east, making it difficult to find a suitable weather window to get to Sorong for our regular provisioning trips.  Our little speedboat is fine for local trips in calm weather, but its relatively flat bottom causes it to slam and buck like a rodeo steer in any sort of wave action, making it a not-so-fun ride.  So we try to put off the inevitable as long as possible – a month between trips is about our limit – and so far we\u2019ve picked our windows pretty well but it often means starting out at dawn when conditions are still relatively benign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being so close to the equator, the temperature is a fairly consistent 27-30 degrees celsius all year round, but the wind chill factor makes it feel a lot cooler at this time of year. Our once-welcome cold shower at the end of the day was becoming a bit of an endurance test in these conditions, so we finally caved and bought ourselves a gas instant water heater for the shower.  Oh the bliss! Truthfully, it may only be used for a couple of months a year, but it\u2019s a game-changer for comfort levels on those cooler days or after a long dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ahhh…the little luxuries of life!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve also discovered that we don\u2019t have enough solar panels to effectively charge our batteries during this time of year, so we\u2019ve been having to run the generator each morning and evening to keep the batteries topped up.  We\u2019ve just installed two more solar panels, but eventually we\u2019ll need a few more if we\u2019re to avoid using the generator and all that extra fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The really big news is that Starlink is now in Indonesia! Our internet has been atrocious, so of course we rushed to buy a Starlink unit and the dish is now installed on the headland with our solar panels and working like a charm. What a game-changer to have connectivity 24\/7!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our Starlink dish on the headland. We’re very happy to give the local Telkomsel service the flick.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re still diving when the weather allows, and we had a great time hanging out with some cool turtles at one of our favourite dive sites, Sawandarek, on my birthday in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The resident green turtle at Sawandarek – very tolerant of having her photo taken with divers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Off into the blue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And of course, the quest for nudibranchs and macro subjects continues – I\u2019m just loving all these teeny tiny gorgeous works of nature, and it\u2019s always exciting to spot something new on a dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ardeadoris cruenta nudibranch – so very pretty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Two for the price of one! A ribbon eel and Hypselodoris tyroni <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The “special handshake” of mating Nembrotha purpureolineata nudibranchs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A very pregnant Denise’s pygmy seahorse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A beautiful Goniobranchus leopardus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The macro photographer hard at work!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Doriprismatica stellata – looking like a prehistoric rhino in chainmail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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another beautiful nudi – Chromodoris willani<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the time we\u2019ve been attending to maintenance jobs around the place (just like on a boat, there\u2019s always something to fix), including gardening, and clearing the beaches of plastics and washed up logs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bruce fixing a broken step<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The back beach looking a lot cleaner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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..except for this monster of a tree trunk that washed up. Way too big to move and another reminder of why it’s so treacherous to travel at night in these waters. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the past few months we haven\u2019t been completely isolated – we\u2019re always delighted to have visitors, whether they\u2019re the human or non-human kind\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We love having the Raja Shelducks come to visit, looking like caped crusaders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our resident palm cockatoo “Elvis” is becoming a little bolder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Finding this banded seasnake on the beach one morning was a bit of surprise! Apparently they come ashore to lay their eggs, so we’re now on the lookout for the babies..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A pretty and non-venomous tree snake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And a beautiful iridescent beetle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We also had a lovely visit (and a delicious lunch) from the Saleo family and friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We’re especially grateful to visiting yachties who help us out -we’ve had a couple of yachts visit the bay recently, and Robin and Susy were kind enough to bring our new solar panels from Sorong on their motor cruiser \u201cSalty Dawgz\u201d. Thanks guys, it’s been great to enjoy your company over the last few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So no matter the season, life is never dull here, and every day is a new adventure!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since we started living here almost two years ago, we\u2019ve never been in residence in the \u201coff\u201d season – the months of June, July, and August.  This is traditionally the low season for tourism due to the rain and strong southerly quadrant winds, with most of the liveaboard tourist boats moving to Komodo for this … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Life in the Off Season”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-svtoucan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6B46t-2n2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9116"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9133,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9116\/revisions\/9133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}