How is the energy balance going, and how is the pace, the sailing life in the tropics on board? And a happy welcoming arrival in Batam.

Energy balance

Sat Jul 04 2026 08:41:00 GMT+0700 (West-Indonesische tijd)

Since the motor doesn’t generate electricity, there are only the solar panels (we sail with the wind in the back, so the windgenerator delivers close to nothing). How does it work? Will the Ya make her destination before the batteries are dead?
If you check the Energy Balance on the website, we use about 2,5 kW per day. That is 5% of the battery capacity. With the battery bank on 70% now, we could sail another 14 days. So no worries But still the solar is working.
To be always on the safe side, the consumption is reduced.

The plotter and auxiliary screen (using 30 Watt) in the cockpit is off now, and the navigation is done by the the little laptop (20 Watt) which is always on. This saves 30W X 24 hours = 720 WattHour (Wh)
the 230 Volt is switched off and only on for cooking. The inverter and laptop adapters are taking 20 Watt when running idle (so when the laptop batteries are full) so that saves about 22 hours X 20 Watt is 440 Wh
just being more critical on lights, saves an estimated 4 hours X 10 Watt, so that is 50 Wh
All together, the energy is brought back with 720+440+50 WattHour is 1330 Wh. That makes a reduction of 50% of the regular consumption.
The sun shines great from 10:30 to 13:30. Then the mainsail covers the solar panels, and after a gybe there is another hour of full sun on the panels. That delivers on the average hour about 400 Watt. So there is 1200 Wh coming into the battery bank. These are LFP batteries, so there is hardly any loss on charging or uncharging.
So actually, the household is in balance. With a loss of 1330-1200 Wh the deficit is 130 Wh. The Ya can continue sailing hafl the world this way!
This is another example how easy it is to start first at the consumption side before even thinking of regeneration. Because it is 3 times simpler, cheaper and safer and quicker.

One job a day keeps the pros away. Here the foot rail gets some repairs

Easy going days

Sun Jul 05 2026 18:30:00 GMT+0700 (West-Indonesische tijd)

Just as every day, sailing is easy here in Indonesia. The wind has always been between 9 and 16 knots, so force 3, 4 and (low) 5. The Ya sails downwind, so that is easy. The waves are small, only half a meter or less. So it is easy going.
Great time to do some maintenance every day, and start really early in the morning. From 11 till 3 PM the sun is too harsh to work. Then it is time to have a slow lunch and a light nap. The traffic is little. Only son now and then, when passing fishing grounds, there are fisher boats. The fishing is like the Dutch way, so with trawlers taking nets trough the water. The boats are way smaller than in the Netherlands, but there are prety much of them. Especially in the night one can be busy with it. That is the only time that it is busy. These fisher boats are little and go slow. Also, they don’t mind if you pass them on 200 or 300 meters. So even the navigation between these ships is easy going.

These are the local fisher boats. They are not strong, but OK for the Java sea and the easy weather here. It is normal that they pass you on 200 meters, which is pretty close, but one gets used to the easy going seafaring.

Easy and slow, slow

Mon Jul 06 2026 18:53:00 GMT+0700 (West-Indonesische tijd)

Approximately the next night the Ya will arrive at Batam. Perry lives there. He recommends to do the last part in daylight. And he can do some pilotage, but that would also be daylight. This sounds wise, so let’s do that.
But, then we have to go slower. About 3.5 knots. Peter worked on that half a day, but still Ya runs 4 knots just on the staysail, with only 10 knots of wind from behind. How to get her slow, slow? Finally all the sails are down. Yes, that works, the speed is now about 3 knots. The effort is bigger to get the speed out of the Ya then to give her speed..

We enter the Equator. And, indeed, it is hot. Between 11 am and 3 pm the sun burns too hard to work on deck. And even in the morning and afternoon, you’d better take it easy and work slow, slow.

A green color means: little winds, a blue color means: hardly any wind. so from the green to the red dot (arrival) is slow sailing.

Hard to get

Wed Jul 08 2026 09:48:00 GMT+0700 (West-Indonesische tijd)

Everything was set up beautifully to get exactly in time for tide and in daylight to Perry, and what happens, lighting, thunder, a squall and the wind became against. A tack, and an hour later there was hardly any wind. The wind slowly picked up to a very light breeze, just to make a bit of speed. But then the tide became against. We made 1.9 miles per hour. for the last 12 miles, would be 6 hours!

Then, suddenly, the current changes. the wind picks up a bit more. Perry now gets a dinghy for the last mile in case there is no wind at all.

Batam, here we come!

Arrival at Batam

Sat Jul 11 2026 05:43:00 GMT+0700 (West-Indonesische tijd)

Perry arranged two local fishermen with their boat to pilot the Ya through the poorly charted water. The two miles took nearly an hour and with the last little bit of wind we entered the anchorage before Perry’s house. A warm Indonesian welcome with a great meal.
The house Perry is building there, is built with reused materials. for example, the actual living consists of a set of sea containers. But that’s another story. The Ya is on anchor.