Sailing Triteiavideo
Exploring the Indonesian Island of Gili Air & Trying to Solve ICOM AIS Issues
14 July 2025 · 25 min · 19K views
What this video covers
James sails his 1965 Alberg 30, Triteia, to Gili Air as a deliberate shakedown stop before a passage toward Borneo and ultimately Singapore, knowing Medana Marina on Lombok is three miles away if problems surface. Gili Air has no cars — only horse-drawn carts and electric scooters — and the anchorage carries heavy daytime ferry traffic that wakes boats hard but stops at sunset. The primary problem is an ICOM AIS unit, roughly a year old and purchased for around $1,000, that fails to recognize its stern-mounted GPS antenna after being powered off for more than an hour. A workaround exists: the small PredictWind data-hub antenna, mounted below decks, does trigger AIS recognition, but using it means losing the tracker function. James takes a four-hour fast boat to Bali, pays 2 million rupiah (about $120) for a replacement ICOM antenna from a chandlery, returns to Medana Marina, and tests it — the new antenna produces the same failure. The head unit itself is now suspect. James plans to attempt an ICOM factory reset, call ICOM support, and consider swapping the PredictWind antenna as a stopgap before departing Sunday for the first leg toward Borneo. Replacing a faulty antenna does not resolve an AIS recognition fault when the head unit is the likely cause.
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