By 0615 on Saturday, 13^th July 2019 we had weighed anchor and started to snake our way out of the Horn Island anchorage, headed for the Prince of Wales Channel and, with that, it was goodbye to Australia after a much longer stay than intended; 12 months longer, in fact. 

 

Enjoying a speed of 9 Kts thanks to the fast flowing current, we had expected at least four other yachts to join us, but by 0800 we could see at least eight on the horizon. With the winds being much lighter than forecast, we had a rather slow start, but by mid-morning we were flying the chicken chute and making good time. However, by 1500 the winds had dropped again and we were barely doing 5 Kts. So down came the chicken chute, up went the white sails, followed by a slight change of course. By early evening the winds had picked up again, so we changed sail plan again; this time to wing-on-wing, but by 2300, with winds in excess of 25 Kts, it was time to bring down the mainsail and continue on headsail alone. Averaging a boat speed of 7.4 Kts and reaching speeds of close to 8 Kts for the remainder of the night was definitely unexpected, but we weren’t complaining. All in all, it was a busy and frustrating day at sea, with the multiple sail changes due to the winds being all over the board in terms of strength and direction, but, by nightfall, we had a waxing gibbous to light our way, along with friends for company. Chatting to everyone on our evening net was definitely a highlight. 

 

 

With slighter winds on the morning of Sunday, 14^th July 2019, but still averaging 6.5 Kts, we contemplated putting up the mainsail again, but decided against it, given that the forecast indicated stronger winds for later in the day and the following day. We did, however, notice a number of yachts take off in various directions like bats out of hell overnight and wondered why. It wasn’t until the morning net that we heard they had chosen to continue to fly their kites overnight, while others had full white sails strapped down, wing-on-wing, which meant they weren’t able to jibe in the darkness with the stronger winds, leaving them with no alternative, but to go where the wind took them. Comments of cruisers being seasick or not being able to sleep because their speeds made for a very uncomfortable night, left us feeling pleased with ourselves for dropping the mainsail, albeit that we slowed down. We weren’t alone in this decision as two other rally yachts, The Pub and Element took the same decision, so we all trundled along comfortably. As things stood, we had possibly shaved off a night at sea, regardless; a nice unexpected bonus!

 

The afternoon was a continuation of the morning, though, with winds slightly lighter, contrary to the forecast, but we still had a visual on Element to our port side and we could hear a number of yachts on the VHF radio. We were simply happy to be sailing in the Arafura Sea; a nice change from the Tasman and Coral Seas, albeit a tad lumpy! It also helped that we’d completed 265NM of our 650NM passage.

 

So, after continuing to trundling along on headsail alone, another perusal of the weather forecast indicated the continuation of the conditions we were experiencing, with the exception of the winds veering to the southeast from east-southeast. This meant a better point of sail for Paw Paw on the mainsail and it meant the sail wouldn’t be flogging around in the swell. However, we decided to just continue trundling along.

 

In many respects this turned out to be a good decision, especially when we were hailed by the captain on Element in the middle of the night, indicating that he had spotted a fishing boat with a net in the water passing all the way across the path of both yachts. Since Element was to our port side at the time, this meant the net was situated a few miles to their port side crossing for a few miles to our starboard side. Impossible to alter course, he indicated that the net was lit up with flashing red, white and green lights and, fortunately, he was familiar with this fishing method from time sailed in the Mediterranean. Relaying that the lights lit up the highest point of the nets used for deep sea fishing of tuna, this meant it was safe to pass over the net as long as we stayed between the flashing lights where the net was deep below the surface. So, after Elaine woke Roy up to ensure we were both on deck and could keep a good lookout, we altered course to follow Element and cross the net between the flashing lights. Success, except for one small issue. This particular fishing boat had decided to run a surface line the entire length of the net, spotted at the last minute by Element. Having relayed the additional information and that the line had passed beneath his keels and rudders, we had no choice but to do the same without incident, thankfully. The experience, however, forced us to rethink our track and to alter course in order to pass Papua New Guinea further offshore, thereby avoiding any more fishing boats and nets. That also emphasised the better point of sail, so decision made; hoist a double reefed mainsail, reef the headsail, alter course and we were set for the remainder of the night with the bonus of having increased our SOG (Speed Over Ground).

 

What we weren’t expecting was for the weather to deteriorate, with stronger winds and higher seas. We were, however, configured for this and enjoyed boat speeds a little higher than expected, even after triple reefing the headsail, all of which had provided for an earlier arrival in Debut. Although it was a very dull, overcast, squally day, the winds moderated and the sun tried to peek through. We also still had Element for company and enjoyed a chat to Shawn on the VHF radio and Roy had the additional bonus of seeing a huge pod of dolphins on his morning watch.

 

That evening, having decided to drop the mainsail due to a change in wind direction again, back to east-southeast, we’d no sooner put both engines on, when we spotted another surface line associated with a fishing net, but unlit. Needless to say, it was a mad scramble to get both engines switched off again and the propellers folded just as we surfed over the line. Thankfully, it passed beneath us again without incident and we continued our sail change. 

 

The evening net, however, was full of stories of other yachts experiencing these lines, specifically Talulah Ruby III (Andy and Paul) who had experienced three instances over a period of two hours and had just hit another one while participating on the net. While bad enough for the catamarans, for a deep draft yacht this was proving to be very stressful indeed, forcing a hard turn to port in order to slide over the lines sideways to prevent the yacht getting hooked on to the net by the keel. Fortunately we were all able to swap information about the location of the nets encountered thus far in the hope that all the trailing yachts could avoid them. Despite the challenges of the day, though, spirits were up overall, especially since we were well past the halfway mark by this point with less than 200NM to go.

 

Having enjoyed a relatively peaceful night without any further encounters with fishing nets, the morning of Tuesday, 16^th July 2019 was all about fishing boats instead. By noon we’d already had eight pass on either side of us; one coming within 100 metres regardless of how we altered course. We’d heard that this is typical behaviour of these vessels as there is a belief that they can pass any bad omens from one vessel to the other. We had a good giggle at the idea of any boat coming close to Paw Paw, as they would likely receive more bad juju than they expected and Elaine was definitely willing to pass it on. When this particular vessel eventually changed course and decided to move further away from us, they probably realised they were getting more than they had bargained for!

 

The fun was yet to begin, though. Within the hour we’d spotted five more, two of which decided 50 metres was a sufficiently safe distance and a look at the radar indicated hundreds more. It was raining fishing boats! This procession continued all afternoon and at any one time we could see at least five or six, but all giving us a wide berth. The word was clearly out; avoid that yacht at all cost!

 

By the evening we were on the home stretch and Paw Paw was like a horse to the barn, romping along at 9.6 Kts on headsail alone. She clearly wanted a break from all this sailing like the rest of us. So, with Lady (Jenny and Charlie) and Element (Shawn and Sherrie) a few miles ahead of us, the evening net relayed that Entice (Karen and Greg) was at anchor on one of the outer islands and Talulah Ruby III was arriving in the early hours of the morning, but anchoring out as well to then proceed to Debut during daylight. Based on our SOG, we estimated a daybreak arrival at the Kai Islands, following which we would proceed straight to Debut. With more fishing boats and nets to contend with overnight, we both had very little sleep, which made for a very long day, but “land ahoy” at daybreak on 17^th July 2019, was a welcome sight indeed and, with that, it was “Hello Indonesia”.

 

Entering the anchorage at around 0900, only to learn that all our charts, both paper and electronic were not an accurate reflection of the water depths, made for a few anxious moments, though, but fortunately we received help from Element, yet again, who had unfortunately hit the bottom three times on entering the anchorage ahead of us earlier that morning. With helpful information relayed via the VHF radio as we slowly progressed, we were able to remain in the deeper water and reach the anchorage safely. By the time we were anchored, all Elaine wanted was her bed, while Roy decided to stay awake and start tidying up. It wasn’t long afterwards, however, that we noticed officials doing the rounds. That meant all hands on deck to get ready to clear in. Not what either of us wanted or needed after very little sleep the night before.

 

After, an hour of the various officials onboard, we were then informed that we had to visit the Customs office onshore. Unfortunately that turned into a very laborious process, as it transpired that our Vessel Declaration form, which the rally had provided to us, had, in fact, expired. That meant it had to be reissued, but unfortunately there were problems with the computer system. Third time was the charm in re-entering all the information required, but then printing the new form became the next technical issue. Despite the fact that it was nearly four hours later before we eventually got back to Paw Paw completely exhausted, the officials were extremely helpful and professional, let down only by technology, through no fault of their own. All we wanted now was our dinner and bed, but undertook one last task for the day; assist Rubicon (Lucy and Johan) get into the anchorage safely, given the help we had received from Element. It was our turn to “pay forward”!

 

There were a number of highlights to our first day in Indonesia, though, including a phone call to Keenan, meeting the cruisers off The Pub (Angela and Steve) and Charlie off Lady as they too waited to get their paperwork redone, meeting the cruisers off Amarillo (Lynn and Eric) who stopped by Paw Paw to introduce themselves and, finally, meeting the delightful, friendly people of Indonesia, especially the children who paddled out to us in their dugout canoes, calling out: “Mister,  mister” in their attempts to say hello and the children who helped with the dinghy, although, a short ride in it was what they really enjoyed.

 

When thinking about writing this article, it became apparent that there was so much to try and portray in words, both the positive and the negative. It’s fair to say, we almost felt traumatised by the time we left Indonesia and actually couldn’t wait to clear out and put the entire experience behind us, but it was also the most unusual destination that we have ever visited. Asked if we would consider visiting it again, the answer is a definitive no, but asked if we would recommend it to other cruisers, the answer is most definitely yes. Why such an opposing perspective? Well, we hope this article answers that question for you.

 

Indonesia, although it involves extremely difficult and dangerous sailing, which we soon discovered, it is also the most diverse country and, on hindsight and reflection, one of the rare remaining destinations where a cruiser can see little to no influence of the modern world. It is also difficult to perceive that it is one country, as every island you visit is completely different with the exception of, possibly, the food and the language, although the latter has many different dialects. Everything from the shape and style of fishing boats, the shape and style of FADs (Fish Accumulation Devices), the landscape, the traditional dancing and outfits worn, the fruits grown, the livestock farmed, the colour of the beaches, the texture of the beaches which ranged from powdery flour to rocky and from white to black in colour, including pink, anchorages that were either dreadful, deep and rolly or fabulous, shallow, protected and calm, the vastly different colours of water ranging from deep blue to green to turquoise, clear to opaque with sanding bottoms, dark mud or rock, weather ranging from warm and dry to hot and humid, with no rain for months to multiple downpours in a single afternoon or evening and from rain showers that cooled everything down to thunder and lightening storms that had us reaching for our blanket to hide underneath it, wind that ranged from absolutely nothing which had us motoring for hundreds of miles to wind that was so strong we couldn’t slow Paw Paw down to ensure daylight arrivals. Add the diversity of the stunning underwater world, where snorkelling revealed fish and coral species, not only varieties which we’d never seen before, but each new snorkelling spot revealed something new and unique and, of course, the magnificent sunrises and sunsets, the natural beauty of the towering volcanoes and the diverse wildlife from flying foxes to whale sharks to Orang-utans to Komodo dragons. Then there was Bali which felt like an entirely different country.

 

There were aspects, though, which we learnt the hard way and which ultimately dictated our entire experience. Had we known upfront about these, we would definitely have been more vigilant and avoided the pitfalls as best we could. We weren’t the only cruisers to fall victim to this aspect, however, with the entire fleet ending up with either chest infections, sore throats or food poisoning or, in many cases, all three, but in Elaine’s case, an additional severe UTI (Urinary Tract Infection), coupled with multiple bouts of food poisoning, no matter how careful we tried to be. All of which spelt disaster for her autoimmune conditions and sent everything into free fall. Couple that with the non-existent healthcare available at the first hospital we were able to access, although the doctor was very concerned, he had nothing to offer in the way of medications. It was the numerous doctors and nurses in the fleet, as well as the generosity of other cruisers who were able to assist with medical care and medications to, at least, tide us over until we reached Bali.

 

While most cruisers accept that the healthcare in many countries does not meet western standards, to find hospitals devoid of basic provisions and medications was a shock. Additionally, to discover, too late of course, that the majority of the populations was extremely unhealthy, mostly suffering from chest complaints, the underlying reason of which became apparent as we progressed through Indonesia; the smoke from burning fires, not to mention living in completely unsanitary conditions. In all our travels, we had never experienced toilet facilities like those we saw in Indonesia and not a smidgen of soap to be found anywhere. No wonder food poisoning was so rife and no wonder Elaine picked up an UTI while using the only toilet facility available during our very first tour of Indonesia, although she was as careful as possible at the time. That tour also ignited the first bout of food poisoning, but, again, too late! We’d already sampled the local food before seeing the toilet facilities.

 

In many ways, if there’s blame to be laid, we’d direct this at the Sail2Indonesia Rally organisers. After all, we joined a rally for pertinent information, for convenience, for the social aspects, for the hassle free paperwork, for an itinerary that was suitable and appropriate, but, more importantly, for a rally that was safe for cruisers in every regard. This rally definitely fell well short of these expectations. Information was not received in a timely manner, where documents were completed and forwarded at the start of the registration process, then were later required to be copied for a step later in the process. Instead of this being relayed at the time the documentation was initially completed and returned, the later revelation, of course, occurred at the most inconvenient time when most cruisers had already left the major cities of Australia and now had to change sailing itineraries, which was already on a tight schedule due to unexpected weather constraints and spend time hunting down a printing and photocopying facility. Furthermore, information on cruising the Northeast Queensland coast was received weeks after everyone was already halfway up this coastline. There were also numerous examples of inaccurate information conveyed, especially regarding the visa process, particularly what documentation was needed and how payment was supposed to be made, all of which resulted in many cruisers being delayed or having to make numerous follow-up phone calls, like ourselves, only to discover that there was indeed a problem and, therefore, the visas weren’t actually being processed. Of course, all of this was discovered in the middle of woop woop. Additionally, there was complete misinformation on the clearing out process in Thursday Island, adding to the confusion that already existed because there were delays in getting everyone’s numbers and emails added to the WhatsApp group correctly and thoroughly. This was the  primary means of communication with rally control, which resulted in yachts not receiving the information they needed. It was hit and miss as to what we actually received, not to mention the fact that the majority of emails that were sent were enormous in size, totally disregarding the limited bandwidth we all had in the more remote areas of Australia. We were lucky to have one bar of 3G and, in many instances, no data connectivity at all. There were last minutes changes to the clearing out dates for Australia and the clearing in dates for Indonesia, resulting in many yachts, including ourselves, arriving in Indonesia a week earlier than expected. Finally, not only was there inaccurate and misinformation, there was missing information, like required forms in the information packs and to top it, not everyone received all the packs, particularly the multihull pack, which we weren’t given even after we asked for it at the collection point. The most frustrating part of this information nightmare was the nuggets of information we found buried in the reams of superfluous information that we had to wade through. The final straw was not finding a single waypoint or other pertinent sailing information associated with the sailing itinerary through Indonesia or, indeed, at the very least, coordinates to the port of entry in Indonesia. This was provided after we’d all arrived in Debut; just a tad late! 

 

Below is an example of the basic information that was lacking when we first arrived, but Elaine had gathered, with help from a few other early arrivals at our port of entry in Debut and which subsequently had to be relayed to the fleet, after establishing a much needed Cruisers Net, in an effort to bring some order to the chaos that reigned. The frightening part of this transcript is that we were on a so called “organised rally”. It was simply unfathomable that this kind of information had to be obtained by ourselves and then relayed as the rest of the fleet arrived. What made matters worse is that it continually evolved with each day, with more and more pertinent information that had to be relayed. It became a full time role for Elaine trying to organise the fleet and, while she certainly had the capability given her career of more than 30 years, it was not what she wanted to be doing nor felt she should be doing, given that we were all on a rally, with the organisers nowhere in sight!

 

“Cruiser’s Net Information:

 

Following is a list on all the information we have gathered thus far that can be relayed or repeated as needed on the Cruisers Net:

 

Outstanding Actions:

(a) Elaine to request Raymond’s involvement in the Cruisers Net (this was the rally sponsor); provide a handheld, if necessary 

(b) Obtain a Tourism Office representative at each of the other rendezvous points

(c) Elaine to setup a Net Controllers Group on WhatsApp and include Raymond and Lyn (one of the rally organisers)

(d) Elaine to ask Ziggy to set up a rally contacts list with accurate contact details, interests and languages spoken (since the rally had still failed to do so by this stage).

 

Location of Facilities / Services: 

(a) Customs Office: Brightly coloured building onshore near pier

(b) Dinghy Dock: At rainbow coloured steps next to the pier

(c) Laundry: In the office next to Customs Office

(d) Sim Card Kiosk, Money Exchange Kiosk, Restaurant: In front of the Customs Office

(d) Pavilion: At the top of the rainbow steps with toilets next door

(e) ATM: Take a bus or book a driver.

 

Yacht Courtesy: 

1. Direct officials to the next yacht in order of arrival for clearing in and out procedures.

 

Clearing In Procedure:

(a) Two-step process; efficient, thorough and friendly 

(b) Customs, immigration and biosecurity will come out to the yacht to do the paperwork; make sure you have sufficient copies of your information 

(c) Yacht will be checked; you will be asked to open cupboards, lockers, etc; nothing is removed from the yacht ie fresh produce etc

(d) Second step is to visit the Customs Office onshore where you will collect your Customs clearance, etc; You may have to redo the Vessel Declaration if the current one has expired; Take a flash drive with your photographs on it ie yacht, captain, passports, etc as these will have to be uploaded to the electronic form prior to printing. 

 

Services:

(a) Garbage: Dispose in green bins provided ashore

(b) Water: TBD

(c) Fuel: At fuel stations

(d) Laundry: Next to Customs Office

(e) Food: Supermarket or local markets in Langgur and Tual

(f) Propane: TBD

(g) Sim Cards: Use Telkomsel; make sure you know what data / cell service you are purchasing; cell valid for a month; data valid for a week; top up using third party app called Teleponindonesia.com; top up money not credits

(h) ATMs: Cash is used everywhere instead of cards; BRI near market in Langgur takes US cards

(i) Boat Stamps: In Tual near mosque for Rp1,500

 

Pricing Agreed for Local Services:

(a) Driver: Rp300,000 for part of a day; Rp500,000 for a full day

(b) Tourism Guide: same price as a driver

(c) Dinghy Oversight: Rp5000/day

(d) Laundry: Rp25,000/Kg; weighed beforehand; quality is excellent, but itemise as things have gone missing 

(e) Sim Cards: Rp100,000 to Rp120,000

 

Events:

(a) 24^th, 25^th and 26^th July; last one is formal with a meal; vegetarian is Rp750,000; Seafood is Rp1,000,000; obtain meal ticket in office next to Customs Office

(b) Food serviced at Pavilion during afternoon and evening of 22^nd July

(c) Dance practice in front of Pavilion during afternoon of 22^nd July

 

Things To Do:

(a) Touring - Caves, natural spring pools, beaches, fish and fresh produce markets in Langgur and Tual, rainbow village; attractions are owned by the land owners / villages; price to be paid separately to visit these attractions 

(b) Diving

 

Communications Protocol:

The following communication mechanisms are requested to be used for personal communications between cruisers, thereby leaving the VHF radio and WhatsApp open for emergencies, the cruisers net or general announcements affecting the entire fleet only. This will help alleviate the clutter on WhatsApp and the overuse of the VHF radio. Instead use:

(a) telephone, email or social media tools

(b) DSC feature on the VHF radio

(c) Use channels 16 and 72 for hailing only, then switch to another channel eg 17, 73, 77

(d) Use individual or group chats on WhatsApp”

Unfortunately, this pattern continued throughout the rally, with very few improvements evident at any destination, including those we didn’t visit and here we were thinking the World ARC was disorganised. Fortunately, given our unexpected change of plans, we weren’t subjected to the disarray the same way the diehards were.

 

By 18^th July 2019, after a restful night, we woke to rain, which saved us a chore; Paw Paw’s much needed freshwater rinse was undertaken by Mother Nature instead. Then, after a lazy morning, enjoying a cooked breakfast, we dinghied over to Talulah Ruby III to say hello to them and their crew Joe and his daughter, Molly. We’d first met Joe after our passage from hell from New Zealand to Fiji and, although him and Molly had flown in to Horn Island, we’d not had time to socialise with anyone prior to departing Australia. After a quick pitstop there and arrangements to meet for sundowners later, we headed ashore to complete a few errands and start our explorations of Indonesia. 

 

Having secured a driver, Didi, through one of the local rally coordinators, Andre, we set off to Langgur, one of the nearby towns. First stop was the Telkomsel store to purchase our sim cards, then an ATM to draw some more local currency as everything was handled on a cash basis here. From there we stopped by the local market to purchase some fruit and vegetables. Surprisingly, although well stocked, there wasn't a large variety which made for slim pickings, especially with fruit. We did, however, manage to find pawpaw, pineapple, watermelon and bananas, all very reasonably priced. In fact, thus far we’d been amazed at how cheap everything was. The previous day, while trying to complete the officialdom process, Roy purchased a bottle of water and a Coca Cola for the equivalent of $0.72US and, on this day, after completing our errands, a Nasi Goreng lunch for ourselves and our driver, including soft drinks, didn’t even cost $10.00US. Incredible! What we didn’t know at the time was that we would pay a much higher price later in the form of food poisoning!

 

By early afternoon we were back on Paw Paw, just in time for our afternoon nap and, by then, it was time for another fun night on Talulah Ruby III with the additional company of Lady. We’d briefly met Jenny in Bonaire during our 2014 hurricane season and, although we knew the yacht, this was the first time we’d met them formally and enjoyed an evening together. Needless to say, the chitchat and laughter continued long after the sun had set, but fortunately we’d had a filling lunch, so a light snack back on Paw Paw did the trick before we both crawled into bed.

 

There were a few aspects of our outing that we hadn’t expected. These included all the preparations that were underway in Debut, for the upcoming festival to welcome all the rally yachts to Indonesia, as well as the very colourful buildings and homes, the lush vegetation that reminded us of Dominica in the Caribbean and the town without a high street. Everything is spread out all over the place so, without a driver, one would have absolutely no clue on where to go to access shops, banks, restaurants, etc. This, of course, meant that we needed a driver for every outing. Although “buses” were available, they would be impossible to use without local knowledge of where conveniences were located, not to mention, all the walking we would have had to do. We’d also thought that maybe this was specific to Langgur, but we subsequently learnt that the main town of Tual was exactly the same. Fortunately, a driver was relatively inexpensive too, but it meant we didn’t have the freedom to explore at our leisure. We had hoped this was a phenomenon of the Kai Islands, but we found out soon enough that it wasn’t.

 

On 19^th July 2019, we knew we were back on the islands when we woke to the sound of crowing roosters, as well as having a warm breeze coming through our hatches again. However, we had decided to move to an anchorage further south, based on a request from the authorities that they wanted all the yachts closer to the main wharf and the Customs office. That proved to be a mistake, but by approximately 0800 there was a procession of yachts heading towards the new anchorage, all following Paw Paw, with Elaine relaying the depths as we progressed to ensure the deep keeled yachts remained in deep water. Once everyone was safely anchored again, there was another sound we’d never heard in an anchorage before; the “call to prayer”. Having moved closer to the Muslim area from the Roman Catholic area, we were closer to the mosque, but as the day progressed, we realised we were closer to a few mosques, all competing with their “calls to prayer”. Nothing a little of our own music couldn’t drown out, but the early mornings proved to be a little different in this new location. So too did the nights, as the music from shore blasted to all hours of the early morning. On hindsight we should have just moved back, but we opted to stay put and endure the racket, not wanting to annoy any officials. Bigger fools us, as we were exhausted by the end of the week, having had little to no sleep!

 

There had been a number of highlights throughout the day, though. In particular getting a little business started for the children who have been paddling out to the yachts in their dugouts. Instead of always asking for treats, Roy wrote them a note in English to show to the other cruisers, translated the note to Indonesian using Google Translate so that the children understood, handed them our small bag of garbage together with 5000Rp (Rupiah) and sent them on their way. We had already been advised that the cruisers could drop off their garbage with the coordinators ashore, but this was a way to involve the children and have them make a little bit of “pocket money” in the process. It wasn’t long before every yacht in the anchorage had given them their garbage for a fee. Needless to say, the children were delighted!

 

Another highlight, after asking permission of the authorities, was to give the children a Coca Cola as a treat. So, after purchasing a case of the sodas and giving a can to one of the little boys who had helped Roy with the dinghy earlier, within seconds, children were running from every direction to get theirs, some completely naked as they had been swimming off the wharf and definitely didn’t want to lose out. For the small price of less than $3.50USD, we brought a smile to the faces of at least 20 children who were simply over the moon at the gesture. The atmosphere was contagious and before long, children were enjoying rides in the dinghies of various cruisers or getting to sit at the helm of the yachts. Being a Friday afternoon and out of school, they were having a blast!

 

It’s these kinds of moments that give us the most pleasure and it’s especially rewarding when it involves such friendly, helpful and welcoming people, who have very little in terms of material wealth, but have so much more in every other way, with the exception of their health, the lurking danger that raised it’s ugly head a few days later, after our fun-filled day out on “Little” Kai Island.

 

We’d decided to enjoy some independent touring ahead of the fleet arriving. So, with our tour guide, Oppie, and a driver arranged, we set off. We learnt soon after the introduction that Oppie was a German teacher at the secondary school in Langgur, but was also freelancing as a tour guide for the festivities associated with the arrival of the rally. En route to the various tourist attractions we also learnt a little more about Indonesia and the Kai Islands in particular, including the fact that Indonesia received independence on 2nd August 1945, following the end of World War II and the Japanese occupation. Indonesia is governed through a 3-tier system comprising the central government, the provinces and the regencies that make up the provinces, by elected officials, which are voted into office every 5 years.

 

The Kai Islands are part of the Maluku Province, with approximately 11,000 inhabitants across southern Maluku. The island we were anchored off was known as “Little Kai Island, while the island just east was referred to as “Big” Kai Island. Although “Little” Kai Island was smaller in terms of landmass, it had many more villages with about 8000 inhabitants. We’d been told that the Kai Islands were also known as the “Spice Islands” as the variety of spices were pointed out to us at the Fresh Produce Market, but this proved to be inaccurate information as we later learnt it was, in fact, the Banda Islands that are known as the “Spice Islands”. 

 

Regardless, other information received appeared to be more accurate, indicating that many of the hospitals and schools were built by various pastors and priests who arrived in the early days from the Netherlands. We were told there were three levels of schooling in Indonesia; elementary, middle and secondary, where secondary is for those students aged 14 to 16. Children attend school Monday to Friday and sometimes half-day on Saturday, from 0700 to 1500 for the secondary students and to 1300 for everyone else. Each student takes 11 subjects covering languages, sociology and the sciences. Sporting activities include football, athletics, volley ball and karate. Students can also participate in various debates and inter-school competitions, as well as a 6-month teacher / student exchange with Australia. Additionally, scholarships are offered to English and German teachers to continually improve their language and teaching skills. There are five religions in Indonesia; Catholic, Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist and villages tend to be segregated along these lines, although government schools are integrated. Land is passed from generation to generation via the sons, where a daughter will marry and then live on the husband’s land. Land can include a house, but usually it is vacant and a house is then built by the son, using wood from the Kai islands, but, additionally, building materials are brought to the island from elsewhere.

 

Our tour included visits to the Hawang and Lianhawang Caves, where fresh water is still pumped from the former to supply the nearby village and the latter is used for swimming. To say the water was crystal clear was definitely an understatement; it was like looking through glass!

 

From there we visited the natural spring water swimming pools and recreational area, where all the water is provided by an underground spring, the volume of which was unbelievable. As we stood enjoying the sights, thousands of litres of water flowed over the various waterfalls into the pools and out to sea. While visiting this facility we encountered a father who was bathing his children and they were delighted that we agreed to have a photograph taken with them. This proved to be the first big mistake of the day! It was the hundreds of flags, though, that lined the streets that had us in disbelief, especially when we learnt that the villagers had placed the flags purely in celebration of our arrival with the rally and to welcome the cruisers.

 

Next stop was a roadside “café”, where villagers had prepared various traditional treats for us to purchase and to enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee, again, as a welcome gesture to the cruisers of the rally. We settled on the “piesang danga” (deep fried banana, coated with embal powder, made from the cassava root), as well as purchased a number of local products at their stall, including mangrove chips, red rice and embal biscuits. It was here, however, where the second mistake of the day took place; using the toilet.

 

After that we visited the Fresh Fish and Produce market, where a large variety of freshly caught fish was available and where we enjoyed an explanation of all the local produce used to create the various traditional foods. This was much better than our first visit to the market, since we were completely clueless on what some of the produce were. The explanation included the leaves of the cassava plant that are cooked together with the flowers from the pawpaw tree to produce a vegetable dish. We also got to see the products produced from the Sagoo palm, which we first saw at the natural springs, the inside of which is scrapped out, mixed with water, left to dry overnight and becomes a powder that is used in baking. We also learnt that dogs are eaten in the Maluku Islands, as well as caviar made from the eggs of flying fish. It was the millions of flies, though, sitting on all the fresh fish, that completely turned our stomachs, never mind the smell. There was absolutely no way in hell we would be purchasing any fish, or chicken for that matter, from a Fresh Fish Market in Indonesia.

 

Our last stop before enjoying a traditional lunch comprising many of the dishes we’d learnt about, as well as a delicious mix of nutmeg, various nuts and soya beans, was the “rainbow village”, where houses are painted colours of the rainbow on one side of the street and colours of the Indonesian flag, red and white, on the other side. It was very cheerful!

 

After our tasty lunch at Gloria’s restaurant, our third mistake of the day, our last stop was a beautiful white sandy beach, where we got to stretch our legs and where the fineness of the sand could be likened to flour. It was a perfect ending to a most fascinating tour that brought back memories of Samoa, given the beautiful gardens, the colourful homes and the friendliest of people whom we encountered along the way.

 

By this stage, though, we were both looking forward to getting back to Paw Paw for an afternoon nap, but instead got invited to an afternoon tea as we approached the dinghy dock, complements of the local regency, which had also arranged for an evening of festivities, including traditional dancing. It was during the afternoon tea, though, that Elaine met the most interesting 9 year old girl, who had learnt English watching “You Tube” and asked if she could practice by talking to Elaine. Just when we thought the day couldn’t get any more interesting! Our day was wrapped up enjoying the evening festivities ashore, but we were pleased to crawl into our beds at the end of a very long day, nonetheless.

 

The following day, with the first signs of our mistakes having resonated with Elaine, in particular, the third one, her first bout of food poisoning, we decided to stay onboard, albeit yet another busy day. It started with Elaine facilitating the first Cruisers Net for the rally, after receiving numerous requests the previous night to do so and having agreed without realising the health issues that were about to develop. It was a long hour getting all the information relayed, as well as assisting the numerous new arrivals with details they needed on the clearing in process and services they would need over the coming days, but it was all appreciated based on the feedback Elaine received. Afterwards we dinghied over to welcome Cattiva (Maria and Maurice) and the World ARC yacht, Alcedo of Ryne (Sally and David), whom we haven’t seen since Tahiti in 2016.

 

The rest of the day was spent getting laundry done, although Roy took an early morning dinghy ride ashore to purchase a fresh skipjack tuna from the fishermen for dinner; at least we knew this fish was fresh and we knew it came directly from the man who had caught it. Roy also worked with a number of other cruisers to assist Blue Sky Eyes (Julie and Karl) who had run aground on entering the anchorage that morning and couldn’t get off the reef until the tide turned that afternoon. Fortunately by 1330 they were safely anchored. Roy’s last task of the day was completing our latest video and loading it to our website. That night, we decided to enjoy a quiet night onboard rather than attend another round of festivities ashore, thereby allowing Elaine to recover somewhat.

 

On the morning of, Monday, 22^nd July 2019, after we’d both had an unpleasant night’s sleep between the loud music ashore and the Muslim “calls to prayer” that continued well past sunset, we were, nonetheless, awake early with yet another predawn “call to prayer”. By now we were desperately hoping this was something that would eventually fade into the background and we’d just sleep through it. Alternatively, as Roy proposed, we’d be beaten into submission and would join them instead!

 

This day, however, was primarily about the Cruiser’s Net and the volunteer Net Controllers, in particular. After breakfast, Elaine facilitated the second Cruiser’s Net and, as per the day before, there was plenty to cover, given the number of new arrivals. Afterwards Susan off Enchantress, Sally off Alcedo of Ryne, Jenny off Lady, Tibby off Satori Two and Anne off Time Bandit gathered on Paw Paw for our first Net Controllers meeting as this was a task that had become a full-time role for Elaine and needed to be divided out to others.

 

Over a fresh turmeric and ginger tea, accompanied by baked local treats, Elaine set about communicating the format used and the information gathered thus far. After discussions and refinements were completed, it was agreed that Elaine would collate everything in writing and distribute it to the group, along with her having to complete a few actions, like setting up a Net Controllers Group on WhatsApp for easier communications moving forward. To say Elaine felt like she was back at work, was only emphasised by the next few hours that were spent carry out her actions. All, this, of course, while she was feeling under the weather. Roy, on the other hand, decided to escape the collection of woman and took off in the dinghy to visit Windancer IV (Ziggy and John), then went for a walk around one on the local villages, armed with his camera, returning to Paw Paw in time for a late lunch.

 

That night, after an early dinner onboard, we headed ashore to enjoy the festivities and to catch up with many of our friends who were part of the new arrivals and who had eventually got cleared in, some having had to wait more than 24 hours to get processed. It was lovely to see everyone, as well as meet more cruisers off the yachts unknown to us. The enjoyment everyone was having was clear by the numbers on the dance floor. Although this is an activity Elaine loved, but was unable to participate in now, she still bob around in her chair while Roy dogged a few bullets to get hauled onto the dance floor.

 

Having both had a better night sleep without any loud music playing for most of the night, although woken up by the 0445 “call to prayer”, on the morning of Tuesday, 23^rd July 2019, we decided to enjoy the sunrise and a lazy breakfast while chatting to Keenan, who had just completed his first day of recurrent training. However, before we knew it, it was time for another Cruiser’s Net and, by the time that was over, it was time to dinghy ashore to find a driver and head to the supermarket and the Fresh Produce Market to replenish our fruit and vegetables. Fortunately, thanks to Google Translate, we were also able to ask our driver, Didi, if there was a “bakery” in town and, lo and behold, there was. On our visit to the Fresh Produce Market again, however, we were reminded of some of the fascinating information we had obtained during our previous visit with our tour guide, Oppie, including the bowls made from recycled Coca Cola cans, as well as seeing the baked delights made from cassava flour.

 

It was close to lunchtime by the time we returned to Paw Paw and had just decided to enjoy another afternoon nap when we had a surprise visit from Ohani Uli (Del and Craig). Given that we had tried on a few occasions to get together, but to no avail, it was lovely to eventually sit down and have a good chat. As they were leaving, though, Paul off Talulah Ruby III stopped by so that we could say goodbye to Joe and Molly, who were heading to Bali and then back home to New Zealand. Paul also informed us that there was a cruiser’s jamming session taking place on shore that night. After some consideration, though, we decided to give it a miss so that we could get some rest to enjoy the long awaited festivities arranged by the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism that were scheduled to take place over the following three days, as opposed to the festivities we’d enjoyed to date, arranged by the regency. Since we weren’t  anchored that far off the shore, we were still able to enjoy the music from the comfort of Paw Paw instead. We did find the time, though, to dress Paw Paw in preparation for the official Welcoming Ceremony.

 

It is fair to say that the welcome and hospitality we had received in Indonesia thus far had surpassed anything we had received to date on our circumnavigation and that was saying a lot, given the fabulous experiences we had in Samoa and Fiji. Truly unprecedented! It was, however, the formal Welcoming Ceremony of Wednesday, 24th July 2019, that was like no other. We woke to a myriad of messages on the WhatsApp Group used for the rally, given that the itinerary for the proceedings was announced at 2200 the previous night to a small group of cruisers who just happened to still be ashore enjoying the live music. So, realising the importance of the event and what was expected from the cruisers, Time Bandit (Anne and Stuart) volunteered to coordinate everything between the Ministry of Tourism and the cruisers. Stuart, dressed in his kilt, was also nominated as the Fleet Representative for the day and did us all proud by doing his speech in Indonesian. It was brilliant!

 

Given the chaos that ensued initially, groups were soon organised by the country flag of each yacht, given that this was how the Ministry of Tourism wanted us to arrive on shore. While we agreed to take four additional cruisers in our dinghy, as well as carry the flag and the VHF radio for the UK contingency, Sally off Alcedo of Ryne got everyone agreeing to meet on Talulah Ruby III no later than 0830 for the dinghy procession to shore. 

 

Soon after we were all gathered, we received word from Time Bandit that Australia, followed by the Netherlands would precede Great Britain in the procession. Fortunately, that meant we didn’t have to wait too long in the heat or the impending rain showers, before we’d be called ashore. However, since there had already been one mishap of someone falling in the water when getting out of their dinghy onto one of the yachts, Elaine opted to just sit in our dinghy rather than board Talulah Ruby III. That decision, however, proved to be unwise, as she ended up sitting in the rain anyway. Fortunately she had her rain gear on and before long, we were heading ashore. 

 

As each flag bearer and group of cruisers arrived to cheers from the locals, we were all asked to congregate at the top of the rainbow steps, following which the formal Welcoming Ceremony commenced. First, we received a blessing from a local dignitary, which was followed by traditional singing by a group of ladies dressed in their formal traditional outfits. Then we were escorted to tables and chairs, set by country flag and beautifully decorated, with treats for each of us. A welcoming speech by the head of the Regency and Stuart’s speech followed, then the various traditional dancing groups, ranging from groups of children to groups of adults, dressed in their colourful traditional outfits, entertained us for the remainder of the morning. All in all, although completely disorganised at the start, primarily due to a total lack of communication between the local community and the cruisers, it was a formal welcome like no other and the effort that had clearly gone into the preparation of each of the performances was astounding. 

 

That afternoon we enjoyed some downtime onboard, before dinghying back to shore to meet the buses at 1600 that had been arranged to take us to the Grand Vilia Hotel in Langgur for “a technical meeting”, one we were all looking forward to, as it would be the first time we’d receive detailed information on the sailing itinerary, including waypoints for each destination, some specifics about each destination like dive and snorkelling sites, tourist attractions, provisioning, fuel, etc, as well as rules for sailing in Indonesia, like having to ensure our AIS (Automatic Identification System) was switched on for at least one hour every morning and afternoon for surveillance purposes and, finally, details on where and how to renew our visas, which were only valid for 60 days, thereby requiring two extensions of 30 days each. At the time me thought nothing of the AIS request for surveillance purposes, but the need for this became evident much later on during our adventure; something all of us should have been informed about at this point.

 

What struck us initially was the grandeur of a police escort to the hotel. Then, since little was communicated about this particular event, no one was clear on whether food was being provided or how long the meeting was, etc. As things transpired, a meal was provided and, by accident, the only three ex-World ARC yachts ended up at a table together, Talulah Ruby III who completed the 2008 circumnavigation as well as Alcedo of Ryne who were on the 2016 World ARC with us. What are the odds! It was, however, during this event that the first symptoms of our second mistake surfaced.

 

Fortunately, though, it was a very informative meeting, but a good thing Elaine took copious notes, as usual, since the documentation that was provided afterwards was incomplete and inaccurate, although promises were made that we would all receive a book containing everything documented properly at the South Buru Island destination, a few hundred nautical miles too late. Astonishing, considering this meeting had been planned for months, not to mention the fact that it would have served us better to have received this information in Cairns, prior to our departure from Australia. 

 

Unfortunately this level of disorganisation became the trend with just as much confusion around the events arranged for the following day, with expectations that everyone would be available at 0730 for another day of festivities that would continue well past 2100 that night. On hearing this, there were plenty of groans from the cruisers, who were already exhausted from months of sailing to reach Indonesia, on the back of jam packed days of touring and festivities since our arrival, excluding having to find the time to complete all the clearing in formalities and the usual yacht activities of provisioning, etc, while some yachts also had unexpected repairs to undertake after hitting a reef or experiencing mechanical failures of key pieces of equipment. Regardless, it was a fabulous day and, while the intent to welcome us and entertain us was very evident, something we were very grateful for, we both definitely just needed sleep more than anything else by now, especially since this too had been unachievable, given the relentless pounding of music that had continued the entire night for most nights, since our arrival. 

 

Unfortunately Elaine received more than the formal welcome on that Wednesday, waking up on the Thursday morning to the worst flare up she had had of her autoimmune conditions, a chest infection from our first mistake and a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) from the second one, this on top of her food poisoning from the third mistake. It was the perfect storm, but fortunately she had most of the medications onboard that she thought would bring matters back under control, as well as the offer of assistance from two doctors in the fleet. The exception was a more appropriate medication needed for the UTI, although the course of antibiotics for the chest infection had provided some relief after a rough morning. Clearly, giving the local toilets, the local (coughing) population, the food and the drink, a wide berth was required moving forward.

 

After a day of rest onboard, although peace and quiet was definitely not part of that equation due to the raucous from shore, thanks to the mosques and the pounding music of the festivities, the decision to depart Debut, sooner rather than later, was obvious! With that decision made, we enjoyed the last of the beautiful sunsets in Debut and, albeit after another night of very little sleep due, we weighed anchor just after daybreak at around 0600 on Friday, 26^th July 2019. It turned out we weren’t the only yacht with the same idea and, before long, there was a convoy heading to the Banda Islands. 

 

The first few hours of the sail were definitely a lot rougher than we had expected, with high seas on the beam. It’s not often that drinks go flying on Paw Paw, but that’s exactly what happened to Elaine’s breakfast juice. However, by 0930 we’d made the turn to the northwest, which provided a following sea and, with stronger winds than forecast, we enjoyed an average SOG in excess of 7.0 Kts on headsail alone. 

 

When the winds dropped at around 1500, we hoisted the mainsail with a 3rd reef and continued to maintain our speed using a wing-on-wing configuration which sustained us until 2130, before the winds started to drop further and then completely faded by midnight; nothing an engine on low RPM (Revolutions per Minute) couldn’t resolve, though. The only encounter we’d had by then was having to dodge a weird looking flag attached to a mooring ball floating in approximately 600 metres / 2000ft of water on the outskirts of the outer Kai Islands and, fortunately, we didn’t have to deal with a cargo ship with engine failure directly in our path, as two other yachts experienced.

 

By daybreak on Saturday, 27^th July 2019, we’d shaken out all the reefs and enjoyed a broad reach, keeping our speed at 7 Kts for the rest of the passage. In fact, we even managed to catch the fleet of yachts that had left Debut on Thursday and had anchored off one of the outer Kai Islands for the night. With the exception of Li’l Explorers cutting across our bow within 50 metres for some inexplicable reason, it was a good passage. 

 

It was, however, a mad dash to get to the Banda Islands to anchor in what we were led to believe was a very deep anchorage with a few small areas of shallower water. Well, of course, after motoring around in the anchorage for quite some time there wasn’t a depth below 30 metres / 100ft to be found anywhere. In fact, one of the other rally yachts tried anchoring twice before giving up, leaving the only available option to med moor against a wall in the middle of town, amongst the local “ships” that had their engines running constantly. There were also two very precarious looking mooring balls in more than 76 metres / 250ft, with a yacht already on one of them, but we decided against that as an option as well. So, change of plan; motor to an entirely different anchorage, where we found Ohana-Uli with another rally yacht, Kia Ora (Donna and Charlie), anchored in more reasonable depths of less than 12 metres / 40ft.

 

Given that Lady were a few hours behind us due to lighter winds experienced overnight and, therefore, possibly arriving in the dark, we relayed all this information to them and, fortunately, by sunset, having made up for lost time, they were also anchored safely behind us. Unfortunately, just as we were getting settled in for the night, though, we received a call from Element indicating that the mooring they had picked up for the night off one of the islands just east of our anchorage, was not secure, leaving them with little option, but to navigate in the dark to our position. Not an easy undertaking by any stretch of the imagination, but we waited up and ensured their safe arrival, providing whatever assistance we could, before flopping into bed exhausted.

 

While anchoring had been the bigger challenge on this occasion, there was, however, one remarkable aspects of this passage and it wasn’t related to the sailing specifically. It was the blue haze that appeared as soon as the waning moon came up after midnight. It looked like a blue fog all around us, with absolutely no distinction between sea and sky. We couldn’t even see the lights of yachts within 5 NM of us, without using the binoculars; something we have never experienced before. Regardless, we were delighted to have another destination in Indonesia to explore, but first priority was to find a local clinic, hospital, doctor or chemist, with the hopes of acquiring a more effective antibiotic for Elaine’s UTI.

 

The Banda Island group consists of the volcanic island of Gunung Api, Banda Naira, Banda Besar, that were all visible from our anchorage off Banda Besar, as well as Palau Pisang (Banana Island) to the east, Pulau Hatta to the southeast, both of which we passed en route, and Pulau Run to the west. This island group has a fascinating history. In the 17th century, Palau Run was involved in an exchange between the British and the Dutch in 1667; it was exchanged for the island of Manhattan in New York and on Sunday, 28^th Jul 2019, we had an opportunity to explore a little of Banda Naira, which had the two historical forts of Fort Nassau, built in 1646 and Fort Belgica, built in 1824, both by the Dutch. 

 

Our explorations also took us to the stunning Cilu Bintang Estate, which was a high-end hotel with a terrace overlooking the forts and steeped in legend regarding Pak Andan, who was a wise and powerful king on Lonthor, now Banda Besar, and his daughter, Cilu Bintang. She was so beautiful, she was named Shining Star. A prince from far away who came to the island on a trading mission, feel in love with Cilu Bintang and eventually paid the agreed bride price along with 99 nutmeg plants to marry her and settle in Banda Besar, all delivered by the prince’s younger brother. With the wedding date set, tragically the prince’s ship was lost at sea on the way to the wedding.

 

Further research revealed that for thousands of years Banda islanders conducted long distance trade throughout the region. Banda was the world's only source of nutmeg and mace, used as flavourings, medicines and preserving agents that were highly valued in European markets and sold by Arab traders to the Venetians for exorbitant prices. The value of these rare Asian spices, which only grew on six tiny islands, soared until nutmeg was valued on a par with gold. In addition to the production of nutmeg and mace, Banda maintained significant entrepôt trade; goods that moved through Banda included cloves from Ternate and Tidore in the north, bird-of-paradise feathers from the Aru Islands and Western New Guinea and massoi bark for traditional medicines and salves. When Europeans first encountered the “Spice Islands”, they found Javanese, Arab, Indian, and Chinese merchants established in a thriving trade centre based on spice routes well known among eastern seafaring nations. The Dutch, however, had a much more dominating and lasting presence. 

 

Dutch-Bandanese relations were mutually resentful from the outset, with the Netherlands’ first merchants complaining of Bandanese reneging on agreed deliveries and price, and cheating on quantity and quality. For the Bandanese, on the other hand, although they welcomed another competitor purchaser for their spices, the items of trade offered by the Dutch, which included heavy woollens and damasks, were unsuitable in comparison to the products offered by the Javanese, Arab, Indian and Portuguese traders who brought indispensable items along with steel knives, copper, medicines and prized Chinese porcelain. As much as the Dutch disliked dealing with the Bandanese, the trade was a highly profitable one with spices selling for 300 times the purchase price in Banda. This amply justified the expense and risk in shipping the spices to Europe. The allure of such profits saw an increasing number of Dutch expeditions and it was soon seen that in trade with the East Indies, competition would eat into all their profits. Thus the competitors united to form the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie aka the Dutch East Indies Company), in 1602.

 

While the Bandanese were ruled by a group of leading citizens, the “orang kaya” (aka “noble / rich men”) and, given that nutmeg was one of the "fine spices" kept expensive in Europe by disciplined manipulation of the market, but a desirable commodity for Dutch traders in the ports of India as well, a number of “orang kaya” were persuaded by the Dutch to sign a treaty granting the Dutch a monopoly on spice purchases. Even though the Bandanese had little understanding of the significance of the treaty known as “The Eternal Compact”, or that not all Bandanese leaders had signed it, it would later be used to justify Dutch troops being brought in to defend their monopoly, following which Fort Nassau was built. 

 

While Portuguese and Spanish activity in the region had weakened, the English had built fortified trading posts on the tiny islands of Ai and Run. With the English paying higher prices, they were significantly undermining Dutch aims for a monopoly. As Anglo-Dutch tensions increased in 1611 the Dutch built the larger and more strategic Fort Belgica above Fort Nassau and is one of the largest remaining European forts in Indonesia.

 

After years of back and forth battles with the British, the Dutch were so adamant, and brutal, in their efforts to dominate these islands, that they eventually committed genocide against the native population in 1621, creating a Dutch colony and dividing the productive land of approximately half a million nutmeg trees into 68 parcels. With few Bandanese left to work them, slaves from elsewhere were brought in. Although the Dutch now controlled the nutmeg production, the outlying island of Run was harder to control, so the VOC exterminated all the nutmeg trees there. The production and export of nutmeg was a VOC monopoly for almost two hundred years. 

 

Our explorations, however, took place after we had attempted to acquire the medication Elaine required for her UTI. While the doctor spoke perfect English, unfortunately he didn’t have the medication needed, but was able to suggest an alternative, which we did have onboard. As a last resort though, Elaine put a request out that evening to the fleet of yachts that arrived that afternoon and hit it lucky; Windancer IV had the antibiotic onboard, thank goodness! Needless to say,  although it was dark, we didn’t waste any time hopping in the dinghy and heading over to collect the medication. A great big THANK YOU to them and the other cruisers who offered possible alternatives. Definitely a huge advantage to sailing with a rally! Unfortunately we were never able to repay Windancer IV for their generosity or indeed replenish their stock, as this was an antibiotic that was not sold in any other SE Asia country we visited after Indonesia.

 

With Elaine feeling much better, we were up early on Monday, 29^th Jul 2019 to dinghy ashore to meet our tour guide and a host of other cruisers for an exploration around the “Spice Islands”.  It wasn’t long thereafter that we were all directed to two different long boats and, with that, our tour commenced. We’re not altogether sure in which direction the other group went, but our boat took us to the western end of Banda Besar, following which a thoroughly educational and interesting tour ensued, albeit a slightly tougher “walk” than many of us had expected. 

 

First stop was the local village, where we were able to observe some of the villagers going about their daily routine of putting out their various spices to dry in the sun. These included nutmeg, mace and cloves, as well as the twigs of the clove tree which are processed to create an insect repellent. We were also fortunate enough to see two “Kora Kora”, seating 37 people and painted in different colours which identify the boats as belonging to the particular village we were visiting and that were used to wage war against the Dutch. 

 

Additionally we learnt that the clove itself is the seed to create a clove tree and that cloves are dried over a period of 2-3 days, following which they fetch a price of Rp68,000 per kg (approximately $5USD). The red mace is created by planting the whole flower into the ground. While westerners use mace in pepper spray, locally it’s used in curries. Lastly, we learnt that the black nutmeg is a better quality and, therefore, more expensive than the brown nut. 

 

From the village we walked to the forests high on the hillside, where we found the rest of the villagers and, in fact, the owners of the land, harvesting their fruit, carry a basket across their shoulders and using a stick made out of bamboo to pick the fruit. There were two exceptions to this method, though. The cloves are harvested by climbing the trees and manually picking them and the almonds are picked off the ground by the farmers after the outer shell is eaten by birds and falls to the ground. It was a fascinating meander through the forest, encountering clove trees, nutmeg trees, cinnamon trees, cashew nut trees, almond nut trees, vanilla plants and cocoa plants. 

 

Land, similar to many countries in the South Pacific, is passed down through the generations and can only be sold to another family member, if desired; never to a stranger. It was a little shocking, though, firstly to learn that the farmers actually sleep in the forest during harvesting time, in order to prevent theft of their fruit, and secondly, that the government charges a tax on the old nutmeg trees in addition to a tax of 35% that is calculated on the expected harvest of fruit i.e. upfront before the farmer even knows what fruit he’ll have.

 

Our final stops included the ruins of Fort Benteng, where we enjoyed a locally prepared picnic style lunch, avoided by Elaine who enjoyed her Vegemite sandwiches instead, then a Muslim cemetery, the wells where drinking water is obtained and the ruins of a building used by the Dutch to dry the nutmeg using a wood-fired oven instead of the sun. On our return to Banda Naira, a cold beer (tonic water for Elaine) was enjoyed on the veranda of one of the hotels in the company of Lady, Pitpony (Judy and Fred) and Kia Ora before heading back to Paw Paw. After a restful afternoon, Roy cooked up a storm in the galley using a freshly purchased tuna fillet which included ceviche, carpaccio, barbecued tuna steaks and a fresh salad of avocado and tomatoes. Roasted fresh almonds were a delicious side dish and, with that, another enlightening day in Indonesia came to a close.

 

On Tuesday, 30^th July 2019, it was another early rise and another Welcoming Ceremony. It suddenly occurred to us, that this was what was going to happen at every destination on the Sail2Indonesia’s itinerary and definitely something we hadn’t expected. Naively or due to a lack of information being conveyed by the rally organisers, we’d assumed the Welcoming Ceremony in Debut was a welcome to Indonesia. It was at this point that we started to consider our departure from the rally, given how hectic it was all becoming and we were only at the second destination. Regardless, we had to to be ashore by 0800 for the Banda Islands’ Welcoming Ceremony. Not as elaborate as the Kai Island welcome in Debut, but, quite honestly, we were relieved. KISS definitely won the day here! Unfortunately the gloomy, rainy day we woke up to, continued through most of the ceremony, but we all accommodated the inconvenience and enjoyed the festivities the best we could.

 

While the cruisers and dignitaries arrived, we were treated to some traditional music, following which the marching band arrived, kicking off the proceedings. Then the beautifully decorated “Kora Kora” boats from the villages of Walang, Biau and Tanarata arrived, their occupants wearing their associated traditional outfits and singing. Fabulous! A number of speeches and presentations were interspersed, including a “flag bearer” from each of the countries represented in the fleet, receiving a formal “sash”. Presentations were also made to the first yacht that arrived in Banda, as well as to the eldest member of the fleet.

 

For us, however, the highlight was the race between the “Kora Kora” boats, each with ten cruisers on board, along with the traditional dancing, demonstrating the importance of the fruit harvest on these islands. It was lovely to see something entirely different to what we had seen in Debut. The proceedings were wrapped up with a delicious meal, but Elaine had to take Roy’s word for that!

 

With the rain continuing on and off all morning and the majority of cruisers ill with either a stomach upset, a sore throat, a cough or a combination thereof, we decided that heading back to Paw Paw, sanitising our hands, doubling up on Vitamin-C and extending Elaine’s course of antibiotics by two more days was the most prudent thing to do. Oh, and crawling back into bed, given the continuation of the gloomy weather!

 

The morning of 31^st July 2019 was the first morning in a while where we didn’t have to wake up to an alarm clock to be ashore at some ungodly hour for some or other event or to start a passage or to stand watch on passage. Of course, the “calls to prayer” in “7.1 surround sound” as Roy referred to it, given the number of mosques that were in the vicinity, woke us both up at 0445. Delightful! Then with Roy waking up full of beans and Elaine wanting to hit him over the head with something, there was absolutely no chance of a sleep-in. So, breakfast was followed by laundry day, but we were both sitting staring at each other by 0945 with all our chores done for the day.We, however, ended up with the perfect interlude; hanging out with Keenan, Brooke and the grandchildren for nearly two hours via video. It was the perfect antidote to the mayhem of the past few weeks and the perfect way to chill ahead of our afternoon snorkel tour. Unfortunately, just as we were getting ready to head ashore, we received word that the tour had been cancelled due to a lack of interest. Very disappointing, but not surprising, given, that the majority of the fleet were all ill at this point. Instead, we used the time to dinghy ashore, stock up on some fresh produce at the local market before returning to Paw Paw for a quiet evening onboard.

 

Unfortunately Elaine’s health woes continued, specifically the UTI, forcing her to switch to a stronger antibiotic in the hopes of shifting it sooner rather than later. This also cemented our decision to leave the rally and head for Bali as quickly and safely as possible, given that we had no idea if the latest course of antibiotics would, in fact, to the trick and, given that there were basically no other decent healthcare facilities available anywhere else. It didn’t help either that this was all fuelling her flareup and making it extremely difficult to get everything back under control. Our hope, however, was that by skipping a few destinations, Elaine’s health would improve and we’d also have the additional benefit of enjoying sun, sea and beaches, rather than villages and towns, full of sick people.

 

So, with that decision made and a new itinerary collated, our time in the Banda Islands was drawing to a close and we were, once again, on weather watch for a suitable departure to undertake a rather awkward distance and arrive at our next intended port-of-call in daylight. We had just one other small hurdle; at this point we were still awaiting the return of our larger laundry items of bedding and towels before any departure could occur. Well, our laundry eventually arrived, but our departure was nonetheless postponed, given the forecast of approaching bad weather. As a result, we spent the next two days in a rather unpleasant anchorage with rain, wind and lumpy seas, all of which created a few problems, when we woke to Ultimo (Carina and Conny) almost on top of us. Fortunately they were awake too and eventually re-anchored, while other yachts were weighing anchor anyway to leave for the next rally destination, South Buru Island, creating a bit more space for the remaining yachts to swing around in the tide-against-wind conditions.

 

The bad weather, however, was also the perfect excuse for Elaine to spend her days in bed hoping to recover somewhat ahead of our passage.  Roy occupied himself by working on his “mystery project” and dinghying ashore to drop off our garbage as well as to top up on some more fresh produce at the local market. Elaine also surfaced at one point to the lovely surprise of finding Cattiva anchored next to us, given that they had arrived the previous morning. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see them, but we did speak on the phone. We’d also made good use of the downtime to catch up with family and friends in England, Ireland and the US, as well as a few other cruisers either via the VHF radio or social media. It was, however, very frustrating that we had also missed a number of social events and outings by this time, but getting Elaine back to a healthier state had to take priority.

 

After a good night’s rest, Elaine woke up feeling a lot better than previous days and, with that, another check of the weather indicated it was time to bid farewell to the Banda Islands and head west. So, after a relaxing morning, while Roy dinghied ashore to make yet another stop at the ATM for cash and to get some more eggs, given that Elaine had used a few for breakfast and we didn’t want to be left short, Elaine completed our pre-sail checklist and by 1500 on Saturday, 3^rd August 2019 we had weighed anchor and exited the anchorage.

 

The new itinerary we had decided upon basically involved heading west to the Wakatobi Island group and from there heading south to the eastern end of Flores Island, work our way along the northern coast of Flores and Sumbawa Islands, stopping at the Komodo National Park in between and onto to Lombok and Bali Islands, where Elaine could get her medical treatment and we could rejoin the rally in Lovina. On hindsight this turned out to be a fabulous option for us as we actually got to see the best of what Indonesia had to offer at our leisure, with a few exceptions. Had we known, we definitely would not have wasted our time doing the northern coast of Flores Island, but rather have headed straight to Labuan Bajo on the western side of the island, stopping at the Bonerate National Park en route. This latter destination is something we regret missing, although, at the time we didn’t know about it and, once again, the rally didn’t provide this kind of information. In fact, what became abundantly clear was that the rally’s objective was primarily to have the cruisers frequent the more isolated areas of Indonesia in the hopes of injecting large sums of foreign cash into these towns and villages, with total disregard as to whether or not it was safe for cruisers to visit these destinations in terms of safe anchorages, sailing angles, etc or indeed, whether or not it was something cruisers typically would want to do, with the majority preferring beautiful beaches and activities like snorkelling and diving over crowded towns and cities. We can get the latter anywhere in the world!

 

Planning the passage of 370NM to the Wakatobi Island group and not wanting to leave the Banda Islands in the dark due to all the fishing boats and nets, we were left with two options in order to arrive in daylight and with good light to see the reefs; either depart in the morning, keep an average SOG of more than 7.5 Kts, and spend two nights at sea or depart in the afternoon, enjoy a leisurely pace of between 5 and 6 Kts and spend three nights at sea. Well, we opted for the latter, given the weather forecast of 15 to 20 Kts of wind, dropping to 10 to 15 Kts, with slight seas of around 2 metres, dropping to 1 to 1.5 metres, but hindsight is a beautiful thing!

 

Turns out the weather forecast couldn’t have been more wrong. We had winds anything from 15 to 25 Kts with seas in excess of 2 metres that were supposed to be aft, but a strong north setting current created a leeway of 10 to 15 degrees, putting the seas on the beam. Add to that the darkest night we’ve had in years, with no moon, overcast and squalls and a few fishing boats to manoeuvre around. With a double-reefed main and a triple-reefed headsail we couldn’t slow Paw Paw down to below 7.5 Kts and, given the horrendous sea state, we definitely weren’t going to make any mainsail changes in the dark. So, at first light we dropped the mainsail and with a double-reefed headsail we were still doing in excess of 6 Kts.

 

On the upside we had Lady for company, who were roughly 2.5NM to our port side and leading the way. Mother Nature also decided to treat us to a spectacle again, which both of us had the pleasure of witnessing during our night watch. This time the entire sea surrounding us lit up in a turquoise colour like someone had placed an enormous spotlight under the water and shone it upwards; at the time we thought it was bioluminescence, which was absolutely magnificent and made our very uncomfortable sail worthwhile.

 

However, after an extremely uncomfortable night, we had hoped the winds and seas would settle down, but no such luck. A VHF radio call to Lady confirmed that we weren’t the only ones getting flung around. In fact, Charlie mentioned that he had been envious for the first time in his life, thinking the catamaran would have been more stable in these conditions and, here we were, thinking the same thing about a monohull. So, after dropping the mainsail and progressing on headsail alone, we spent the day either reefing because we were going far too fast i.e. 7 to 8 Kts or unreefing because we were going far too slow i.e. 4 to 5 Kts. We were both up and down to the helm station like yo-yos, given the fluctuations in wind speed, but the seas remained relentless, along with the procession of squalls. An email from Umnyama (Monique and Dick), who had arrived in Wangi Wangi that morning, confirmed that they had similar conditions and similar challenges resulting in them arriving too soon at their destination, as they too opted for a slower passage and more nights at sea; the sensible thing to do as it’s usually a bigger problem to speed up than to slow down. Who knew!

 

On the brighter side, we enjoyed maximum solar power to charge the batteries, when the sun peeked through the mostly overcast skies and we had also managed to catch up on sleep, although heaven alone knew how, given the bouncing around we’d done.

 

The afternoon net on the HF/SSB radio indicated a number of other yachts heading in our direction, none far enough along to experience the same challenges, although they mentioned the anchorage being very uncomfortable the previous night. We wondered at what the following afternoon’s net would reveal with regard to conditions twenty four hours behind us. Unfortunately there was no change and they too had similar conditions. However, under a clear starry sky, with a crescent moon lighting our way, at least until midnight that night, and fishing boats in the distance to port, we soldiered on.

 

 

Monday, 5^th August 2019, was a slow, tedious day, given that we had slowed down significantly to ensure a daylight arrival. With the stronger winds, that was no easy feat, but, by the afternoon the winds had lightened and we were able to progress with a SOG of around 5 Kts. Fortunately the overcast skies cleared as well, making for a brighter, sunnier day. While we continued to have Lady for company, we also had a number of cargo ships, given we were transiting a shipping lane. Having two come diagonally between ourselves and Lady, was a tad disconcerting, given that we were less than 5NM apart. It was a welcome break, though, from all the fishing boats of the previous night. However, we had another spectacular night from Mother Nature. After a beautiful crescent moon dropped below the horizon, the bioluminescence glowed below us for a few hours again. Once that subsided, the skies cleared completely and we enjoyed a leisurely sail under a magnificent starry night with the bioluminescence lightening up in Paw Paw’s wake, surrounding her in sparkles. We were both, however, looking forward to daybreak and “land ahoy”, together with some well deserved R&R.

 

Although this was one of our slowest, most tedious sails, we arrived at the Wakatobi Islands on Tuesday, 6^th August 2019, as planned; in daylight, which, given all the reefs and the narrow channel through which we had to proceed in order to reach the anchorage, was a good thing. It also helped that it was low tide and sunny, making the reefs very visible. Of course, having Waypoint (Richard and Oliver) and Lady enter ahead of us, was an additional bonus. 

 

Safely anchored in 20 metres of sand, our reward was the inviting turquoise waters, sandy beaches and a dive resort in close proximity for some R&R. We had eventually found what we were looking for in Indonesia; peace and quiet away from the masses. To achieve this, however, meant skipping two rally destinations, but given the jam packed itinerary of those, similar to that of the last two destinations we visited, we were delighted with our decision. While we cannot fault the enthusiasm of the organisers or the fabulous welcomes we’d received from the people of Indonesia thus far, it was just too overwhelming, not to mention, far too high a risk for Elaine with the very unhealthy environment. This was the biggest surprise of all regarding Indonesia. Regardless of what islands we have visited throughout the Caribbean and the South Pacific, this was the first time we had encountered such an unhealthy population and everyone smoking. Guess the tobacco companies had to find another sector of the world to peddle their unhealthy wares to. Granted, it is the world's largest island country, with more than 17,000 islands and over 261 million people, making it the 4th most populous country in the world, but these facts only served to exponentially increase the risk to Elaine and probably explained why we didn’t see too many older people, with the median age of the country only 26. 

 

Regardless, we had found the paradise we were looking for, so, once we’d had a nap and tidied up, the next order of the day was a snorkel from the dinghy not far off the back of Paw Paw. What we hadn’t realised is that this section of the reef was a nursery for a myriad of fish of all sorts of species we hadn’t seen before, as well as the most unusual variety of star fish and corals. What we definitely weren’t expecting was for Roy to encounter a small sea snake, then encounter a 2 metre long sea snake, scarring the wits out of him when he popped his head out of the water to take a closer look, only to find the snake peering straight back at him in dismay with its head also popped out of the water. As Roy said, he’s not sure who got the biggest fright, but neither wasted anytime in scurrying off in opposite directions. 

 

Our day was topped off with an early dinner onboard, then heading over to Lady to enjoy a sundowner and chinwag with Jenny and Charlie, along with the folks off Waypoint and a non-rally yacht, Island Time. What none of us had realised is that we all congregated at the designated time of 1730, only to be told it was, in fact, 1630. Unbeknownst to us, we had crossed into another timezone. It did, however, mean that we still enjoyed an early night after the 1220NM sailed in less than 3 weeks since leaving Thursday Island on 13^th July 2019, together with all the festivities, which seemed to have caught up with us. 

 

It was, however, aboard Lady that we discovered what the blue haze / glow was which we experienced on our passage to the Wakatobi Islands. Chatting to the cruisers off Island Time, they indicated that it is a phenomenon known as “milky seas”. Further research revealed that this is also called ”mareel”, a luminous phenomenon in which large areas of seawater appear to glow brightly enough at night to be seen by satellites orbiting the earth. Modern science only tentatively attributes this effect to bioluminescence, causing the sea to uniformly display an eerie blue glow at night. However, no modern research proves that bioluminescent bacteria are capable of illuminating the ocean from horizon to horizon and for days at a time, as described in mariners’ tales for centuries, including Jules Verne’s, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”. In fact, this phenomenon has not been rigorously documented nor thoroughly explained, even in modern times and we got to witness it. How privileged are we!

 

On Wednesday, 7^th August 2019, after a great night’s sleep, our day started in the best possible way; a phone call from Keenan and our grandson, William, who was delighted to tell us all about his busy first day at ”long day school” and his trip to the “dealership with daddy”; a classic conversation with a four year old which left a smile on his Grandma’s face for the day. Then, while Elaine baked soda bread and prepared breakfast, Roy got the watermaker going and gave Paw Paw a freshwater wash down. Once breakfast was out of the way, we both got stuck into cleaning Paw Paw’s inside, following which it was time to play in the underwater paradise and what a spectacular snorkel it was. While we’ve both said Bonaire and “The Aquarium” in the Tuamotos atoll of Rangiroa, were our top favourite places to dive and snorkel, we can definitely add Hoga Island to that list. We’d never seen the variety of corals and fish ever before, not to mention, the numbers of each in crystal clear water; an “underwater paradise” aptly describes what we enjoyed. As Elaine said: “if we see nothing more in Indonesia, she’d be happy with what we saw today”. It was fabulous and we couldn’t wait to explore the next sections of the reef. Further explorations on land, though, took us along the white sandy beach, where we found the dive shop as well as the resort. We were definitely surprised to find a PADI certified dive shop, where we enquired about getting our dive tanks refilled. That decision, however, had to wait until the following day, but fortunately the establishment was obliging in the end. 

 

The second surprise was finding a group of people from the UK on a NGO (Non-Government Organisation) expedition, “Operation Wallacea”, known as “Opwall”, which runs a series of biological and conservation management research programmes in remote locations across the world, including Hoga Island and involves large teams of university academics, who are specialists in various aspects of biodiversity or social and economic studies, who are concentrated at the target study sites, all of which has resulted in 30 vertebrate species new to science being discovered and four “extinct” species being re-discovered.

 

The third surprise was the “resort”, a word used very loosely to describe the establishment we encountered. We did, however, meet a delightful lady from the Netherlands who was holidaying at the “resort “ with her children. We suspected that the diving was the main attraction, as there was precious little else, although one could purchase a beer to enjoy on the beach while watching the sunset, but it was doubtful if they’d be cold. By the time we returned to Paw Paw, after stopping briefly to chat to Stella Australis (Bronwyn and Pat) who arrived that afternoon, it was early evening, so a barbecue onboard wrapped up the day. 

 

There is an aspect of Indonesia that we discovered soon after our arrival; locals visiting the yachts in their dugouts. In Debut, it was mostly the children who paddled out to visit us, but in the Banda Islands as well as here in the Wakatobi Islands, it was the adults, although some were accompanied by children. Their purpose was to sell produce or services. Thus far we’d been able to hand in our laundry, dispose of our garbage, purchase a variety of fresh produce and purchase fresh fish, all off Paw Paw’s stern steps. In many ways it was very convenient, but the constant stream of merchants became very intrusive at times, especially when you looked out your port hole first thing in the morning only to find someone staring in at you and wanting to sell you something when you’d barely woken up. We did experience this service with a slight twist on Hoga Island, however. On the day of our arrival, a well spoken young man, accompanied by his grandfather, arrived in his dugout to welcome us and indicated that if we needed anything to write it down on a piece of paper so that he wouldn’t forget and he’d return with the goods the following day. Delighted, our short list comprised of tomatoes, bananas, pawpaws and fresh tuna. Well, true to his word, he delivered a huge bag of tomatoes and two large bunches of bananas, with an explanation that there were no pawpaws or fresh fish on the day. Our mistake, however, was not providing quantities and, given all the trouble he had gone to, we took the lot.

 

So, Thursday, 8^th August 2019, turned into a very industrious one, as Elaine set about using the excess produce; a basic tomato and basil pasta sauce took care of the tomatoes while a banana loaf took care of the rest. By the afternoon, though, with the stream of dugouts continuing unabated, we had purchased everything we needed; pawpaws, lettuce, scallops and a fresh tuna. The latter was delivered by a man and his young daughter who then proceeded to fillet the fish for us in his dugout after the price was agreed and paid. For going the extra mile on his service, Roy gave him a waterproof watch we had found while snorkelling and Elaine gave his daughter a bright red ball with white bubbles on it. The smile on their faces was priceless!

 

In between all this activity, Charlie off Lady stopped by briefly to discuss our plans for our next destination and possible departure date, following which Roy spent the rest of the morning moving our investments around to safeguard them against Trump’s questionable tariff policies which was sending the US economy into sketchy territory. By then the tidal current had subsided, so Roy was able to dive the saildrives in order to reattach the boots that had been ripped off when we inadvertently sailed over the two surface fishing lines en route from Thursday Island. As things transpired, it appears we were very fortunate not to have lost a saildrive in the process, given the two dents Roy discovered on the starboard saildrive on closer inspection.

 

Another spectacular snorkel, stopping by Lady for a quick chat and a visit from Cattiva following their arrival in the anchorage earlier, wrapped up the afternoon. It was hard to believe, though, that this was the first time we’d socialised with Cattiva since Cairns, Australia, as we were all too busy in Debut, then everyone got ill. The following day, though, we were able to rectify that when Cattiva and Lady gathered on Paw Paw for an afternoon of Mexican train dominoes, accompanied by a potluck dinner. Since this was the first time in forever that Cattiva and Lady were in each other’s company, there was more chinwagging than playing, but it was, nonetheless, another afternoon of stories and laughter in the company of friends, special moments that we knew would become fewer with time, as many of our friends had made the decision to “swallow the hook” at the end of this sailing season, close on the heels of some who had completed their circumnavigations recently, all returning to landlubber life. We found this all quite ironic, because, at this stage, with Elaine’s conditions still out of control, we were holding on to our vagabond lifestyle for dear life, while others were getting to choose to end it when they’d simply had enough. Oh, the cruelty of life!

 

We were, however, making the best of each day we had, especially enjoying time with Keenan, Brooke and the grandchildren. It’s fair to say that our video calls were becoming very entertaining as the twins “fought over” who got to hold the phone to talk to us. On this particular occasion Brayden won the tussle and just wandered off to a quiet spot in the house to chat to us. Just the cutest, as he told us all about losing his truck and wanted Grandma to help him find it. It was some time later before Keenan and Brooke realised he was missing, only to find him sitting in the dark in the playroom chatting away merrily to us.

 

With the forecast indicating easterly winds, which would make the anchorage on Hoga Island untenable, our R&R came to a sudden abrupt end, as we hung around on the day of Saturday, 10^th August 2019, under overcast skies, waiting and preparing for our passage to Flores Island. A few hours of researching our options around anchorages and distances we could possibly achieve without having to spend two nights at sea, all boiled down to picking an anchorage further east and closer, which could result in an uncomfortable beat, but only one night at sea or spending two nights at sea and getting closer to our preferred anchorages or going “hell for leather” and trying to make the further destinations within 36 hours because, once again, these were awkward distances and, to achieve the latter, required us to maintain an average SOG in excess of 7.0 Kts for this passage. We kept our options open on the first two. Once that was decided, passage meals, the pre-sail checklist, some engine and watermaker maintenance and the removal of the straps that were securing our saildrive boots until the glue had cured, were all completed. While we were busy preparing for departure, though, we later learnt that a number of cruisers took the opportunity to dinghy over to the stilted village, something we would have loved to do, but didn’t realise was happening - a real shame, although probably a good thing, given that Elaine was only starting to feel semi-normal by this stage. 

 

This highlighted another strange aspect of this rally; very little information was shared between cruisers as well. We later learnt that sub-groups had formed, of which we were not a part, and left us feeling like total outsiders, especially when we were removed from the “UK Contingencies” WhatsApp group soon after the Welcoming Ceremony in Debut. Roy put this down to a WhatsApp message Elaine had sent out in Debut to clarify a situation, after Roy had been confronted and accused of putting Sky Blue Eyes on the reef by two separate cruisers; one not realising Roy was actually from Paw Paw as he regaled the story. Their argument was that, although we’d taken the trouble to send an email to everyone’s “at sea’ email addresses before their arrival in Debut, given the problems ourselves and Element had had getting into the anchorage, the coordinates we had provided were incorrect. As it transpired, we had not provided incorrect information, but this experience had upset us, given that most of the fleet was probably left with the same opinion before Elaine’s note and certainly left a very bad taste in our mouths; to the extent that it precluded us from rendering any further assistance moving forward, except in selected circumstances. Not an attitude we have ever taken in all the years we’ve been sailing. It was also the first point at which our enthusiasm for the rally had started to wain, given our dampened spirits at this incident.

 

On Sunday, 11^th August 2019, we were up at 0530 to weigh anchor and set sail. Unfortunately by 0900, the only thing the forecast had got right was the wind direction, but the 15 to 20 Kts were nowhere to be found, resulting in us having to motor-sail. Fortunately, with the exception of one area where we had absolutely no wind, the forecast wind kicked in once we were through the outer reefs and we enjoyed boat speeds in excess of 8.0 Kts for most of the day. We did, however, have to double reef the mainsail and single reef the headsail at around 1500 when a large storm passed over us, but by 1630 we’d shaken out one reef in the main and decided that could be our configuration for the night, as the winds were expected to drop as we got closer to Flores Island. We were also enjoying the company of Lady, Cattiva, Arkouda (Cynthia and Sean) and Ultimo, who had also decided to depart from the rally and head south. Although a few nautical miles behind us, company at sea means chats via the an established SSB/HF radio net and hearing the friendly voices certainly goes a long way to making a passage far more enjoyable.

 

What had surprised us, though, were the numerous floating structures we’d seen and, in some cases, had to alter course in order to avoid them. While we’d relayed their positions to the other yachts, we weren’t altogether sure if these were indeed FADs or some sort of burial contraptions, as we’d discovered them in thousands of metres of water and they appeared to be “boat” shaped, covered in palm leaves. Very peculiar! Seeing a whale about 100 metres off our port side that evening, was making this passage feel more like an obstacle course, but this was only our first of many. Fortunately we had a moon which helped as nightfall arrived and we had the radar to pick up any other potential dangers in our path, although this wasn’t altogether true either, as we latter found out!

 

While we had thought a single reef in each sail would suffice for the night, we changed our minds and decided to double reef the mainsail instead. That proved to be a prudent decision, given wind speeds that reached 25 Kts that were nowhere in a forecast, resulting in Elaine having to triple reef the headsail on her watch, as well as bear away significantly in order to reduce our speed that was in excess of 9 Kts. It also meant that if we were unlucky enough to hit something, given the obstacle course we’d encountered thus far in the passage, it would be at a slower speed. Soon thereafter, however, the winds veered and we spent the last hour of our passage beating. All things considered we couldn’t complain, though, as we’d had winds all the way, saving our diesel and we didn’t hit anything!

 

The day was about to take a significant turn, however. First we received disturbing and upsetting news from Arizona, then, on entering the anchorage at around 0800 as planned, we discovered a passenger ketch taking up most of the bay and, instead of a sand bottom as indicated in the guide, Tanjung Gedong had a rock bottom. After numerous attempts at trying to set the anchor and almost fouling it twice, we gave up and decided to head to Palau Besar or Wodong. A quick update on the VHF radio to the other yachts, Lady, Arkouda and Ultimo who were still a reasonable distance behind us, had the convoy following suit. However, since Cattiva had fallen behind and was out of range, Elaine sent an email to let Maria and Maurice know what had transpired and, with that, we all set off on a day “sail” to Wodong.

 

Transiting the channel between Palau Besar and Flores Island and meandering our way through the dramatic scenery was fabulous and emphasised the vastness and diversity of Indonesia. Having left tropical lush surroundings we now encountered an arid, mountainous landscape, with crystal clear turquoise blue water covering large fringing reefs, interspersed with a few sandy white beaches. While enjoying the scenery, however, no one noticed the wind shift, since we were all motoring in light and variable winds. It wasn’t until we were approaching the anchorage at Wodong, a few miles further along the coast, that we realised this anchorage was untenable as well. In fact, a perusal of the latest forecast indicated northerly winds for the remainder of the week, rendering the majority of the anchorages along the northern coast of Flores Island untenable.

 

Although, by this stage, Paw Paw was the only yacht that had managed to find shallow water to anchor in, we were on a lee-shore, with the other yachts standing off while we all figured out what to do, given the lateness of the hour. With only two hours of remaining daylight, a suggestion from Lady to continue sailing overnight to the closest protected anchorage, Damo Bay, some 90NM away, was met with trepidation on our part, but once the other yachts had set off, we weighed anchor and followed suit. It was the better alternative to spending the night on a lee-shore, given that neither of us would sleep anyway, so we may as well do watches and get somewhere safe. On the bright side we all got to enjoy a beautiful sunset cruise.

 

After wandering around the waters of Indonesia for three days and two nights, trying to find a safe haven, we eventually arrived at the very protected, fjord-like anchorage of Damo Bay, surrounded by a dramatic, arid landscape. By 0900 on Tuesday, 13^th August 2019 we eventually dropped anchor in 8 metres / 26ft of water at high tide, although that was a bit of a guess, given that the closest tide station was 50NM away on the other side of the island. We were, nonetheless, happy to be anchored and able to get some rest.

 

It is fair to say that, all things considered, our time in Indonesia by this point had started to become a huge disappointment overall. Although we’d thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful welcomes we had received in Debut and the Banda Islands by the friendliest people, the tours we’d done, the fabulous snorkelling in Hoga Island and the spectacular landscape we enjoyed coming through the pass between Palau Besar and Flores Island, as well as watching the local villagers wading through the water at low tide in the evenings with their spears and baskets to catch fish, we were missing out on so much more, due to a variety of reasons, many beyond our control. Besides having to avoid the populated areas and, therefore, many of the rally events, due to the risk to Elaine’s health because of the unsanitary and poverty stricken environments, emphasised by additional information not previously shared, in that, not only did illness sweep through our fleet like wildfire, but the previous year, every rally participant fell ill with food poisoning as well, we were now also having to skip major tourist attractions, like the Tri-Coloured Lakes at Kelimutu and the traditional village of Bijou, because we weren’t able to find tenable anchorages in close proximity, where we could safely leave Paw Paw for a few hours. 

 

Other aspects we were grappling with included the logistics and restrictions around the visa renewal process, cruising guides and charts that were completely inaccurate making navigation difficult and grounding a few yachts already, constantly trying, in vain, to find a shallow patch to anchor in the very deep anchorages, then having to find an alternative anchorage altogether in many cases and weather forecasts that didn’t serve any purpose. Add the micro-climatological effects and local topology on certain islands that were not documented anywhere, but create onshore breezes and unpredictable strong gusts that placed a yacht on a precarious lee-shore, the destruction of the reefs and sea-life through disastrous dynamite and cyanide fishing methods, the huge amount of litter we’d seen floating in the sea and on the beaches, the obstacle courses created by fishing boats, nets and unlit FADs and the lack of reasonable provisioning facilities in the anchorages we had been able to access, where we’d had to scrounge around a limited variety of somewhat decent fruit and vegetables and pay an exorbitant asking price in some cases. Then there was the actual rally itinerary, with a schedule that was absolutely brutal and totally lacked important sailing information like the condition of the anchorages we were expected to access or destinations that didn’t involve beating to windward. It also totally lacked in communication and organisation around the events, making any kind of planning and decision-making on where and what to participate in, completely impossible. Additionally, there was absolutely no consideration for free time between destinations to undertake maintenance activities or unexpected repairs or to rest or, in fact, to sail to the next destinations without being hot on the heels of jammed packed days, commencing early in the morning to ending well after dark for days on end, while we were expected to attend an endless supply of Welcoming Ceremonies and touring functions. There were expectations that, after sailing hundreds of miles, we would be on shore by 0730 most mornings, only to be returned to our yachts at 2100 and, in some instances, as late as 2300. While the intent of welcoming us to Indonesia and the desire to show us as much as possible of the customs and culture, was paramount, it was, nonetheless, ludicrous!  It also became abundantly clear that the main focus of the rally’s itinerary had been an attempt to inject much needed cash, through our spending, into the rural and poverty stricken areas of Indonesia, but the aggressive schedule was completely unsuited to the cruising lifestyle, all of which had the unfortunate consequence, that after months of practising, and numerous hours spent making the beautiful costumes and undertaking the preparations to welcome us, the events were being poorly attended by now with only a handful of yachts sailing to the rally specified destinations. In fact, this had essentially rendered the rally non-existent at this stage, as yachts, like ourselves and those that accompanied us, had dispersed in every direction in search of what suited them better.

 

While many of these aspects were part of the experience, how we felt about them at this point, after sailing hundreds of miles, may well have been because we were tired and frustrated. However, in the end, it only served to solidify our plan to work our way through Indonesia as quickly and safely as possible, heading for Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand instead, while making the best of what we could access along the way, including socialising with the smaller group of yachts that happen to be heading in the same direction as us, especially after having to deal with many of the same issues as we continued to make our way along the Flores coast.

 

Our stay in Damo Bay turned out to be yet another disappointment, as we’d read that snorkelling the outer reefs was supposed to be a fabulous experience. Our dinghy excursion through the cut at high tide, however, resulted in a mad scramble on our part in order to join everyone else, since we’d only been informed at the last minute; in fact only when everyone else was actually underway. Then, when we all got through the cut, there was a rather large swell running out of the northeast, causing breaking waves on the reefs. Deciding it was too rough, the dinghy convoy returned to the shelter of Damo Bay and enjoyed a snorkel on one of the reefs further inside the bay instead. It definitely wasn’t Wakatobi, but the water was warm and there were fish and corals to see, albeit somewhat sparse. 

 

By this stage of our jaunt around Indonesia we were also running very low on our fresh produce, given there was precious little to buy thus far. That also meant there were times we weren’t altogether sure what we were eating, including on this occasion when Elaine made a salad to accompany our barbecue onboard that evening; was it a cabbage or was it a lettuce that we’d purchased in Wakatobi? After sampling it and still not being able to work it out, we decided to call it a “lettage”, which went down like a treat regardless.

 

After our departure from Damo Bay, we spent the next five days day-hopping as we made our way to Labuan Bajo and, in particular, to the the Komodo National Park, arriving on 17^th August 2019. We had also left behind Arkouda, Ultimo and Georgia (Chris and Paul), who’d arrived in the Demo Bay anchorage the day after our arrival and whom we hadn’t seen since New Caledonia in October 2017, but we still had Lady for company. In fact, this was actually the last time we saw or socialised with Arkouda and Ultimo after we’d been invited over for a meet-and-greet on Arkouda, which turned into a great evening of swapping stories, one that went on far longer than we had planned, given that all of us were sleep deprived from our attempts finding a safe anchorage. 

 

Beside the usual anchorage issues, we now had the additional issue of very poor signal and limited bandwidth, making for difficult communications with loved ones, coupled with very little rest, before we were up early to continue on. Waking before dawn every morning, though, meant we experienced some beautiful sunrises and there were a few events along the way, that provided the positive experience of Indonesia and her people.

 

On Thursday 15^th August 2019 , we weighed anchor and set sail for Lingeh, some 30NM further along Flores Island. However, weather along this coast translated to light winds, with occasional onshore sea breeze of 10 to 15 Kts out of the northeast, affording us the opportunity to switch off the engines and enjoy a leisurely sail along a very barren coastline, interspersed with long stretches of white sandy beaches. At this stage we also noticed the swell was slighter than the previous few days, increasing our hopes that we were heading to a tenable anchorage.

 

On days when we were motoring, which increased as we made our way further west, we put our time and the energy generated by the engines, to good use to run the watermaker as well as get through our pile of laundry. We did, however, have to stand watch constantly as there were plenty of FADs to avoid, making any more night sails along this coast far too precarious. We were also delighted, though, to have data connectivity that wasn’t “edge” the further west we progressed, allowing us to catch up on correspondence and social media, as well as phone the family. It was the first time we’d been able to chat to them since leaving the Wakatobi Islands.

 

By noon that day, we were safely anchored in the best anchorage we’d had in Indonesia; reasonable depth and great holding in sand, with plenty of swing room for a host of yachts, off a sandy beach; no rocks, no reefs, just sand and, surprisingly, a much greener and lusher landscape than what we’d seen further east on Flores Island. We’d barely got the anchor set, though, when a stream of children arrived in their dugouts. The first little boy asked for a cap and fishing hooks and line and was delighted to receive all three, although he was showing us “the finger” in the photograph we took of him; we’d hoped this gesture had a different meaning in Indonesia. The second dugout had a young girl, Nona, and her younger brother, welcoming us to her village and asking us to visit it. While we politely declined as we still had laundry to do and wanted to have lunch, we offered her brother a ball, which, of course, resulted in a huge smile. Soon thereafter, Lady, Georgia and another yacht, Fairwinds (Julie and Joe) arrived in the anchorage, following which we received a call from Charlie, making arrangements to dinghy ashore for a lovely long walk on the beach, considering none of us had been on land in nearly a week. 

 

The excursion took a slightly different direction, though, after Charlie informed us that Nona was insisting: “please come to my village” and what a delightful afternoon followed. Once we’d beached the dinghies, we followed Nona along a dirt track, through densely wooded vegetation which opened up into a meadow and where her village was located. As we wandered through the village, Nona introduced us to her aunts and uncles, her cousins, her father and finally her grandparents. Under the shade of a huge tree, sitting on plastic chairs, which Nona had summoned for us, we chatted to her family.  Although a lot was lost in translation, we all somehow managed to communicate. The striking aspect of the experience was that these people with so little, were so welcoming and served us coconuts. Once we’d enjoyed the coconut water, the “jelly” coconut was cracked open for us to enjoy the soft centre. Before our departure, Lady was given a bunch of bananas and we were given a pawpaw, with strict instructions of “no money, no money”. It was their gift to us. In return we hauled out a few more balls for each of the children after our walk on the beach and a quick trip back to Paw Paw, while Lady provided Nona with some school supplies. It was a very unexpected afternoon, which saw more children, accompanied by a parent, paddle out to Paw Paw for a ball.

 

Another aspect of life in Indonesia surfaced, though, while we were visiting the little village of no more than 10 houses and 50 people; it was difficult to determine what this village lived off. We'd assumed fishing and, the large piles of wood we saw bundled together, were a source of income, but we think it was mostly subsistence living, given the corn we saw being smoked, the evidence of coconut, pawpaw and banana trees and a few animals around, primarily pigs, cows and chickens. We understood this was a Catholic village, given the evidence of pork, as well as what we were able to decipher during the conversations with Nona. It was also interesting to see a much healthier population with a demographic covering all age groups and, as Roy observed, there was no smell of sewage. Of course, the “calls to pray” which we really hadn’t missed since leaving the Banda Islands, reminded us that the Muslim community wasn’t too far away either. 

 

That night, after a beautiful sunset and under a full moon, in calm waters, we enjoyed our first “armageddon” dinner (aka out of a tin), since we were out of fresh produce, but the casserole Roy whipped up, using fresh tuna to accompany the tinned vegetables, was delicious. 

 

On the morning of Friday, 16^th August 2019, we were awake with the birds and the roosters again, but this time, not only did we get to see another beautiful sunrise, we also got to see the full moon setting in the west behind the mountains. You’d think by now we’d have tired of these natural beauties, but each one was so different from the last and always sets the tone for a fabulous day. So, on went the engines, up came the anchor and we were off, motoring for about an hour before we picked up an offshore breeze out of the southwest, putting Paw Paw on a gentle close reach. With no schedule and no rush, we were quite happy to meander along, on headsail alone, to our next chosen anchorage for the night, Bari Bay, using the time to run the watermaker again in flat seas and to get a few chores done. 

 

It was also the first day since our arrival in Indonesia where we had completely clear blue skies and, although we ended up having to motor-sail towards the end of our trip, it was far safer and less stressful than doing overnights, given that we still had endless fishing boats and FADs to deal with. However, both were significantly different in design from what we had seen further north. Here the FADs were large square floating boxes, usually of a grey, green or black colour, making them very difficult to spot and the local boats looked more like pirogues with a twist, as if simply carved out of a single tree trunk with a bamboo structure off to both sides to stabilise them and very few were painted in bright colours. Then we thought we saw a fleet of sailing yachts ahead of us, only to discover they were yet another design of local fishing boats heading in convoy towards us. We’d also seen many more large motorised fishing boats and the previous night there were numerous fishing boats out in the bay for most of the night. 

 

On an entirely different note, we were becoming very perplexed by the amount of garbage we’d seen floating in the ocean and washed up on the beaches, so we decided to do some research to determine if there was perhaps an underlying reason. Lo and behold, what we discovered was a major source of income for villages around Indonesia, but without consideration for the consequences. 

 

Reuters had recently published an article: “Cash for Trash: Indonesia Village Banks on Waste Recycling”. In summary, the article indicated that the USA, Canada and Australia were exporting their garbage to Indonesia for “recycling”, where villagers sift through it for plastic and aluminium to sell to recycling firms and to Tofu makers who buy the waste to burn as fuel when making the soy-based food.

 

While any visitor to a country, including cruisers like ourselves, have an impact on local communities when we dispose of our garbage, there is no comparison to the scale of destruction the practices of these countries were having on the environment here, as well as the general population of Indonesia, since land that was once lush rice-paddy fields or used to grow other produce were now overflowing landfills with the excess garbage piled up in the front and backyards of homes or being dumped into the ocean. Additionally, the piles of garbage had become a threat to villagers’ health, since microplastics had polluted groundwater and nearby rivers used for drinking water.

 

While Indonesia generated 105,000 tons of solid municipal waste everyday in urban areas, with only 15% recycled, it had also imported 283,000 tons of plastic waste last year, up 141% from a year earlier, making the country the second biggest contributor of plastic pollutants in the world’s oceans. 

 

Overwhelmed by a spike in waste imports, after China closed its doors to foreign garbage, Indonesia has subsequently tightened import rules and customs inspections, sending hundreds of tons of foreign waste back to the originating countries and has also launched a plan to reduce marine plastic debris by 70% by 2025, pledging to spend $1 billion, but it is unclear how much progress has been made as yet. On the upside, we do know, however, that the rally organisers had arranged “beach clean ups” for the cruisers and certain cruisers were chatting to high school groups about litter and suggesting they join “Trash Heroes”. At least there was an awareness, which was starting to address the issue.

 

It was in this anchorage, though, that we experienced the cultural void between ourselves and the Indonesians when it came to respecting our privacy as cruisers and protecting our property, our yachts, which are our homes, when our afternoon nap was interrupted when Charlie off Lady hailed us to let us know that some children had boarded Paw Paw unbeknownst to us. Definitely a big no, no and something Elaine wasted no time in rectifying. As a result we weren’t very receptive when the next group approached, but we did hand out some fishing hooks and line to a disabled man. Needless to say, the gratitude displayed was overwhelming and really brought home just how little these people had. 

 

It was, however, another day in Indonesia, full of unexpected experiences, which continued until sunset. These included seeing people walking out on the reef carrying baskets and collecting something or other and seeing hundreds of flying foxes, a type of bat, flying around as the sun was setting, but seeing a man herding cattle on the nearby beach was definitely a sight we weren’t expecting! Just more examples of the diversity of this vast country.

 

For us, there have always been a few upfront events or experiences that have shaped our opinion of a destination and set the tone for the duration of our stay. Generally, this has not faded or changed with time, regardless of how long we’ve stayed in a certain country. In many ways it’s similar to “first impressions are lasting impressions”, but Indonesia was changing that.

 

While our time here hadn’t got off on a good foot, by this stage, Elaine’s health was improving and our decision to reduce our time with the masses and not attend all the rally events, as well as to sail to destinations not on the rally itinerary, Indonesia, similar to Samoa, was starting to reveal herself to us. The nature of the people, together with the diversity of their way of life, which we had been fortunate enough to observe outside a staged environment and the varied scenery of each place we had visited, was definitely its charm. It also gave us a chance to meet the people in a more intimate setting and to get behind the scenes, like having Nona, the 14 year old, offer to come aboard to help Elaine do the laundry when she learnt Elaine was ill or receiving fruit as a gift or seeing the delight on the children’s faces when they received our small gift of a ball or fishing gear, simply summed it up. It’s always the little things that leave a lasting impression and Indonesia was proving to be no exception. 

 

On Saturday, 17^th August 2019, although we departed Bari Bay at sunrise, we did something a little different; we motored over to the western side of the bay to take a closer look at the sea gypsy village on stilts and take photographs as the sun rose from behind the mountains. We’d wanted to see the stilted village in Wakatobi, but missed the opportunity to do so. Seeing this particular one with the sun lighting up the coloured homes was perfect. 

 

From there we motored to Labuan Bajo and into the Komodo National Park. Although the landscape remained extremely arid and in places very rugged, the contrast against the completely calm deep blue water and the turquoise waters over the reefs lapping white sandy beaches, made for some stunning scenery. And, once again, we saw a different design of a local boat, but unfortunately we also had more than a few fishing nets to dodge on our approach. By noon’ish, however, we were safely anchored off the beach of one of a number of resorts.

 

After lunch we met Lady en route to the beach in the dinghies as arranged, following which we made our way to the delightful and very welcoming resort of Sari Beach. After meeting the manager, Lydia, who explained that we could use all the facilities of the resort, including the swimming pool and the shuttle service for a small fee, as well as enjoy a meal and drinks in their restaurant, we wasted no time at taking her up on the latter. Given that it was also Independence Day in Indonesia, we were greeted by friendly staff, adorning the red and white national colours, who showed us to our table overlooking the gardens and beachfront. It wasn’t long before Georgia and Fairwinds arrived to enjoy the same treatment. It was sunset by the time we’d finished a delicious meal, a few drinks and enjoyed some socialising, before making our way back down to the beach to the dinghies and where we were pleasantly surprised to find the locals out celebrating. Local music, line dancing and beach volley ball with a twist, as the sun dropped below the horizon, was another perfect ending to a day in Indonesia. 

 

Our short stay of two days in Labuan Bajo was primarily to run some long overdue errands, since this was our first destination that actually had the services we needed; getting diesel; getting petrol and, most importantly, getting to a supermarket to replenish all our fresh produce, including milk, cheese, butter, eggs, yoghurt, fruit juice, fruit and vegetables, as well as a few dry products like granola, pasta, rice, biscuits, crackers and bread. We were delighted to find apples, oranges, avocados, guavas and watermelon, amongst the selection of fruits, but there wasn’t a chocolate in sight. Fortunately we still had a small stash onboard, but this was about to get serious, given that Elaine was a confirmed chocoholic and Roy wasn’t far behind her. However, we learnt a little while later that some of these services were no longer available to the cruisers who arrived in Labuan Bajo after us, particularly diesel, leaving many yachts in a quandary.

 

Since we decided to share a car with Lady to get through the list of errands, we also dropped off their laundry, had a little tour of the town and enjoyed a real coffee together with a baked delight at La Bajo Flores Coffee Shop. Then, while Elaine enjoyed some “me time” at the coffee shop, Roy set off with Jenny and Charlie to explore a little more on foot, in particular, to find a dinghy dock, which was non-existent, but they did find the new marina and hotel that was under construction along with the accompanying high-end shopping complex, where some of the shops were already open for business, including a Starbucks and a French bakery as well as a sporting goods store, a sunglasses store and a cosmetic store. Roy estimated that these comprised about a quarter of the stores planned for the complex. Quite an investment for sure and something that will definitely become a major attraction, given its close proximity to the islands of Komodo and Rinca, not to mention, providing jobs and improving the standard of living for the local population. The surrounding area definitely required a facelift, though, if the project was to succeed, especially the open grey water drains, that definitely didn’t smell too good. The drains further away from the waterfront were bad enough that even Elaine’s mask and a double layer of kitchen towel over her nose and mouth couldn’t disguise the smell, but Roy said the waterfront smell was even worse and nearly made him throw up, which had to be bad, as Roy can stomach most things. On hearing that, Elaine was pleased she’d stayed at the coffee shop, although apparently the “pavements” would have been a challenge for her anyway. 

 

It’s fair to say, the populated areas of Indonesia were definitely not our cup of tea, but we could not fault the friendliness and helpfulness of our driver, Danny, or the staff at the coffee shop, or the staff at the supermarket, or the staff at the Puri Sari Resort. The Indonesian people were just lovely and would do anything to make one’s stay the best it could possibly be. Their enthusiasm towards tourists was simply mind blowing. Absolutely nothing was too much trouble!

 

Once we were back at the resort, we enjoyed another delicious meal, this time opting for traditional Indonesian dishes and we weren’t disappointed. In fact, Elaine commented that it was the nicest Chicken Satay dish she had ever tasted. With that, we prepared Paw Paw for our departure; filled the diesel tanks, filled the dinghy tank, stowed the provisions and gave both the cockpit and the dinghy a much needed wash down to get rid of all the black volcanic beach sand that was everywhere because of the dinghy anchor and because the grocery bags and the jerry cans had to be placed on the beach while we got the dinghy back in the water. The latter had to be repeated the following day as the ladies left the men to complete the final errands.

 

Having sailed the length of the northern coast of Palau Flores, discovering a great deal of diversity as we progressed, we became curious about the possible reasons behind this, as well as the origins of its name, which was so different from the other Indonesian island names, so a little research into its history was undertaken. 

 

Geographically it is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, in the eastern half of Indonesia, although, from a timezone perspective, it is aligned with Central Indonesia, at UTC+8 hours. Also, unlike most islands in the Indonesian archipelago, the name Flores was given by the Portuguese, from Cabo de Flores (Cape of Flowers), the Portuguese term for the eastern part of the island. This part of the island, originally called Kopondai, was so named by the Portuguese because of the flowering Delonix Regia trees found there. The original name of Palau Flores was Palau Nipa, meaning serpent and referring to the serpent-shape of the island. Palau Flores is the 10th most populous island in Indonesia as well as being the 10th largest island. 

 

The west coast of Palau Flores is part of the Komodo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the Kelimutu National Park the second national park designated on this island, in order to protect endangered species and where the 3-Coloured Lakes are situated; one of the tourist attractions we had to forego due to weather.

 

The first Portuguese visit took place in 1511, through the expedition of Antonio de Abreu and Fransisco Serrao en route through the Sunda Islands, following which Portuguese traders and missionaries arrived, mainly to Larantuka and Sikka and their influence is still discernible in the Sikka's language, culture and religion. The Dominican order was extremely important on this island and is still reflected today in the 70% dominance of the Roman Catholic population, whereas most other Indonesians are Muslim. As a consequence, Palau Flores may be regarded as being surrounded by a religious border. 

 

In 1613, when the Dutch attacked the Fortress of Solor, the population of this fort, led by the Dominicans, moved to the harbour town of Larantuka, on the eastern coast of Palau Flores. This population was a mix of Portuguese and local islanders descent, referred to by the Dutch as the “Black Portuguese” (Zwarte Portuguezen). These descendants became the dominant sandalwood trading people of the region for the next 200 years and used Portuguese as the language for worship, Malay as the language of trade and a mixed dialect as the “mother tongue”. 

 

In 1846, the Dutch and Portuguese initiated negotiations towards delimiting the territories, but these negotiations led nowhere. Then, in 1851, Lima Lopes, the new governor of Timor, Solor and Flores, agreed to sell eastern Flores and the nearby islands to the Dutch in return for a payment of 200,000 Florins in order to support his impoverished administration and did so without the consent of Lisbon. He was subsequently dismissed in disgrace, but his agreement was not rescinded and in 1854 Portugal ceded all its historical claims on Palau Flores, after which it became part of the territory of the Dutch East Indies. 

 

At least six separate languages are identifiable today. These are, from west to east: Ngadha, Nage, Keo, Ende, Lio and Palu’e. Locals, however, would probably also add So’a and Bajawa, the latter being the language spoken by the people of the traditional village of Bajawa, the second attraction we wanted to visit, but had to forego because of logistics of where to leave Paw Paw and then where to leave the dinghy once ashore. 

 

In addition to tourism, the main economic activities on Palau Flores are agriculture, fishing and seaweed production. The primary food crops are rice, maize, sweet potato and cassava, while the main cash crops are coffee, coconut, candle nut and cashew nuts, where Palau Flores is one of the newest origins for Indonesian coffee and it was actually very tasty, having enjoyed a second cup as a mid-morning coffee after Elaine and Jenny spent their morning at the resort swimming pool, while Roy and Charlie completed the remaining errands that both yachts required. Once the men returned from town and had offloaded everything onto the yachts, they too enjoyed a swim before we all headed up to the main dining room for another delicious lunch. By the time we got back to Paw Paw, however, a much stronger onshore breeze had developed creating an unpleasant roll in the anchorage. It was a good thing we had already decided to move on. 

 

On Tuesday, 20^th August 2019, while we had agreed to enjoy a lazier morning, Roy was chomping at the bit to get going, but Elaine was definitely not prepared to be rushed. Regardless, though, Roy had agreed to chat to Lady about our general plan for cruising the Komodo National Park and, in particular, our next anchorage, so we had to wait until a reasonable hour anyway to ensure we weren’t hailing them on the VHF radio too early in the morning. By 0815, though, we’d weighed anchor and we were heading out to explore the Komodo National Park, something the other yachts behind us were not allowed to do, given new restrictions that were enforced after we departed the area. Seeing dolphins soon after  our departure was a great start to the day, but, unfortunately, it was not a sign of things to come. 

 

First off, while we enjoyed the very unusual and desolate scenery en route, neither of the adjoining anchorages we had chosen for the night, bore any resemblance to what was in the cruising guide, both in topography and depth, which was a tad disconcerting to say the least. Secondly, there were no mooring balls either, but there were a number of local boats anchored in the only reasonably shallow areas. Thus began our problem. After motoring around for a while, we eventually found an area that had reasonable depths of 11 metres / 35ft, so we dropped the anchor and it seemed to dig in fairly easily. However, when Roy snorkelled the anchor he discovered that we were in a mixture of sand and coral rubble, but wedged under a rock. We were definitely secure, but wondered if we’d have trouble retrieving the anchor the following day. We’d no sooner started the conversation as to whether or not we should find another anchorage altogether, when Lady arrived, dropped anchor in the same vicinity and set first time. So, with both yachts securely anchored and arrangements for a potluck dinner finalised, the decision was made; we’d staying put. 

 

With that we jumped in the dinghies and headed out to the reef to enjoy some snorkelling. While it wasn’t Wakatobi either, it was definitely much better than Damo Bay and, while the corals weren’t as spectacular as Wakatobi, they were very colourful and we saw a wide variety of something different once again. By now, though, more tour boats had arrived, so there were divers everywhere too. 

 

Back on Paw Paw we were hailed by Lady who informed us that a diver had indicated that they were anchored in coral and had to move. Fortunately the one and only mooring ball had become vacant, so they moved onto it. Elaine, in the interim, had decided an afternoon nap was in order, but she woke to the news that a dive master, who claimed to be from some or other environmental / marine protection agency, had approached Roy, explaining that we too had to move because we were on a “coral table”. Confused as to how that was possible, given that Roy had snorkelled the anchor, not to mention, it was well past 1600 and too late to see the reefs, Roy, not wanting a confrontation, agreed to move. Big mistake! If the purpose of us moving was to prevent damage to coral, that objective failed dismally, as we spent the next two hours dropping and raising our anchor numerous times and twice ending up right on top of two separate reefs. How we didn’t ground Paw Paw was a miracle. 

 

Eventually, out of daylight and out of options, with the anchorage still full of local boats occupying the shallower water, we had no choice but to anchor towards the edge of one of the reefs, so that we had depth to drop the anchor, but also still had some depth to swing over the reef. Needless to say, dinner arrangements were cancelled, stress level were through the roof, we’d damaged more coral that we ever would have had we just stayed put and neither of us had a good night’s sleep. On hindsight we should have just stayed where we were and explained to the dive master that we had snorkelled the anchor, knew where we were anchored and what we were anchored in and, far more importantly, given the lateness of the hour, it was simply too dangerous to move. All in all, it was not the day we had planned and only served to fuel the negative experiences we were having in Indonesia.

 

Anyway, after the unpleasant start to our exploration of the Komodo National Park, both Lady and ourselves had made the decision to find a better anchorage, taking the cruising guide and our Navionics charts with a pinch of salt, but rather double checking everything with our Ovitel satellite overlays. With that the decision was made; head south to Rinca Island, where we could make inquiries at the Rangers Station regarding the cruising permit and, specifically, the anchoring restrictions, as well as possibly book a tour, depending on what we found. En route we made good use of our time and our energy again (aka solar power supplemented by the engines running, giving us hot water and allowing us to run the watermaker and to do the laundry. By the time we arrived at our chosen anchorage, we were not only delighted to have completed a chore, but we were delighted to find a very secure anchorage with reasonable depths and empty (aka free of local boats),  the latter being totally contrary to what another cruiser had relayed to Jenny and Charlie a few days earlier. Scratching our heads at the information received, both yachts anchored anyway, then after collecting Jenny and Charlie, we headed to the dock, where we were greeted by a number of monkeys. A short walk on a reasonably well maintained purpose built walkway, passing a number of deer along the way, took us to the very helpful rangers and tour guides, where we received the load down on cruising the Komodo National Park and touring options. Things were looking up again.

 

Having made all the necessary arrangements to collect our permits as well as having booked an early morning tour, we decided to enjoy a refreshment at the cafeteria before heading back to the yachts. However, while enjoying our refreshments, Elaine happened to notice one of the guides pointing at a nearby tree. Curious at what he saw, Elaine left the table only to discover a huge Komodo Dragon lying under the tree. It didn’t take long for the news to spread and for the cameras to be hauled out. What a stroke of luck! We’d seen our first dragon. It was definitely a sign of things to come. At one point, though, we thought the dragon was going to attack a nearby deer, but then flopped back down and went to sleep. 

 

Once back on Paw Paw an afternoon nap was definitely needed after a restless night and another early start. When we woke, we couldn’t believe the sight before and aft of us; a myriad of local charter boats, of all shapes, sizes and colours, jammed into the anchorage, lending truth to the information that Jenny and Charlie had received about this anchorage. It was a sight to behold and we spent the rest of the afternoon watching the spectacle unfold before us as well as enjoying a closer look at the various designs of these watercraft.

 

By early evening we had the anchorage to ourselves again, following which we dinghied over to Lady for our postponed potluck dinner. Before dinner, though we had the pleasure of meeting a local “salesman” from one of the villages on Komodo Island, who was selling his beautiful carvings, one of which Jenny purchased. In this short period of time we learnt a little about his family and who had created the works of art, including the recent death of his one month old second son. It was heartbreaking to see the photographs and the pain in his eyes, but he was pleased, nonetheless, to have sold a prized carving and, in true Indonesian fashion, invited us to his village if we visited Komodo Island. The day was wrapped up with a delicious dinner and arrangements finalised for an early morning pickup before we headed back to Paw Paw for a peaceful night’s sleep. 

 

It was definitely starting to feel like we’d lost the plot on this retirement thing, since the following morning was yet another very early start. By 0630 we’d collected Jenny and Charlie and dinghied ashore. By 0700 our tour guide had met us on the dock, we’d passed a herd of buffalo en route to the Rangers Station and we’d collected our permits. Then, armed with drinking water and walking sticks, we set off on our 3km hike on what was to become another fascinating and educational tour in Indonesia. What we definitely weren’t expecting was to be walking in a forest, given the arid and very dry landscape we’d seen from Paw Paw while sailing here. As we enjoyed a meander in the shade of the vegetation and trees, our first encounter revealed about six large Komodo dragons hanging out near the kitchen of the staff quarters associated with the Rangers Station; clearly they knew where they’d find some scraps. Being that close to a group of Komodo dragons, however, was definitely a little disconcerting, especially when one decided to move towards us. 

 

Our next stop revealed a nest. Here we learnt that the female Komodo dragon is incapable of creating a nest and will, therefore, fight another female dragon over a hole in the ground created by the megapodius bird instead. A female mates at 6 years old and a male at 8, producing 18-30 eggs at a time. Eggs are laid and buried in the nest shaped like an “L” and lay about 2 metres under the ground, following which other holes are created around the nest as a camouflage or distraction for predators, which include snakes, monkeys and other Komodo dragons. The female will stay with the eggs for 1-2 months, loosing roughly 30% of her body weight. The gender, like the saltwater crocodiles in Australia, is dependent upon the temperature within the nest, with males resulting from the warmer temperature higher up and females from the cooler areas. The incubation period is 8-9 months and from March to May the hatchlings start to dig themselves out of the nest, but will kill and eat each other in doing so, leaving only 7-10 that actually make it out of the nest, following which they head straight for the nearest tree to avoid predators, including the mother who returns to the nest to eat them. Incredible! The surviving hatchlings will spend 2-4 years in the trees eating geckos, insects, lizards and the like, although only about 3-5 survive this stage, since monkeys, snakes, eagles, crows or a sibling will eat them.

 

The Komodo dragons are loners. The only occasions where they come together is during feeding and mating. During the mating season, males fight to win a female. It is a ritual combat without killing, but the male Komodo dragons will stand up during the combat, using their tails to balance. A female will only mate once in the season with the winning male and is fertile for only a short period of time.

 

At night the dragons are in a catatonic state and, therefore, not active, but during the day, especially early in the morning, they do their hunting and have been known to attack humans in the process. Statistically, at least one death a year occurs due to a Komodo dragon, killing their victim through bites that become infected from the bacteria in their mouth. The strength of this bacteria allows a Komodo dragon to consume and digest even the bones of a victim, or for that matter, any prey, to the extent that their excretions are watery, not solid. Additionally, dragons don’t require water, except after they have eaten to help strengthen the bacteria and enhance the digestive process. Attacks occur primarily on tourists who disobey the guidelines of hiking without a guide or on irresponsible villagers. Since the dragons are known to visit the villages in search of food like chickens, ducks, dogs and cats. Our guide told us of one such incident, where the dragon took advantage of a situation created by an unsuspecting villager. 

 

This particular individual had fallen asleep after working in his garden, leaving the door to his hut open because he had been smoking. The dragon, spotting his tangling arm off the side of the bed, attacked. A struggle ensued with the man eventually grabbing a rock and hitting the dragon on the nose causing it to flee. However, he was badly wounded, given that the dragon had grabbed him by the throat and bitten and scratched him numerous times on various parts of his body. Fortunately, he still had the strength after the attack to summons the other villagers who treated him with the locally made alcohol and medicinal medications, knowing that if they used water, the bacteria from the dragon would become more effective and kill him. Once this initial treatment was administered he was taken to the hospital in Labuan Bajo. Although this man was lucky enough to survive the attack, he is disabled and walks with a limp today. Definitely not a creature to tangle with!

 

While it is believed that the Komodo dragons ate small elephants that roamed the island years ago, we also learnt that all the animals that exist on the island today, other than the Komodo dragons, were imports to Rinca Island, most of which have become food for the dragons, with the exception of the monkeys, since they are too fast. However, while there is only one species of monkey on the island, known as the long tailed macaque, they are responsible for the limited bird population, as they eat the eggs. The megapodius bird, however, which couples for life, sleeps in the trees at night and is active on the ground during the day and is the reason Komodo dragons exist, given the explanation that the female Komodo dragon requires the use of the nests created by these birds as it is incapable of building a nest of its own.

 

While the forest was extremely dry and we walked through dry river beds, we learnt that during the rainy season, which starts in November, the rivers flow and the landscape is green and lush, including the Water Palms and the Strangler Fig trees. The Water Palm, in particular, is a good source of food for the young Komodo dragons living in the trees. These palms have a soft centre where caterpillars, geckos and other insects live, providing a food supply. This supply is further enhanced if the palm is strangled by a Strangler Fig tree, killing it and increasing the variety of insects that will then live in the rotting stem.

 

It transpired that the Water Palm has a number of uses. The male version of the palm is the source of the local and very potent alcoholic drink, ”ara”, while the fruit from the female version is used in making the Japanese beverage, sake. The palms within the Komodo National Park are no longer used for these purposes, but both processing methods are widely practiced on Flores Island.

 

The highlight of the tour, though, was spotting a young Komodo dragon “trotting” on the pathway towards us. While very disconcerting, especially when the guide kept repeating: “nobody move, nobody move” and the creature kept coming towards us, it eventually veered off to our right at the last minute, heading to the undergrowth of the forest. In Elaine’s panic she stopped recording just at the moment that it veered off, but we all definitely sighed a sigh of relief. The guide was delighted, though, that we’d had this fabulous experience.

 

The last aspect of the tour was an attempt to determine whether or not the sign on the dock, indicating “Crocodile Area” was accurate. Given that we didn’t get a definitive answer and the fact that we all had spotted something in the water which did not resemble a Komodo dragon, since these apparently swim like a dog, but very poorly, we decided that the sign was probably put there for a reason, and, with that, we were back at the Rangers Station. We couldn’t believe it was only 0930, though, by the time we were heading back to the yachts and that our time in Loh Buaya, the bay of dragons, was coming to a close, but what a wonderful early morning experience it had been. 

 

The rest of the day was spent doing chores and preparing our part of another potluck dinner arranged on Paw Paw; sushi, ceviche, a rice salad and a tres leche for dessert. It was long past sunset by the time we called it a day and Jenny and Charlie headed back to Lady. It’s fair to say that everyone, with the exception of Elaine, was probably going to be suffering in the morning, especially after Roy hauled out the rum. 

 

With some rain showers and the winds picking up significantly overnight, many of the local boats that would normally have left the anchorage, either stayed or returned later that night to enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep, like ourselves, in the shelter of Loh Buaya. So, after another great night’s sleep, we enjoyed a lazy morning before weighing anchor and setting off to explore yet another island in the Komodo National Park, but being very particular about the anchorages we were now choosing. 

 

With a reasonable breeze out of the south-southeast, we were able to sail for the first time in a few days, even reaching a SOG in excess of 11 Kts on headsail alone, thanks to the very strong south setting current in Selat Lintah. Fortunately it was the bottom of the low tide and reaching slack water, but the wind-against-current activity still created a rather turbulent sea state. It disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, though, resulting in a smooth sail into Loh Liang - Sora Lia Bay with Lady following about an hour or so behind us. When we entered the bay it was completely empty, although there were a number of local boats who had dropped off tourists on the Pentai Merah (aka “Pink” Beach) on the outside of the bay, then anchored off. Unless we have become colour blind in recent times, we were hard pressed to see any pink in the sand of this rather small beach, being very generous at stating that it could have been a very light shade of salmon. We later learnt that the sand was not actually pink, but rather a mixture of red and white coral flakes and it was definitely worth a visit once we’d seen it closer up. 

 

The empty anchorage in Loh Liang - Sora Lia Bay didn’t last long, though, as we were swamped by local boats, all selling touristy knick-knacks, within minutes of our arrival and before the anchor was even set. In fact, Elaine had to ask one of the boats to please move out of the way as she was reversing to get the anchor dug in. 

 

Having made the decision before we moved onto Paw Paw, after the experience of disposing of numerous material possessions from our landlubber life, that we would not purchase any mementos during our travels, other than a material patch of sorts to sew onto Elaine’s dog-bed as a souvenir from each country that we visited, we were now having a tough time getting the locals to accept “no thank you” as an answer. Fortunately a small gift seemed to pacify them and sent them onto the next yacht that arrived. On this occasion, we achieved this by providing one of the locals with some old rope and we were delighted that three more yachts arrived in the anchorage to spread the load. As our stocks had started to deplete, this aspect of sailing in Indonesia was becoming a little tiresome. We definitely didn’t mind if fruit and vegetables, which we needed, were being sold or bartered for or if young children paddle out to receive a small gift, but that was not the case the majority of the time. Nonetheless, we were pleased to find a reasonably calm bay, although a sea breeze had, once again, kept us on a lee-shore all day. This was another aspect of sailing in Indonesia. We had received information that the wind seldom blew here and that we’d be motoring the majority of the time. Well, up until this point, this had proven to be a fallacy as we’d actually had more sailing days than not and, when at anchor, the winds had blown consistently more often than not. Fortunately, on this occasion, the holding was good in a sand bottom and we had reasonable depths.

 

Having spent more than 6 weeks in Indonesia by now, although it seemed a lot longer, given the distances we’d sailed and the experiences we’d had, seeing very little industry and primarily only seeing subsistence living by the population we had encountered, we definitely wondered about the general economy of Indonesia, particularly how the country obtained its income to support the world’s fourth most populous nation. This, of course, prompted more research, purely out of curiosity. What we discovered was rather surprising. 

 

Indonesia is the largest economy in SE Asia, as well as being a member of the G-20. It has charted impressive economic growth since overcoming the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. An emerging middle-income country, Indonesia has made enormous gains in poverty reduction, cutting the poverty rate to more than half since 1999, to 9.8% in 2018. These figures, however, would suggest that this reduction is geographically dispersed, given the areas that we’d been exposed to thus far and would support the fact that, out of a population of just over 260 million, about 25.9 million still live below the poverty line and approximately 20.78% of the entire population remain vulnerable to falling into poverty, as their income hovers marginally above the national poverty line. 

 

Our research also indicated that, despite heightened global uncertainty, Indonesia’s economic outlook continued to be positive, with domestic demand being the main driver of growth, supported by robust investment, stable inflation, and a strong job market, although we had not seen the latter in many of the areas we had visited. This was probably directly proportional to the geographical dispersal of the poverty reduction.That said, though, Indonesia’s economic planning follows a 20-year development plan, spanning from 2005 to 2025. It is segmented into 5-year medium-term plans, called the RPJMN (Rencana Pembangunan Jangka Menengah Nasional), each with different development priorities. The current medium-term development plan, which started in 2015 and runs to the end of 2020, is focused on infrastructure development and social assistance programs related to education and healthcare. We can vouch for the education aspect as we’d seen many school children dressed in their beautiful uniforms, as well as met some of the teachers, who were very dedicated and had wonderful programs to further their own education. At least our research also revealed the acknowledgment that the country still faced considerable challenges in achieving the stated goals, but, more importantly, at least they had stated goals and had plans to make the necessary changes!

 

An improvement on the plan included the development of downstream industries to process natural and mineral resources domestically. Minerals such as bauxite and nickel, as well as coal, palm oil and fisheries, are types of products where more processing onshore will increase their value before exporting. An example is the building of a downstream industry for nickel to make ferronickel, which will increase its value fourfold. Similarly a downstream bauxite industry will slash imports of alumina, while processing coal to dimethyl ether gas would replace imported LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas).  There were also ideas floating around about increasing the production of fuel and jet fuel from palm oil, for export purposes.

 

At the time of this writing the main industries included palm oil, coal, petroleum and natural gas, textiles, automotive, electrical appliances, apparel, footwear, mining, cement, medical instruments and appliances, handicrafts, chemical fertilisers, plywood, rubber, processed food, jewellery, and tourism, while the following export product groups represented the highest dollar value in Indonesian global shipments during 2018: Mineral fuels and oil (US$42 billion / 23.3% of total exports); Animal / vegetable fats, oils and waxes ($20.3 billion /  11.3%); Electrical machinery and equipment ($8.9 billion / 4.9%); Vehicles ($7.6 billion / 4.2%); Rubber and rubber articles ($6.4 billion / 3.5%); Machinery including computers ($5.9 billion / 3.3%); Iron and steel ($5.8 billion / 3.2%); Gems and precious metals ($5.6 billion / 3.1%), Ores, slag and ash ($5.3 billion / 2.9%) and Footwear ($5.1 billion / 2.8%). However, while Indonesia shipped a total of US$180.2 billion worth of goods around the globe in 2018, with a population of 262.8 million people, this translates to roughly $700 for every resident in the nation, but the country’s GDP per capita has steadily risen, from $807 in the year 2000 to $3,877 in 2018.

 

Furthermore, the government had proposed to spend Rp505.8 trillion (US$35.51 billion) for education in 2020, up 30% from 2015, to improve basic education as well as provide financing for 818,000 students to go to universities and to provide training for “emerging skills”, such as coding, data analytics, graphic design and even training to become a coffee barista, all of which was definitely a step in the right direction.

 

As for us, our step in the right direction was to meet Lady and dinghy to Pentai Merah, the “Pink” Beach, to enjoy an upfront and personal experience, rather than commenting based on what we observed the previous day from a distance and we were glad we did. While the dinghy ride there was a little bumpy due to the stronger southerly winds which created quite a chop and while the snorkelling was definitely a workout with the swell and the current, it was a real treat. We saw so many fish and a huge variety of beautiful, healthy corals that we had not seen before, not even in Wakatobi. It was spectacular and the pink beach against the turquoise blue water was a most unusual sight. 

 

Fortunately the return dinghy ride was much easier with a following sea on the rising tide. A nice hot shower and a hot cup of coffee did the trick in warming us up, given that the water was rather chilly with the strong flowing current passing between the islands.  An afternoon nap followed, before we dinghied over to Lady for yet another coordinated potluck dinner; Lady providing the beef enchiladas and Paw Paw providing the accompanying salad and pre-dinner snacks. After a delicious dinner we decided to enjoy an impromptu game of Mexican train dominoes, which is always a great deal of fun. 

 

Unfortunately neither of us had a very good night’s sleep because Roy feel ill in the early hours of the morning, which carried over into Sunday, 25^th August 2019. We had absolutely no idea where he could have picked up the stomach bug, but Elaine’s guess was that he had forgotten to wash his hands after greeting yet another local boat that had come over to Paw Paw the previous afternoon. Based on how ill he was, he was definitely going to be more vigilant moving forward. Regardless, though, we still stuck with our decision to move anchorage, given the beautiful calm and sunny morning we woke up to, which we knew would make our transit north, against the south setting current in the Selat Lintah, a lot easier and we were correct. We did, however, pass Georgia and Arkouda coming the other way just as we were leaving Loh Liang - Sora Lia Bay, which was a shame our timing was a little off. 

 

By mid-morning, though, we were following Lady to Makassar Reef, where we’d planned to enjoy a lunch stop, snorkel and move on to our chosen anchorage for the night. Given the beautiful scenery that unfolded before us and given that we had read the snorkelling was excellent, we were all very disappointed after struggling to find a place to anchor, once again. We’d all but given up, when Charlie hailed a yacht called Tactical Directions, which looked like it had been anchored on top of a reef; according to our Navionics charts anyway. Turns out, the cruisers, whom we’d met briefly in Fiji a few years back, had enjoyed three days on a mooring ball in the lagoon of a surrounding reef. Further information revealed that there were a number of mooring balls and that the snorkelling and diving was excellent, concurring with what we’d read. Delighted with the discovery, Lady and Paw Paw altered course to head through the narrow entrance, each picking up a mooring ball and deciding to stay a night or two, given the spectacular views and the crystal clear, calm water. 

 

Having seen the large fish and beautiful coral directly through the water as we were coming into the lagoon, we couldn’t wait to jump into the water for a closer look. So, after a quick lunch, we did exactly that. Our exploration took us along the eastern side of the reef, where we discovered the most beautiful coral gardens of all shapes and colours. The corals were so beautiful, they looked like large bunches of flowers in every colour you can imagine; white, pink, purple, blue, yellow, orange, green, cream, that just went on for as far as the eye could see. While Roy and Charlie eventually returned to the yachts because they were cold and, given that Roy still wasn’t feeling that great, Elaine and Jenny stayed in the water for a while longer, which afforded us the opportunity to see a greater variety of larger fish that seemed to have come back into the lagoon over the top of the reef as the tide had started to rise again. 

 

Back onboard, Elaine had just jumped into the shower, when Roy informed her that two locals had approached him in a tender to inform him that the mooring ball we were occupying was private and belonged to a local charter boat that was approaching the lagoon and we, therefore, had to vacate it. Given that there was no visible name on the mooring ball and that Tactical Directions had spent multiple nights on the ball without incident, together with the fact that the cruising guide and the Komodo National Park authorities, to whom we’d paid our cruising permit fees, all indicated that the mooring balls were on a first come, first serve basis, we weren’t prepared to move and advised the locals accordingly. Soon thereafter the captain of the boat, an Australian, arrived and informed us of the same thing. By now we were fuming, as it was late in the afternoon, making it difficult to see the reefs and it was the second time in less than a week that we found ourselves in a similar situation. So, with only their word that the mooring ball belonged to them and not wanting to expose ourselves to any retaliation, we vacated the ball with no particular place to go, other than to try and make our previously chosen anchorage before dark. 

 

Fortunately Roy found a nearby area on the chartplotter that indicated reasonable depths and a sand bottom. Further investigation confirmed the stated depths, but the bottom was a mix of  rock and sand. However, there was a local boat already anchored in the vicinity, which was a good sign. With few other options open to us, we dropped the anchor in what looked like a sandy patch and it dug in. Satisfied that this would suffice until the morning and, given that the Australian captain had offered us the use of his mooring ball after his boat departed because of the inconvenience and upset caused, we decided to enjoy the scenery and the light breeze to cool down while sitting on the trampoline; something we hadn’t done in ages. It wasn’t long before a few more local boats arrived and anchored in the area, which made us feel a little better about our choice. 

 

Then, the wind started to pick up, the tide started to change and the current changed direction, which had us drifting a little too close for comfort to one of the local boats. By now, though, the sun was behind the mountains to the west and daylight was fading fast. So, up came the anchor again in order to put a little more distance between ourselves and the other boats. Darkness set in just as we managed to re-anchor. By this stage we were both feeling rather exasperated with our anchoring experiences of late, but, at least, the anchor dug in again and Roy was starting to feel much better. Once again, it was a case of all’s well that ends well, but we weren’t altogether sure we were going to have a stress-free night with Paw Paw swinging in all directions in the wind-against-current activities and the chain scrapping and pulling over the rocks. It was going to be a miracle if we were actually able to lift the anchor in the morning without having to untangle a mess. C’est la vie!

 

However, just when we thought our time in Indonesia wasn’t going to improve, it did. In fact, it was something neither of us had ever seen before. Having spent the night swinging around in every direction, we were pleasantly surprised to have the ground tackle come up cleanly on the morning of Monday, 26^th August 2019, with nothing snagged on rocks. This was after we spotted the local charter boat leaving the mooring and since the Australian captain had confirmed we could use it again for the next few days in their absence, we followed our track back into the lagoon and by 0800 you’d have thought we’d never left.

 

Then, after breakfast and a video call to the family in Arizona, given we had slightly better data connectivity again, we finalised arrangements with Lady, hopped in the dinghy and headed over to Makassar Reef, with Jenny and Charlie in hot pursuit. The scenery was even better than what we’d observed from a distance and it was wonderful to hear the screams of delight from the grandchildren, since Roy had promised to video call them again after the earlier chat, so that they could see the beach and turquoise waters. Of course, all William wanted to know was whether or not Grandpa was going to be eaten by a shark and was very relieved to hear there weren’t any in the water.

 

Once we said our goodbyes the the family again, our first snorkelling area wasn’t anything special, except seeing the turtle that Jenny spotted. However, once we swam over to the western reef, we were all amazed at what we saw. Although the current was a little strong, the water was flat and crystal clear and the corals were like nothing we’d seen in Indonesia or anywhere else, for that matter. It was spectacular. The best was yet to come, though!

 

On our return dinghy ride, we decided to drift snorkel the entrance channel to the lagoon, but we’d timed it perfectly; it was slack water, which meant there was no current, just clear flat water. Then, while Roy said he’d sit in the dinghy while the rest of us decided if there was anything worth seeing, Elaine gasped as she stuck her head in the water. Two seconds later, Roy was in the water to see what the attraction was. We had never seen anything like it and words fail us, as we’d never be able to describe the sight before us and do it justice. It was magnificent. There were so many different species. The thousands of corals were jammed pack together and were enormous; each a few metres wide and perfectly formed, not to mention the wide variety of fish of all sizes and a large turtle that Jenny and Charlie spotted. Fortunately, we had the underwater camera with us, but a lass, when we went to review the footage that evening, we hadn’t managed to capture the best of it, since  the camera hadn’t switched on or was on when Roy thought it was off. What a pity, but we had the wonderful memories. We had certainly left the best for last and we’ll be surprised if we ever see anything like that again in our lives. While Elaine had previously said, after our snorkel in Wakatobi, that if she saw nothing more in Indonesia, she would be satisfied, but after this snorkel adventure, she could most definitely state that with certainty. It was simply out of this world and worth every minute of the uncertainty associated with dancing around the anchor all of the previous night. Tactical Directions were absolutely correct in their assessment; the best few days of snorkelling and diving they’d ever had. For us it was truly breathtaking! 

 

With Roy almost completely recovered by now, to the extent that he baked some bread that afternoon, we then enjoyed a barbecue that evening. If nothing else, Indonesia was an adventure in every possible way and we had absolutely no idea what awaited us around the next corner!

 

After a peaceful night, Elaine was awake at sunrise the following morning and what a beautiful sunrise it was. Not long thereafter Georgia arrived in the lagoon and a quick call on the VHF radio from Lady confirmed arrangements for the morning; a dinghy convoy to find the manta rays. By 1000 all three dinghies were in the water and we headed out of the lagoon, across to the northeastern side of Makassar Reef. En route we spotted a few tourists boats with guides on the lookout, then Charlie saw a manta ray leap out of the water, as did one of the guides. We thought we were in luck, but after puttering around in the dinghies with the local boats for a while, we resigned ourselves to the fact that we weren’t going to see the them after all. Instead we decided to snorkel the eastern side of Makassar Reef. It was nowhere near as spectacular as what we’d seen over the previous days, but, as always, we saw something different. En route back to the yachts, however, one of the local boats had spotted the manta rays and we could see them below us in the dinghy through the clear water. With that, Elaine grabbed her snorkel and stuck her head over the edge of the dinghy; although difficult to see at the odd angle, there were indeed two manta rays. However, by the time she got her fins on, they had swam further away. In a desperate attempt to still see them again, Roy dinghied forward with Elaine hanging off the front, but to no avail; they were out of sight. All was not lost, though, as we decided to snorkel the outside reef of the lagoon and enjoy the spectacle at the entrance again. In fact, while Roy and Charlie drifted in the dinghies, Elaine, Jenny, Chris and Paul stayed in the water forever and we definitely would have stayed longer if we hadn’t been so cold. Regardless, we were satisfied. We’d seen the most beautiful corals in abundance! 

 

A hot cup of coffee and yet another afternoon nap was needed by the time we got back to Paw Paw. We were very surprised, however, to wake to a rather strong fishy smell. Further investigation revealed that the entire top of the surrounding reef had dried out at the Spring low tide; it was the first time we’d seen this and it demarcated the lagoon perfectly. It was a little disturbing, however, to see a few locals foraging on the dried out reef, trampling and destroying the beautiful corals we had so enjoyed. By then, though, it was time to tidy up and get ready for Lady and Georgia arriving for sundowners and a good chinwag on Paw Paw. It was the first time since saying goodbye to Georgia in New Caledonia in 2017 that we’d have a chance to catch up with them, but the evening seemed to be over far too quickly and we were saying our goodbyes again, since they were continuing west in the morning. Having the evening interrupted by the antics of yet another local boat, was not what we had in mind for an evening of fun on Paw Paw. This one decided it was quite alright to shimmy up to the back of Paw Paw expecting to tie a line to her stern. Lady had encountered the same request earlier in the afternoon. Needless to say, neither situation was acceptable, but it took some time to get the message across. To put this in perspective, these are large passenger wooden schooners, known as “Phinisis”, that would inflict significant damage to our fibreglass hulls, not to mention the fact that the mooring balls are definitely not robust enough to support two large watercraft hanging off them. The whole situation definitely left us feeling very uneasy and put a damper on the evening. 

 

This experience was close on the heels of another local boat coming alongside Paw Paw and one of the occupants climbing onto her without permission, even stepping over our security lifeline across the stern steps, then arguing when Roy told him to return to his boat, telling us that he wanted to sell us his touristy wares. The audacity is that this was the same individual whom we’d told in the previous anchorage a few days before, that we weren’t interested in purchasing anything. If there is an aspect of Indonesia that we have definitely had enough of, it was this. There is simply no understanding that our yachts are our homes, that everything on it are items we need and are, therefore,  not available to be given away as gifts, although the requests to do so have been numerous and, finally, it was a complete invasion of our privacy, not to mention unpleasant and stressful to find a complete stranger standing in our cockpit.  

 

However, after hearing earlier in the evening that Chris and Paul were heading to Lombok to renew their visas there, that got the cogs in our heads going; did we have enough days to get back to Labuan Bajo, stock up on provisions and diesel and head to Lombok before our visas expired, without having to hang around in Labuan Bajo for 13 more days just so we could hand in our passports to the rally organisers for the visa renewals instead? After a few hours of research, the decision was made. Not only would this be in keeping with our alternative plan when we decided to leave the rally in the Banda Islands, but it would provide us with the time to enjoy an area we wanted to see and it meant Elaine could see a doctor and get her blood work done and Roy could visit a dentist. However, by the time we’d thought everything through it was too late to hail Lady and Georgia on the VHF radio to inform them of our intended departure too, so a written message had to suffice.

 

So, on Wednesday, 28^th August 2019, after a good night’s sleep and some more time to mull over our decision, together with a snoop around the ship’s stores early that morning, we realised we didn’t actually have to return to Labuan Bajo, so, we cast off the mooring ball and headed out of the lagoon, bound for Lombok along the northern coast of Sumbawa Island. We felt really bad about our hasty departure and not saying goodbye to Jenny and Charlie properly, but we trusted they understood and we hoped to see them again in Bali when we had planned on rejoining the rally. We had really enjoyed their company the past few weeks and we were, nonetheless, grateful for the time we’d spent together and the fond memories we could take with us!

 

While it was a day of motor-sailing, as expected, under clear sunny skies, what Elaine wasn’t expecting was to hear Roy calling to her with the words: ”Quick; come look; the volcano just sent out a puff of smoke“; definitely not the excitement we were looking for. At first Elaine thought it was a trick of the light and clouds, but when it did it again a little while later,  with fewer cloud around, the very impressive and intimidating mountain, sticky straight out of the ocean took on a rather menacing significance. We were definitely hoping it was only going to puff while we were about to anchor a stone’s throw away from it. 

 

Although the wind picked up a little bit in the afternoon, it wasn’t enough to keep a reasonably speed to reach our intended anchorage in good daylight. Of course, as with most of the anchorages we’d encountered in Indonesia, Were Bay wasn’t really any different. The depths were reasonable, with good holding in black sand, but it was a stretch to call it an anchorage, given the roll coming straight into the slight indent on the northern coast of Sumbawa Island, referred to as a bay. At least it wasn’t a lee-shore, but we definitely weren’t  expecting to have a particularly comfortable night. The bay, however, was home to a large boat building industry; yes, we found the source of all the local boats we’d seen throughout Indonesia. At that time, three schooners under construction were visible on shore. From what we understood, these are all hand built without a single piece of metal used in the construction. No wonder they didn’t show up on the radar!

 

As usual, though, we’d barely dropped the anchor when the local boats swamped us. This time, however, it was hard not to smile. The children who paddled out were so enthusiastic and delighted at seeing the four yachts arrive; Fairwinds, as well as Endless Summer and Forever Young arrived shortly after us. We’d seen the latter yachts in Australia, but had not met the cruisers. The squeals of joy and all their “thank yous” at receiving our small gift of a ball each, was a refreshing change from the many unpleasant adult men who had approached us in the Komodo National Park. 

 

Well, we never got our reasonable night’s sleep in Were Bay. In fact, it was the worst night’s sleep we’d had in a long time, definitely confirming that the author, Andy Scott, of the guide, “Cruising Guide to Indonesia”, must have been smoking something to call this bay an “anchorage”. The swell rolling in was so large that waves were breaking on the nearby beach and this in a southeast wind, where the guide stated: “Were Bay is calm and protected in the SE monsoon season, although an E wind can send a little roll into the anchorage”. At this point, we were definitely questioning whether or not this man had actually visited these anchorages on a yacht, since this was the countless time we’d found such significant discrepancies. 

 

The same applied to our next anchorage, Kilo, where we spent the night of Thursday, 29^th August 2019. In this instance the author stated: “The best anchorage is tucked up just S of the reef and in front of the small village behind the trees. It is completely free of roll in the SE monsoon season. Anchor in 10-15 metres of water on sand bottom with good holding”. The second anchorage he describes as: “Calm and protected in the SE monsoon season, it can get some roll from around the point if the winds swing more E than SE.....Anchor in 10-18 metres on a sand bottom with good holding”. Well, this was the actual reality: We motored around in the “best anchorage” he described and couldn’t find a depth below 18 metres anywhere, unless we anchored on the beach, not to mention the roll together with the fetch created by winds in excess of 20 Kts, which was almost as bad as the anchorage we’d left in Were Bay. The second anchorage was a lot calmer, since we found a spot that was somewhat protected by another reef that the guide didn’t mention, but we couldn’t find a depth anywhere less than 18 metres unless we anchored right on top of the very shallow sand bar created by the river. The only thing the author got right in both instances was the good holding in sand. So, while we still didn’t find an anchorage as described, we did have a better night sleep, but no thanks to the information in the guide. The good news was that not a single local boat came out to Paw Paw, nor to the other yacht that was anchored next to us. That was a first!. 

 

Leaving Kilo Bay on the morning of the 30^th August 2019 was another dawn departure and another morning of motor-sailing in light winds, but we were delighted to pick up a mysterious 18-20 Kts that developed out of the east in the afternoon, which afforded us the opportunity to enjoy a great sail. We also understood from reading other cruiser’s blogs that the anchorage we were heading to, Kananga, bore no resemblance to the description in the cruising guide either, but we’d hoped to strike it lucky. Unfortunately we didn’t, so, having explored the two other alternatives; one across the bay on Satonde Island and one closer to Miro village, we had no choice but to return to Kananga. We’d motored around for nearly two hours by now, but eventually found a “shallow” spot in 20 metres / 65ft which was far enough away from the water’s edge so that we didn’t end up beaching Paw Paw inadvertently if the wind changed direction. With that, we contented ourselves to endure yet another rolly night. 

 

The little village off to the side looked pleasant enough, though, and, at least, we backed onto a black volcanic sand beach, not rock, during the onshore afternoon breeze, which we hoped would die down by nightfall and revert to the usual land breeze. Our exploration across the bay to Satonde Island, however, revealed a lovely tourist attraction, which included a robust dock, diving and snorkelling opportunities, hiking trails and apparently a green saltwater lake that sits in the island’s volcanic caldera. Additionally, the locals believe the Kalibuda trees on the island are sacred, although the sap from these trees are poisonous. It was a pity we spent so much time trying to find an anchoring spot, otherwise we could have possibly enjoyed a hike to the lake for a swim. Instead, we enjoyed another movie night, as we had done the previous night, so that we didn’t go to bed too early, although staying awake was a bit of a challenge, considering we felt like we were being rocked to sleep in a baby’s crib and we’d had countless predawn departures by now. 

 

The day was a tad frustrating too with regards to the visa renewal process we had to undertake in Lombok before our visas expired. The information we had previously received from the rally was now being altered, which would result in us having to do a second renewal on our own as well. We were fortunate enough, though, or so we thought, to get our long overdue revised Sponsor Letter from the organisers ahead of the weekend and what we’d subsequently learnt was a rather important one, as it celebrated the Islamic New Year. That, of course, raised another host of questions that remained unanswered at this point, but answers that could affect our visa renewal process by introducing unforeseen delays if additional public holidays were declared, although none had shown up on any official noticeboards. We knew that any delays in obtaining a renewal before our current visa expired, regardless of the cause, would result in a daily fine and a rather expensive fine at that. Oh the joys of bureaucracy! At this point, though, we were trundling along as fast as we could to ensure we renewed in plenty of time. 

 

On Saturday 31^st August 2019, we were up at dawn again to make our way further along the northern coast of Sumbawa Island, but the feeling of Goundhog Day was replaced by some fabulous sailing. Under full sails, with unexpected winds of 15-20 Kts, we enjoyed a beam reach in flat seas. It doesn’t get much better than that. As a result, we contemplated shaving a whole day of our passage to Lombok, but instead decided to stop at Moyo Island to enjoy another treasure of Indonesia and, in particular, the exclusive resort of Amanwana. 

 

Described as a natural paradise and a wilderness hideaway, where Mother Nature reigns supreme in a protected nature reserve and where macaque monkeys and rusa deer roam free, while eagles, kites, bats and osprey sore above, the resort is set between forest and turquoise coral-rich seas, under shady tamarind trees. It offers 20 luxury tents, a beautiful restaurant and an open-air spa, as well as some of the best diving and snorkelling in Indonesia.  

 

While Elaine was looking forward to a possible spa treatment and we were both really looking forward to a meal at the restaurant and an afternoon snorkel, all our hopes were dashed by a single VHF radio call from Umnyama who were just leaving the area as we were arriving. 

 

After hearing what had happened to Monique and Dock, but particularly, what had happened to their yacht, Umnyama, it didn’t take us long to alter course and head for Potopaddu Bay, recommended by Raya (Ros and Rick), who had found shelter there last year.

 

Having followed the “Cruising Guide to Indonesia” and finding that the anchorage did not reflect what was documented by the author, surprise, surprise, Dick and Monique eventually found a small “shallow “ area to drop their anchor and set about enjoying the delights of the resort, including a lovely dinner at the resort restaurant. However, on their return dinghy ride from their dinner, their yacht was nowhere to be found. A few phones calls and the swift action of the local police found the yacht drifting 7NM from where they had anchored. With the only explanation that there anchor had either been tripped by the other yacht that had arrived that evening (and who saw Umnyama drift away three hours before Monique and Dick returned, but did nothing more than make a VHF radio call that was unanswered) or it had dragged then broken free in the deeper water. Either way, we decided that was definitely not a chance we were willing to take with Paw Paw and we weren’t the only cruisers who made the same decision. Another VHF radio call from Umnyama to a French yacht that was sailing behind us, brought about the same reaction. Little did we know at this point, we were about to become members of this rather exclusive club a few weeks later!

 

Although this was yet another major disappointment of not being able to access a treasure of Indonesia because of non-existent or precarious anchorages, we could only imagine how distraught Monique and Dick were and it was enough to keep us sailing on to the next anchorage. Fortunately the resort allowed them to use one of their private mooring balls after the yacht had been recovered as well as provided Monique with free accommodation for the night, while Dick stayed onboard. Of course, the issue then was whether or not Potopaddu Bay had room for the three yachts that were heading in that direction, given our understanding of the size of this anchorage. 

 

By 1430, however, we had followed Umnyama into the tiny anchorage, through a very narrow entrance between reefs and a sandbar and were relieved to discover the bay was empty. With both yachts securely anchored, we were looking forward to the first restful night since leaving the Komodo National Park, although our previous night hadn’t been too bad, since the swell subsided and the offshore land breezes kicked in after sunset, keeping us off the black sand beach. We’re not altogether sure where the French yacht went, though, but they altered course about 10NM out. Unfortunate, because there was definitely room for one more yacht. It is fair to say that, although the bay was quite large, the anchoring area was indeed tiny, given the very shallow depths elsewhere, but it was tranquil and we could hear birds for the first time in ages. Just what we needed. Thank you Raya for the recommendation.

 

That evening we enjoyed sundowners aboard Umnyama and got to hear the full story of what had happened the previous night. It was a miracle that Umnyama was not grounded, given the path she drifted, passing reefs the full length of her journey and even rounding a headland. Her saving grace was the current. What is more surprising is the lack of help offered by the cruisers on the other yacht. When Monique and Dick approached them, soaked through in their evening wear from riding up and down in the dinghy trying to find Umnyama in the dark, all the cruisers had to say, nonchalantly, was; “Are you looking for the catamaran?, It’s not here! We saw it drifting away at around 1900.” At first Monique thought they were joking and asked them to please be serious, at which they replied: “We ARE being serious!” Completely incredulous! The worst part of this lack of helpfulness was that we knew who these cruisers were, having met them briefly in Labuan Bajo. Although Monique and Dick hadn’t been able to see the name of the yacht when it arrived late that previous afternoon, they were able to give us a description of it and they could see the country under which the yacht was flagged. This particular yacht had caught up with us in Were Bay and had anchored with us in Kilo Bay, but, when we stopped in Kananga, they had continued on to Moyo Island which we’d seen on the AIS. Obviously they had hightailed it early the next morning before Monique and Dick could get a better visual and before we arrived, but the description provided had left us in no doubt. Fortunately we never saw that yacht again and probably never will, considering the fact that we know their whereabouts, but we would definitely have given them a mouthful for their diabolical behaviour had we seen them again. But, never say never!

 

After some social time on Umnyama and a great night’s sleep, it was lovely to wake up to birds singing. We had a slightly later start, though, but only to ensure we had a little more daylight to see the reefs and sandbar as we exited Potopaddu Bay. Fortunately the sea was much calmer than it had been when we entered the bay, but that also meant no wind. As a result we motored all day, but the scenery that unfolded was definitely the highlight of the day.

 

Indonesia is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, otherwise known as the most active seismic region on the planet and the country has more than 120 volcanoes, 20 of which were considered to be currently the most active while we were in Indonesia. As background, the word for “Mount” in Indonesian is “Gunung”. With that said, the most active volcanoes are Gunung Kelud and Gunung Merapi on Java Island which have been responsible for thousands of deaths over the years. Since AD 1000, Gunung Kelud has erupted more than 30 times, while Gunung Merapi has erupted more than 80 times. However, Gunung Merapi has yet to show any significant increase in its volcanic activities since one of its largest eruption in 2010.

 

The other most active volcanoes that had rumbled more recently were: Gunung Karangetang on Siau Island which had been erupting since November last year and its activity had only increased since then; Gunung Agung on Bali erupted on 30^th December last year and still had the danger zone set to a radius of 4 Km from the peak. In 2017, the volcano erupted multiple times, causing a tourism slowdown that saw around one million fewer tourists visiting the island. Authorities estimated Rp11 trillion (US$783 million) in losses for tourism-related businesses. The eruption also urged authorities to temporary close Ngurah Rai International Airport. This Mount is also one of Bali’s most sacred sites, where the deities are believed to dwell and is home to the island’s largest temple or “Mother Temple”, Besakih; Gunung Anak Krakatau erupted on 22^nd December last year shrinking the volcano to almost a third of its original height, from 338 metres to 110 metres. The eruption was also a contributing factor to a 3 metre tsunami hitting Banten and Lampung on the same day; Gunung Sinabung first erupted in August 2010 for the first time in hundreds of years, but had not erupted again since June 2018.

 

While the volcanoes of Indonesia have caused havoc over the years, these mountains are, not only part of daily life, but they are objects of fascination and mythology. As a result, they are a major tourist attraction and many tours offer visits and hikes up their towering summits in search of glorious panoramic views. In fact, as we mentioned previously, we were very disappointed at not being able to access Gunung Kelimutu, best known for the Tri-Coloured Lakes perched on its summit. Located at a height of 1,638 metres / 5,377 Ft, these mystical, colour-changing lakes apparently boast a sweeping mountaintop vista.

 

Gunung Rinjani demands a three to four day hike on a rather challenging trail, but the summit has an exquisite crater lake called Segara Anak and sweeping views of Lombok Island. Gunung Batur has a stunning “double caldera” surrounded by lush jungle, with cool crisp mountain air to enjoy while hiking all the way up. Despite being 1,717 metres / 5,633 Ft high, apparently a hike to the summit can be completed in less than three hours, making the experience more accessible to everyone.

 

Others include Gunung Bromo, part of the Tengger massif, in East Java. At 2,329 metres / 710 Ft  it is not the highest peak of the massif, but is the most well known; Gunung Semeru, the highest peak on Java and Indonesia’s third-highest, making it a holy grail for many adventurers; Gunung Ijen with its rare natural phenomenon of blue flames at its caldera, which has attracted adventurers and scientists alike; Gunung Prau which attracts the less physical traveller with its relatively lenient track and, finally, Gunung Kerinci. Aside from being the highest volcano peak in Indonesia, it is famous for the thriving wildlife, including the endangered and native species, like the Sumatran tiger and the Sumatran rhinoceros.

 

As we approached Lombok Island on Sunday, 1^st September 2019, Gunung Rinjani, Indonesia’s second highest volcano, towered over the island. It truly was an impressive sight even 20NM out. We were definitely thankful that it didn’t let out a puff of smoke like Gunung Sangeang did as we sailed by, although we later found out that the latter volcano is highly active as well. 

 

Our excitement for the day, however, was crossing Selat Alas between Sumbawa Island and Lombok Island. While southeast winds normally funnel through this gap, even during the northwest monsoon season, there wasn’t a breath of air. The current, however, was a different story. It floods north and ebbs south, with the south setting component usually running at around 2 Kts, although it has been known to reach 4-5 Kts. Often there is no north setting current, only the south setting one slowing down, except during the moon’s upper transit. All we knew was that the seas got considerably lumpier and we slowed down drastically, having to increase the RPM on both engines to power through. 

 

By mid-afternoon we had reached Gili Lawang, but then the usual: “Where do we anchor?” malarkey started. This time we decided to take the first spot that seemed doable rather than motoring around to find something better, as that too had become pointless. That resulted in us dropping the anchor in a tiny bay behind an opening in one of the reefs. While it was a tight squeeze to get through the reef, the bay opened up a little, with room for two or three yachts. However, we thought we’d arrived at a fishing boat convention as there were fishing boats everywhere; floating in the water as well as packed like sardines on the little beach. We then realised, considering the number of people ashore as well, that it was something related to the Muslim New Year, which was celebrated the previous day. Fortunately, by the time Umnyama arrived, the fishing boats and the two monohulls that were  in front of us had left, leaving room for them. However, by then, it was very difficult to see the reefs, so Roy had to guide them in using their AIS positioned along our track.

 

With both yachts secured for the night, we enjoyed sundowners on Paw Paw while watching a stunning sunset, silhouetting Gunung Rinjani, before saying our goodbyes, given that we had to stop in Medana Bay Marina in order to start our visa renewal process and Umnyama was continuing on to Gili Air, then heading to Marina del Ray before setting sail for South Africa. This meant we weren’t altogether sure if we’d see them again, but that depended on how our visa renewal process panned out and whether or not we could then possible see them in Gili Air. Either way, we enjoyed spending time with them, albeit briefly and as a result of some misfortune on their part. 

 

Monday, 2^nd September 2019 was pretty uneventful, although another early start. With no wind, we motored all morning, arriving in Medana Bay Marina around 1400, but we made good use of our time by getting the laundry done again.  After a quick lunch, Roy dinghied ashore to register and to get photocopies of all our paperwork required for our visa renewals. In doing so, he found a very helpful, well spoken manager, who assisted him with all our needs, including giving him a local beer, a Bintang, to enjoy while he waited. He also had the opportunity to scout around a little, finding a reasonable looking restaurant where we enjoyed dinner that night. It was also wonderful to actually get off the yacht after nearly a week of sailing. We were, however, pleased to have eventually arrived in the more popular area of Indonesia, which looked more like the tropical islands we were used to, with lush vegetation and swaying palm trees bordering the beaches, dotted with resorts, all in close proximity. That perception was soon to change, unfortunately! Over the following two days, we could categorically state that we had our worst days in Indonesia for a host of reasons. Fortunately a major change of plan turned the situation around and things improved again. 

 

Although the local mosque woke us up far earlier than we’d have preferred, our day started at 0500 on the morning of Tuesday, 3^rd September 2019, to get ready and meet our prearranged taxi at 0630 for a 1.5 hour drive to the immigration office in Mataram in order to obtain our visa extensions before they expired and to avoid the steep fines. There were a number of restrictions and requirements around this process, however. For instance, applications could not be submitted earlier than 2 weeks prior to the expiry date of an existing visa; it could take anything from 3-5 business days to complete the process, involving multiple trips to the immigration office; it involved getting revised paperwork completed from a sponsor; getting certain biometrics completed like fingerprinting and photographs; acquiring multiple copies of the myriad of documents issued on arrival in Indonesia like the Vessel Declaration form, the stamped Immigration Crew List and the Port Clearance from one’s Port of Entry (Yes, no typing error; a clearance from an entry port when departing from that entry port) and, finally, a completion of a visa extension application form, all of which had to be completed, submitted and processed before the existing visas expiry dates. Furthermore, there were only certain locations in Indonesia where this processing could occur and it had to be repeated every 3 weeks, as extensions are only valid for 30 days, with the first iteration having to occur before the expiration of the initial 60 day entry visa. While all this sounds simply enough for a landlubber, it is a nightmare for cruisers constantly on the move and already dealing with the logistics of weather, tenable anchorages, distances to sail, obtaining access to printers and photocopiers, etc, oh yeah, and actually see the destinations we were visiting. 

 

With that said, this bureaucratic process was the main reason we joined the “Wonderful Sail2Indonesia” rally. Besides the opportunity to have a predefined itinerary to follow, which we assumed considered basic sailing requirements which we have already mentioned, it was also supposed to remove the burden of the officialdom. Additionally, the marketing touted that cruisers were free to participate in as many or as few itinerary stops as desired, thereby providing time for “free-sailing”, an option we took after the Banda Islands and after our circumstances changed with Elaine’s health. This decision, however, also involved the logistics of trying to get our visa extension completed using the preferred option of having the rally organisers still complete the process for us, but meant waiting in Labuan Bajo, which defeated the purpose of an early departure from the rally itinerary. Instead we completed our enquires and decided we would undertake this process ourselves in Lombok with assistance from the rally organisers, as agreed, all perfectly doable under normal circumstances and something we have undertaken ourselves in numerous parts of the world. So, with agreement and ample notice provided to the sponsor in order to obtain the revised Sponsor Letter we needed, we were happy to undertake the renewal ourselves. 

 

At first glance, although the island of Lombok definitely resembled the tropical island we expected, the Medana Bay Marina wasn’t anything that resembled a typical marina, especially with the dock in a state of disrepair, but the mooring balls were secure, the surroundings were clean and the staff extremely helpful. In essence, we were delighted to have arrived with time to explore the area at our leisure and commence our visa extension process and, with that, our road trip to Mataram unfolded, an experience we can best describe as a cluster of monumental proportions, but the pre- and post cursors added to the disaster. 

 

It is hard to describe what sights awaited us as we left the grounds of the marina, but the driver telling us to put on our seatbelts, which was a first in Indonesia, was the first hint of things to come. Our sensors were completely overwhelmed. Besides the driver thinking he was the new Michael Schumacher, with a severe twitch that was definitely a cause for concern, not to mention the dangerous windy mountain road, albeit the best maintained road we’d seen in Indonesia, where the mountain side dropped off thousands of metres precariously close to the roads’ edge and, where our return trip revealed an accident of something or somebody having careened over the edge, the surroundings were beyond belief. 

 

While we zoomed passed horse-drawn buggies, lush green rice paddies, parents ferrying children to school on their mopeds, some 4-deep; one child in front and two children behind the driver, people getting to work, mostly on motorbikes that swerved in and out of the traffic, although all the drivers were wearing helmets, which was another first we’d seen in Indonesia, scooters piled high and sideways with fruit and vegetables heading to the local market, school children and officials in their smart, perfectly pressed uniforms, ramshackle roadside stalls bordering sections of the road for miles, hundreds of monkeys rummaging through bags of litter flung from the passing vehicles and beautiful lush scenery, spoilt only by the astronomical amounts of garbage everywhere; in the rivers; in the fields; in the streets; in people’s yards and, finally, observing the people living in makeshift houses amongst the piles of rubble and half built structures as far as the eye could see, interspersed with a few mansions and, of course, numerous magnificent mosques either already built or in the process of being built, we simply couldn’t believe our eyes. It looked more like a war zone than anything else and the level of poverty in some areas was staggering. What we couldn’t work out was whether or not this was “normal” or destruction as a result of the earthquake that had hit northern Lombok last year or a combination of both. Regardless, what was missing was any kind of a hint of a “rebuilding initiative”. It was devastating to see!

 

As we’d ventured through Indonesia, we’d often questioned ourselves about our reactions to the level of poverty and, in some cases, desperation, that we had witnessed and this day was no exception. In fact, we were both a little shell-shocked at what we saw, with Roy indicating that the only other country he could state that was worse than what we’d seen, was Pakistan. Additionally, having grown up in various parts of Africa and having sailed halfway around the world, seeing many examples of poverty along the way, we were definitely not ignorant to this aspect of 3rd world countries, so why then was our experience of Indonesia so different and so profound? The only conclusion we could come to was that Indonesia was an enormously expansive country, covering three time zones and thousands of square miles, with a huge population, which, by default, made the issue seem exponentially worse. 

 

While we survived the journey to the immigration office, thankfully, through no fault of our own, we, however, left empty handed,  as we discovered the sponsor had only provided us with half of the revised Sponsor Letter that was needed. To add insult to injury, after contacting the sponsor to explain the issue, he indicated he was unable to provide any immediate assistance as we waited at the immigration office, since he was: “too busy, he had a rally to run and we were giving him a headache”. Resigned to the fact that we were getting nowhere, we left, but by now the entire morning had been wasted and we were getting rather close to the expiry date of our visas. 

 

After arranging a different taxi, we headed to the Epi Centrum Mall instead and we were surprised to find a modern facility full of high-end stores and a great supermarket, which included the first butchery we’d seen in Indonesia. It was like landing on another planet compared to anything else we’d seen in Indonesia and compared to the surrounding devastation we had just seen. Firstly, though, we decided a sugar and caffeine rush would go a long way to putting our immigration woes behind us. Then, after stretching our legs with a wander around all four stories of the mall, we decided on a late lunch / early dinner, given that we still had to complete some grocery shopping and endure the lengthy return drive back to Paw Paw. Concluding that a simple western-style meal in our selected modern restaurant would suffice, we’d no sooner started the grocery shopping when Elaine’s health woes unfolded again. Her day ended vomiting everywhere, having contracted another bout of food poisoning. With Roy in despair on what to do or where to go next, we were certain of one thing; Indonesia was attempting to kill Elaine!

 

So, change of plan, again; head for the more modern Marina del Ray in south Lombok and regroup, while giving Elaine time to recover, again. So, after a terrible night and barely the energy to help Roy get Paw Paw off the mooring ball on the morning of Wednesday, 4^th September 2019, we set off. While Elaine spent the day in bed, only rising again to help Roy get Paw Paw onto the new mooring ball when we arrived at Marina del Ray, visiting the marina office to register and obtain assistance in getting a new, completed Sponsor Letter, as well as make travel arrangements for our second visit to the immigration office in Mataram, she returned to bed and surfaced again briefly for a light dinner and a shower. We did, however, also get the opportunity to meet Pied-de-Mer (Pam and Eric) who provided some information on how to visit and tour Bali from this location, as well as chatted briefly to the cruisers we’d previously met as part of the rally on Southern Cross (Richard, Phil and Carol) and The Pub (Angela and Steve). 

 

While Elaine was back in bed, Umnyama arrived in the marina, which was a lovely surprise, having thought we wouldn’t see them again. We also saw Arkouda on the dock, who’s owners were touring Bali at the time, so we weren’t short of company during our stay, but Elaine needed to recover first. We’d also understood that the 2019 / 2020 World ARC would be arriving in the next week or so, sadly without Blue Summit (Kate and Steve) who had to delay their departure from Australia due to unforeseen issues, but we were tempted to fly our 2016 / 2017 flag for the occasion anyway. Good job we didn’t, as the information we’d received was actually incorrect. The World ARC was arriving, but not in Marina del Ray. It was arriving in Medana Bay Marina, which we found very surprising indeed, given the far inferior facilities of the latter.

 

Unbeknownst to Elaine, though, as we transited the Selat Lombok, Roy apparently had a great deal of fun dodging hundreds of local sailing boats which he concluded were part of a local regatta. That at least explained the stopping and starting and constant changing of direction of Paw Paw which Elaine had felt in her semi-comatosed state, although she was too ill to get up and find out what was happening; that in itself was an indication of how ill she felt. 

 

This Strait is also the main artery for the “Indonesian Through Flow” with its fierce and notorious south setting current almost all year round, with a slower north setting counter-current closer to the edges / land. While rates varying on the monsoon season and the phases of the moon, reaching 8 Kts one week after the full and new moon, it is also the point which marks the biogeographical divide between the Asian Continental Shelf and Australian Continental Shelf and where the flora and fauna are similarly divided into the respective areas, known as the “Wallace Line”.

 

Fortunately the Strait didn’t present us with any major issue and by 1300 we were securely attached to our mooring ball in a marina of international standards, which couldn’t have come soon enough. As things transpired, though, by that evening we were in possession of not only one completed Sponsor Letter, but two, having eventually received the full Sponsor Letter from the rally organisers as well. Guess it never rains, but it pours and the immigration officials now had a selection of letters from which they can choose. While we’d heard all sorts of horror stories about this visa extension process, we can now add our own experience to that list, although we’d definitely have preferred not to. Our only hope was that the final stage would be less problematic. 

 

On the morning of Thursday, 5^th September 2019, Elaine woke up feeling as right as rain. Enjoying a long overdue sleep-in, followed by a cooked breakfast accompanied by freshly baked soda bread, compliments of Roy, was the perfect start to the day and to our next stage of adventure through Indonesia. After breakfast we dinghied ashore to enjoy a morning coffee on Umnyama, followed by a quick visit to the marina office to pay for our transportation that would take us back to Mataram for a second attempt at getting our visa renewals and to finalise our arrangements for diesel. 

 

A lazy afternoon onboard was the perfect way to recharge before heading back to shore for Happy Hour; an outing that definitely did not involve eating food of any kind that was not prepared on Paw Paw! The bonus, was that our diesel arrived on time that afternoon, as promised. This was a relief, given the issues we were hearing about yachts being unable to obtain diesel in Labuan Bajo and not knowing if this was a localised issue or something more widespread. 

 

Regardless, at this juncture, we had absolutely no idea what our next steps should be. For now, we had decided to do nothing and, hoped that some or other workable plan of action would develop in our minds; something that could allow us to enjoy the rest of Indonesia somehow, but get us safely to Singapore, without anymore medical setbacks to contend with! 

 

On Friday, 6^th September 2019, it was another 0500 wake up call to get ready for our water taxi over to Lombok Island from the marina in Gili Gede, along with the myriad of small local spider boats heading in the same direction, to then meet our driver for the day at 0630. With that, our second trip to the immigration office in Mataram commenced, only this time we were heading from the south of the island northwards. 

 

Unfortunately we managed to obtain the second “wannabe Michael Schumacher”, but, fortunately, he didn’t have a severe twitch and the road was far less treacherous, given that it wasn’t mountainous and there was far less traffic until we hit the outskirts of the city. Additionally, it was an experience as different as “day and night” from the previous trip in every which way and it cleared up yet another “sailor’s myth”; the journey time was exactly the same from Marina del Ray as it was from Medana Bay Marina, although we’d been told the former was longer. 

 

Besides being far less treacherous, this trip was also extremely scenic as the road followed the coastline for miles with fabulous seascapes, before heading inland. The most noticeable difference, though, was that the entire route was spotless, with only a handful of small areas that were littered with garbage and there was no evidence of rumble or ramshackle homes at all, except whatever was associated with a new construction. There were expansive areas of lush, cultivated lands, comprising mostly corn, rice paddies, bananas and coconut plantations. Although the general vegetation was extremely dry, fruit stalls lined the roadside, mostly selling watermelon and there was more evidence of livestock; cows, goats, chickens, etc, but not a monkey in sight. We also passed through areas that exhibited completely different architecture and we later discovered it was a Buddhist enclave. All in all, the contrast to the northern route was astounding, including the fabulous 3-lane motorway, with one lane dedicated to horse-drawn carts, scooters and bicycles, as well as the beautiful tree-lined main roads entering Mataram, with calming fountains and gardens or various artistic constructions in the centre of the roundabouts, amidst the traffic mayhem. 

 

In essence, though, what each of these trips provided us with, given the very early morning starts, was a glimpse into the daily lives of the people of Lombok Island and seeing the challenges they face, particularly in the north, as well as the similarities that occur all over the world; people getting to work, getting children to school, opening up their businesses, etc, vs. a staged performance created for the tourist. This glimpse in local life also meant arriving at the immigration office on “casual / workout Friday”, only to find all the staff from the immigration office partaking in their early morning aerobic exercise routine in the front courtyard, complete with instructor wearing a headset, rhythmic music blaring, everyone in their workout attire and bobbing in time. 

 

So, after all that, did we get our visa extensions? Well, armed with Sponsor Letters galore from both Marina del Ray and the rally organisers, we were, in fact, a Sponsor Letter short and, what we had, didn’t suffice for a few reasons: Although we had a Sponsor Letter each from Marina del Ray, we could not use them because, if you change sponsors, then you need an authorisation letter from the original sponsor, which would have been from the rally organisers and the new sponsor then would have had to accompany us to the immigration office. So, using the corrected Sponsor Letter from the rally organisers was our only option. However, after Elaine had queried why we had only received one corrected and complete Sponsor Letter in Roy’s name (because she’d heard that we each needed a Sponsor Letter in our name in accordance with what Marina del Ray had provided to us), the rally organisers confirmed in writing that Elaine’s understanding was incorrect i.e. that we only needed one letter that would be used for both of us. Well, guess what? Yep, that was, in fact, wrong! We did need two separate letters, one each. 

 

Quite honestly we couldn’t make this fiasco up even if we tried. With so many letters from different sponsors, we were still short of one for Elaine. In the end, we honestly believe the officer, who had served us on our previous trip as well, took pity on us and gave us our visa extensions anyway. Maybe it was the look on our faces of total disbelief that this was still a cluster or maybe it was all the Sponsor Letters that he saw in front of him, knowing only one was of any use to us or maybe it was that Elaine had the written communications regarding the query to the rally organisers, including their response. Either way, we will never know, but when the officer handed us our passports with the enclosed visa extension, together with strict instructions on what procedure to follow for the next renewal, we do believe the relief and gratitude on our faces was evident. What we did know is that we would be following the instructions provided by the officer, to the letter. We were taking what came from the “horse's mouth” as gospel!

 

The most disconcerting part of all of this, though, was that the officer repeated that they deal with the rally organisers all the time and the sponsor knew what was required. That, of course, begged the question: Why then were we deliberately being messed around? Secondly, we weren’t the only cruisers on the rally doing the visa extensions ourselves in Lombok, yet a follow-up with those cruisers confirmed that they got everything they needed and submitted everything without a hitch; a complete letter, with both parts, for each cruiser. 

 

Our next challenge, however, was getting everything we actually needed, correctly and accurately, for the next iteration of the visa renewal process in less than 30 days. Alternatively, we considered just leave Indonesia and heading for Singapore on this new extension and put this whole mess behind us. There was only so much swimming upstream we were prepared to undertake for a visit to any country and we were way past that point by now!

 

We were, however, happy to report that, after another stop at the modern Epi Centrum Mall for a morning coffee and to top up on provisions, Elaine was not vomiting all the way home! Once back on Paw Paw and after stowing the groceries, we dinghied back to shore, as we both desperately wanted a nice long walk to clear our heads, decompress and try to figure out where to and what next. That evening we enjoyed a barbecue onboard, including the ingredients for a fresh salad; a proper lettuce, tomatoes and green peppers. It’s amazing how the little things in life make the world of difference! 

 

Saturday, 7^th September 2019 was a very lazy day on Paw Paw. In fact we stayed onboard all day, until that evening, when we headed ashore for some social interaction with the other cruisers, as well as to enjoy some live entertainment preformed by the cruisers off Southern Cross and what a great night it turned out to be. Given that Richard had a serious medical incident soon after the fleet arrived in the Banda Islands and had been hospitalised in Java as a result, he had made a remarkable recovery based on what we witnessed; great talent, fabulous music, fun times!

 

The get-together also gave us the opportunity to meet the cruisers off A Coconut and Alessandra, after both rally yachts arrived in Marina del Ray that afternoon. It was definitely an interesting exchange of our experiences of Indonesia thus far and surprising to learn of the similarities, including the challenges we had all faced with marginal or precarious anchorages and not being able to access major tourist attractions as a result, as well as the communication issues facing the rally. With this conversation close on the heels of stories relayed by The Pub during our previous Happy Hour outing, it did make us feel a little bit better that we weren’t the only cruisers facing these issues and feeling disappointed at what had transpired. As the saying goes: “Misery loves company”!

 

Our downtime, in turn, gave us the opportunity to consider all our options for a feasible sailing itinerary to move forward with. With all the options on the table and having dissected each one thoroughly, we decided to let things pickle for a little while longer before making our final decision. In the interim we just enjoyed our time in this hidden gem just off the coast of Lombok Island.

 

Sunday, 8^th September 2019 was a total contrast to our lazy day the day before. In fact, it was a hive of activity onboard all day, primarily to get ready for our upcoming “holiday“ in Bali, the only immediate decision we’d made. 

 

While Roy got the watermaker going, washed the decks and washed Paw Paw’s topsides, Elaine prepared breakfast; pancakes with fresh pineapple, yoghurt and honey. Having purchased loads of fresh produce during our trip to Mataram, breakfast was accompanied by a delicious pawpaw as well. After breakfast we video called the family in Arizona. What we weren’t expecting was to see all three grandsons with a very solemn look on their little faces, peering up at us. When we asked them what was wrong, Brayden proceeded to inform us that they were in trouble for being naughty: “we cut up Nana’s bedroom”, he blurted, then William chimed in: “I was in trouble too because dad said I’m the oldest and should’ve known better”. It wasn’t long before Keenan explained that, instead of napping, they’d all gone into their Nana’s (Brooke’s mom) guest / craft room, found some scissors and proceeded to cut up what books they could find and then moved onto the brand new duvet set, purchased only the day before. Unfortunately, the forlorn look on their faces had us bursting into laughter, which was swiftly followed by all three grandsons in fits of laughter too, needless to say, much to the disgust of their dad. Of course, when Keenan was reminded of a few antics he had gotten up to as a youngster, he realised, in total frustration, that it was payback time. Oh, the joys of parenthood! 

 

Afterwards, although we were both still chuckling to ourselves after the video call, Roy got stuck into the laundry, while Elaine started getting everything together that needed to be packed. Hunting through the wardrobes for our descent cloths revealed a few items we’d forgotten we had.  At least we wouldn’t be looking like “boat people” on our “holiday” now in sun bleached, faded attire. 

 

By then it was time for lunch, following which Elaine did some ironing and Roy sorted out a new dinghy painter, stowed the jerry cans and cleaned both of our heads (aka bathrooms) as well as confirmed our transfer booking with the marina office. By the time we came up for air, the sun was setting and a few more yachts had departed. From a pretty full house a few days previous, there was only a handful of yachts left in the marina. While the sailing lifestyle is transient by nature, like ourselves, it seems most yachts are only staying a night or two in any one location in Indonesia before moving on. Given the number of nautical miles required to transit this country within a fairly limited visa timeframe, it’s understandable that cruisers are constantly on the move at a fairly fast pace. For us, though, we were simply enjoying our timeout.

 

Not having to rise at dawn the next morning to scurry out of an anchorage and motor to the next, Elaine prepared another cooked breakfast. This time freshly baked crumpets and poached eggs, accompanied by fresh fruit. Enjoying bright, sunny days, it was lovely to eat in the cockpit and linger over our meals again. After breakfast, we got ready for our dinghy excursion; a trip around Gili Gede and the neighbouring coastline of Lombok Island. It’s fair to say we had reasonably high expectations on what we might discover, especially given what we had seen on Google Maps. Particularly, all the tucked away resorts that appeared to be situated along beautiful sandy beaches.

 

At first glance, as we motored along the shoreline, it was difficult to discern village from resort, but a pattern slowly emerged; small spider boats pulled up on the beaches signified a village, otherwise it was a resort. We were, however, surprised to find so many villages dotted along the shoreline. At every small beach, some not even a kilometre apart, was a village, all with the usual collection of ramshackle homes and a mosque, either already built or under construction, although some boasted a very robust pier / dock. The only differential was the size of the village which seemed to be dependent on the length of the beach. The exception to this was a single dwelling, no larger than a bed, on a lone beach, with two scooters parked outside. If it hadn’t been for the bedding and the cloths we saw, we would have assumed it to be a shed or storage unit of some kind. Very odd!

 

On closer inspection of the resorts, we found most to be unoccupied and in various states of dereliction. We did, however, find a lovely establishment straight across the bay from Marina del Ray. We weren’t altogether sure what it was called as we were unable to decipher part of the sign, but Google Maps indicated it as the Gipsy Beach Bungalows. It was very cruiser-friendly, where non-guests could also participate in their activities and tours, as well as hire bicycles or scooters and use their restaurant. Since this discovery wasn’t long after breakfast, we were content to simply enjoy the views with a mid-morning coffee, following which we took a stroll along their beach and discovered some very unusual sea life, the only unusual sights of the day. 

 

Still wanting to continue our explorations, we then set off along the eastern coastline of Gili Gede, where we discovered three more resorts in operation, amongst a number that were unfortunately closed down. These included The Beach,  Tamarind Gili Gede and Kokomo resorts, where only the latter seemed to have guests, while not finding a soul in sight at the other two. 

 

It should be noted, though, that, as was the case in Wakatobi, the use of the word “resort” loosely describes the establishments we found, where “beach bungalows” or “quaint seaside retreats” with outdoor dining would be a more appropriate description. With the exception of the Gipsy Beach Bungalows, all were a stone’s throw away from a local village with some bordered on both sides, all with the usual collection of garbage everywhere, definitely detracting from the setting of the resort and making a walk along the beach rather unpleasant. 

 

While we satisfied our curiosity, we had both been expecting something different, but concluded that the area was an extension of what we’d seen all along the coastlines of Flores, Sumbawa and Lombok Islands, including the Komodo National Park. The common theme unfortunately, was the abundance of garbage and poverty. On hindsight, what we experienced in the Kai Islands, particularly the spotless beautiful white powdery beach, was the best we’d seen in Indonesia. Even the lovely beach on Hoga Island in the Wakatobi National Park and the fabulous Pink Beach in the Komodo National Park were spoilt by garbage, although nothing compared to the heaps we’d seen on the beaches here and elsewhere. 

 

Back onboard we enjoyed a late lunch, completed our packing and undertook a few menial tasks before dinner. All this in between dealing with correspondence with the rally organisers in an attempt to obtain assurances that our next visa extension would not be another fiasco. Neither of us were too pleased with the accusations that we had not followed protocol in informing the sponsor of our changed itinerary. Fortunately, we had everything in writing, date and time stamped, dating back as far as 31^st July 2019, a mere two weeks after our arrival in Indonesia, which certainly dispelled that and any other excuse concocted for the unprofessional and deplorable treatment we’d received. Shortly thereafter an unexpected, although appreciated apology was received with the assurances that it wouldn’t happen again. Unfortunately, we weren’t to know at the time that this assurance would not be honoured when we needed our last renewal completed in Lovina, Bali, but that is a story for another article. By this time, though, we had decided on an itinerary for the remainder of our stay in Indonesia, but the first order of the day was to leave Paw Paw in Marina del Ray and  head to Bali.

 

By Wednesday, 18^th September 2019, we had returned from a fabulous week in Bali and, although we thoroughly enjoyed our time there and we absolutely loved the resort we stayed in, as anyone can testify to, there is no place like home and there’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed, albeit one that moves around, as is the case with our beds. That, of course, meant we both had a great night’s sleep, but we were woken up on the Thursday morning by the early morning “calls to prayer“ that we definitely didn’t hear or miss while we were in Bali. 

 

With that our day started. So, on went the generator and the watermaker, out came the washing machine and in went the laundry. Then, while that was happening we got stuck into cleaning Paw Paw’s outside, given that the dust and soot from all the fires was everywhere; all over the decks, in the cockpit and up at the helm station. Even the mosquito net curtains covering the saloon door had to be washed. What a mess, but once that was done, we were able to unpack all the cockpit cushions, etc and return our home to normal. 

 

By that afternoon, Roy had started work on our Bali video and Elaine was ready for her nap, before we dinghied ashore for Happy Hour. Before long there was quite the crowd up at the yacht club, including the folks off Pied-de-Mer, Southern Cross, Intrepid, Lady, Ultimo, Il Sogno (Karene and Craig), Hylight (Priscilla and Michael), and a number of cruisers we hadn’t met before. It wasn’t long thereafter that a jamming session had also got started. Tired from our busy day, though, all we wanted was our dinner and our beds, so we returned to Paw Paw for a quiet night onboard. 

 

On the morning of Friday, 20^th September, after saying our goodbyes to Umnyama again, settling our bill at the marina, we cast off the mooring ball and started the second half of our passage through Indonesia to Singapore. However, given that we would be covering the remaining 800NM through day sails only as much as possible, to avoid the precarious night sailing, and we were planning on stopping to enjoy the sights and festivities along the way, this was expected to take us at least seven weeks.

 

Our first stop for the night was Senggigi. Although a very rolly anchorage which gave us both a restless night’s sleep and made landing the dinghy difficult, the main attraction for us was getting to the very well stocked western-style supermarket that had most of the western-style provisions that we were running low on, including items like cheese, meat and granola. We had hoped to return to shore for dinner, but the swell running into the bay had increased substantially, so, instead, we enjoyed a barbecue onboard comprising our newly acquired lamb chops, accompanied by a fresh salad, while enjoying a beautiful sunset with Gunung Agung in the distance on Bali, silhouetted against the evening sky. 

 

On Saturday 21^st September 2014, we were up at dawn to hightail it out of Senggigi for our next stop at Gili Air. We were delighted to not only find a decent anchoring spot as Pitpony (Judy and Fred) we’re leaving, but we also found Cattiva, Talulah Ruby III, Rubicon and a number of other rally yachts there. Once we were securely anchored we wasted no time putting the dingy in the water and heading over to Talulah Ruby for a morning coffee. Soon thereafter Cattiva joined us making for a lovely impromptu gathering. We actually couldn’t remember when last we’d enjoyed the company of these long-time cruising friends, but it was lovely all the same.

 

Back onboard we readied ourselves to dinghy ashore and what an experience that turned out to be. We hadn’t seen so many tourists congregated in one place in all of our time in Indonesia. It was bedlam, but a completely different world to what we’d seen thus far. Besides the people, tour boats, ferries and bicycles everywhere, along with loads of restaurants, cafés, resorts and shops, there were horse-and-carts merrily plodding along the narrow streets; not a scooter, motorbike or car in sight. Fabulous! Our wander around the streets ended up at Flowers and Fire, a yoga retreat, where we enjoyed a very tasty lunch in a very tranquil setting. It was a great antidote to the bedlam outside the beautiful gardens. 

 

We also had to keep an eye on the time as arrangements had been made for a water taxi to collect all the cruisers from Gili Air in order for us all to attend the rally festivities at Medana Bay Marina back on Lombok Island. Having thought we would only rejoin the rally in Lovina, this was an unexpected opportunity to catch up with the rest of our cruising friends. Unfortunately, by the time we got back to the anchorage the wind was howling at 25-30 Kts from the southwest, which was definitely not forecast when we looked at the weather earlier, but it, nonetheless, forced us to postpone the pickup while we gauged the situation in the hopes that things would settle down. 

 

Eventually at around 1600 it started to moderate and, with that, the decision was made; send the water taxi. After collecting Talulah Ruby and Cattiva, we dinghied ashore to meet the other cruisers and the water taxi, arriving in Medana Bay Marina just in time for the gala dinner and the evening festivities. We had, however, missed all the speeches, which was just fine with us. An evening of great music provided by a local band and socialising with friends we hadn’t seen in a while followed. It was a lovely surprise to also bump into Stephanio, the World ARC rally event manager, whom we’d last seen in Fiji when the 2017 / 2018 rally passed through. He was as surprised to hear us on the VHF radio earlier in the day as we were to see him at the farewell ceremony, but it was great to catch up. It was hard to believe that this was the third World ARC rally passing us by since our departure from the 2016 / 2017 rally in Tahiti, but at least we were still moving in the general direction of west.

 

It was quite late by the time the water taxi returned all of us to Gili Air, but we were delighted to find the winds had calmed down completely as well as to be charged only $3US return each. Needless to say, we all provided a hefty tip, much to the delight of the two young men who had ferried us safely about 5NM across to Lombok Island in less than desirable weather conditions. Our thanks go to Saraya, the manager of Medana Bay Marina, for arranging the transportation for us. It was definitely an unexpected evening of festivities in the company of friends.

 

Although we were both woken up on the morning of Sunday, 22^nd September 2019 by yet another “call-to-prayer” at around 0430, we both turned over and went straight back to sleep. When we eventually surfaced, Roy prepared a cooked breakfast while Elaine finished our latest blog post. Unfortunately, with the latest iPhone software release, many of the previous  features on the applications Elaine used for the blogs no longer worked, which caused further delay. Very frustrating and irritating, but, as usual, we were at the mercy of the so called IT professionals of today who really only know how to build “Jack’s House” rather than use software engineering and design principles. Anyway, after putting those annoyances aside and enjoying breakfast, we headed ashore for an exploration of Gili Air by bicycle. 

 

It’s fair to say Roy was a tad anxious about Elaine being on a bicycle, but she was determined and what a delightful morning it turned out to be, enjoying beautiful seascapes and stopping along the way for a morning coffee at Mowie’s Café on the less frequented west side of the island. Of course, we also saw the usual unhygienic food preparations we’d seen in many parts of Indonesia, where food is left out in the ambient temperatures, attracting flies,  then sold to the unsuspecting tourist. Guess that explained the numerous doctor’s offices we saw on this tiny island. After two bouts of food poisoning for Elaine and one bout for Roy, we’d become extremely astute in selecting what food and drinks we consumed and where. Although we hadn’t been completely successful, we’d at least minimised the risk as much as possible. By the time we returned the bicycles, we definitely needed an ice-cream  and a bottle of cold water to help cool us down.

That afternoon we enjoyed a late lunch onboard, following which we were delighted to hear from Stella Australis (Bronwyn and Pat) who had just arrived in the anchorage. Given that we haven’t really spent any time with them since leaving Australia, although we all saw each other briefly in the Kai and Banda Islands and again in Wakatobi, everyone was still ill, which obviously didn’t lend itself to any degree of socialising. That evening was the perfect opportunity to change that, so after collecting Bronwyn and Pat in the dinghy, we headed ashore and grabbed a horse-and-cart “taxi” to our selected restaurant to enjoy wood fire pizzas. Over a delicious meal and a few cold beverages, we spent the next few hours catching up and swapping cruising stories. The evening seemed to be over far too quickly, but we were sure we’d all bump into each other again at some point down the line. This, unfortunately, was not to be and it was, in fact, the last time we saw them.

 

On Monday, 23^rd September 2019, we weighed anchor at Gili Air and crossed Selat Lombok for the third time; Bali bound again, only this time we were aboard Paw Paw! However, by

Sunday, 6^th October 2019, having missed the opportunity to stay with the rally in Lovina after more visa renewal issues, but having enjoyed other parts of Bali which we would not have had the opportunity to see and after another peaceful night without loud music or “calls to prayer” to interrupt our sleep, we were up with the alarm for our planned dawn departure from the Banyudewang located in the Western Bali National Park. 

 

We were delighted to find the winds had continued to blow contrary to any forecast. So, with 18-22 Kts out of the south-southwest and slightly whipped up following seas, we set off on a broad reach. Although our slowest point of sail, we enjoyed speeds of anything from 7-8 Kts on a reefed mainsail and a full genoa hanked out on the bauberhauler. Also, being a Sunday we hardly saw any traffic in the way of cargo ships, ferries or fishing boats and not a single FAD.

By mid-morning the winds had backed and dropped to around 14-16 Kts. That together with our change of course allowed us to continue wing-on-wing while maintaining a reasonable SOG until just past the halfway mark to Raas Island when the winds died out to around 10 Kts. With that, it was time to drop the mainsail to prevent it from flogging around and motor-sail on the headsail. Since the winds in Indonesia were unpredictable and flaky, we were grateful for the unexpected winds we did get, which saved a little diesel. Taking advantage of the engines being on, we decided to put on the watermaker. That way we were, at least, putting our diesel consumption to good use.

Soon thereafter we had the pleasant surprise of being entertained by a pod of dolphins, only this time they stayed with us for nearly 1 1/2 hours. For the first 45 minutes they spent their time frolicking in Paw Paw’s bows, darting from one to the other, surfing the waves and doing all sorts of acrobatics, but, for the second 45 minutes, they simply stayed either side of us; we had a dolphin escort and no way of showing the grandchildren, as we’d lost data connectivity. It was such a pity! It was the longest period we’d ever had dolphins stay with us. We did, however, take a video and forwarded it to the grandchildren as soon as we could. 

While Roy had precooked a chicken soup for this passage, with little else to do and to pass the time, Elaine then decided to bake some Irish soda bread to complement our dinner. We’d also kept the option open to stop at Raas Island overnight, but decided to continue on to Bawean Island,  given that we’d made good time and we hadn’t seen any fishing boats or FADs at this stage.  As we passed through Salat Raas and transited from the Bali Sea to the Java Sea, we also transitioned to another timezone, moving from Central Indonesia to Western Indonesia. We were, however, surprised to find Pen Station and Alkina anchored off Raas Island. We later learnt that they had stopped there the previous night and were weighing anchor to continue on to Kumai on Kalimatan Island to meet the rest of the rally. We’d hoped to have company for the night, but alas, we were heading in a different direction.

We also then encountered fishing boats for the first time, but they all seemed to be returning home to Raas Island. We had taken that as a good sign, but it was not to be. At around 2130, at the change of watch, we encountered so many fishing boats, together with miles of fishing net, it took both of us to be on watch to pick our way through the mess, detouring in one direction, then having to come back on our route and try the other direction. It was nearly 0100 in the morning by the time we cleared them all. That was followed by a myriad of cargo ships, all going in different directions with no pattern or order at all, since there weren’t any shipping lanes to control the mess. Just ridiculous! In fact, there weren’t any maritime safety regulations to speak of at all in Indonesia; no AISs on most commercial vessels, whether it was a ferry, a large wooden “Phinisi” or a squid fishing vessel, people jabbered away and played music on the emergency and hailing VHF radio channel 16, tugs towed unlit barges up to 500 metres behind them, countless unlit FADs were everywhere and were difficult to see during the day never mind at night, given that they were fashioned from bamboo or in colours like black, grey, green or white; the list went on. Then add the fact that numerous vessels didn’t have the correct navigational lighting. We’d even seen some with green starboard lights on both sides of the vessel. In essence, it was basically a free for all and extremely dangerous for the likes of us. 

While the rally organisers emphasised the well known fact that sailing at night in Indonesia was not recommended because of all these hazards, it was unavoidable at times due to the distances between some of the islands as well as the lack of or nonexistence suitable anchorages. This was the main reason we had wanted to ensure we were back with the rally fleet leaving Lovina. Not having the additional security of safety in numbers, where pertinent information was usually relayed between yachts en route, was the exact situation we had wanted to avoid on this leg, but we were precluded from doing so by the tardiness of the sponsor associated with our second visa renewal which ultimately delayed our departure from Lovina. 

We subsequently learnt the morning before our departure from Banyudewang, though, that there was a possibility that a few rally yachts would still be at Bawean Island, with cruisers like ourselves, who had decided to skip the Kumai rendezvous and were heading to Belitung Island instead, but we weren’t altogether sure if that was accurate information. Following our arrival at Bawean Island on the 7^th October 2019, we did find Lady, their friends Il Sogno, Endorphin (Izzie and Colin), Hecla of Uist (Jon) and another yacht we didn’t know, but we learnt then that Lady was heading to Kumai in the morning. Regardless, it was nice to have company in the anchorage for the night and, although we were invited to join the others for dinner ashore, given our lack of sleep the previous night, we decided a shower, dinner and bed was all we could muster. 

 

After we both slept dead to the world, with the exception of hearing the mosques at 0330, we were both bright-eyed and bushy-tailed by 0530 on Tuesday 8^th October 2019. With no compelling reason to stay at Bawean Island, we readied Paw Paw, rigged her for flying the chicken chute and set sail. 

By 0600, the chicken chute was flying, but in lighter winds than forecast. We’d hoped that once we were out of the wind shadow of the island, the winds would pick up so we could at least do our 5.5 Kts without running the engines to reach Belitung Island at our preferred time. That didn’t happen and by 0800 the chicken chute was down and the engines were on. However, by 0900 the winds kicked in, so up went the chicken chute again and off went the engines, following which we enjoyed a fabulous day of sailing in 10-14 Kts of wind, with the exception of numerous local boats stopping by Paw Paw to take a look, with passengers waving profusely and taking photographs, but getting precariously close to do so. 

Of course, just when we were getting ready to bring the chicken chute down, the winds picked up to 15-17 Kts and dozens of large local fishing boats, which looked like trawlers, came over the horizon on both sides of us.  As a result, we had to wait for them to pass and, by then, it was getting close to sunset, reducing our preferred wiggle room to get Paw Paw prepared for the night and eat our dinner before dark. Well, we’d no sooner got the chicken chute down and got the dinner warmed up, which Elaine had prepared earlier in the day, when the sun set and the horizon lit up like a Christmas tree; local fishing boats were everywhere and, with that, a completely chaotic night of mayhem began. The trawlers which passed us earlier had been the telltale signs of things to come. 

Not only were there numerous boats lighting up the night sky for as far as the eye could see, but the radar showed hundreds more. With all the sails down in order to ensure we had complete manoeuvrability and unobstructed views, between us, we spent the next 9 hours of night watch, taking 4 1/2 hours each to pick our way through the mess. With the radar set at a 1 1/2 mile range and using the night vision binoculars, we progressed one painful nautical mile at a time, picking the closest boats to avoid and staying in the dark spots between them. Fortunately the majority were squid fishing boats anchored for the night with their massive spotlights lighting up the water, but interspersed were a number of moving fishing boats, who didn’t give us an inch of manoeuvring space. By 0300, we’d made it through the maze and by daybreak most boats had departed the area, leaving a few stragglers still bobbing around when we changed shift. 

By 0700 on the morning of Wednesday, 9^th October 2019, the chicken chute was back up and we enjoyed another fabulous day of sailing. In winds of 12-15 Kts out of the east-southeast, we also enjoyed a SOG of 7-7.5 Kts which went a long way to improving our ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival). The mayhem continued though. 

While trying to catch up on sleep, we spent most of the day having to deal with rogue cargo ships. We had the captain of one doing his best to squash between us and a few remaining squid fishing boats, who were still at anchor; one to our port and two to our starboard, with the cargo ship attempting to overtake us on our starboard side and trying to cross our bow with metres to spare, but eventually giving up and doing the more sensible thing by passing us all to starboard. Nothing like being a squid sandwich! Then we had another two ships racing each other to see who could overtake us on our port side, but cross our bow at the same time. These two captains eventually also altered course to proceed behind us as they should have done to begin with. In any other country in the world, these captains would be hung out to dry! 

All of this delight was complemented with more fishing boats of all shapes and sizes and tugs towing all sorts, all criss-crossing us no matter how we altered course. Worse than that, many fishing boats changed course to keep coming towards us as we altered course this way and that. After a few instances like this, we changed tactic. With a fishing boat approaching us, we positioned Paw Paw directly downwind and maintained our course until the approaching boat was within 1 1/2 nautical miles of us. We then picked the safest side to pass, ultimately forcing them to go behind us. And so we continued. Then, by 1400 the wind had lightened, we dropped the chicken chute, put the engines on and, miraculously, the mayhem ceased;  not a fishing boat or a tug or a cargo ship in sight. Even the radar was clear for 24NM  in front of us. We could take a deep breath, at last!

As sunset approached, we were prepared this time. Motor-sailing on headsail alone, Paw Paw was prepared for the night, dinner was heated and eaten. However, while there was far less traffic that night, it was no less precarious as we encountered a tug towing something or other with no AIS and none of the internationally recognised navigational lights to indicate it was a tug or, for that matter, a tug towing something and we had another local fishing boat come straight for us after we altered course. This particularly captain was, however, determined to cause a collision. As we continued to alter our course, he continued to come straight for us. As he approached our bow, we changed course again and slowed down significantly, giving him room to pass in front of us, but realising what had happened he had the audacity to turn his boat around to come at us again. With that we stopped dead in the water and didn’t move until he took off. We had read about these kinds of encounters on other cruiser’s blogs, but thought the situation was probably exaggerated. Not so; this was yet another example of the kinds of danger cruisers had to deal with when sailing through Indonesia. Fortunately that was the last unpleasantry we had to face for the night and as we transited Salat Karimata, we transitioned to the South China Sea from the Java Sea. 

In many ways this was a passage we never imagined in our wildest dreams. Regardless of the numerous dangers we faced during the previous 48 hours , we never imagined ever sailing in the South China Sea or, for that matter, towards the heart of Southeast Asia. While it was a major milestone on our circumnavigation and one we’d achieved against the odds, it was never planned when we embarked on this adventure nearly six years ago. It was also hard to believe we were saying goodbye to the Southern Cross and the Southern Hemisphere. With less than 200 NM to go, we’d be crossing the equator for the second time on our circumnavigation, as we headed to Singapore and back to the Northern Hemisphere, with no idea as to whether or not we’d have the opportunity to return to the Southern Hemisphere again, as so much of our vagabond lifestyle hung in the balance at this stage. While our heart’s desire was to continue on, practical health matters threatened to supersede those desires, but we remained hopeful that the medical fraternity in Singapore could work some magic!

By 1100 on Thursday, 10^th October 2019 we had arrived at our chosen anchorage for the night, the uninhabited island, Palau Ayambr. Unfortunately it was another example of an unprotected anchorage in which forced our hand, once again, to continue sailing. On the bright side, we’d arrived earlier than planned, affording us the time and daylight we needed to continue. It also helped that the clouds had burnt off and the sun was shining brightly so we could see the reefs as we meandered our way along the east coast of Belitung Island. 

By 1400, we had arrived at our second choice of anchorage, another uninhabited island, Palau Siadung. However, after we had anchored, we ended up sitting side to the swell, instead of into it and the wind, realising then that there was a strong current flowing around the island. With that, our third option was the inhabited island of Palau Bukulimau, which we had wanted to avoid for obvious reasons. Within minutes of dropping the hook we were invaded by a boat of five young men, all wearing cartoon type masks, which Roy found odd and immediately had his sensors on high alert. When he enquired about the masks, one of the young men said it was for the sun, although Roy didn’t buy that explanation and really just wanted rid of them, especially when they wanted to know how many people were onboard. Besides lying by telling them there were four people onboard, but they were all sick, he shouted to Elaine to bring the “gifts”. Then, one of them was very cheeky and pushed passed Roy without permission to board and started to run down the starboard deck. At that point Elaine showed her face wearing her mask, shouting: “No, No, Sakit, Sakit”! Whether it was Elaine shouting or her mask or both, we got the desired reaction as he turned and hightailed it back to his boat. That got all their attention, in fact, so after handing out fish hooks and line, they scooted off. They clearly understood the word “Sakit” (Sick). 

 

Annoyed at the audacity, but thinking nothing more of the incident, we had a shower, had a light dinner and headed to bed. Having sailed another 975NM since leaving the Komodo National Park and 2600NM since leaving Thursday Island, we definitely felt like we needed our beds that night, although we both couldn’t help thinking there was something very sinister about the visitors we had, yet clueless of the harm, as we later found out, that we could have been in.

 

The next morning, as usual, we were woken up at 0330 with the local mosque, which was literally in the middle of nowhere, sounding, for the first time, very melodic. The person singing had a beautiful voice, unlike the cat’s choirs we’d heard up until now. We were both, however, unable to get back to sleep. So, while we waited for daybreak, we replied to a few emails and some social media messages, caught up on the continuation of the fiasco going on in the US with Trump and his cronies, then weighed anchor at first light and set sail for another long day. Unfortunately there wasn’t a breath of wind, so we couldn’t even motor-sail. However, we were grateful for the current we had with us which increased out SOG without having the engines at a high RPM and we had beautiful scenery to enjoy along the way.

By 1300 on Friday, 11^th October 2019, we were entering the most stunning anchorage and one that was not deep, it was well protected and had good holding in sand.  The additional bonus was finding Impi (Ana and Brett), another rally yacht with South Africans onboard, as well as Georgia, along with a few other non-rally yachts including Bella Chao, a Dutch flagged yacht whom we first saw in Curaçao in 2014, then again at various places throughout the South Pacific and lastly in Southport, Australia. These were cruisers whom we’d never met, but we had a number of mutual friends. However, with Impi there, it appeared the South Africans have gone rogue, leaving the rally behind. 

After catching up with Impi and Georgia on the VHF radio, all we wanted was some lunch and a nap. We had also initially declined an invite to join everyone in the anchorage for dinner ashore in lieu of a rest, but later changed our minds in the hope that an afternoon nap would suffice. Well, we never got our nap because we were both too excited by the wonderful rain that arrived. It was a fabulous downpour which gave Paw Paw a good first rinse and washed all our sheets and halyards that had become quite crispy and crusty by now, not to mention, filthy from all the soot and dust, with not having had rain in months. And, bonus, not only did the rain cool everything done, but afterwards the beauty of the scenery was emphasised against the darkened sky. The contrasts between this, the heaps of unusually shaped boulders sticking out of the pale turquoise waters and the beautiful white sandy beaches, was absolutely stunning!

By then it was time to get ready to dinghy ashore to meet and greet everyone on the beach for our dinner outing and what a pleasant night it turned out to be. Not only were we able to catch up with friends, but we got to meet new ones over a delicious pizza and burger dinner, in a lovely garden setting, at a restaurant owned and run by an Englishman and his Indonesian wife. It was their young son and daughter who stole the show, though, as Elaine and Chris spent some time with the son being introduced to all his bunnies, while enjoying a stroll around the garden and then playing “Eye Spy” at the dinner table after he asked Roy to play the game with him. It was the most unexpected evening of fun and laughter, but one we both needed! Unfortunately Bella Chao didn’t join the outing, so we’d yet to meet them, but had planned to dinghy over and introduce ourselves over the course of the next day or two!

 

It was wonderful to wake up the next morning knowing we had eventually found a protected anchorage without the harassment of local boats constantly coming out to Paw Paw wanting handouts, no loud music and no mosques to wake us up at some ridiculous hour of the morning, only tranquillity, in a superb setting. It was somewhere we wanted to linger, at last! However, having been constantly on the move since our haulout in Southport, it was time to get a number of much needed chores and yacht maintenance tasks completed which simply could wait no more. With that a very busy day ensued, which, in the heat and humidity, made for a very long, arduous day. 

First tasks were to drop off our laundry and garbage and to replenish our diesel which involved the usual modus operandi in Indonesia of ferrying jerry cans back and forth in the dinghy, although this time, since the diesel we were purchasing was already in jerry cans, not drums, Roy decided to simply take some of those jerry cans in lieu of filling our own ones numerous times. This certainly reduced the number of trips he had to make in the dinghy, thereby saving our petrol. All he then had to do was return the empty jerry cans once the tanks were filled. After that he tackled the oil changes on both engines and the generator, changing the oil and fuel filters on the port engine and the generator, changing the oil filter on the starboard engine and the saildrive oil on the port engine. Unfortunately, not only had he run out of steam, but we had to stop and pack away everything as the afternoon thunderstorms approached, leaving the change of fuel filter and saildrive oil on the starboard engine for another day. 

Elaine, in the meantime, spent her hot and sweaty day repairing flags and then cleaning. Paw Paw was absolutely filthy inside and out, but because of the heat, she switched cleaning activities between the decks, the cockpit, the helm station, the sunscreens, the saloon, the galley and the port side cabins and companion way when she needed the breeze to cool down. By late afternoon all were completed, though, albeit in a rather haphazard manner. She too however, had run out of steam and inclination, leaving the port side heads and starboard interior for another day. Fortunately the latter isn’t lived in so that only required a cursory clean. 

We did, however, take a few moments for a coffee break and to enjoy the beautiful surroundings, as the turquoise waters against the granite rocks and white sandy beaches, changed colour throughout the day depending on whether it was cloudy, sunny, hazy or overcast. The last time we saw anything similar to this was in New Caledonia at Atoll D’Ouvea. The scenery together with the pleasure of seeing two separate pods of dolphins swim by went a long way to adding enjoyment to an otherwise exhausting day. 

We also had the opportunity to witness a side of Indonesia we have not seen before; the affluent Indonesian tourists visiting from Java. We had learnt on arrival that this was a local tourist hotspot, evident by the number of tour boats filled with local tourists being ferried out to the outlying islands dotted around the anchorage. It was indeed a stark contrast to the countless impoverished areas we’d observed throughout our travels in Indonesia. 

By early evening we were both in desperate need of our showers, dinner and bed, but not before we squeezed in a quick phone call to catch up with the folks in Ireland. We also never did get to meet the cruisers off Bella Ciao as they departed early that morning and we later learnt they had already commenced their Indian Ocean crossing at the time of this writing. It was clearly not meant to be!

 

Between Sunday, 13^th October 2019 and Monday, 14^th October there were a number of yachts coming and going. Firstly, two non-rally yachts, Anna Caroline and Island Time departed, only to be replaced by the rally yacht, Hylite. Then Georgia set sail north, leaving ourselves, Impi, Whiskey Jack and Carpe Mare (Katharina and Anders) in the anchorage, but that soon changed when two more non-rally yachts, Forever Young and Endless Summer arrived and we also spotted another rally yacht, Vaa Nui (Polly and Ross) in the far anchorage. It definitely wasn’t going to be long before the rest of the rally fleet would arrive ahead of the festivities scheduled to start on the Wednesday. 

Regardless, on the Sunday our day started with a beautiful sunrise, then we passed our time enjoying the stunning surroundings, given that it was the perfect day for a dingy exploration around the outer islands and what another fabulous treat that was. Besides the beautiful turquoise waters which were so clear we could see the turtles without even having to snorkel, the sandy white beaches, the granite boulders and the coconut clad tropical islands, were breathtaking and left us in no doubt that this was the nicest area we’d seen in Indonesia in terms of natural beauty. We also stopped by the main island of Belitung to explore the long white sandy beach and happened to find the Rock and Wreck Dive Resort. Although, being a Sunday, it was closed, but the chalets surrounding the swimming pool area were beautifully painted and very unusual, not to mention the old boats used as the dining area. It was definitely a unique setting. 

On our way back to Paw Paw we saved the best for last; stopping at the tiny tropical island closest to where Paw Paw was anchored and enjoyed an afternoon swim in the cool clear water off the tiny white sandy beach surrounded by granite boulders.  In fact, we enjoyed the swim so much, we went back again in the afternoon. It was the perfect way to spend the hot, sunny afternoons. The day was wrapped up with another phone call to Ireland to catch up with family. 

On Monday morning, however, Roy finished his outstanding engine maintenance by replacing the starboard saildrive oil and placing silicon lubricant on the water pump bearings of both engines before we dinghied ashore to meet our driver for our prearranged trip to the closest supermarket and ATM about 1/2 hours drive away, as well as to make arrangements for dinghy petrol. It was a rather harrowing drive, to say the least, as the little old man could hardly see where he was going, leaving his driving skills much to be desired. We were both definitely relieved to have made it back to the anchorage in one piece. It didn’t help matters either that he had the worst cough ever and spent most of the journey coughing and spluttering around us. Fortunately we had all the windows open to blow away any germs; which worked thankfully!

We also had the pleasure of meeting Amber and Jeff off Whiskey Jack that evening after they delivered some pineapples and bananas they purchased for us at the traditional market that afternoon, since we abandoned the idea of visiting the market in lieu of limiting the time we had to spend with the driver and to get back to the anchorage as quickly as possible. To thank them for their kindness, we enjoyed sundowners together on Paw Paw and learnt quite a bit more about the area, since they’d been there for a while, as well as received a heads up on the next destinations further north. Very useful information indeed and, since we weren’t going to the Anambas Islands, it helped us make the decision to linger a little longer in Belitung than previously planned, which turned out to be a great decision, given what we found further north.

With the afternoon winds having died down, we enjoyed a lovely evening sitting on the bow to savour the view of the full moon reflecting off the water, with the little island we swam off as the backdrop; another reminder of why we love our sailing lifestyle so much!

 

As expected, the remaining yachts that we’d shared the anchorage with for nearly a week, Impi and Carpe Mare, departed early the next morning leaving only ourselves, Whiskey Jack and Hylight. By the afternoon, though, the anchorage was jammed packed with the invasion of the other rally yachts. 

We spent our day, however, by dinghying ashore to make our dinner reservations and then enjoying a lovely long walk along the beach to the north of the anchorage. Not only did we get to enjoy the beautiful scenery from a different angle, but the white sandy beach was so powdery, it was like walking in flour. On our return we stopped off to say hello to Alcedo of Ryne and pass on relevant information of the area before heading over to our favourite little island for another afternoon swim. By the time we returned, the rain had set in and, once again, Mother Nature saved us the trouble of giving Paw Paw another good rinse. 

That evening we dinghied back to shore to enjoy our dinner at the Eco Beach Tent restaurant, which was also a glamping facility, with the most unusual, although very sophisticated setting, where diners sit on Persian rugs laid on the beach, with very comfy cushions that form a seat and the low table that was made from a huge piece of driftwood. Alternatively you could choose their floating raft set up similarly, with lanterns to add to the ambiance. Since Elaine had trouble sitting, they accommodated us at a higher table with chairs, the latter fashioned out of logs. It was definitely fine dining Indonesian style and our seafood feast of crabs, prawns, mahi mahi steaks, accompanied by rice and a broccoli and mushroom vegetable dish, was absolutely delicious. Definitely the best food we’d eaten in Indonesia outside of Bali and no one got food poisoning! 

For a local establishment, it was very upmarket and, obviously, more expensive, but, given the recommendation we received from Whiskey Jack, who enjoyed the food so much they went back a second time, it was a sure bet for us with everything cooked fresh as we had to select our dinner from the comprehensive menu ahead of time,. And the bonus; it served alcohol, which in itself was extremely unusual for a Muslim establishment. We were also delighted to see that the crew off Alcedo of Ryne had taken our recommendation and had decided to enjoy their meal on the floating raft, although they were all sitting rather low in their comfy seats when we bid them goodnight. After two days and two nights of sailing from Kalimantan to Belitung, that was not surprising!

 

On Wednesday, 16^th October 2019 we spent most of the morning just pottering around onboard. While Roy replaced the fuel filter on the starboard engine and started the process of ordering all our spares and parts needed to complete our “cyclone season” To Dos, Elaine completed a few administrative phone calls to the US, Australia and Singapore and we enjoyed a chat to the family in Arizona. We’d no sooner finished when the heavens opened just as Cattiva were coming in to anchor. 

We were essentially passing time, though, while we awaited the commencement of the Welcome Ceremony. It’s fair to say, given the effort that the other regencies had gone to in welcoming us and the spectacular performances we'd had the opportunity to see, the Belitung Welcome Ceremony was very disappointing and looked more like something that was cobbled together at the last minute. It was actually a complete waste of our time. The highlight of the proceedings, however, was talking to the high school students from the English Club. Not only did they get the opportunity to practise their English, but we learnt a little more about the Indonesian culture; in particular the constraints of the class system. It was quite upsetting to hear that the most confident and articulate young lady amongst the group, would not have the opportunity to further her education to study languages because of her position in the social stratification, while her class mates, coming from a more affluent background, were going on to study medicine or the like, while others from these affluent families simply didn’t need to pursue a tertiary education and weren’t that interested in doing so either. We were definitely impressed, though, at how well the students spoke English. Given that the regency of Belitung had an agenda to concentrate on developing the area for international tourism, this skill would definitely be utilised in the future, no doubt. 

It was, however, lovely to catch up with friends as well and we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Rock and Wreck Dive Resort with Cattiva, Entice (Karen and Greg), Karl off CV and David off Grey Nurse. Unfortunately David’s better half, Robyn, was still in hospital after we learnt that they had been involved in a motorcycle accident in Kuminjava and Robyn had badly broken her arm. It was also interesting to learn that a number of yachts had already departed the rally, having left their yachts in Marina del Ray and returned home, while others were suck in Marina del Ray awaiting the arrival of parts. Additionally, others had apparently already left Indonesia for Malaysia and Thailand, with a few stragglers still in Kumai. That explained the dwindling number of yachts that had arrived in Belitung. 

While at the Rock and Wreck Dive Resort, we met the owner, an American, who was more than delighted to give us a tour of his establishment. While we had previously mentioned that the little houses were very pretty and  unusual from the outside, they were just as beautiful on the inside too. We learnt that they were all derelict homes that were transported and refurbished for the resort to serve as accommodation, while the pool and entertainment / dining area was purposefully built to resemble a ship with the concrete and mosaic artwork resembling a ships mast, ropes, waves in the ocean, etc. The creative use of driftwood and shipwrecked bits and pieces was astounding, including the outside showers, lampposts, light fittings, etc. 

During the tour we also learnt a little more about the history of Belitung Island and, while we’d first assumed the affluence was a result of local tourism, it transpired it was actually associated with tin mining, with both Belitung and Bangka Islands having the largest tin deposits in the world when it was first discovered by the Dutch in 1850, later creating the Dutch Shell mining company,  which then merged with the Australian mining company, Broken Hill. Apparently tin was so prolific on the island, islanders could dig it up in their backyard. Finally, we learnt that the lighthouse on Lighthouse Island was actually cast in Manchester, England and then assembled here. Standing 17 stories high, it was quite an impressive sight and a major tourist attraction. 

We wrapped up our day with dinner onboard and completing preparations for our dawn departure, as well as catching up with friends in England. We were surprised, however, to find Chilli Bee, another 2016 / 2017 World ARC yacht anchored next to ourselves and the other World ARC yacht on the Indonesian rally, Alcedo of Ryne. Given all the yachts in the anchorage, how they managed to end up next to the only two other World ARC yachts, was quite remarkable. Unfortunately it was dark by the time we got back to Paw Paw and Chilli Bee weren’t onboard, but we had hoped to possibly see them in another anchorage. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but we did hear from Alcedo of Ryne a few days later that they and Chilli Bee had enjoyed a fabulous outing together and had sent us their regards.

 

We had previously planned on doing an overnight sail from Belitung Island to Lingga Island, but after receiving information from Georgia and Carpe Mare, who were ahead of us, we changed our minds and decided to do day hops instead. It came down to the usual choice; pick your poison of either dangerous overnight sails or rolly anchorages. So, having rechecked the weather, we weighed anchor at dawn on Thursday, 17^th October 2019 and set sail for Gelasa Island.  

 

We had the usual obstacles to dodge; nothing new there! The more interesting aspects of our sail, or rather, our motor-sail, were seeing dolphins along the way and then arriving at a very picturesque, lush little island. The crystal clear deep blue and turquoise waters, lapping up against a white sandy beach at the head of the bay, with a surrounding reef, only added to the scenery. It was odd, though, to find a collection of local fishing boats here, since the island was uninhabited. We gathered this was a rest stop ahead of their nightly fishing escapades. Then, when we turned off the engines, we heard the strangest sound; beetles and crickets. It had been so long since last hearing this sound prior to selling our cabin in the White Mountains of Arizona, it took us a moment to figure it out. Definitely wasn’t expecting that! 

By 1700 most of the local fishing boats had putt-putted past Paw Paw, leaving ourselves and a few remaining ones in the anchorage for the night. It was not surprising, however, that this was yet another typical Indonesian anchorage; deep and rolly. Unfortunately there wasn’t a breath of wind, after the rain showers had passed over, to keep Paw Paw facing into the swell. Albeit it a slight swell, it was enough to keep us rockin’ and rollin’ most of the night as Paw Paw sat beam-to.

By the time the alarm went off the following morning for another dawn departure, we were both awake anyway and the day turned into a case of “rinse and repeat”; motor-sailing, dodging fishing boats, tugs and cargo ships, while enjoying dolphins. The only variable was that one of the tugs was 57 metres / 186ft long towing an oil platform and then, about two hours out, the wind picked up and we could turn off the engines. To our amazement, however, as we approached the island where we were anchoring for the night we could see at least fifty platforms scattered as far as the eye could see, with little thatched roof homes built on them, more the size of a dog kennel, where, apparently, fishermen live and catch fish, returning home only once they have enough supply to sell. We weren’t altogether sure how they kept the fish fresh, but we assumed it was in underwater traps, presumably for crabs, lobsters, prawns, etc.

After weaving our way through the platforms, we arrived at Ketawai Island, a few miles off the coast of Bangka Island and it was beautiful. Seeing a turtle as we approached the anchorage was a definite bonus. We’d barely anchored, though, when a local fishing boat arrived and anchored within a few feet off Paw Paw’s port side. With an enormous wide open anchorage, we could only assume he was just being obnoxious, which wasn’t the first time we’d encountered this kind of behaviour. So, rather than enter into a pointless confrontation, we weighed anchor and simply moved to the other side of the anchorage. By the look on the fisherman’s face, this was not what he had expected. 

 

Once we were securely anchored again, we dinghied ashore to explore this beautiful tropical island, sporting numerous coconut trees, a white sandy beach lapped by turquoise waters. This island was one of many similar islands we’d seen during our sail that day. We were surprised, however, to be greeted by an elderly gentleman who informed us that he lived on the island, but that we were free to explore. The next surprise was finding what looked like some sort of picnic venue with picnic tables scattered around, various signposts and a relatively large wooden dock. A walk along the beach, circumnavigating the entire island revealed stunning views, spoilt only by the amount of garbage washed up on the shore. Regardless, though, we saw numerous beautiful shells, the water was clear and there was a breeze to keep us cool. By the time we returned, our unpleasant fisherman was nowhere to be found; we had the anchorage to ourselves, with only the residents of the little houses on the platforms surrounding the anchorage, for company. 

 

We both had a great night sleep anchored off Ketawai Island, but we were wide awake at 0400 for some obscure reason. That meant we then had to sit and wait for daybreak, but by 0515 on Saturday, 19^th October 2019 we’d weighed anchor for, what turned out to be, a very long, rather uninteresting day of motoring with not a breath of wind, but with the usual traffic and obstacles. The latter included oil rigs and hundreds more of the platforms with little thatched roofed houses on them, scattered for miles around. We also decided to bypass the rally stop, Bangka Pesona, given how industrial the area looked with cargo ships anchored everywhere and how exposed the anchorage was to the prevailing swell and wind. We later learnt this presented a huge issue for the rally yachts that arrived there a few days later for yet another Welcome Ceremony and arranged festivities. With that, we continued on to the northeastern end of Bangka Island, where we found a very calm anchorage away from any village and away from any local boats to hound us. We also had the opportunity to chat to Keenan on one of his stopovers and Elaine made good use of her time and our ripened bananas to bake Banana Bread. The only source of interest en route was the enormous thunderstorm that showed up on the radar, consisting of about six cells to our starboard side and one to our port side. Fortunately the associated lightening was some distance from us and only the outer edges of the storm passed over us. It did reduce the visibility considerably, though, making it more difficult to see the platforms. Also, as we progressed northwards, the water changed colour from a deep blue and turquoise to a jade, reminding us of Samoa. The landscape of Bangka Island became a little more interesting as well. 

By 1600 we were securely anchored and by sunset we had company;  Forever Young had arrived. That was swiftly followed by an Indonesian Navy ship which hailed Forever Young wanting to know their intentions and whether or not they knew the other yacht, us, that was also in the anchorage. After a brief exchange we were informed that “their job was to provide security for sailing vessels”. We found this, not only a little odd, but rather disconcerting - What did we need protection from? Regardless, they anchored a little distance off, we had dinner, had a shower and went to bed, too tired to be bothered with any more nuances of sailing in Indonesia. We did, however, still have to deal with smoke, given the fires that burnt throughout the night onshore. Our solution; close everything up and run the air-conditioners. Worked like a charm!

 

We had planned on a day of rest on Sunday, 20^th October 2019, but that didn’t quite happen. It was lovely to have a break from the monotonous motor-sailing we’ve had to do, though, since leaving Belitung Island. After breakfast, with the Indonesian Navy still anchored at the entrance to the anchorage, we hauled out the washing machine and did the laundry and then spent the next few hours doing some paperwork required for Elaine’s upcoming appointments in Singapore as well as making arrangements for out clearing out process from Indonesia and collating the documentation required for our clearing in process in Malaysia. We also enjoyed a break when the cruisers off Forever Young popped over to introduce themselves after an initial VHF radio call we made to them earlier in the day. 

By late afternoon Whiskey Jack had arrived, followed by a large motor yacht, Braveheart 2. That spurred the Indonesian Navy representatives to undertake a second trip around the anchorage to take photographs of all the yachts again and stop by the new arrivals. At this point we were still not altogether sure what this was all about, but we received confirmation from Georgia and Carpe Mare that they didn’t experience any of this while anchored here. Carpe Mare did indicate, though, that they’d been hailed by an aircraft requesting various bits of information en route to their next destination. We then decided to do a little research into the area for potential piracy threats, given our proximity to Sumatra and discovered that Indonesia has just surpassed Somalia as the world’s number one hotspot for cargo ship hijackings, but primarily in the far northeastern and far northwestern areas of the country, along the busy international shipping lanes. The research also revealed that the occurrences had significantly reduced  in 2019, which could be explained by the presence of the Indonesian Navy patrolling the area. A little more disturbing, though, was that we stumbled upon an article that really got us worried. It basically detailed a growing trend of piracy against cruising yachts, where disenfranchised young men, who don’t want to follow the traditional path of becoming fishermen, had taken to piracy instead, but with a twist. Their trademark was wearing cartoon masks when they approached a vessel. At reading this, we both felt a cold shiver run down our spines. This was exactly what had happened at Palau Bukulimau, but we had no idea that this threat existed in Indonesia and it certainly explained the odd comment from the Indonesian Navy personnel. What annoyed us even more was that the rally organisers had said nothing about this and here we are, like many other yachts, sailing around merrily on our own. Well, that changed instantly and it certainly changed our itinerary, deciding that it would definitely be more prudent to avoid stopping overnight at any more uninhabited or isolated islands, just to be sure, to be sure! It was, however, somewhat reassuring to know that a number of rally yachts had already made it to our chosen clearing out point without incident. Aside from this discovery, our anchorage turned out to be very quiet and peaceful, where the only nuisance we had to deal with was the smoke from the fires burning ashore again and a large contingency of flies. We’ll take that over pirates any day!

 

On Monday, 21^st October 2019, we had planned on a 0200 early morning departure from Bangka Island, but at 0030 a rain shower woke us up. Afterwards, with everything closed up, it was impossible to sleep in the heat and humidity, so we weighed anchor and set off instead. It wasn’t long before we noticed Whiskey Jack pop up on the AIS behind us; they’d obviously had the same idea. Regardless, we were delighted to have company, given our recent discovery on the piracy issue in the area. With little to no wind, we motored the remainder of the night and into the early hours of the morning, following which the wind picked up as another rain shower passed over us, allowing us to motor-sail for a while. By then we were long past the halfway mark, but grateful for the wind we got and, more importantly, for the rain to wash all the soot off Paw Paw and to cool everything down.

By 1400 we were less than 30NM south of the equator. It was hard to believe we were almost back in the Northern Hemisphere, but, somehow, we just didn’t feel as excited as we did when we crossed to the Southern Hemisphere on Paw Paw in February 2016, although we couldn’t help but marvel at the places we’d visited, the people we’d met and the fabulous adventures we’d enjoyed since then; too numerous to mention. We also remembered Sue and Michael off Infini, who had come to wave us off in St Lucia along with TiSento (Agnes and Bas). Sue and Michael were so excited for us, knowing what we were about to experience, since they had just finished their circumnavigation after twelve years and we were just starting ours. How right they were! Having never planned to cross the equator again until we had rounded the Cape of Good Hope and were doing our Atlantic Ocean crossing, this felt a little surreal; instead, we were making this crossing in the South China Sea. Who would have thought!

As we approached the South end of Lingga Island and our anchorage for the night, with Whiskey Jack following close behind, all the excitement of the day happened at once; we picked up a current that slowed us down, a rather large thunderstorm developed to our starboard side and we narrowly missed fishing nets at the entrance to the anchorage. Then it didn’t help matters that, after both yachts were anchored, we had a terrible swell hitting us on the beam. So, up came the anchors and a snoop around the smaller island to the south of the anchorage provided better shelter. Whiskey Jack was fortunate enough to find a shallow sandy patch bordering the reef, while we had rocks on our second attempt. Third time was the charm, though, when we found a shallower sandy area. Although it wasn’t completely out of the swell, it was a vast improvement on our previous anchoring attempts and since we were running out of daylight by this stage, it had to suffice. With that, it was shower, dinner and bed. 

 

After a comfortable night, which was definitely unexpected given the swell that was hitting us on the beam when we first arrived, the preparations for our equator party were in full swing by 0600 on the morning of 22^nd October 2019. With our Samoan music blaring, Elaine set about getting our outfits together and getting her baking done; we had decided to celebrate everything we loved about our adventures in the Southern Hemisphere. 

At 1000, with 10NM to go before our crossing, we were enjoying the beautiful stilted homes and scenery around Palau Gojong. Then, shortly before noon, we bid our farewells to the Southern Hemisphere as we played our all time favourite song, Southern Cross, with Elaine dancing in the cockpit and Roy navigating us through all the crab pods and, at a few minutes past midday, to the beat of our favourite Samoan song, we crossed the equator for the second time on Paw Paw and returned to the Northern Hemisphere. Elaine dressed in one of her swimsuits purchased in Australia, sporting her tattoo from the Marquesas, her serong from Bali, her gift of earrings and a hair clip received from a beautiful lady in Nuietapotapu, Tonga, her gift of a neckless and bracelet received from our hosts in Soso Bay, Fiji, a flower in her hair as a reminder of all our wonderful times in French Polynesia and drinking a glass of champagne and, Roy, wearing his Hinano beer t-shirt, sporting his Hinano Girl tattoo from the Marquesas, his head dress from Bali and his gift of a shark’s tooth necklace from our hosts in Soso Bay, while drinking a beer in his Hinano beer glass, it was a fitting tribute to toast Neptune and all the fabulous memories we were taking with us, while acknowledging the lingering thought and acknowledging our hearts that were tinged with a little sadness, as we wondered; will we ever cross the equator on Paw Paw again.

By 1245 we were safely anchored, along with Whiskey Jack, at our first island back in the Northern Hemisphere, Kentar. We’d barely settled down to enjoy our lunch of freshly baked cheese scones and bacon, though, when the heavens opened; another equatorial deluge to cool things down. The rainy overcast weather, however, continued all afternoon and into the early evening so we enjoyed an afternoon nap. We were then visited by a local boat, but this was no ordinary visit; one of the occupants was a professor at the university on Bintan Island and spoke perfect English. While the reason for his visit was to invite us to his village, he was also very curious about how he could possibly host all the yachts that he’d seen sailing together, most continuing past his island. He had made the assumption that this was an event organised by someone in Singapore, but was delighted to learn that we were all participating in the Sail2Indonesia rally at the invitation of the Ministry of Tourism in Indonesia and he was absolutely over the moon when Roy explained the itinerary of the rally and provided him with the contact details of the Indonesian representative. Since we were almost at the end of our stay in Indonesia, we also gave him our remaining balls for the children of the village as well as all our remaining fishing line and hooks. We’re guessing he received a little more than he had originally thought possible. Unfortunately another local boat arrived a little while later, but, sadly, all we had left to give them were a few packets of biscuits. They were, nonetheless, just as delighted to have received something. With that it was time for a shower, dinner and bed ahead of yet another early start. 

 

Having decided not to set the alarm to wake us up on the morning of 23^rd October 2019, we were, nonetheless, underway by 0600, but for no particular reason other than we’d both had a good night’s sleep. Continuing northwards to our anchorage at Benan Island obstacles to avoid included numerous stilted homes, fishing pods with small plastic bottles as a float to mark their position, sticks just protruding out of the water in the middle of nowhere, large pieces of floating wood and, of course, the endless floating garbage, making it difficult to decipher the fishing pod floats from a random plastic bottle floating by. As a result, every obstacle had to be examined carefully through the binoculars before deciding if a change of course was needed. That, of course, meant it was impossible to take our eyes off the water. If anything, the “sharp lookout”, although usually made more difficult by the slightest swell which camouflaged any obstacle, on this day, with seas that were completely flat and felt more like we were motoring on a lake, it was the hazy conditions that added to the difficulty. This was typical life at the equator, though; overcast, hazy, pond-like calm waters and thunderstorms. 

Fortunately we didn’t have any cargo ships or tugs to contend with as we’d intentionally stayed close to land to avoid the strong south setting current, but we did have the usual fishing boats cutting across our bow with metres to spare. However, after dogging obstacles for more than 2700NM, we no longer changed course or speed, forcing them to increase their speed to pass us, which, needless to say, they did in one hell of a hurry when they realise we weren’t budging.

This area, known as the Riau group, was a beautiful cruising area, though. It seemed we had left the best for last, which was a real shame because, had we known, we would have preferred to spend more time here. In turquoise waters, with turtles popping up from time to time and shallower depths of 6-18 metres / 20-60ft, it was a far cry from the rest of the sailing and anchoring conditions in Indonesia. Add to that the people here, who were really friendly, and who didn’t invade us the minute we anchored, but rather, just went about their daily lives with a friendly wave as they passed. In fact, with a little development we thought this area could easily become a cruising destination similar to a low-key version of the Virgin Islands. 

By 1230 we were safely anchored in 4.5 / 15ft metres on a sandy bottom with a beautiful white sandy beach, trimmed with coconut trees to one side and a small village in the distance to the other. We’d no sooner dropped the anchor when Whiskey Jack arrived, swiftly followed by two rally yachts, Vega (Annie and Hugh) and Hakuna Matata (Tuija and Ingvar), who had just completed a two night sail from Belitung. We had all heard each other on the VHF radio earlier so it wasn’t particularly a surprise to see them, but lovely to have the additional company anyway. With that we donned our swimsuits and jumped off the back of Paw Paw for a refreshing swim, the first since leaving Belitung Island and for Roy to give the propellers and hulls a quick clean. We’d no sooner climbed back onboard, though, when the heavens opened again. While enjoying the cool breeze after the rain, we topped off the day with a barbecue and headed for bed. All the early starts were definitely catching up with us by now. 

 

You guessed it; like most mornings while on the move through Indonesia, we had two more early morning starts over the next two days. On the morning of Thursday, 24^th October 2019, however, we had to wait for slightly more daylight in order to make our way through the reefs in order to exit the anchorage at Benan Island, but we had Vega and Hakuna Matata to follow, with Whiskey Jack holding up the rear. The only debate of the day between all four yachts was whether to take the inner channel or the outer channel around Karas Besar Island. With no one really knowing whether or not it would make a significant difference to the strength of the current we expected, ourselves and Whiskey Jack decided on the inner channel, while Vega and Hakuna Matata took the outer. However, other than the beautiful scenery we enjoyed as we meandered through the myriad of smaller surrounding islands on the inner channel, the effects of the current ended up being six of one and a half a dozen of the other. 

By 1300 we were all anchored at Sembulang, off Rempang Island for night. It wasn’t the best of anchorages, but it was a good jumping off point for Nongsa Point Marina and Resort and our final day of motoring in Indonesia. To celebrate, we invited everyone for Happy Hour on Paw Paw and ran a dinghy shuttle service to collect those on monohulls, since their dinghies were lashed on the foredecks. With that a great evening, which essentially started in the company of strangers, ended in friendships, since, other than us briefly meeting Whiskey Jack in Belitung and Elaine briefly meeting Annie earlier in the rally, no one even knew what anyone else looked like. In typical cruiser fashion, though, once the initial introductions were over, the chatter and laughter, over a few drinks and shared snacks, began and continued well past sunset.

The following morning’s departure was a little more straight forward and since we were both awake before the alarm, we’d weighed anchor and had set sail by 0530. We were clearly looking forward to the completion of our last leg of sailing in Indonesia. Unfortunately the passage was a lot slower than we had hoped for, since the current and wind on the nose had us crawling along at 2.5 Kts at one point. We were delighted to take anything over 4 Kts when the current eventually eased, but navigating through all the cargo ships at anchor and avoiding tugs and ferries as we motored through the most industrial area of Indonesia that we’d seen, added to the lapsed time. However by 1030 we could see Malaysia and Singapore in distance behind the haze and by 1100 we were approaching the channel to the marina. We were delighted that we’d eventually made it safely through Indonesia against the odds. The real excitement of the day had yet to begin, though, unbeknownst to us. 

Once we were safely in our berth, Roy set about refilling the diesel tanks from the jerry cans as well as changing the fuel filters, given all the motoring we’d done since leaving Belitung Island and Elaine tidied up and gathered all our paperwork required for the marina and our clearing out process. We’d just got ourselves ready to head to the marina office when Hakuna Matata stopped by for a quick visit on their way to the marina office as well. While Roy chatted to them, Elaine started to lock up, but for some weird and wonderful reason, she struggled to get the sliding door closed; it seemed stuck. After trying a few times, she went back inside to try and figure out what was jamming it.  The next thing Roy, Tuija and Ingvar heard was Elaine screaming; a huge yellow striped black snake was jammed in the door. Fortunately, it was to the outside, but its free head had been inches from Elaine’s legs as she’d tried to close the door initially. A quick VHF radio call to the marina office prompted three security personnel to jump onboard armed with the necessary equipment to remove the snake; a forked stick and a pair of large welding gloves. Within minutes the snake was freed from its prison and removed, but all we kept thinking about was how on earth it had gotten onboard in the first place and then the realisation set in; we’d sailed all day with the snake inches from us as we walked in and out of the saloon and as we enjoyed lunch in the cockpit. Also, Elaine usually relaxes while underway on the seat with the cockpit throw cushions stacked up against the end of where the snake was. She could easily have been stretched out with the snake at her head. Worse, she could have slept with her hatch open and ended up with the snake on top of her. All the possible permutations didn’t bare thinking about, but a little research identified it as a nocturnal Tropical Mangrove Cat Snake, which we read was “mildly” venomous, whatever that means, but later learnt it’s as deadly as a Cobra and according to the locals, most dangerous at night since it’s essentially “blind” during the day. Regardless, we were just relieved it had somehow got jammed between the sliding doors when Roy opened them that morning. By this stage we were well and truly over the adventures of Indonesia and a snake on board was the final straw! Trying to calm our wild imaginations and put all the imaginative what-if images aside, we spent the rest of our afternoon wading in the coolness of the resort’s swimming pool before getting ready to meet everyone for our dinner reservations at the Selera restaurant. 

Although Roy woke up in the middle of the night on Saturday, 26^th October 2019, looked out his port window and nearly had a heart attack as he charged upstairs, thinking Elaine had fallen asleep on her watch and we were about to collide with a massive power yacht, which was simply berthed in front of us in the marina, Elaine, on the other hand didn’t stir all night, although she initially had difficulty getting the mental images of her close encounter with a deadly snake out of her head.

That morning we decided to enjoy breakfast at the resort. However, it was definitely disappointing as the buffet primarily catered to the Asian and local clientele, understandably, leaving precious few options that we would consume for breakfast. Back onboard afterwards, Elaine made herself a bowl of granola with her favourite coconut yoghurt to supplement the fruit she’d eaten at the buffet, then retired back to her cabin to catch up on our daily blogs. Roy was a tad more energetic as he rewired our one battery monitor to connect to the 220V shore power so that we could charge our batteries without having to run the generator. Paw Paw’s electricity configuration of 110V had never presented a problem before, but, since this would be the first time ever that we would be spending our “downtime” season in a marina vs. on a mooring ball once we reach Malaysia, it required some modifications. Afterwards we decided the resort swimming pool was a better use of our time and we also took the opportunity to catch up with the family in Arizona. 

By lunchtime, the clouds were rolling in and a light rain, followed by a cool breeze settled in for the afternoon after we’d enjoyed lunch in the cockpit. It was the perfect opportunity for Elaine to find a spot in the cockpit to spend her afternoon enjoying an afternoon nap and catching up on her social media correspondence, while Roy preferred the air-conditioned bar at the resort to watch the World Rugby match between England and New Zealand. The England win definitely increased the odds of a South African World Rugby championship, assuming, of course, South Africa beat Wales, but we didn’t want to jinx the outcome. That night we had planned on enjoying the food associated with the Deepavali Street Festival, but unfortunately it didn’t have a great deal on offer, so we opted to eat at the resort again and enjoy some local cuisine there instead, topping off a lovely lazy day and a well deserved rest! 

 

Being a Sunday, we enjoyed a lazy morning on 27^th October 2019, followed by a cooked breakfast; yes, we still had bacon from Australia, enjoyed with eggs, mushrooms and freshly baked Irish soda bread. Elaine then gathered all our dirty washing and headed for the marina laundry. Unfortunately she discovered the washing machine didn’t actually wash the cloths and it was a good job she was watching the machine at the time. It filled up with water, did a few swishes for less than a minute or two, emptied and refilled to rinse; completely pointless. With that, she hauled everything back to Paw Paw, including a load of soggy clothes, and did the laundry onboard instead. Fortunately we didn’t have to use our precious supply of tank water, but used the non-potable water from the marina. It turned out to be a gorgeous sunny day with a light breeze to get everything dry. Had she known about the issue with the marina’s washing machine, though, she wouldn’t have stripped the beds and washed all the towels. We could just as easily have waited until we reached our marina in Malaysia. At least it was all washed and dried, though, before the late afternoon thunderstorms set in. 

 

That in turn, changed our dinner plans after Roy had finished watching the South Africa vs. Wales World Cup Rugby semi-finals, with South Africa winning by the skin of their teeth. With the poor data connectivity in the marina, Elaine received the final score from the family in South Africa before Roy was able to text her the result. By the time she managed to access Facebook, the rivalry between her South African and English family and friends had begun; it was certainly making for an interesting final.

Elaine, on the other hand, spent her afternoon reading all the literature and cruising guides on Singapore and Malaysia, specifically the immigration, customs and biosecurity requirements for Malaysia in preparation for our departure from Indonesia. However, with the rain continuing into the night, instead of walking over to the neighbouring resort for dinner, we settled for dinner at the Nongsa Point Marina and Resort again, where we happened to bump into Rubicon and Ultimo, who had just returned from a long weekend break in Singapore. Soon thereafter Vega and new arrivals, Golden Spirit (Caroline and Michael) joined the group for dinner, followed by Hakuna Matata, who briefly stopped by to say hello to everyone. Before long, though, we were saying our goodbyes to all, but Golden Spirit, as everyone was setting off in different directions the next day and it was unlikely that our paths would not cross again, given that most were continuing north then west to complete their North Indian Ocean crossing. 

On Monday, 28^th October 2019, we decided that an early morning walk to stretch our legs was in order and to then enjoy breakfast at the Turi Beach Resort, since we hadn’t been able to have dinner there the previous night. While it wasn’t much better than the breakfast we had at Nongsa Point Marina and Resort, it was an improvement, nonetheless. The highlight of the outing was actually the meander along the pathway and pier en route to the resort, offering views of downtown Singapore in the distance. Afterwards, it was all business to get our clearing out process completed, finish reading our cruising guides for Malaysia, wash the ground tackle after the very muddy anchorage in Sembulang and finally give Paw Paw’s topsides a wash, given the stains that had developed from the soot and acid rain while heading northwards from Belitung Island. It was definitely going to need a polishing to remove the streaks altogether, but at least the wash removed most of it. 

By lunchtime a few more rally yachts had arrived including Pit Pony (Judy and Fred), Lady, Endorphin and Hecla of Uist. That was followed shortly thereafter by the arrival of Element, making for a rather full marina. Roy also took the opportunity to share a taxi into town with Charlie to purchase yet another starter battery for our starboard engine, although our “bula” battery from Fiji, purchased in 2016, has really lasted, but it was definitely nearing end-of-life, after having to close-circuit the house batteries to start the engine once or twice of late.

That afternoon, a soak in the swimming pool was almost thwarted by another thunderstorm, but at least it cooled everything down, even if it didn’t rain in our immediate vicinity, so Elaine headed to the pool regardless and enjoyed the remainder of her afternoon at the poolside bar in the company of Whiskey Jack and Pit Pony. Roy followed as soon as he was back from town, giving us the opportunity to catch up with all the new arrivals who had gathered for sundowners, before collecting our clearing out documentation and bidding everyone farewell. We thought we’d be returning to Paw Paw for dinner and an early night, but that plan was interrupted by visitors we’d met earlier in the day who wanted to look around a Leopard 46. Unfortunately they arrived much later than we had agreed, resulting in us only having dinner at 2100 and a much later night than we wanted. It was, however, a great deal of fun spending time with friends, old and new, to top off our adventure through Indonesia.

 

So, on Tuesday, 29^th October 2019, we were up with the birds for our early morning departure. We were eventually leaving Indonesia after months of transiting this enormously dispersed country of 17,000 islands! We had basically been continuously on the move for sixteen weeks since arriving in Debut, never mind the weeks it had taken us to reach Thursday Island in Australia from Port Macquarie. With the exception of a few weeks here and there, where we stopped to enjoy the areas we wanted to see, like the Banda Islands, Wakatobi, the Komodo National Park, the various Gili islands around Lombok Island, our fabulous time in Bali, Belitung Island and finally our meander through the beautiful islands of the Riau group, we hadn’t stopped for more than an overnight anywhere. It had been a very long, arduous sailing season, full of the most diverse experiences and encounters along the way, together with the most spectacular sceneries, magnificent snorkelling adventures and fabulous cultural exposures. However, like most cruisers we’d spoken to, it was difficult to say we loved our time in Indonesia because there were so many facets to sailing in this part of the world. As mentioned at the outset of this article, though, it was definitely one of the most unusual destinations we’d visited and we thoroughly enjoyed what we chose to see, most far exceeding our expectations, but we were definitely glad we did it our way; picking the best of what Indonesia had to offer and lingering at those stops for as long as our sailing itinerary would allow, due to medical needs and visa restrictions. 

 

From snakes to dragons, all in all, we were, however, glad to be moving on to explore other areas of Southeast Asia, especially, since our arrival at Nongsa Marina and Resort, we could see the lights, across the Singapore Strait, beckoning us! Spending our last few days at the the Nongsa Point Marina and Resort, with its beautiful gardens and relaxed atmosphere, was indeed the perfect way to top off this particular adventure, but, since opinions are solidified by experiences, and our feelings about Indonesia were akin to being on an emotional rollercoaster ride, unlike many of the South Pacific destinations we had the privilege of visiting, Indonesia was not a country we would particularly want to visit again!