Malaysia I December 20th 2008

Well, once again I've fallen way behind so this will be long. Braceyourselves.IN THE MEANTIME, BEFORE YOU GET TOO BORED WITH US, ROSE AND I WOULD LIKE TOWISH EVERYONE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.Please don't send us those silly electronic cards to this emailaddress--satphone, etc.Even I had to look back and see where we left you. We were leaving thedock in Singapore with teary farewells 6 weeks ago. Much has transpiredsince then.Our departure was in company of seven others heading off to Malaysia.Singapore has a goofy system for checking out with immigration and you haveto take the boat to the quarantine anchorage and they come out to you. Anannoying and unnecessary interruption. After that, our route was taking uswest along the south shore of Singapore and then up into the west side inthe Johor Strait to Danga Bay, Malaysia. There were at least a millionships around as we navigated through shipping lanes, strong currents and thebridge to Singapore on this 30 mile journey. Every mile or so in the straitthere was a Singapore patrol boat and that side of the island is fenced offto keep out illegal aliens, primarily Indonesians. Also a few Malaysianboats,but none bothered us. On the way back down we actually saw a patrol chasing a local boat all over the place. A second boat joined the pursuit with both firing flares across the other guys bow, but we don't know if they caught him. Danga Bay was a pleasant surprise. The rally up theMalacca Straits starts there and it was the venue because the new marina inJohor wasn't complete. We expected sort of third class environs but theplace is a huge resort area for Malaysia and Singapore, alike, with tons ofrestaurants, tour boats and even an amusement park. Check in was the bestin 4 years with the officials asking us to sign about 10 forms and takingthem away with our passports. Next day they returned everything and theyhad taken our info and filled in the forms for us.It was an eventful 3 days. First, I went to get a new SIM card for thephone and, I must have screwed up aconnection prying the old SIM card out of the phone. Another 20 minute walkbackto the nearby shopping mall to get a new phone. Ended up with a used phone,but a really nice one for $80. By the way, the Malaysian Ringgit ishoveringaround 3.5 to the dollar, so Malaysia is relatively inexpensive. Not ascheap as Indonesia, but so much more civilized with really great food. Ofcourse , Rendezvous Cay is not at rest in any venue and we had our usualproblems. In Singapore, we had them put on a spare alternator as the otherhad crapped out. We were on shore power, though and couldn't check it.When push came to shovethe spare didn't work either. We had also been told that we could fuel upeasily in Danga. Wrong. They bring in a barge, which we had to beg them todo early, and you either bring the boat to them or jugs. Since we neededquite a bit of fuel we elected to bring in the boat. Of course, the bargewas late and we had to rush out during the middle of the Rally briefing toget it done in daylight. Their idea of fenders was a large chain through anold tire so the boat hits the chain and we got a couple of nice scratches.No problem, though, as we were on our way to getting hauled out and boththings could be fixed easily then--sure!!The next day was an all day tour which Rose went on but I decided to foregoand get a massage. For RM80, you get 2 hours!! Yes. I had been in massagewithdrawal since Bali. That night was the official rally dinner and it wasreally well done. Lots of good food and free beer and wine. SailIndonesia could take a few lessons. It was held in the park's band shellthing and there was a ton of free entertainment as well. An oldies band(they love oldies in Malaysia) alternated with traditional dance. Quitenice and not too many speeches. We were leaving the next day and concernedabout the heavy current in the strait so we were being a bit flexible on ourdestination. There was a close in island about 25 miles away that the priorday's bus tour actually went to and another island 15 miles further on.So off we went on the early side due to potential current, which, as itturned out, were unfounded. However, it was more of the same, motoring,motoring, motoring. Light air. Another boat, our dock mates in Singapore,Freebird, left the same time. So we decided to go to Pulau Pisang, about 40miles away which breaks up the trip to our ultimate destination, PortDickson, into more manageable chunks. The bottom there was a very stickygooey clay, and there was tons of traffic on the way including all thecommercial traffic as well as a billion local fishing boats. The nextintermediate stop was Pulau Besar in the Water Islands and there were a fewother boats there. Freebird dropped their dinghy and came over to see if wewanted to explore and maybe have a happy hour drink. Not much on theisland, and NO alcohol--damn Muslims--so we beat a hasty retreat to Freebird(Dave and Judy) for an extended happy hour. Next day we finally made AdmiralMarina which is about 10 miles south of Port Dickson. The attraction hereis that is is very close to the colonial town of Melaka (where the MalaccaStraits gets its name) Melaka was a very important trading port even beforeEuropean exploration and conquest and has both Dutch and Portugueseinfluence.The marina was a little pricey, for Malaysia, mind you, not Singapore, butvery nice. I think they're trying to make the area into an entire resortthing. Drinks were a bit much but they had a monthly special "all day,every day" happy hour which was two for one so that brought down the price.Fuel was ridiculous--50% more than Danga, though, so we decided to passuntilPenang, our next real stop. Several of the Blue Water Around the Worldrally were in which might explain why Sail Malaysia dropped Admiral from therally. We spent a day or two reorganizing the boat to suit our tastes andthen rented a car to drive down to Malacca about 1.5 hours away. Several ofthe boats were spending a couple of days there, but we were on a fast trackto get to Penang for the haulout so we just went for the day. Gave Dave andJudy a ride--the car was only RM80. We ran into a few other yachties in thetourist area and dropped D & J with them as they needed to findaccommodations while we went to Carre Four for something that escapes mymindat the moment. We met up with everyone later for lunch at Nancy's Kitchen,a Malaysian place with really great food and cheap beer. Architecture wasinteresting but it was all pretty touristy.On our return, we ran into Peter from Dutch Touch. I may have mentioned himfrom Noumea where he stirred me up. He's still a jerk but we couldn't avoidhim and did get the real scoop on another boat he'd been travelling withwhich has headed on a fast track back to California for business andpersonal reasons. The price of the gossip was listening to Peter talk abouthimself endlessly. Hey, that's my job!!! We were going to leave the nextday, but decided to stay. The weather wasn't that good and Rose had to sortout her ATM card which NatWest, in their infinite wisdom, decided to put ahold on without informing her. It was a pretty cheap cab ride into PortDickson just for the heck of it and to get Rose money which is when we foundout her card wouldn't work. So, back to the Marina after lunch, happy hour,dinner at the cafe there and off to our next stop in the Port Klang area.One good thing that came out of our drinks with Peter was he'd heard of anundocumented (at least in our guides) anchorage north of Klang thatshortened the trip to Lumut, our next anchorage, into a managable but quitelong day trip. The weather was very iffy when we left, but turned nice.Still no wind.It was a long, long day up to Lumut, actually Pulau Pangkor, off the coastwith no wind and varying currents that make arrival times uncertain. Someof the other rally boats were also underway and there was loads of radiotraffic deciding stop or go on, anchor here or there, arrive after dark ornot, etc. Pangkor was quite nice and a resort destination. There weren'ttoo many boats in, and we decided we were ahead of schedule to get to Penangso we'd stay another day and chill out. Just as well as the next day theweather was lousy. While we were there, I emailed the yard to tell themwe'd be at Penang in another day. Now there's been all sorts of dramasurrounding the timing of the haulout. It seems the bottom of the slipway(marine railway) has silted in a bit and unless the tide is high,it is notpossible to get the thing deep enough to float the boat on top. That's whywe were racing a bit. They could either haul us around Nov 30th or notuntil 2 weeks later. Well it turns out we were early enough, Nov 18th, thatthey could get us out earlier. The bad news is they wanted us there thenext day and the haul wouldn't happen until 11 PM!!! Past our bedtime.Okay, we're in, but Penang is even farther than Lumut was so we left beforedawn. While we can motor at 8 or 9 knots, you never know when you'll get 3knots of current against you so it's best to leave plenty of time for thetrip. There was a passage out of the bay which would have knocked a fewmiles off, but too scary in the dark. As it turned out, we had the currentwith us and got in mid afternoon. To make a long story short, we went inand reviewed the work orders and made arrangements for a hotel and car.Oops. forgot to mention, something was rotten in the state of our shorepower. When we left Singapore, I noticed the plug that goes into the 110Voutlet on the boat was burned. Looked like it had been loose, however, soI changed power cords and made sure the connection was good in AdmiralMarina. Uh,oh. Same result --in fact, worse, with both female and maleends melted and burned. As most of our freezer capacity is water cooledand we'd be out of the water, we needed shore power to run our spare aircooled freezer, so the electrician came out to look. In the meantime, wewere able to offload some of the food to Pen Marine's freezer, and the nextday the guy got ours working with a 3rd cable. Probably a loose connectionto the plug on the boat. Harris Loo, the guy who owns the yard spent 5years in Chicago at IIT so we hit it off right away. Mogan, an Indian guy,runs the yard, itself--foreman, if you will. Late that day, it startedpouring rain and we were really tired from getting up at 5 so it was a greatrelief when Mogan called at 6 pm to say the railway wasn't working and we'dhave to delay hauling until the next day.So the next day, we booked into Krystal Suites Hotel and got a car. Car wasabout $35/day and the hotel (our room was like an apartment) was about $43.The guys at the yard are very nice and drove me around and booked the hotelfor us. Harris even set us up with his vet to accommodate Charlie who nowmeows in Malaysian. Back on the boat about 1, we were getting ready to moveoff when Mogan called and said he thought they could get us out right then.Yes!!!! Brought the boat in, offloaded our stuff and the cat and we wereout of there.Okay, we're not halfway caught up but I'm going to have to break this into 2or 3 or no one will read it allWill start volume 2 tomorrow.Best holiday wishesTim & Rose

Belitung & on to Singapore November 15 2008

Hi everyone.Well, I've put this off as long as I could, so it will probably be toolong!!Free at last. Free at last. Oh Lord, we are free at last. Thank you MartinLuther King, but I'm pretty sure I don't have the quote just right. As youmight have guessed, Joe and Olivia have moved off the boat. But firstthings first.We left you last time on our departure from Kumai to Belitung--almost amonth ago. The trip to Belitung about 230 miles west northwest of Kumai waspretty unremarkable. Several others had left the same day and we kept inradio touch and all arrived the next morning at Belitung not knowing quitewhat to expect. There was no wind, of course. As it turned out, Belitungwas sort of like Lovina light. There were tons of booths hawkingeverything from phones to fireworks, but the vendors were not nearly asaggressive as at a few of our other stops. No massages, though, much to mychagrin and the actual town on the island was a 1/2 hour cab right away. Asthe last stop they really went all out with non stop entertainment, freetransportation and a free dinner that was very good. It was somewhathumorous, however, that we could only find butter at a stand on the beachand not in the sizable town. Same in Kumai. The Indonesians fry prettymuch everything in oil and have no need for it. The locale for the rallywas a park like beach setting which apparently has a different form ofentertainment every weekend and we were it this time. Something like 20,000people were there on Sunday.At the official dinner on each island, the rally people chose onenationality to say a few words and thank the local officials for theirhospitality. It was the Americans turn and Mark off Windbird, who was ourrepresentative, suggested a fireworks show. We, along with Scot Free IIhad put on a great free show a few days before that, and he asked if we'dsource the works and do the show. Now we're talking major US city 4th ofJuly quality fireworks here. Giant mortars and Roman candles that send uphuge starbursts a couple of hundred feet in the air. So we collected a fewbucks from the other American boats and bought $200 worth which was about a40 minute show, at pretty much a grand finale pace.We were able to check out of Indonesia here with almost no hassle other thanmore payments. The trip to Singapore was about 2 days and 330 miles, and weelected to leave the morning after the official dinner. Rose and Tim wereanxious to get to civilization where you can buy butter and Joe and Oliviawanted to get going on job hunting as well. We had chosen to book into OneDegree Fifteen marina on Sentosa island just south of Singapore properinstead of Raffles marina over on the west side and an hour commute to thecity. More on that later.Once again several boats were on the move with us. We left at the crack ofdawn on October 15th or 16th, planning on 2 full days to get there. Otherboats followed in dribs and drabs after until there were about 6 of us enroute. We weren't too far out when there was a thunk on the port side (asusual we were motoring, but fortunately had only the starboard engineengaged). We hooked about a 40 foot 4 inch diameter waterlogged bamboo log.While trying to get it off we were weaving and cricling, etc. so the otherboats wanted to know if we'd changed our minds and were returning toKumai. Took awhile, but we got it off with no damage to the boat. The routerequired extreme vigilance as there was loads of traffic. For the firstpart, at least, we were in the major shipping lanes heading south fromSingapore and the Malacca straits. As we got closer, traffic petered outas we got in smaller channels between othe islands. Some boats elected tostop at a few places on the way, but we just carried on having had quiteenough of Indonesia. On crossing the equator, we had a suitable ceremonyfor Olivia, our only pollywog. Joey mixed up an evil concoction of food and stuff onboard and poured it over her exhorting her to pay homage to Neptune. Rose, thedesignated photographer, unfortunately, turned off the camera so there wentthe video. Joey wanted a reenactment with an empty slop bucket, but Oliviahad had enough.Per our plan, we arrived at the Singapore straits in the morning and thetraffic was simply unbelievable. Hundreds of ships heading both ways andwe had to cross the shipping lanes. Fortunately, most of the traffic waseastbound and we found a gap after a couple of freighters and before acouple of tugs and tows which were slow moving, and we made a race acrosswithout incident. Immigration actually is out there in boats to expediteall these ships and you call them on the radio and they drive over, boardand do your paperwork in about 10 minutes. Some boats didn't even have thatand just passed the stuff back and forth. Rose and Tim were given only 2weeks, but Joe and Olivia, since they were getting off, got 90 days. Thismakes no sense, but that's Singapore. We had to invest in a cab ride torenew our stamps--no charge so that can't be the reason. The marina handledthe rest of the check in and clearance for a fee of $30.The marina is really nice!! Hot as blazes so we're running the AC, but themarina has a big pool, really nice locker rooms with a sauna, etc. There'sa free bus across the bridge to Vivo City, Singapore's largest shoppingcenter and they'll even take you to your boat in a golf cart if you askwhen returning with parcels. Glad we changed from Raffles as Joey and Iwent out there to pick up mail and it took an hour with busses, trains,taxis and more busses involved in the trip. Phone service here is reallycheap with a SIM card with $10 credit costing $8 and a cost of only$.08/minute. This is a rather large city of about 4 million with all sortsof nationalities and architecture. Lots of shopping, including westernstuff like A1 Sauce right around embassy row. Big shopping centers all overthe place. There are t shirts all over that say Singapore is a "fine" city,$500 for chewing gum, $1,000 for smoking in public, $1,500 for jaywalking,etc. You get the picture, but it's true. It also makes for one of thecleanest big cities you've ever seen. A very modern transit system has notone speck of graffiti; everywhere is spotless.So our first order of business, after getting the phone the first night hereafter a dinner of ribs at Tony Roma's with Joey and Olivia's friends here,was to arrange for the usual repairs. Considering the miles we've travelledsince May--around 5,000--the boat was in pretty good shape. We needed theexhaust hose replaced, a new thermostat for the fridge, an alternatorreplaced, the image stabilizer binocs worked on, the outboard serviced andthe dinghy's irritating unfindable pinhole leak found and repaired. Alsoneeded to get the water maker pump swapped out which had been prearranged.Getting the fridge worked on proved to be easy as did finding a guy to lookat the dinghy, but both Yanmar and Mercury basically told us to piss off.Fortunately, whining to the dinghy guy worked out as he said they can workon both. Fujinon once again said they couldn't find anything wrong with thebinoculars, but I know there's a short somewhere and asked if they couldn'tfind anything to fix, if they would swap them out for new. Unbelievably,they came back with a deal for about 25% of retail and half of what I paidfor them new. Now that's customer service. The news wasn't so good on thedinghy. The guy found a leak between the seams attaching the tubes to thealuminum hull. They say irreparable. Then the outboard needed likeanother $1,000 in parts plus labor, this after over $2,000 work in Oz.Doesn't matter though; they can't get the parts before we leave. Likewisecan't get the alternator rebuilt (which isn't that big a problem as wecarry a spare). So now what do I do. Dinghy and engine can't be fixed.The dinghy guys could sell me a new engine for about S$3,700. Emailed theAquapro factory which wanted pictures and a copy of my purchase receipt toevaluate the situation. I knew what the answer would be. Same as with theold Apex dinghy--screw you!!! Okay, shortening this up significantly, wesaw a flyer for a 3 year old dinghy with a 25 horse 4 stroke Yamaha for salefor US$5,500. Took a look and it was really nice--nicer than the old one,and pricing is like in Indonesia. To make a long story short we got it forUS$2,750 and the broker arranged to get our old one to Mercury to sell onconsignment.Well I've procrastinated some more, so this will be really long as we are now in Malaysia with still lots to tell about Singapore, but I'll try to be brief. Sometimes I feel like I'm showing home movies or slides after a dinner party putting everyone to sleep.One night we did the Night Safari at the Singapore zoo. It's a pretty cool deal where you can ride a tram around or use the walking trails to see nocturnal animals in their habitat. You don't want to buy dinner or the $12 beers there, but the free shows are nice. One was a bit tacky--a fire dance thing--which was pretty lame after the stuff we'd seen in the SouthPacific. The other was a "Creatures of the Night" thing with everything from some weird anteaters to birds to hyenas, fairly up close. Our other touristy things were a trip to Little India for Deepavali which is a Hindu festival of lights and a really big deal. They had it in Fiji when we were there too. One evening a bunch of us went off to Raffles Hotel for the infamous Singapore sling. The drinks are good. (In fact, that was what I'd treat myself to 40 years ago on spring vacation in Nassau, but that's another story) BUT--there's always a but--the bloody things were $26 each setting a new all time record for drink price paid by the captain. I had two. Followed that with a rickshaw ride to Clarke Quay which is the restaurant district and blew another boat load of money on martinis and tapas. Since we don't eat out that much, it was worth it, even if it was a bit extravagant.Singapore is also known for it's cheap electronics and they have huge buildings with nothing but computers, etc. My backup computer was in the process of dying and I had planned to get another laptop, using the existing computer at the helm for navigation--instead of running below every so often to check the charts. Caught up in the excitement of the newest technology, we bought a desk top computer, but the box is the size of a Webster's college dictionary. For US$650, it comes with 6 USB ports, 360 gig hard drive, 2 gig of memory, wireless keyboard and mouse, 20 inch screen and built in TV. Damn!!! How could anyone resist that deal. The bad news it had Vista, but it seems mainly to be just something to get used to with all the updates ironing out the bugs. Although it was a bit of a problem in some ways, eventually, we've gotten all out software to run. They have a tax rebate thing so we thought the thing would be 10% cheaper yet, but it turns out, outrageously & ridiculously, the rebate does not apply to departures by land or sea, only air. Got Joey a sweet laptop too, for about the same price.So we were there a month and spent the rest of the time chilling. Rose did acupuncture, Tim massages. Regularly went into town for lunch and shopping. Did the immigration visa extension, Rose toured the Bird Park. Who knows what else? That was last week. We did eat at the Marina the last night having avoided it because we thought it was expensive. Turns out it was very reasonable and excellent food. We'll know next time as we will return on our way to Western Malaysia next summer.After a bit of a confrontation with the prodigal, things did settle down. Getting off the boat was stressful for both of us, but at the end , we did a few movies together, met the friends they're staying with who had drinks on the boat followed by dinner at their place, and I had a final farewell dinner alone with the lad which was nice indeed. Joey, with Olivia's help, got the boat in pretty good shape as that side could have been characterized as the Black Hole of Calcutta. With a new paint job (thanks Olivia) and significant cleaning and moving of stuff off, we have tons of room for any of you who would like to visit. Towards the end, we're waiting with baited breath on news of Olivia's job interview with Chubb which looks good. Joe has a few prospects as well, but a major one just fell through which would have vaulted him to 1st mate on a 120 foot yacht. Captain wanted him, but the "manager" had, unbeknownst to the captain, already hired someone with a lot less experience. That would have jump started the lad's marine career.Okay, I've got to end this saga. We left Singapore at about 8 on Thursday the 13th. Joey was there as he has been doing day work on the boat next door. He actually got a little teary so I had to get out of there or I would have too. We've had our moments, but I'll miss him.CheersIt's only Tim & RoseP.S. I've probably left a bunch of stuff out and Rose is on a tour, so you might get more Singapore next leter.

Kumai River October 10 2008

Hello everyone.Well, it's pretty definite we'll be staying in SE Asia another year. Why, you might ask. Okay, I send a copy of my witty repartee to my broker. Mainly it's to let him know where the money is going. About 18 months ago he actually called me to chastise me for my wanton spending and reckless disregard for the state of my account. Now all this was done in a good natured fashion, but he explained that he couldn't increase my account if I kept spending all the gains he, and he alone, was responsible for. Now, this should give you a pretty good idea of the pittance the wicked witch left me. I don't need the tens or hundreds of thousands the rest of you are wastrelling away. No country clubs for Tim. No sirree!! No Mercedes; no Harleys (you know who you are); no vacation homes, etc., etc., etc. So anyway, normally, he, who shall henceforth be known as Dr. Doom, responds with a nice, but brief email back--"sounds like fun"; "I've been there. did you go to such and such" which is normally a 5 star resort which is protected from people like me by laser guided missiles and a small private army. Actually it's really nice, because most of you don't acknowledge my existence, and it's good to know my correspondence isn't lost in cyberspace somewhere. BUT, last letter, no niceties. All I get back is "market crashing, worst ever, another 1929". This ran on for a page. The only thing missing at the end was "have a nice day". So--curious to know if I needed to start looking for a tall building to jump off of, I emailed back asking how my account was doing. What I got back was "you still have enough for beer and gas". You might think that is good news for someone with as modest tastes as I--that is until you remember I drink Jack Daniels. So we can't afford to go anywhere else!!!You might have noted the more cheery attitude in this letter from the last several. Of course, you have or will. Normally, I'm writing these underway at 4 in the morning motoring away at $7 gallon for diesel. This takes the edge off a bit. Not today. Yes, I am writing this on my "late" watch, but it is 10 pm to midnight. Yes, we now have four crew and I, the captain, set the watch schedule so I'm not on again until 6. Hah, rank hath its privilege. We are also actually sailing. Not hugely fast but we're only going about 300 miles and are in no hurry to get there. Peaceful, quiet and $15 hour cheaper!! Finally, my spirits were buoyed this morning by a conversation I overheard on the VHF radio from a very nice Aussie chap to one of his mates. Since we've literally been up the river in Borneo without internet, we are woefully uninformed about the state of world affairs. Anyway, Dave, the Aussie, was bemoaning the state of the Aussie dollar at US$.64. Now I've got nothing against Australians and I do feel a bit bad for them, but the 9 months we spent there, the damn thing was hitting new highs all the time and peaked out at about $.96. Okay, bad luck for us, but the Oz press rubbed our noses in it. "$ hits new high". "$ expected to exceed parity in '09". "How low can US$ go", etc. That was another reason to stay in good old cheap Asia!!After my last missive, we had a minor change in plans. The weather was right, and there was no real reason to stop at Bawean Island on the way to Borneo, so we skipped it. Passing by we threaded, literally, our way through a large fleet of local fishing boats and actually had to call an oil tanker to remind him we were out there and were a sailing vessel he was supposed to yield to. You see, from here on out we'll be in really busy shipping lanes right up through the Malacca straits. Takes a bit of the boredom out of the late night watches when you need to worry about 100,000 ton tankers. Rose also saw a rather large sea snake en route.Our destination was Kumai, 15 miles up the Kumai river on the Indonesia (southern) part of Borneo, which is something like the third largest island in the world. Adding a bit of humor, or humour, if you like, to the trip was the ongoing story of Aqua Magic, redubbed Aqua Tragic. These are the guys that ran aground in Oz and then, that night, when finally anchoring, the guy almost cut his fingers off on the wind generator. Yes, it's dangerous out here. Then a bit later they ran into another boat while trying to anchor. So they were ahead of us when we hear on the radio another plea for help as they had run aground again at the river mouth. We couldn't help as one of our engines was out, but, as we passed the green buoy marking the channel, we noted they were almost on the beach. Seems they just followed the range markers in until they hit sand instead of taking a right at the buoy. After that, we figured these people are jinxes and everyone has gone to some length to avoid getting too close to them!!!Our trip up the river, which is quite shallow, was uneventful, and other boats already there gave us the lay of the land. It's too bad, but this was the antithesis of Lovina--no beach, dry town, no restaurants for 15 miles, likewise (ouch) massages. But, Kumai is the starting off point for an "African Queen" trip up the river to a nature reserve for orangutans which are only remaining in Borneo and Sumatra and are in danger of extinction through loss of habitat. Adi, one of two "go to" guys here in Kumai arranged for Rose and me to take a slow boat 40 or 50k up the river to the reserves for 3 days, 2 nights. When we got back the plan was for Joey and Olivia to do a trip. That way, we didn't have to leave the boat or the cat unattended, although part of Adi's service does provide a boat sitter. This was Wednesday and the trip was set for Saturday.Wednesday happened to be the end of Ramadan, so the mosques were going full tilt and we just hung out. Our friends on Scot Free II came over for dinner, and we planned to hit town the next day and, Jerry, who's handy, said he's take a look at the engine. Town was a total bust except we were able to get some totally outstanding fireworks. I'm talking Chicago 4th of July quality. Seems with the end of Ramadan, everyone takes off, so almost nothing, including the internet cafes, was open. No grocery store either. Now I'm a little hazy on timing of the rest here, but somewhere in there that afternoon, but I think the next day--life is hell when you're getting Alzheimer's--Jerry took a look at the engine which, by now, had miraculously decided to run. My engine rooms are so filthy, however, he insisted on spending 3 hours cleaning that one out before looking at the thing. Good deal for me, but we never did figure out what was wrong. We did fix a few other minor things down there. Unfortunately, Joey and I think he sprayed water into one of the alternators which froze up an blew a belt when I was up the river. All fixed now.In addition, before getting into the river trip, my ten year old shower sump float switch finally bit the dust. Not noteworthy you say. Yes it is, I say. Every other one has been replaced at least once, and I find it amazing that the one that has had the most use lasted the longest!!! We also had the windlass (the big winch we use to raise and lower the anchor) go into runaway down, feeding out almost all our chain before we got to the circuit breaker. Defective microswitch in the foot switch now also fixed. Probably got drowned in the massive rains we're having here. Finally, the thermostat, we think, on the fridge has packed it in. The compressor still runs and it's cooling, but we have to shut it down manually. Well, overall, we've been pretty lucky this year. We've put about 7 or 8,000 miles under the keel with very little problems.Now for the rest--I know this one is getting a bit long. Picture a double deck African Queen. The boat is about 40 feet long and 8, yes, 8 feet wide. The "crew" deck, and there are 3 crew, captain, cook and guide, has about 3 feet of head room and includes the wheelhouse and a galley, such as it is. The passenger deck above that is open in the back with the front half covered with a blue poly tarp canopy. Two deck chairs, plastic but with cushions are provided as are a "day bed" kind of thing to sit on under the canopy as well as lumpy mattresses and full mosquito netting for nighttime. We are in the land of Dengue fever and Malaria, after all. The piece de resistance is the head. This consists of a roughly 3 foot square platform hung on the stern with 4 foot walls and a toilet that flushed directly into the river by dumping a bucket of river water in it. It got pretty amusing when every time Rose went to the head one of the crew would come out to fish or do something back there. Most of the boats had showers using river water; our boat had a bucket. Power plant is a one lunger diesel. No electric lights so it's pretty much bedtime at dark after dinner. This was really roughing it, but it added to the ambience of the whole thing up river in the jungle, etc. Food was surprisingly good and frequent with morning and afternoon tea as well as three hot meals.The trip up to Camp Leaky, named after a biologist, which is the main orangutan research station is about 5 hours. Until the river branches off, the main channel is pretty disgusting from runoff from mines; the branch with the apes is much cleaner and the distinction at the actual river branch is striking. The channel is only about 40 feet wide so you see all sorts of monkeys, birds and snakes; we also saw a small croc sunning and a giant one swimming. Did I mention they discourage human swimming here? So we arrived in time for the afternoon feeding and were lucky enough to see Tom--yes, stupid name--who is the alpha male. The orangs are pretty tame or at least used to humans so you get pretty close and it's fascinating to see these very smart creatures in the wild. Rose, the next day, actually saw one of the females take the keys to the feeding room from one ranger, give them to another and then lead him by the hand to the door to unlock it.The 3 day, 2 night trip, in true Indonesian fashion, is very leisurely with lots of downtime so it's a really nice forced relaxation with lots of reading and sleep. The first night we just went back down the river and tied up to shore. Surprisingly, the bugs weren't bad at all, but they're just now going into the rainy season. There's a lot of walking involved so Rose hit the sack at about 7:30 and I followed shortly as there was no way to read outside the netting. Next morning was back to a different feeding station at Camp Leaky and a really interesting documentary on this specific area and group of orangutans in their information office. A leisurely trip down the river and lunch left us at a 3rd feeding station which Tim skipped, but Rose enjoyed with the female and the ranger thing.That night we stayed at another feeding area and rafted up to another boat that carried some friends, and another boat or two showed up later. No partying though as this is a highly Muslim area and they discourage drinking on the boats. At sundown, we saw a huge troop of monkeys, just 50 meters across the river settling in for the night. the next morning was another hike to a feeding station which started out as a bust until one of the guides pulled out an apple and got a baby to come down for it. I should mention, it's bloody hot here, almost unbearable in the sun, so these walks are no mean feat. I've even been running the air conditioning on the boat during the heat of the afternoon. (some of you know how I hate to run the A/C) Next was lunch, meant to be followed by a visit to a local village--this looked a bit hokey as we're up this remote river and the village had a big arch thing and welcome sign. Then we were supposed to do another feeding station and then back to the boat. Well, at 1 it started pissing rain so we canned the hokey village and last feeding. Seen one ape, seen 'em all!!. Got back about 4pm, and immediately took nice showers.Joe and Olivia had opted for a cheaper but less action packed, one day only speed boat trip up to the park for the next day and loved it. They just didn't get the African Queen thing. Of course, Olivia had never heard of the African Queen anyway. The next couple of days were fixing all that stuff I mentioned and finally getting to a grocery store. Oh, and there was the 5 mile walk to find the "local" internet place. It's too long a story to go into here, but the 1 k they said it was turned into several miles and the place was closed. Hot, no shade--I'm lucky to be alive!!! A really nice local family sort of took us in, gave us some snacks and water and then a ride back to the waterfront on motorbikes. I think that's the only way I did survive that experience.The final day was supposed to be a big all day freebie tour and dinner. But, we have been misled before, and, while I was smart enough to opt out, Rose went in. I was going to meet her for the FREE dinner, but found none of the transport runs after 5 and this was in the town 15 miles away. Worked out okay as Rose turned up at about 5, not wanting to sit around waiting for dinner until 8 and listening to more speeches in Indonesian.Okay, I know this is a long one, but I've been pretty good lately. We left about 6 this morning and with a falling tide made 10 knots down to the river mouth. We planned on taking 2 days for this trip, but have actually been getting some decent wind so, if it's okay to make a night landfall. we might get there tomorrow around early evening. "There" is Belitung. a large island between Sumatra and Borneo. We have no idea if we'll luck out with another Lovina or be roughing it in another Kumai. It's the last rally stop and about 300 miles to Singapore.CheersTim, Rose, Joe & OliviaP.S. I really did shorten this up. there's lots more to tell but no room.

More Gili & Bali September 29 2008

Heaven, I'm in heaven, da da da da da dahhh. Ah, show tunes, something for every occasion!! We have just left Lovina on the north coast of Bali which is truly cruisers' heaven. When Rose and I walked around I kept saying I'm never leaving!!! Boat boys for $1.50/day to take garbage, run errands and haul the dinghy in and out of the water, $1.50 LARGE beers, $3 Jack Daniels, full meals for 4 for $25--inc. cocktails; $6 massages. BUT, more on this later. We left you in Benoa on the South side of Bali just after Rose's arrival.Joe and Olivia returned from the wedding in Singapore and loved it there. They plan to depart the boat there and seek gainful employment. Why two basically broke people would pick one of the most expensive places in the world to live is beyond me, but it will be nice to have the boat back to myself and Rose. The good news is they were able to find such American necessities such as Velveeta cheese and A1 Sauce and brought some back--at my expense, of course. Have to admit Joey was thoughtful and generous enough to buy me a bottle of duty free JD.They arived back on the 5th of September but we didn't get out of there until the 11th waiting to clear a watermaker pump in from customs. I had received a box of mail and a bit of "stuff" from Lizzie through FedEx and it cost me about $35 to clear in a $50 declared value. Well the pump was $1,200 and I wasn't about to pay the same percentage ($700) on that. Indonesia, it seems, doesn't have a "yacht in transit" exclusion like the rest of the world. Fortunately, DHL called first, unlike FedEx, and didn't just automatically accept the customs duty. Anyway, what with the language barrier and island time here, it took 2 weeks to get the package out of customs and $100 more to a clearing agent. AND, guess what? Wrong pump!!! All is now well, however--knock on wood--as that was a spare anyway, and the company is sending the proper one to their Singapore agent for us with another watermaker part we do desperately need. I was able to get my new table top--solid teak. 3/4" thick for $90!!! Installed and finished it. Looks great, but between that and the stop gap in OZ, we've got about $1,000 into that new table. Okay, that's what solid teak would have cost me in Oz anyway.After clearing the pump, we're outta there to head back to )what we then believed was paradise, since we hadn't yet experienced Lovina) Gili Air (which I'm sure you all recall from our last letter!!??). Because of the huge, permanent southbound current, one of the guys told us the best way to go was to sail 12 miles to Lemborgan, a resort island off Benoa and leave there the next day on the ebb tide. This minimizes the current and it worked. We averaged about 7 knots on the trip north. We didn't go ashore at Lemborgan, but it was interesting watching the mini cruise ships pull in and attach to their private barges which were like a floating "Water World" complete with water slides and swimming pools.So, off we went to Gili Air with much anticipation, but we found it too crowded with other rally boats to anchor there. Oh, did we mention that the "Around the World Rally" pulled into Benoa as we were leaving? Saw a few more of them going down the channel. It's a big bucks 14 month deal and they really hold the peoples' hands. I guess you get what you pay for, as our rally certainly isn't so caring!!! Anyway, we scooted over the mile or two to Lombok where the official rally stuff was going on with the intention to sneak back over to Gili when boats started leaving. Couldn't find a place there either, but our friends on Scot Free II finally took pity and called to ask if we wanted to raft up to them for the night. Found a spot of our own the next day, but it was really nice of those guys to help us out. We did take a nice tour for $40 for all day with a guide and air conditioned car to the nearby town of Mataram, weaving and woodcarving places and a stop in the mountains to see and feed the almost tame monkeys. As with each stop, there was an official dinner, this time at the local country club. Should be good, right? Wrong!! Joe and Olivia wisely opted out of the 15 minute ride over for the dinner. Even keeping in mind that it was Ramadan, this was the worst. We had to get there about 4:30pm--about the peak of daily heat, and there was no shade. The venue was on the country club grounds but was just woven mats on the ground. We listened to speeches starting at 5, got a bit of water (no booze or even beer as it was Ramadan and a Moslem island), then "dinner" at 6:30 consisting of rice, fried bananas and some ground up something with chickpeas. Unanimously considered the worst event by far by everyone!!The next day, I think, we took off for Gili Air. It looked as though we were going to have to go elsewhere again but a guy, as we were driving around, tipped us off to a sunken mooring off the small wharf there. Luckily, we found it and spent the next few days there, getting massages, shopping and eating out. We've found in Indonesia, it is so cheap to go out, it makes no sense eating our expensive ships stores. Anyway, very meaningfully, the captain passed his tenth anniversary of living on the boat. Yes folks, hard to believe, but it was September 15, 1998 that Tammy and I flew to Capetown and spent our first night on Rendezvous Cay.Luckily, for some reason which escapes me now, we decided to leave Gili the next day for Lovina, about 70 miles away. Good thing we did as I was already nervous about the mooring so close to the concrete wharf and, apparently, the wind came up and several boats dragged their moorings and one even broke loose and went aground (fortunately it was on the rising tide and locals were able to pull him off) Yes, I'd rather be lucky than good!!! We took off with nice wind and were really moving along across the channel until we hit the north coast of Bali and lost our wind in the lee of the island. Nothing new, we've been motoring alot and expected to.We arrived in Lovina late afternoon, and it was a big anchorage with good holding in a sand bottom. There were probably 30 boats already there including many of the old faces. At the peak there must have been 80 boats. Anyway, as I said, everything was great about the place. Even laundry was cheap. The official dinner here was at a real restaurant, and, because Bali is 80% Hindu, we were able to get beer and wine and had a really nice sit-down dinner including suckling pig!!! Every night there has been some sort of traditional entertainment on the beach. Last night someone on the VHF announced that Robin Gibbs of the BeeGees was going to be playing at one of the bars. The old farts on Rendezvous decided to take a pass as the 9 pm start time was way to close to bed time. The younger crew,I don't think, even know who the BeeGees were!!?? Neither did they attend.Since we really didn't do any touring in Benoa, Rose and I decided to hire a car and driver--$35/day--to go to Ubud, the arts and crafts center of Bali, and on down to Serengan just north of Benoa where I needed to get some exhaust hose. Yes, Lovina wasn't quite heaven as the starboard side exhaust hose developed a leak. Now I just know you're dying to hear about this so I'm going to elaborate. This is big wire reinforced, fire proof 4 inch diameter hose through which goes exhaust gases and cooling water. Apparently when it curves like ours, the abrasive exhaust gases wear away the lining of the hose exposing the wires which rust, spring apart and poke holes in the hose. This is not good!!! So the only place on the island to get new hose is back down where we just were. The only problem is the guys couldn't find the stuff in Bali for less that $120/meter about double the US retail price. To make a long story short, he was going to try to source it in Jakarta so I left the hose to make sure we got the right thing. Well the guy on Java wanted him to take 40 meters of the stuff so we ended up paying the $120 plus a $20 handling charge plus a $20 delivery charge and the stuff was no good--wouldn't bend without kinking. So, with the advice of some friends we bypassed the water lock and used the hose remaining down there. We just have to keep an eye on it when the engine is off so water does not siphon back into the engine.So, Rose and I had a great time in Ubud. there's a shop 'til you drop crafts market as well as a million stores and we bought all sorts of junk from a cylinder with a spring on it that makes the sound of thunder to carved boxes to leather "shadow" puppets. We found a hotel for $40/night, got the best massage I've had in years if not the best ever (sorry Oleg) and had a great dinner out. We even found a Mojito happy hour place with the real thing for 2 for $5 until 7. The next day we had our included breakfast, and Rose was back at the market buying more stuff, then we piled into the car to check out the silver district and head down to Serengan (which I already covered although we did run into several more rally folks down there and had a nice chat). Koman, our driver, used to be a silversmith so Rose wanted him to show us the ropes. First we went to a high end place with amazing and expensive stuff. Hah, that's not us. Off we go down a bunch of back streets to a place that sells sterling by weight. Yeah, Rose bought a bunch. Really nice chain and some other gifty stuff. Next stop was to get some babi guling which is a local dish consisting of all parts of roast suckling pig. The pork part was okay, but the rest was pretty disgusting like blood sausage. Rose was enthused, the captain was not. A nice scenic drive got us back through the mountains to Lovina. One town on the way actually charged to go through it and at the public toilet, a little kid kept yelling "you pay me". Cost $.20 to take a leak. the area is quite well known for its scenery as well as its aggressive residents!!!Well, it's now 5:30 am on the 29th, and, as usual, I'm writing on the late watch. We're on our way to Kumai, but let me finish first with Lovina. Shopping there was also great, and we got a bunch of clothes--Hawaiian shirts for $7, etc. Found a place with JD for only $30 and local spirits could be had for $7 liter--not bad either. All is not perfect. Besides the exhaust hose, we have a leak in the dinghy somewhere and just can't find it. Unfortunately, this had dire consequences and my worst dinghy nightmares were realized. Joey and I had the thing hauled up hanging by the main halyard to soap it down to look for the leak. Bang, the shackle opened up, the side of the dinghy hit the back deck and there it was upside down in the water!! Shit. Fire drill to get it up. Hosed it down with fresh water and ran it for at least 45 minutes. Okay, maybe we got lucky. Nah. On the way in later that morning, it stopped running and wouldn't start; the boat boys couldn't find a mechanic; we're screwed. Nope. Scot Free once again saved the day and introduced us to one of the local fixers. I figured water got in the fuel and was right as captains must always be. Anyway, he found a guy who took off the carb, cleaned it, got new fuel, changed the plugs and fuel filters--all for $35. Joey insists it runs better now than in months!!!So right now we're almost to Bawean island about half way to the Kumai river on Borneo. We'll stop a day or two before completing this leg. At Kumai, we'll hire a small river boat and do an overnight trip African Queen style up the river to the orangutan conservation area. Looking forward to that and then we're off to the final Indonesian venue and check out at Belitung on the way to Singapore. Will report on all that next time.CheersTim, Rose, Joe & Olivia

Gili & Bali Septemeber 4 2008

Hello all.

We left you on the way to Gili Air amid variable winds, calm seas, and sunny days. We arrived about noon on the 18th, and we got the last mooring in the bay; everyone promptly took naps. Our French friend, Francois, who we had met in Noumea was there, having sailed up from Benoa, Bali. We dinghied by to say hello on the way in to dinner. Unfortunately, it was dark and all these guys on shore kept saying no--we never did find out why--every place we tried to land the dinghy, so we finally just turned around and ate on the boat. Oh, and a few cocktails.

Next day, Olivia was a bit hungover, so Joe and I finally managed to get ashore and reconnoiter. Scattered around the anchorage were a few restaurants and bars and a hotel as well as a ferry dock. The real action was around the corner to the east where the beach was lined with small hotels, restaurants, bars and dive shops. Everything was pretty much open air, and the beach was sprinkled with raised covered platforms, loaded with pillows and tables for drinks and food. There were also a few empty platforms that were used by the massage people. R80,000, about $8, for an hour massage!! While I availed myself of massage services, Joe headed back to the boat and the paramour. I think that was the longest they'd been separated since she came on board!!! The plan was to meet later for lunch after my massage.

So the massage was good, but I had to negotiate for extra time as my masseuse quit after about 40 minutes. A helpful vendor explained they don't wear watches, so I offered a reduced fee, but had to settle for undressing again for another 20 minutes. Olivia was going to get a massage as well until I mentioned that this woman had gone so far up my thigh I thought I was getting a hand job. I guess that image was so distressing to Olivia that even the prospect of a different massager was out of the question. Her loss!!!

Lunch was an event. First of all, Joey had been rubbing it in that in Labuan Bajo, he had had a real kosher dog for lunch. The real thing--just like the place back home. Well, they had the same dogs here, and they were great. (unfortunately, in spite of a concerted search in every store since then, we have been unable to find them) While enjoying this culinary treat, we were accosted by the innumerable "street" vendors working the beach. Joey and Olivia bought a carved box and a sarong; the captain bought gifts to lavish upon Rose, including pearls, shirts, and sarongs. Between lunch and the goodies, we must have spent $75!!! We're loving Indonesia! Captain had a nap and the lovebirds did some beach time. That evening we were invited over to Francois's boat for cocktails. His daughter was in from Paris and his girlfriend was off in Poland. He lives, by the way, in Australia. Dinner ashore for 3 with drinks was $15!!! We took a $3 horse cart ride back to the dinghy--no motorized vehicles on this island.

The next day we did a repeat except Joey just dropped me ashore. The masseuse wasn't there yet so I had a $1.50 breakfast before my massage. Lunch and a nap is about all I remember of the rest of the afternoon. A few other rally boats had pulled in and we ran into them for dinner. Although we had planned on staying a few more days, it seemed everyone was heading to Benoa on Bali (where we are now) so we left in the morning to try to beat the crowd and get some dock space. The marina there doesn't take reservations--1st come, 1st served. No problem, as we planned to return on the way to Bali's north shore to meet up with the rally in mid-September.

The trip down was great fun. This particular strait has southbound current all the time, some times reaching 6 knots. We cruised down the 55 miles in no time at all the while dodging local boats and even catching a nice mahi. We averaged about 11 knots. Pulling in, we spotted our friend Mike on Good News who was anchored out among the fishing boats. He had gone straight from Alor to Bali. No room in the marina which was pretty ratty, anyway, and tiny for a major port and tourist destination. Big tidal flows swung the boats quite a bit so it took a couple of days and a few reanchorings to get things set right. Mike and I took off to hit an ATM as I needed cash for fuel the next day, and we roused the sleeping beauties on our return for happy hour on Mike's boat. After way too many cocktails, we headed into the marina (unlike the water based stuff, the shore facilities were really nice) for dinner. Dinner for 4 with cocktails including JD, was $26!!!! Are you eating your hearts out. The only better prices I've heard are from our friend Paddy who sold his boat in Bundy and is now the proud owner of a catamaran in Isla Marguerita, Venezuela where beers are $.50 and diesel at the pump is 5 cents a liter!!!!

This is getting quite long, so let me summarize a bit. We had Mike over for dinner to eat the mahi that night. The next few days we checked the place out. It is very well developed, and besides cheap eats, taxis are almost free, the marina has wifi, there is a huge Sam's Club type place called Makro, there's a Carre Four--French department store, and less than $1 DVD's ( the way that works is the nominal price is $1, but they give you 4 or 5 for every 10 you buy.) so far, I think we've got about 100 or so!!! Quality can be spotty, but who cares for $1 each. Every corner boasts a KFC and there's even A & W Root Beer places. I mustn't forget to mention that the McDonalds here are open 24 hours and deliver. That's right, McD's delivers. if we end here over the weekend, we're going to have to try that!!!

Well, it was getting to be countdown time for the crew to head to Singapore for the wedding, and Rose's arrival two days later. I wanted to, once again, do the cockpit table as I was wholly dissatisfied with what got done in Sydney. So, in addition to last minute shopping, we went on a mission to find teak--this time I planned a slightly smaller solid teak top. Our driver, like, it seems, all Indonesians, spoke just enough English to be confused and confusing. Our teak odyssey took us to his "friends" who could supply any building material--except teak, that is, back alleys and 2 or 3 false starts before we finally just told him to stop at one of the many furniture stores on the main road. Managed to buy 2cm by 120 cm by 69 cm solid teak, custom cut for $85. Would have been $1000 in Sydney. Installed, finished and looking good as I write this.

Forgot to mention that Mike had to go to Australia on business and asked us--Joey, really--to look after his boat. He has a household refrigerator on board, and, as a result, has to run his generator 24/7. The anchorage here has a good bit of grass floating around so poor Mike is constantly going over the side to unclog his cooling water intakes and needed someone to do that for him. Joey swears something brushed him while he was under the boat and then promptly took off for Singapore leaving me to look after the situation. Fortunately, Mike was returning the next day and the generator didn't crap out until he had just arrived back. I kept a close watch on the discharge though to make sure it was running. If it had clogged he has another one I could have turned on so I really wasn't too worried about diving on it.

With a few days of free time on my hands, I was finally able to solve my haulout problem which has been a major concern for the last month. Whether we decide to cross the Indian Ocean or stay in SE Asia another season, we need to haul the boat and repaint the bottom as well as do some underwater maintenance. It's going on 2 years. To make a long story short, none of the comms for places we're stopping in the next 6 months were working and there just aren't that many places that can haul a 50 foot cat. After much frustration, unanswered calls, and returned emails, the guys at the Langkawi yacht club tipped me off to a yard in Penang, Malaysia, one of the rally stops, and they can do the work. And to top it all off, their estimate is a fraction of what I've been paying in the western world.

So a couple of days later, the lovely Rose arrived, and she wasn't lying. She's back to herself. We have been shopping everywhere, spent a leisurely Sunday getting his and her massages and lunch and dined on Mike's boat before he took off in search of cleaner water. In spite of our futile efforts to keep the boat a bit clean, Rose has found it disgusting and has been filling up her non shopping time with cleaning while I worked on the cockpit table. It's great having her back especially since she's now the "real" Rose!!!!

Finally, the crew returns tomorrow, Fri, 9/5, and I would like to head back up to Gili Air. This, of course, will cause some consternation on the part of the crew who, I'm sure, would like to explore the delights here more thoroughly. The point may be moot as I am waiting for the return of my Passport as I needed to extend my visa, as well as waiting for delivery of a spare water maker pump, the import of which has been a nightmare trying to avoid to 60% duty. As it stands today, Thursday at 3 PM, I'm not getting a good feeling that either issue will be resolved tomorrow, so we'll probably be here over the weekend. Eh, maybe brunch and another massage on Sunday--could be worse!!! Will let you know next time.

Cheers

Tim & Rose

Komodo & Environs August 17 2008

Hi everybody.

I am once again writing at sea. This time, we are making a 210 mile passage from Komodo island to Gili Air, a small resort island 55 miles NE of Bali.

I have been chastised about my last couple of letters for not mentioning we caught a very nice and large mahi mahi on the way from Kupang to Alor. I was also reminded that Joey almost single-handedly saved 6 boats which were dragging in Kupang and another 3 in Alor while their owners were off on tours.

The watermaker remains a problem, but it is limping along. The plan is to try to get the titanium head open and repaired in Bali. If not, we can get a new one flown in there. But, we arrived without incident in Labuan Bajo mid morning about a week ago. We tried to figure out where in the town to anchor, but nothing looked that good so we headed over a mile or 2 away to an adjacent bay we had been tipped off about. Turns out it's where the rally goes when they arrive here in September, and the small hotel there welcomed us with open arms as they are hosts for that venue.

The town, itself, is not much to see with tons of fishing boats and the usual single street of shops that seem to all be mini department stores. However, this is a tourist center for the Komodos and dragon watching, so there are quite a few nice small hotels about as well as some good restaurants. Several of the yachties we talked to recommended the Lounge which had just opened and was owned by a guy from Bali and his wife. It was sort of an eclectic menu with vegetarian stuff, pizza and Mexican. Good though and they had several very reasonably priced libations using the local Arak, best described as lighter fluid like schnapps. We had tons of food and several cocktails for the huge sum of $42 for the 3 of us. I think that day I also had a massage and, while in typical Indonesian fashion, the arrangements got screwed up, it eventually came off for $10 for an hour. The hotel even lent us a room at no charge. The guy was blind and I asked around since we'd seen a few "blind massage" signs in town, and it seems this is one of the ways they rehabilitate blind people and give them a source of income. Good massage.

The hotel arranged our outing to Rinca where it is easier to see the dragons than Komodo, itself. We had, for the three of us, the choice of going by "speed boat" for about $500 or "local boat" for $170. The main difference was a 45 minute boat ride versus a 2 hour ride. We took the cheap deal in spite of Olivia's concerns about noise--as I mentioned they take off the mufflers. Turned out to be okay. So for that, the hotel takes you to town to the boat at around 7--we initially went to the wrong dock, the trip over and back with a crew of two, a personal guide, a parks guide, all fees except some conservation fee, lunch and snorkeling on the way home. The deal was awesome. Right off there were a few dragons in the camp where you start the walk. The guides carry big Y shaped sticks in case the lizards get feisty, and you do about a 5 kilometer walk through the park. Apparently they have cobras and pit vipers there too, but we didn't see any. Saw several dragons including one chowing down on a deer's head. They even kill water buffalo because their bite is so full of bacteria, the animal dies after about a week and the dragon just follows it around until dead. These things get to be about 8 feet long so they just kill smaller stuff outright. After the trek and a beer at the "cafe", we headed back to the boat and "dined" aboard. It was actually pretty good with a noodle dish and small snappers in some kind of sauce. After that, they took us to a small island for snorkeling but the water was too cold for me--about 80, I'd guess, plus I forgot to pack my bathing suit. The crew liked it and got some good pics. We arrived back at the dock around 4:30 and the hotel car was waiting for us.

Our return was interesting. We knew it would be low tide and, while the tides aren't huge here--a meter or so--the depth is very gradual and we tried to avoid the dinghy being high and dry by setting an anchor so, hopefully, the boat would float out with the tide. Nah!! Looked like we needed to drag the thing--it's heavy folks--at least 100 yards to even get the bottom damp. Someone--Joey, I think, came up with the idea of using bamboo driftwood as rollers. This actually worked and a couple of little local kids watched and then helped. J & O later returned and gave them a gift of paper and pens we had picked up in Kupang for just such a purpose.

I had wanted to leave two days later as we had our night on the town and laundry planned for the next day, but the lovebirds wanted a romantic interlude at a new hotel there. The reason to get going is the 17th, celebrated on Monday, the 18th, is Indonesia's independence day, and we wanted to be somewhere for the celebrations. The logistics, though dictated we leave 1st thing in the morning which didn't fit with a romantic breakfast in bed. So once again, I compromised. They got back about 9, and we left for Komodo island, itself, about 25 miles away, just to get us closer to Gili Air with a plan to leave at the crack of dawn Sunday, arriving late AM, early PM Monday, still in time for the festivities. As has become the rule, we motored most of the way. Fuel is starting to become a concern, but I think we have enough to get us to Bali. They were out of fuel at Labuan Bajo!!! Such is the third world. Anyway, when we arrived at Komodo, there was Monashee, a Voyage type boat, built before Voyage bought the molds. It's owned by an older couple, South African, I think, we met in Port Vila. They said we were the first yachties they'd seen in 10 months. They skipped Oz and have been up in Papua New Guinea and the Louisiades. J & O dinghied over, chatted and swapped books. They're heading to Singapore for some surgery for the guy and some other mysterious personal business. They're probably white slavers or something. Over the last week we've also run into another few boats we've seen before. One is Interlude, a 74 foot Deerfoot we saw in Tonga, and a couple others from Sydney and other more recent stops. Most of those guys are on the Eastern leg of this rally (we're on the Western leg) which starts earlier and goes up into the Moluccas. Several of the eastern stops were cancelled, so these guys just pushed on ahead like us. They're supposed to join up with the western rally around Bali.

So, we left at the crack of dawn yesterday and conditions have been a little strange. The weather, itself has been great, but we left motor sailing then the wind kicked up to 30 knots and we reefed down, then it died, then up again, shaking out the reef, and now 5AM Monday, it's back down to where we need to add the iron spinnaker to make decent time. Need to charge the batteries anyway.

More from Gil Air and Bali. I just know you can't wait.
Cheers
Tim, Joe & Olivia

Kupang & Alor August 9 2008

Hi everybody.

We're underway again. We have left Alor for the Komodo Island group--yes, where they have the dragons--about 300 miles west--half way to Bali. It's been an interesting time in Indonesia. Prepare to be enlightened.

This is a predominantly Muslim country of about 240 million. They don't seem to take it too seriously, though, as most of our feasts have had pork dishes, at least beer and often harder stuff is readily available and they love to sing and dance--all things forbidden by the strict fundamentalists. Oh, and, of course, we're loving the muezzine, the call to prayer five times a day--especially the one at full volume at 4:30 AM. Speaking of volume, they love it loud here. In Kupang, they did karioke at 1,000 decibels until about 5 every morning; they take the mufflers off all the boats, and the muzak in the "mall" requires ear protection for us westerners. The people are super friendly and helpful in everything from directions to actually taking you somewhere. The language barrier isn't too bad, but can be frustrating as we get farther away from civilization. This is a country with a paperwork nightmare, but they love you to use your own official stamp as they require multiple copies of everything. Check ins included quarantine, customs, immigration and the harbor master each with their own requirements--none consistent with the other. Actually, we were all technically impounded and had these big stickers placed on the side of the boat by customs. Seems that Raymond, the Indonesian organizer, is hated by customs, because he went around them to get a security bond waived for the fleet. It took an extra $5 and until our last day in Kupang to get it squared away with, of course, a ton more paperwork and the grease!!!

In Kupang, a pretty big city, maybe 80,000, there were all sorts of activities for us cruisers arranged by the ministry of tourism which is a cosponsor of the rally. We had cheap tours, traditional dance shows and a bunch of meals all at no or minimal cost. Unfortunately some of the concessionaires running the dinghy service(no dock so they pulled it up on the beach and relaunched for you), laundry and fueling were a bit greedy. For instance, fuel at the pump is 6,000 rupiahs/liter--these "entrepreneurs" were asking about 15,000. For reference, US$1 is about 9,000 rupiahs. So, of course we cheap cruisers created some major drama about that. Marco, a true entepreneur, was offering it at 7,500/liter. To make a long story short, the "in" crowd finally beat the crap out of him for undercutting them, but they finally dropped the price to meet his. Unfortunately, Marco also loved to drink which led to some rather unamusing misunderstandings, but, in the end, everyone pretty much got the fuel they needed at a reasonable price.

We were actually the first rally boat over the line which doesn't mean much since everyone motored the whole way, but the local officials awarded that honor to a boat that was in Kupang before the rally even started and wasn't a participant.--such is Indonesia. The boat that won the "best dressed" at the start wasn't half as nicely done as Rendezvous, but we left an hour late and don't think they even saw us. Joey is totally pissed off and ranted for 2 days about it. Our arrival was the 29th, a day before my bday, and Joey had seen to it that everyone coming in for the next 2 days wished me a good one. There was a distinctive lack of gifts and drinks, though--these guys are really cheap!!! But, we did manage to party a bit at Teddy's bar on the day itself. Of course this was the "new" Teddy's because he had been evicted by the local authorities from his old "right on the beach" bar in favor of some politician's nephew or something. Our only real concern was the cheap giant 2,300 rupiah beers kept coming, and Alan, Teddy's partner, managed to dig up some bourbon for the occasion.

The next day was another real treat of boats dragging. By now, of course, there're 120 boats in the anchorage. In spite of our verbal pleas to leave their windlasses powered up and keys in the ignitions, some of the yahoos took off on all day tours and did, in fact, drag without these things done. Some of these people are just nuts in addition to being cheapskates, but most are really great guys. Lots of Aussies, a fair amount of Yanks, with a sprinkling of Kiwis, Dutch, South Africans, French, Swiss(they seem to be universally cheap and shitheads)(I'm not bigoted, just observant), Canadians and Scandinavians. Lots of little cliques, but we love everyone!!! Another day, the old Teddy's bar had a TV setup for a rugby game between the Wallabees (Oz) and All Blacks (world cup winners from NZ).that particular afternoon. Some of us who attended managed to forget about dinner and paid the price the next day.

The day after rugby, I took a $15 all day tour. Woke up a bit under the weather, but I thought it was from all the smoke in the air. Indonesians love to burn stuff and the air is like LA. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a full blown summer cold--more on that later. Anyway, the tour was amazing. The buses, while not air-conditioned were modern, and we even had a copilot, sort of. We started out at this musical instrument maker that is 40 plus strings on a bamboo core with a palm sort of echo chamber around half the outside. The guy did some traditional music, and we had the obligatory dancing with that, but, then, he did a bit of Clapton and Dylan and it sounded just like an electric guitar. Really amazing. They also had some goofy hats with like a swan neck sticking up and a sort of flat brim and crown. Too goofy to buy, but I was tempted. Next we hit an uninteresting WW II memorial dedicated to the OZ troops that liberated Timor, followed by a local market with the usual junk.

The last stop, though, was truly unbelievable.

Flash bulletin. While I've been writing this, we had to replace the water maker pump. The newer one developed a small leak at one of the valve caps. The yahoo who worked on it in Sydney used locktite or something and nothing we tried could get the cap off to check the valve or o ring or whatever was leaking. No problem. We have a spare pump and bronze head. After a few hours work, the engine room crew put the spare in and commissioned it. Everything looked good until about 5 minutes ago when we were congratulating our foresight sitting in the cockpit and the spare pump went nuts!!! If we can't fix it or the other one, we'll have to go directly to Bali and hope to get repairs or a new head there. I know I can a new one flown in, but they are super expensive AND I don't think the new pumps fit exactly the same way. In any case, this sucks.

Back to the tour. We had to drive way out into the hinterlands to a "sacred lake" for a ceremony and, as it turned out, lunch. This was miles off paved roads and the track was lined with flags every 2 feet to mark our route--1,000s of them which must have taken an army to put in. When we finally got to the lake, we disembarked and there were at least 1,000 people there to greet us with a "portable" musical thing and dancers to escort us to the festivities. Really felt like royalty. Just incredible. Then we had the obligatory speeches, traditional dancing in which were participants, and then lunch. That night was another free dinner with entertainment and speeches which I actually left early as the cold was coming on full strength. We had planned to leave for Alor, our next stop 130 miles NNE of Kupang the next day, but I was really feeling bad. We hung out the next day and Joe and olivia hit the Chemist for cold pills and cheap antibiotics as my supply was running low. Don't need a prescription for much here in Indonesia.

So--Tuesday the 5th, off we go. We left about 11 because there are strong tidal currents and flow between islands and you have to time your transits to take advantage of flow in the direction you want to go. The captain was still unwell and actually had a 101 degree temp so he was relieved of most watches, but, gallantly, still stood about 5 hours watch. Moving here near the equator is weird. This is the latitudes typically called the doldrums. We had great weather, and about 25 knots of wind when we left. We were worried about hitting one of these passes too early. Sadly, after only a few miles the wind shifted to 5 knots on the nose, and we, along with everyone else, motored the rest of the way. Oh and there was a 2 knot current against us all the way that they had neglected to mention to us. One positive note was the totally incompetent and unhelpful Aussie contingent of Sail Indonesia were now replaced with Indonesians who could actually do something. We did manage to hit the pass into Alor just right and arrived about 7AM on the 6th. Had another bunch of paperwork but nothing as bad as Kupang and sat around all afternoon at the Ad Hoc beach bar with Mike off Good News, who is singlehanding his Fontaine Pajot 56 foot cat. Beers were only 2,000 for a giant and 1,200 for a regular size at Alor and we felt we needed to show our appreciation for the price reduction.

That afternoon and next day about 50 boats pulled in and it's a really small anchorage. Yesterday, the wind kicked up just a little and we had more dragging anchors drama. Some people just won't learn, but fortunately we have held so far. There've been more tours--we didn't go, and more free dinners and entertainment--we are really being treated well. The fuel cost was even lower than the ultimate deal at Kupang, and we didn't even have to negotiate. So Alor is a bit small, and it was crowded so we decided to leave today for the Komodo group to check out the dragons. Several others left today but aren't going quite so far. With us needing to get to Bali around the 25th to temporarily get rid of the crew and get Rose back aboard, we just decided a straight shot to Komodo which is about halfway, would be better than day hopping like we did in Australia. Of course, now that plan may be in the tank if we can't get the watermaker repaired.

So, there you have it. Up to the minute reports on the fate of Rendezvous Cay. The trials and tribulations of world cruising. Equipment problems, boats dragging, fuel drama, boat impoundments, the entire exciting story to date

More later
Cheers
Tim, Joe & Olivia

Darwin to Kupang July 30 2008

Hi everyone,

We've arrived in Kupang. Although it doesn't mean much, because everybody motored, we were the 1st boat across the line. The 500 mile crossing was very easy with light wind and clear skies. Feels like we are finally back in the true tropics--meaning you don't need a fleece when you get up in the morning. We did have one interesting thing happen on the way. What must have been a giant squid squirted our boat with ink. I say giant as the ink was voluminous and reached all the way across half the boat and up to the cabin top, an area about 15 feet by 20 feet. No fish caught, but we hooked a few big ones that got away. I did manage to reflect that it used to be a huge deal to cross Lake Michigan, a sail of about 100 miles and now 500 miles is like falling off a log.

Right now some huge drama is going on . Our friends on Oz just pulled in, and they seem to be a bit unlucky One of the other boats hit him while anchoring in Seisia, and, now, the customs boat has dragged and almost hit him. He moved but after that, the boat just in front and to the left of us started dragging and no one was on board. There's 120 boats in here so this is a big deal. On the radio, we called on the fleet to assist us so everyone's over there now and other calls are coming in about other boats dragging. It'll all get sorted without damages, but the drama adds a little spice to the day.

The other drama going on relates to checking in here. Seems the Indonesian guy in charge of this rally is feuding with customs. There's some reg about a customs bond, and Raymond supposedly got this waived for all of us. Not really!!! We are all technically impounded with a 18" square sticker in indonesian on one of the windows. No one knows anything, but it seems its just a local political dispute on island time. In the meantime, Kupang is a welcome relief after the last 3 year of high costs. Giant beers are about $2.50 and a huge meal about $3.00. Fuel is only about $.75/liter, but there's even drama about that one faction is officially offering it at double that so you have to do a deal under the table. Joey bought a new pump pellet rifle for $28!!!! The town itself is a bit dirty and run down, but that's what we expected. We haven't been out to the new shopping area yet, but have time to explore as we're scheduled here for another few days and still need to sort out the impoundment issue.

More later. Wanted to bring everyone up to date on the phone and our arrival.
Tim, Joe and Olivia.

Darwin July 26 2008

Well, I'm writing this tale of Darwin at 5AM on watch as we make our 500 mile passage across the Timor Sea to Kupang, Indonesia. Our stay in Darwin was quite pleasant with pretty much perfect weather--80's days and high 60's nights with a nice breeze. Our arrival was noneventful and there was plenty of room in the anchorage which was nice as you have to use tons of chain, because the tides are as much as 25 feet. Some guys (Scorpedo from Seattle)we had celebrated St Patrick's day with on that Irish boat in Sydney dinghied by just as we got the hook down. Filled us in on the protocol and what was going on. So, ready for some civilization, we dropped the dinghy and headed to shore. The crew wanted to check out the city--nice size at about 80,000, and the captain wanted to check out happy hour at the Sailing club, unofficial HQ for the rally.

So I was having a beer and chatting with a guy whose wife was off in the states when a PA announcement was made that a dinghy was awash down on the beach--no dinghy docks here due to the height of the tides. As I prayed it wasn't mine they mentioned it was the tender to Rendezvous. SHIT!! To make a long story short,it was totally flooded, but a couple of guys helped me get it afloat and bailed out. Unbelievably, it started. Thank God I have a gel cell battery, and I got back to the boat and got the bilge pump working. Anyway,what happens is, with the large tides, if there's an on-shore breeze, some pretty good waves can build up and wash into the boat. We solved the problem later on with, at first, anchoring a ways out and using the kayak to get to the beach and then, after somebody clued us in, using the club's boat trolleys to put the dinghy on dry land.

The next day was Sunday, an action packed day. First, because the city proper is a $12 cab ride away, we knew we'd need a car and headed to town. Nothing available, even through the tourist office which books those kinds of things. Seems there was some car race going on. Okay, back to the boat and then, later in the day a long walk away towards town was a famous market with the usual tourist goodies, tons of food and entertainment. Actually, the walk wasn't too bad as Joey packed a few beers in his backpack. Unbelievably, you can't buy beer at the market. I managed to find a Chinese massage place and had the full treatment. Before we hit the market, I tried the same trick on cars I used in Sydney. A quick check of the internet (which we finally had back on board) got us a car first thing Monday. Unfortunately, rates here are about double those in Sydney, but a cab ride or three pretty much makes up most of the expense.

Monday was also action packed. We got the car first and then hit Aussie customs. It's necessary to "pre checkout" for the rally, then off to the Indonesian consulate to surrender our passports to get visas--that takes four days. Tons of boats came in over the weekend so we thought we'd be waiting around in lines, but we hit both offices just right and avoided a lot of wasted time. Then it was the grocery and generally checking out Darwin which is a really nice size--big enough to have all the amenities and small enough not to have traffic problems and other big city hassles. We also dropped off the tridata (speed, depth and odometer) at the Ray Marine dealer. It had crapped out on the way to Darwin.

Until Saturday, our time was spent generally checking things out and socializing at the Club. Thrown in there was learning the tridata was irreparable. Seems, the yahoos in NZ who charged me $350 to replace the screen had stripped the screws on the back allowing water to get in, cooking the electronics. A new one here would be over $800, but good old Port Supply came through again, delivering a new one to Darwin for $550. Complaints to Ray Marine Asia, HQ'ed here in Sydney fell on deaf ears, but I did get an apology. So Saturday AM is another, more traditional market with veggies, etc., just up the road from the club, and it was on the way to the camper van place where Joey and Olivia needed to go to get the vehicle they were using to visit Kakadu National park--yes, boat to myself. So we did that and they took off until Thursday. Of course, earlier in the week we went out to the airport to get our duty free booze--getting the paperwork for that is one of the reasons you see customs 2 weeks before you leave. We ordered massive quantities of booze and purchased wine at Woolworth's, because Indonesia in Muslim and it's hard to get anything but beer there.

I'm sure they thought I would pine away on the boat. No way. Another boat, the guys from Windbird, who are American, heard the casino had a good and cheap, breakfast buffet, so Sunday we, including their Canadian buddies off Scot Free II, headed over. It was pretty good but not as cheap as we'd heard. Undaunted, we decided to stop at the beach where they hold the Sunday markets as the famous "Beer Can Regatta" was being held. This is a real deal where they make boats out of empty beer cans and then race around. There was only one beer tent (better than the normal Sunday market with none) so Jerry (off Scot Free) and I found a couple if comfortable chairs in the shade and let the rest of them report on the festivities. there were thousands of people and this is an important annual event in Darwin. Okay, enough of that. People had stuff to do on their boats, so, about 1 or so, we headed back to the club. It was a hot day so we decided to have a beer before returning. Oops. Too late now to get anything done, so we decided, wisely, to walk down to the Darwin Ski Club, a bar on the beach about halfway to the market. Well, anyway, I think we got back to our boats about 8:30. No work was done. In fact I think not too much got done on Monday either.

The rest of the week, I carefully timed my trips ashore with the tides as the trolley was a multiperson job. Managed to inventory and clear out the foodstuffs on the boat in preparation for the trip to Indonesia which is 3rd world with limited availability of stuff. Also replaced, as my package arrived, the broken running light. Idiot that I am, though, I ordered a "starboard, that's the red one" LED bulb. Unfortunately, the starboard light is green. The proper bulb never did arrive, so the club, at no expense, is going to sent it to Lizzie for forwarding to me. Seems one can only safely receive mail via FedEx in Indonesia and I think the club's largesse doesn't go that far.

So the kids returned Thursday and there was an unofficial BBQ for the rally. They were too tired--wimps--and opted out, but it was a nice affair. Somewhere in here we got a mechanic out to, once again, repair the alternator bracket and a few other things. Seemed to know what they were doing, and the dinghy is running the best it has in years. Unfortunately--- Nah, you'll have to read on for that..

That Saturday was the official Rally BBQ, and we actually got free beer, too. I ate with the adults, and the crew was off at a children's table somewhere. Was able to pick up a bunch of software and a new small USB GPS for a good price that one of the boats was selling. As usual, installing it was a 2 hour mission which I finally resolved, not with a right click but a system restore and just plugging the damn thing in--a one minute install. Seems I already had the necessary drivers and trying to install over them messed up everything.

Almost done!! Our last week was spent provisioning, a pre rally all day meeting and last minute cleaning storing and repairs. We loaded up with about $700 or $800 of food. primarily meat, especially pork and chicken breasts as it's a 3d world Muslim country. I have no idea what these cultures do with white meat, but it ain't easy to find. The spare freezer was cranked up for the first time in a year or two--and works!!!! We even found some room for ice cream. The pre rally meeting, like just about everything else about this rally, was disorganized and generally uninformative. The main Indonesian guy didn't make it (which made for interesting rumors about him stealing the business and up to Oz immigration problems). The daily nets and the meeting were run by two Aussies who don't seem to have a clue. There was some good info there, however, as the Sail Malaysia people were interesting and well informed. They represent a follow on rally from Singapore up the Malacca straits to Langkawi, about 100 miles south of Phuket, Thailand, the traditional jumping off point for crossing the Indian Ocean. Also very good was a guy from Brunei, who talked about off season cruising on that side of SE Asia. We may have to rethink things about leaving in January for the Med and cruise a full year here in the land of good food and cheap marinas. It'll be a welcome relief after the last three years of expensive countries and a weakening US$. Thank you, George. (Joey managed to find an interesting T shirt. On the front is a picture of a chick in a bikini and another of George. The caption is "good bush, bad bush". We are amused!!) i also got my spare head pumps and manged to change one out which hadn't been flushing properly. Yes, cruising is so romantic.

Thursday we fueled up, and the duty free price wasn't too bad, relatively speaking, that is. We paid $1.33 a liter. Friday, we did last minute provisioning and had to check out. Oh, and customs called me on Thursday to return my "firearms" These, you'll recall, were my BB guns and a slingshot. Anyway, they were returned promptly Fri AM and in excellent condition, They put a seal over the locker where I stored them!!!. Check out was for 130 boats at the sailing club, but when we returned the line was gone, and we breezed right through. The customs chick mentioned I was the guy with firearms which I had to correct with a laugh and pointed to the guy next to me. He also protested as he got his spear gun confiscated because it used compressed air!!! Did a last night happy hour with our friends off Windbird and Scot Free as well as a couple other boats, and made it an early night for the big start at 11 Sat on the ebbing tide. Because there is a prize for the "best dressed" boat, Joey, once again, pulled out all our flags and the blow up sheep in an effort to win. Apparently, although it was again poorly communicated, they'll judge at the start line. I insisted it not interfere with raising the sails.

Sat AM, We cranked up the engines to charge up the batteries and it sounded like a belt was loose. Nope. More drama. The guys had stripped the bolt that holds the alternator to the engine when they fixed the wobbling. Well, these guys, I learned on Friday, charged me $100/hour to work on the boat, which is the most expensive rate in the world, so I immediately got on their emergency numbers(it was Sat), got the women who called about my bill, and informed her I would bounce the entire bill on my credit card if she didn't get someone out to tap and thread a new bolt hole. So our mechanic--not the one who fouled it up--called, and I explained what the problem was and to bring the right stuff. While waiting for him, I needed to attend to some mail issues at the club and search for a hose fitting for our propane system which failed earlier that week. So Nafa, the Egyptian shows up about 9, works on the problem, insists it's everything but the bolt until finally, at 10, he informs me he needs to go to the shop to get the right tools and drill something out there. Now we're pissed because the start is in an hour, and it's already ten, and he says he'll be gone an hour. We finally got off at about 11:30 at the very back of the pack, so we don't know if all of Joey's work has gone to waste.

Bringing you right up to date, it's now the morning of the 27th, one day out and we have had light winds and been motor sailing. For some reason, the port engine decided not to start in the middle of the night, but, this AM, after jiggling some wires, we've got it running.

We don't hear much from most of you and would like to hear what is going on in the real world, so an email or two once in a while would be nice!!!

More on the rest of the trip and Kupang in our next missive. In the meantime
Cheers
Tim, Joe & Olivia

Through the Gulf & onto Darwin July 14 2008

Hi Everyone.

Well, we left you a week ago across the Gulf of Carpentaria in Seisia waiting for good weather to cross over to Gove, our first real taste of civilization since Cooktown. So the social scene picked up as the weather improved, and the nightly happy hour/BBQ started up again with the prime subject being when to leave and cross the Gulf. There were high (30 knot) winds and big (4 meter) seas over on the other side, and it was none too pleasant where we were. We were able to connect periodically to our wifi provider, and the weather was expected to moderate Tuesday and Wednesday for sure, Finally, everybody decided to wait for Wed. to be sure of calmer weather on the other side, 350 miles away. Some were even considering waiting until Thursday, but we shoved off first thing Wed to very light wind and calm seas, but we still needed to get through a patch of sandbanks called the Endeavour Strait and get out there. We didn't have much fuel, and we were worried about the light air as we really couldn't motor all the way. As it turned out, all the boats, 16 in all, took off that morning, some for Cape Wessel, north of Gove and the rest to Gove. After swearing that we should have left Tuesday and gotten good wind, it kicked up, and we had a riotous ride for the next day and a half with 25-30 knot wind and 4 meter seas which did diminish on Thursday. All of it was coming from behind us, so it wasn't too bad. Some of the smaller boats actually set record times and came in shortly after we did on Friday morning. We caught a big Spanish Mackerel on the way among some smaller throw back tunas. The Aussies patrol the Gulf heavily and we heard radio traffic on a warship checking yachts, and we had not one, but two, flybys by Australian Coast Watch planes asking our destination, and other info.

So we hit Gove, a major bauxite exporting port with a small town, at 8:30 Friday morning. Over the next couple of days, the remaining Seisia fleet arrived as well as a bunch of boats that had gone a bit south from Seisia to supposedly get a better angle on the wind--probably 25 boats in all. There's a nice yacht club in Gove Harbor that welcomes yachties, has free BBQs and cheap drinks, so happy hour was reconstituted with the big subject of discussion, once again, when everyone was leaving to go through the dreaded Hole In The Wall(HW). HW is a 45 meter wide pass between the Wessel Islands on the way to Darwin. It cuts about 100 miles off the trip, but had a tidal flow of 10 knots so you have to hit it just right to avoid getting killed by the current. Many boats have left today and will anchor close to HW and go through tomorrow. The tides are only right at late afternoon. We had planned on staying here for a few more days as there is a big party at the yacht club Monday--which is also Joey's birthday, and Tuesday is Territory day and you can buy and set of fireworks. Unfortunately, the tides are not going to cooperate, so we'll leave Tuesday AM for the 45 mile run north to the pass. We will go through about 5PM and there is a nice anchorage just the other side. We think we can squeak by on the fuel we have until Darwin, so they'll be no motoring, After that, it's an overnight sail to get closer to Darwin and then a few day hops.

The little town of Nunguuliguy, or something like that, is very small and about a 20 minute cab ride away, but we are glad to have a modicum of civilization with a strong cell and wifi signal and a Woolworth's grocery store, one of the big chains here. I wanted to get some beer here for what seems to be becoming a regular happy hour event on the beach, but you actually need to get a permit to buy takeaway alcohol. We're in indigenous people (the politically correct expression for aborigines) country, and I guess they're like American Indians and have a tendency to abuse booze. Of course, however, to be politically correct, they can't just discriminate against the Abos with this permit nonsense so everyone has to do it. It is a big deal with your picture taken and an official document which can be revoked for any number of reasons like buying booze for someone without a permit. It's free, just took a while as we had to tack someone down on a Saturday and go to the courthouse to get it

Most everyone left by the 30th, Joey's, and, by coincidence, one of the big chiefs, birthdays. There was supposed to be a huge party at the yacht club with free food and booze so off we went about 4. No free drinks but, about 7, we finally got some food. We got firsthand experience as to why they limit abo alcohol. Many drunks--they actually had a paddy wagon and cops on hand, and one drooled all over my leg. We're not talking just a little--reminded me of that early Saturday Night Live routine with drool cups. Eeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww.

We decide to leave the next day and also to get some fuel "just in case" as we found out it really wasn't too expensive. However, it turned out that way as we had a hell of a time geting off the dock and managed to destroy a running light and wreck one of the life rings and holders. The freighter behind us even tried to help by taking a line and trying to pull us off (that's when we broke stuff), but finally, we had to take down the dinghy and drag the anchor out at a 45 degree angle and then use the windlass to pull out the bow. That being done we had a nice sail up to the pass where, if you don't time it right, the current can run 8-10 knots against you. Conventional wisdom (I won't bore you with the details) said to go through about 5:30 pm that day and, at the beginning, while a bit rough, the current was modest. Remember, this pass saves about 100 miles, but has the crrent problem because it's really narrow!!! But it's only about 1/2 mile long. So anyway, we got into the middle, and the calculations were off or something, because our speed kept dropping and dropping and dropping. Pretty soon, we're making about 2 knots with both engines full on, and I'm thinking we'll be going backward soon, which is not a good thing!! Okay, well that was the worst of it, and we survived, but it was a bit nervewracking.

We had the anchorage just beyond the pass to ourselves, and the plan was to get an early start, sail about 150 miles overnight, and end up at a place called Malay Bay which the guide said was a good spot. Following that, we had another "strait" to go through before hitting Cape Don, the embarkation point for Darwin. We had a great sail, but Malay Bay was very windy and we could see we'd be bucking around all night. Okay, go to plan B. On the morning radio net (everyone involved gets on the radio to share information at a fixed time each day) a couple of people had mentioned the SW corner of the island forming the strait (Point David) had a decent anchorage just past the pearl farms on that end. We confirmed that with some other boats headed that way, and, since it was only 2 pm and only 15 miles, we decided to go for it. Now, pretend you're hearing the sound of the wrong answer buzzer on a game show. We cruised up and down, in and out, etc. for about an hour and couldn't find the place. We ended up going through the straight to a really nice anchorage at the north end. On the way, we managed to spy a sea gull standing on a turtle out in the middle of the water which was cool. Finally got the hook down about 7.

The next leg to Cape Don--the anchorage is Alcara Bay was a short one, and we were a bit worried about space as there were boats coming from everywhere to wait for the right conditions to head the 85 miles to Darwin. Fortunately, the bay is large as there were ultimately 20 boats in there. The deal is, because there are huge 20+ foot tides in Darwin, you want to have favorable flow. Remember the old movies about sailing "on the tide" Well that's not BS when they are that large, and the current can be a big help or a big hindrance. Once again, one relies on conventional wisdom for the departure. In our case, it was to leave about 5 hours before high tide in Darwin. Too bad for us this meant leaving a 3AM!!! This allegedly gives you good current leaving Alcara and good current arriving Darwin. Well, for once they were right!!! It's about 1/2 hour to get out of the anchorage and make a left to Darwin. We were motoring along with the main up doing about 7.5 knots when we hit the tidal flow and went up to about 14 knots for quite a while until the tide turned. We ended up in Darwin by 2 inspite of slowing down to about 6 knots when the tide went against us. We were happy to have that extra fuel as we, along with everyone else (15 boats left that night) all wanted to get there while it was still light and really were ready for some civilization.

I'll tell the tale of our very pleasant--so far--3 week stay in Darwin in my next letter.

In the meantime, I'm happy to report that miracles do happen. Rose is cured!!!! Many of the docs had told us it might just be something that the body will take care of on it's own and so, it seems, it was. I keep getting emails about drinking, long walks, and knot tying classes that were all out of the question 3 months ago. So the logistics are a bit difficult, and she can't return quite yet, but Rose is booked on a flight to Bali (how romantic!!!) coinciding her arrival with me having to be there to drop the crew off for a side trip to Singapore for a wedding. That's in about 6 weeks at the end of August. Yahoo!!!

Cheers 'til next time.

Tim, Joe & Olivia