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
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