by Judy Handley | Aug 26, 2008 | Indonesia Rinca to Lombok, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 109, Year 3: A Day in the Life
Date: Hari Selasa (Tuesday), Bulan Agustus 26, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: Beautiful Day with Dark Clouds and Rain Sprinkles in the Evening
Location: Labuan Bajo Eco-Village, Flores Island, Nusa Tengarra Province, Indonesia
It has been ages since we have had any rain. In fact, I’m not sure we have had rain since leaving Bundaberg and heading up the coast of Australia. What we are having this evening is just a few sprinkles, but it is a reminder that the rainy season sets in here in October and those perfectly blue skies might have to start sharing the space with a few rain clouds. Of course, by the first of October, we will be heading north to Borneo and I’m not sure what the weather there will be like.
We didn’t move on today. We decided to stay put and go back to Labuan Bajo to do a little fresh food shopping , to go to the internet, and most importantly to get some more money at the bank. Our little cadre of Scot Free, Safina, and Shirena (Tina only today) hopped on one of the local putt-putt boats and chugged away to town. These boats are wooden canoes with one cylinder diesel engines. They hand crank to start the motor and they use a bamboo pole to steer once they turn off the engine.
We got money, found fruits and vegetables to buy, and tried the internet. But is was sooooooooooo slow that it was really impossible to accomplish anything. Long ago we gave up trying to upload photos to the website, but now we can’t even check our land-based g-mail email account. Maybe Bali will be better, and if not, I’m hoping Singapore will have first-class internet. I’m not sure what it will be like in Malaysia and Thailand, so Singapore might be it until we either get to the Mediterranean
or to South Africa.
When you are sailing as we are, the other cruisers become your community. We don’t see each other often, but we do keep up with each other through the radio net each day. This morning we heard that Margaret of Aqua Magic has returned to her boat from a trip to either a doctor or the hospital. The net was not coming through very clearly today, so we are not sure what is wrong with her. But most certainly, she and Patrick have had a tough go of it in the past couple of months. First they landed
on a reef and then Patrick got his hand caught in his wind generator and broke a couple of fingers. Then they ran into another boat while anchoring. Then we heard that he had been sick and just a week ago, he got stung by a Portuguese Man of War. And now Margaret is sick. All I can do is be thankful that Mark and I have been relatively free of major health problems. Donna and Gerry on Scot Free II had a very bad, no good, horrible day today. They had diesel delivered to their boat early this
morning and somehow a five-gallon jug of diesel spilled on their deck and landed on their main cabin settee cushions by pouring in through an open port. Then this evening a Pepsi can exploded in Donna’s hand in the main cabin and spewed everywhere. And then to top it off, Gerry was cleaning the deck and salt water spilled on to the main cabin settee cushions through one of their mushroom vents. I think I would have lost my sense of humor much earlier in the day, but when we delivered some trip
planning information after dark tonight, everyone on Scot Free seemed to have settled into their day of bad luck.
Tomorrow morning we are all heading to Rinca Island. Rinca and Komodo are the two large islands in the Komodo group. Rinca (pronounced ‘rincha’) actually has more wildlife than Komodo, so we are going there first. We will first go to an anchorage where there is a Ranger Station and go on guided walks with a ranger to see the komodos. We will then move around to the south side of the island to an anchorage where we will reportedly see wildlife foraging on the beach. There will be komodo dragons,
wild boar, water buffalo, long-tailed Macaques, wild horses, Timor deer, and brahminy kite eagles soaring overhead. There are also some great snorkeling opportunities and we will make a stop at one small island on our way to Rinca tomorrow morning to see the underwater coral gardens. I think we are the only boat doing this, but we have become addicted to the beauty underwater.
by Judy Handley | Aug 25, 2008 | Indonesia Rinca to Lombok, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 108, Year 3: Arrival in Labuan Bajo
Date: Hari Senin (Monday), Bulan Agustus 25, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: Mostly No Wind with More Clouds Than Usual
Latitude: 08 degrees 31.019 minutes S
Longitude: 120 degrees 52.124 minutes E
Location: Labuan Bajo Eco-Village, Flores Island, Nusa Tengarra Province, Indonesia
We arrived in an anchorage about two kilometers from the town center of Labuan Bajo this afternoon. The ‘boat boys” were waiting for us when we arrived wanting to sell us solar (diesel), benzene (evidently this is unleaded petrol), pearls, komodo dragon carvings, and just about anything else you can think of. It is nice in one way to have people who will go get the things we need, but on the other hand it is a little wearing to always be descended upon as soon as you reach a destination. We ended
up hiring one of the boats to take us to the town of Labuan Bajo. It was late in the day, but we got to see the town and had dinner at the Hotel Gardena. Mark and I ordered the snapper hot plate and it was very, very good at a cost of $2 US. Not bad. Labuan Bajo is a crowded, dirty town. Lots of tourists come through here as this is a base for visiting the Komodo islands, but it is a shame that they only see this little segment of Flores. We found it so unremarkable that we have decided to
pull up anchor tomorrow and move on. We discovered tonight when we got back to the boat and paid for the diesel we ordered, plus the beer and Coke we had delivered, that we need more money. These millions of Rupiah just seem to slide right through our fingers.
We’ll talk to our traveling companions in the morning and inform them of our decision to move on. Not sure any of them will be with us tomorrow, but I’m sure they will be following in a couple of days. Within the next day or so, we should see our first Komodo dragons. Can’t wait.
by Judy Handley | Aug 24, 2008 | Indonesia Rinca to Lombok, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 107, Year 3: Moving Westward @ Forty Miles Per Day
Date: Hari Minggu (Sunday), Bulan Agustus 24, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: ESE to ENE Winds 10-15 Knots; Temps in the 80’s
Latitude: 08 degrees 16.696 minutes S
Longitude: 120 Degrees 24.579 minutes E
Location: Inca Village, Flores Island, Nusa Tengarra Province, Indonesia
Little by little, we are making our way to the west. We seem to average about 40 miles per day. We could actually go a little further each day, but the anchorage possibilities are just not there. So we inch westward. Today was a fantastic sailing day. We only had 10-15 knots of wind and it was behind us, so we first sailed wing and wing, and then we put out our asymmetrical spinnaker. Conditions were just perfect and we sailed faster than most other boats heading our way today. Now that in
itself is unusual. We couldn’t keep up with Shirena, and their Batavia 40 weighs less than half of Windbird’s weight. But we were right behind them even passing Safina which is a Jeanneau.40. So the captain is feeling pretty good tonight.
Tonight’s anchorage is just a stopping place, so we didn’t venture into town. We had read that Inca (prounouced ‘incha’) Village is half Muslim and half Catholic and that is obvious from the location of the mosque and the church. We had one visitor come out in a wooden canoe to practice his English and he was able to have a good conversation with Mark. Tomorrow we are heading to Eco Lodge resort near Labuan Bajo. We will be able to do our final provisioning in town and might even arrange a ‘pre’
trip to see the Komodo dragons. We talked to Tim on Rendezvous Cay today via our cell phone. He is now in Bali, and he recommended taking the resort’s trip to Rinca Island to see the Komodos. We will still sail down to Rinca, but we won’t have to stop in the anchorage where the Park Rangers are located if we do the ‘pre’ trip. Besides, this little trip stops at one of the most pristine marine park islands in the Komodos for an afternoon snorkel and that sounds fantastic. The little island is
far out of the way that we will be traveling, so this will be our chance to snorkel there. So onward another 45 miles tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Aug 23, 2008 | Indonesia Rinca to Lombok, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 106, Year 3: A Day in Riung
Date: Hari Sabtu (Saturday), Bulan Agustus 23, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: More Flores Sunshine
Location: Riung, Flores Island, Nusa Tengarra Province, Indonesia
The Portuguese named this island Cabo das Flores or ‘Cape of Flowers’ for its beautiful underwater coral gardens that looked to them like flowers. Today we went out to the offshore islands to see some of those gardens. We couldn’t get a guide because all were taken with a large group of Italian tourists, but we did find a nice patch of coral and enjoyed our snorkeling adventure. There are more than twenty-one little islands offshore but the government calls this the “Seventeen Islands Marine Park”
to tie in with the August 17 Independence Day. Whether seventeen or twenty-one, the little islands are beautiful. Safina, Shirena, and Windbird left the snorkeling island and stopped by another island with a beautiful white sand beach and some little thatch-roofed huts to have lunch in the shade. Scot Free continued snorkeling and then headed back to the anchorage. Donna’s underwater camera bit the dust today. Her camera is the same Olympus that we “had” but that bit the dust underwater at Kroko
Atoll. Unfortunately, this is Donna’s only camera and she is quite depressed. Her son, Klinton, who is sailing with them right now, does have a good camera and she still has a video camcorder, but like me, she loves taking her own pictures of wildlife. And since we are headed to the Komodos it is particularly upsetting not to have an underwater camera. The snorkeling there is supposed to be wonderful. Shirena has the same Olympus, so it looks like we are going to have to “hire” them to take
the underwater photos and share them with us.
Earlier in the day, before our snorkeling adventure, we took a walk through the Muslim Bugis stilt-house community to get some pictures and we were on our way into town to go an internet caf� and to the market. Klinton went ahead to scout things out and then called back on the portable VHF to let us know that everything in town was closed. Things here are open on Sunday, but not on Saturday. So we turned around and went back to the dock.
After returning from the snorkeling adventure, Donna and Gerry of Scot Free came over to talk about future travel plans. We all have to be checked out of Indonesia by the end of October because that is as long as the government will allow us to stay. There are so many wonderful things to see here but no way to see them all, so we constantly have to plan ahead and make those hard decisions about what is in and what is out. Mark spent the remainder of the afternoon fixing the pump that drains our
shower water and I did laundry. Riung has been a nice stop with a very calm anchorage, but we must move on tomorrow. We will go as far as we can make it toward the northwest tip of Flores and then in the next day or so, make our way down to Rinca Island in the Komodos.
by Judy Handley | Aug 22, 2008 | Indonesia Rinca to Lombok, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 105, Year 3: Mausambi Bay to Riung
Date: Hari Jumat (Friday), Bulan Agustus 22, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: More Flores Sunshine; Absolutely No Wind for Sailing
Latitude: 08 degrees 24.623 minutes S
Longitude: 121 degrees 01.692 minutes E
Location: Riung, Flores Island, Nusa Tengarra Province, Indonesia
There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to when the winds blow or from where they blow as we make our way west across the Indonesian Archipelago. Today there was very little wind, but what wind there was clocked around coming first from the south and then clocking around to the north and then back to the south. Regardless, we made it to our destination of Riung. As soon as we arrived, Mark went ashore with Robert of Shirena and Jean-Pierre of Safina to see if they could find “the Pastor.” We had
read an account that said this Polish man has lived here for 40 years and will cook dinner for you in his little restaurant in a hotel. We didn’t know what hotel, but when the guys walked into town, they realized that the word “hotel” was a bit of an exaggeration. This is a tiny little town compared to others we have visited and rough backpacker home stays are as good as it gets here. But they did find the right place. Unfortunately “the Pastor” was not there and with the language differences,
it was impossible to find out when he would return. Robert is from Poland and it would have been neat for him to meet this guy, but that wasn’t in the cards for today. Maybe tomorrow.
We are going to stay here for a day and see if we can find a guide to take us snorkeling tomorrow. We know there is wonderful snorkeling here in the out islands, but we don’t know which ones. So going with a guide would be a good thing.
We walked into town with Scott Free, Safina, and Shirena and got a glimpse of the homes near the harbor that stand on stilts to avoid the water at high tide. There are many interesting things here, so we will do a little more exploring tomorrow.
