by Judy Handley | Sep 26, 2008 | Indonesia Bali to Kalimantan, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 140, Year 3: Rough Night, Better Day
Date: Hari Kamis (Saturday), Bulan September 26, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: Winds SSE 25-30 Overnight, SE 10 All Day
Location: Second Day of Passage to Bawean Island, Indonesia
Justin and Jo survived the first night out, but it was a rough one for all of us. I slept from 10:00 pm to midnight and then stayed on watch until about 4:20 this morning, but unfortunately Mark got almost no sleep during that time. Once Justin and Jo came up to the cockpit, they were able to get a little sleep and Mark is sleeping today to make-up for last night and get ready for tonight. The seas and winds settled once the sun came up, but that is also the same time that we passed between some
islands about 70 miles from Bali and entered the Java Sea. So we don’t know if the change has caused the seas to settle and the winds to die down. We sailed with the spinnaker for a while this morning, but then the wind changed to be directly behind us and dropped to about 7 knots. On Windbird, that means motoring, so we have been motoring for the remainder of the day. The other issue is the heat. When we returned from Ubud, we felt a noticeable difference in temperature. It has been hot all
along, but it is now in the nineties with a rising humidity level. Down inside the boat is intolerable with a fan blowing directly on you. We stopped motoring mid-day long enough to take a quick dip in the ocean to cool off. That worked for a while, but before dinner, we will need to do that again. It is about 4:15 in the afternoon and the winds are already starting to build. In fact, since I started writing this log, the wind has gone from 10 knots to 15-20 and the seas are beginning to build.
So I guess we have our answer for tonight. It will probably be another rough one. Justin has sailed with us but never in rough weather, and Jo’s only sailboat experience was in the Caribbean on a catamaran. They are being real troupers, however, and trying to mellow into this unpredictable passage. Tomorrow we will arrive at Bawean Island and take a rest there before doing the overnight from there to Kurimanjawa. Mark had thought we might skip it but it looks like a nice stop. Little by little
we will get to Borneo, but we will enjoy our time along the way.
Well, I am resuming writing after an hour-long sail change exercise. Just as I wrote above that the winds were starting to build, they indeed did that and the increased winds are right behind us. So we are now sailing wing and wing with a reefed main sail and a half knot of current against us. We are averaging about five and half knots and if we can keep that up overnight, we will arrive at Bawean before noon tomorrow. It is unfortunate that we will arrive over a weekend as we have read that
the teacher there loves to have visiting yachties come to the school and interact with the students who are practicing their English. The villages on Bawean are Muslim fishing villages and other cruisers have reported that they are very friendly and have colorful fleets of fishing boats.
As we roll along into another sunset, Bali is becoming a memory, but a very special memory indeed. I will always carry with me the memory of shop keepers who so carefully place their offerings of flowers and fruits in front of their shops every morning. They do this with such love and devotion that it is hard not to be affected by their faith. The Hindu temples of Bali are just beautiful. They are everywhere and their beauty is hard to describe. The graceful hand movements of beautiful Balinese
dancers with long black hair and costumes of woven gold silk mixed with other vibrant colors is another vision that we carry with us, as are the intricate masks and costumes of other dancers. Bali is certainly a place like no other that we have visited and as we sail further and further away I wonder if I will ever visit another place so surreal and beautiful. It was so special to share our visit to Bali with Justin and Jo. They were also so taken with its beauty that they have dreams of moving
there. It is as different as night is from day from their desert home in New Mexico. What a wonderful world we live in with such diversity and beauty.
by Judy Handley | Sep 25, 2008 | Indonesia Bali to Kalimantan, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 139, Year 3: Ubud to Lovina and Out to Sea
Date: Hari Kamis (Thursday), Bulan September 25, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: Cloudy in South Bali; Sunny in the North; Winds SSE 25-30
Location: First Day of Passage to Bawean Island, Indonesia
It is 3:30 am here and I am on watch, so this will have to be short with promises of the full story tomorrow. Basically, we left Ubud before noon after doing just a little more shopping. When Komang came to get us, we left Justin and Jo to do the fun shopping and we went to the supermarket to get the things we need for our sail to Borneo. We then headed back to Lovina, where we did more grocery shopping and headed out to Windbird. We normally do our shopping for a long passage over a couple of days and it usually takes me a few hours to get fruits and veggies washed and put away. But we were all feeling like we might never be able to pull ourselves away from Bali, so we just pulled up anchor and left. Before sunset, we were headed northwest with no wind. I worked furiously trying to get things put away as well as cooking dinner, and as I did so, the boat motion changed from just a little bumpy to very rolly. As the evening progressed, the winds picked up to 25-30 knots and the seas are sloppy. We are having a not so pleasant trip at this point. It’s not terrible, but it is a harsh introduction for Justin for Jo. Neither of them could sleep in the v-berth as it is terribly hot and rolly. The front of the boat is the most uncomfortable, so they are now both trying to sleep in the cockpit. Mark is sleeping in the main salon in our sea berth and when he gets up, we will have Jo try that. In the meantime we are making great time and will be through a pass between two islands and into the Java Sea in early morning. If the kids think they can hang in there, we will continue to sail all day tomorrow and overnight tomorrow night to reach Bawean Island. If they feel they need a break, we can stop at one of the islands in the pass and rest before continuing. In any case, after staying a day in Bawean, we will head on to the Karimunjawa Islands north of Java. We are hoping to spend about four days there before traveling on to Borneo. But for now the goal is to just survive the night! I will write a more detailed log later today. Hopefully things will be calmer by that time. When the sun comes up the wind will probably go down to nothing, but I’m not sure what will happen with these sloppy seas. Sure hope that lay down as well and we have smooth sailing the rest of the way to Bawean.
by Judy Handley | Sep 24, 2008 | Indonesia Bali, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 138, Year 3: Great Second Day in Ubud
Date: Hari Rabu (Wednesday), Bulan September 24, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: Broken Record . . . Another Beautiful Day
Location: Ubud, BALI, Indonesia
Spending the extra day in Ubud is paying off. Justin and I are both feeling better and we all spent a nice, relaxing day enjoying the many things Ubud has to offer. Jo took a silver jewelry making class this morning and after three hours emerged with a beautiful ring that she created. Justin, Mark, and I had breakfast at a restaurant with wireless internet and sent yesterday’s log and checked email. We then walked up Monkey Forest Road to the center of town doing a little shopping on the way. The little shops are just full of tempting things that lure tourists through their doorways. Justin was particularly taken with the masks that are an integral part of the dances here. And I have totally changed my mind about Ubud. The first time I came I felt like I was in a busy, busy tourist trap. And it is that. But it is so much more. Being here allows you to start to feel why so many people have always thought of Bali as a very special place.
We met Jo for lunch on the main street after her class and then Justin and Jo went shopping and Mark and I went to a place called Threads of Life. It is a showcase for the beautiful weavings done by women all across Indonesia. They have done a nice job of acquiring the very finest weavings and displaying them as in a museum with descriptions of the whole process. Things that we have paid $30US for in the islands are $450US here, so we didn’t buy anything. We just enjoyed looking at the array of weavings from the different islands and surprised ourselves by realizing that we have learned a lot about Indonesian weaving in our travels. Justin and Jo spent the early afternoon shopping. They found a couple of masks that they just had to have and they picked up a few small items for Jo to take back and sell in her gallery. The problem is that she keeps buying things that she loves and she ends up wearing them, so the gallery might not end up with new items! We all met back at Ubud Terrace Bungalows and enjoyed an afternoon swim and rest before heading further south down Monkey Forest Road to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. We had read in the Lonely Planet that one of the three temples within the sanctuary has an “Indiana Jones feel to it” and we had to agree. The Temple of the Dead is a place where people are temporarily buried until it is time for the cremation ceremony and the entrance to the temple itself has these monstrous stone creatures eating children. That was creepy enough, but as you wind your way through the forest the scenery is surreal. There are huge banyan trees and what I call cathedral figs with roots hanging down to the ground from three stories above you. There are deep canyons where the dark spring waters run and huge rocks completely covered with green moss. And the huge stone carvings are everywhere. We all decided that Maurice Sendak must have visited Bali just before writing his children’s classic, “Where the Wild Things Are.” They are in Bali in the form of stone statues. And of course, I can’t forget the monkeys. There are long-tailed Macaques everywhere. They are very cheeky and will jump right on you if you have food in your hand. One little monkey grabbed the pocket of Justin’s shorts and even though there was no food there, he kept trying to put his hand in. They tell you to have nothing in your pockets as these little monkeys are great pick pockets. We especially enjoyed watching the baby monkeys interact with their mothers. They are just so cute.
Our choice of entertainment for the evening was one of the dance shows that Ubud offers. There are different dances here and each one tells a different story. There is Barong and Rangda, Legong, Jegog, and Kecak and fire dance. We chose to attend a Kecak Fire and Trance dance, and it was fantastic. About a hundred bare-chested men dressed in black and white checkered sarongs sit in a circle about three men deep and provide the chant that is the background “music” for the story. This circle of men has a tall tower of flaming candles in the center and the dances that tell the story are performed between the circle of men and candles.. The men represent the monkey army and chant for a full hour and a half. Their voices rise to a crescendo at various times during the dance and as they all stand and sit and sway and wave their hands in the air with fingers fluttering, all in unison. While this is happening, Prince Rama is trying to rescue his beautiful wife Sita who has been kidnapped by King Lanka. The costumes are phenomenal and the dancing graceful and beautiful. After the story has ended, the stage is cleared and a huge pile of coconut shells is lit. As it is flaming hot, a fire dancer enters and proceeds to kick the burning coconuts, walking on and among them. At the end, his feet were black but he showed no signs of actual burns. We left the Pura Dalem Taman Kaja (temple) in awe and then went for a late dinner at a restaurant called “Three Monkeys.” You enter from the street and go back to an outside terrace surrounded by rice fields right off Monkey Forest Road. We had another wonderful meal and are going to miss the culinary delights of Ubud.
I am finding it difficult to describe Bali adequately. It is just so different from anyplace we have been. The Bali style of Hinduism is fascinating and permeates life everywhere you look. Every morning fresh flowers and fruit are strewn about on sidewalks in the little woven temples that are everywhere. As you walk up steps from our bungalow to the street, the steps are adorned with flowers. Beautiful batik cottons and silks are draped everywhere and the surreal carvings are everywhere you look. Pictures don’t even convey this. I think you have to come to Bali to see for yourself.
by Judy Handley | Sep 23, 2008 | Indonesia Bali, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 137, Year 3: Recovering in Ubud
Date: Hari Selasa (Tuesday), Bulan September 23, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: Broken Record . . . Another Beautiful Day
Location: Lovina Beach, BALI, Indonesia
We got up this morning and Justin was worse than he was last night. He had not slept much and was miserable, but we decided to head on to Ubud and hope for a miraculous recovery. By the time we made it to Ubud, Justin was feeling so bad that we changed our plans. We were going to visit the wood carving village and walk in the Monkey Forest before lunch, but there was no way he could do that. So instead, we drove up Monkey Forest Road, found a place to eat lunch, and made the decision to stay here an extra day in hopes that he can recover. I am also feeling worse than I did a few days ago when I first got whatever it is we have. So an extra day of rest before we head out to sea sounded like a really good idea and Ubud is a nice place to just sit still and recover. Ubud’s streets are filled with galleries and stores selling everything you could ever want, but its saving grace is the array of wonderful, relaxing accommodations.
On our way to Ubud, we made a stop in a monkey forest to play with the little critters and then stopped at the temple on Lake Bratan where Mark and I had witnessed the beautiful Hindu ceremony on our way south last week. Our driver ended up to be another Komang, older than our other driver named Komang. He spoke very good English and was very helpful and patient with us. It was almost 1 o’clock when we reached Ubud and as I mentioned above, we went directly to have lunch. While we were waiting
for the food, I walked down the street to try and find a place to stay. Komang had mentioned the Ubud Terrace Bungalows, so I checked that out first. There was just a very small handmade sign on the street, but I stopped when I saw it and a gentleman immediately came up to me and asked if I was looking for a room. He invited me to follow him just a few feet away from busy Monkey Forest Road, and all of a sudden I was in a very nice garden with a great swimming pool in the center, all surrounded by rooms. He took me to a room right beside the pool and it was really very nice. It had a four-poster bed painted with intricate Indonesian designs, a brand new stone-tile floor, woven bamboo walls, and a bathroom with a bathtub and a shower. There was air-conditioning if needed, and it was just charming, all for the cost of $20US. It looked like a great place to recover by the pool, so I told the gentlemen I was interested. He said there was one more room on the other side of the pool that was available, but that those were the last two rooms available. I told him I had to check with others, but that we would return and have a look. On my way back to the street, I saw our Komang sitting near the street and told him I thought we had found our place to stay. When I got back to where we were having lunch, everyone thought the place sounded great, so as soon as Mark finished lunch, he headed down the street to pay for the rooms.
We swam and sat in the sun and the shade, and then Justin took a nap while Mark and I explored the area from where we are staying to the center of downtown. Jo took off in a different direction to check out the shopping and to make arrangements to attend a silver jewelry making class tomorrow morning. All of the energy that we had for going to dance performances tonight just slowly drifted away the closer we got to evening, so instead Justin and Jo walked a few doors down the street to get a massage.
When they returned we walked across the street to a great little restaurant for dinner. The food was really wonderful and as we ate, Justin and Jo told the story of their “$10” massages. The massage was an hour long and was great, but then they decided to spring for the after-massage treatments. Jo chose the tropical treatment which was to have honey rubbed over her body and Justin chose the tropical spice treatment which he described as being rubbed down with dirt. After the treatments were applied, they were both wrapped in sarongs and left for 30 minutes. Jo was put in a chair where she felt like she was at the hair dressers and Justin was lying on something like a board. It was so far from the romantic vision one might have of a Bali spa that Jo got uncontrollably ticked. It got even worse when Justin went in the shower to rinse the “dirt” off and found that only the scalding hot water would work-no cold. Jo’s bath was not in a plush bathtub but rather an old white tub. And then she was served papaya that way too ripe. You’d have to hear them tell the story to really appreciate it, but the bottom line is probably that a Balinese massage of the type you dream about is probably more expensive than $10.
Hopefully both Justin and I will feel better in the morning and we will have some energy to visit some of the galleries and dance shows. If not, we’ll just sit around the pool. We will return to Lovina the next morning, making stops at a fruit and vegetable market and the grocery store in Singaraja. Once we are stocked up, we will return to Windbird and sail away in the middle of the night. For now, however, we will just concentrate on feeling better.
by Judy Handley | Sep 22, 2008 | Indonesia Bali, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 136, Year 3: Lovely Day in Lovina
Date: Hari Senin (Monday), Bulan September 22, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: Broken Record . . . Another Beautiful Day
Location: Lovina Beach, BALI, Indonesia
Snorkeling, renewing oneself in the hot springs, visiting a Buddhist monastery, and having dinner at a Thai restaurant where you sit on cushioned platforms with your back against cushions and your feet stretched out in front of you on more cushions-tough day. Actually it was a really lovely day and my description of Lovina has gone from ‘nice’ to ‘lovely.”
Early in the day, Mark, Jo, and Justin went to shore to have a big breakfast and do some shopping. I stayed on the boat to cook, clean, and organize photos, but I’m afraid I didn’t get beyond cleaning. The black sand beach here seems to be moving aboard our boat, so I vacuumed, and vacuumed, and vacuumed some more. I even vacuumed the teak deck as it was starting to look like a sandbox. I made cheeseburgers for lunch and just when I was getting ready to work on photos, the gang arrived back home.
We decided to go snorkeling on the reef not far from here and again saw some beautiful fish. Today there were no fishermen anchored around the reef and there were a number of dinner-sized fish out trolling for their lunch. We then got ready to go ashore for a trip to the local hot springs called Air Panas Banjar and a visit to the Brahma Vihara Arama monastery. Mark had reserved a car and driver to take us, but Justin and Jo REALLY wanted us all to go on motor bikes. It appeared that there were no bikes left to rent, but Justin and Jo had a secret place and actually turned up with two bikes. One had a left rear-view mirror and the other had a right rear-view mirror. They were certainly not as nice and stable as the ones we had rented yesterday, but I took a deep breath and gave in. So off we went. We had to drive down the main highway about ten kilometers and then we turned to work our way up the mountain. The Air Pans Banjar hot springs are in a lovely tropical garden setting. There are two main pools, one with stone-carved figures from which the hot spring water pours in the first bath. This is the really hot pool. And then the water overflows into a second pool through the mouths of five more carved figures. There is a third pool where the water pours from a spout three meters over your head to give you a massage as it hits your body. Mark and I did not go into the pools today. We decided to sit this one out in the lovely restaurant that overlooks the pools, but Justin and Jo thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
By this time, the day was coming to an end, so we hopped on our bikes and headed three kilometers through the mountain-side villages to the Brahma Vihara Arama Buddhist monastery. The views of terraced rice fields and vineyards leading down to the sea were beautiful. We reached the monastery just in time to enjoy its beauty before the sun set. I had declared earlier in the afternoon that I would go on the bikes but that I would not ride home in the dark. But as we walked further and further in
to the monastery grounds, it became clear that we would be driving home in the dark. Again, I took a deep breath and just enjoyed the moment. There was one section of the monastery that is designed like a “mini” Borobudur. This is the huge and famous temple in Java. The part of this monastery designed like Borobudur is small, but beautiful. We watched the setting sun and beautiful views of the north coast of Bali, and finally tore ourselves away to head home. At first our ride was in twilight, but by the time we reached the main road, we were driving in complete darkness. Actually the ride was fine even though it was a little nerve-wracking in the dark.
Once back in Lovina Beach, Justin and Jo did a little shopping and then we went to the Jasmine restaurant for dinner. It was the perfect place to have dinner at the end of a beautifully mellow afternoon. Tomorrow morning we head back south to Ubud, the art and cultural center of Bali. I found it just way too busy for me the first time we visited, but others that have stayed overnight have found it to be a great place. There are some art galleries that all of us are interested in visited, so we
are going to give it another go. When we return here the following day, we will prepare to leave for Karimunjawa. These are islands north of the Java coast and they sound absolutely beautiful from the descriptions we have read. It will take us about three or four days to get there and we will spend about four days there. Then it will be time to head to Borneo to see the orangutans. Unfortunately, Justin now has the cold that Mark and I have had. So hopefully the passage time north and west to Karimunjawa will give him time to recuperate. Mark and I are on the mend, so that is a good thing.
by Judy Handley | Sep 21, 2008 | Indonesia Bali, Sailing Logs Year 3 |
Day 135, Year 3: Day Trip Across North Bali
Date: Hari Minggu (Sunday), Bulan S�pt�mber 21, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: Broken Record . . . Another Beautiful Day
Location: Lovina Beach, BALI, Indonesia
As Tina of Shirena said tonight when we returned to Lovina Beach, “The good karma just wasn’t with us today.” We went in for breakfast this morning which delayed our departure by half an hour, but we thought we would still have plenty of time for all of our planned activities. During breakfast, I asked Justin and Jo if they had ever ridden on motor bikes before. Jo had, Justin had not. Strike One. So that made me a bit nervous seeing as how driving here is not a sport for the faint-hearted. But I just kept quiet and after breakfast, Justin and Jo got on their motor bikes and all seemed fine. Tina, Robert, Mark, and I got in the car with Komang as our driver. It was the same car we had gone south in to pick up Justin and Jo, and Komang was our same driver. So all seemed perfect. However, we got about 2 kilometers down the road and the car stalled. We pulled off to the side and discovered that we were out of gas. Strike Two. Komang called and had a liter of petrol delivered to us, but we were already falling further behind schedule. We made it to the next town and got more petrol. So off we went again. We passed Justin and Jo who had stopped for a snack and continued through the rather large town of Seririt. Then all of a sudden we made a right turn when it looked like we should have gone straight. My “mother worry” kicked in and I was just sure that Justin and Jo would go straight and end up headed to south Bali. So we drove and I worried but said nothing. Then Komang asked if I would like to use his cell phone to call Justin to make sure they didn’t take the wrong turn. So I guess he was worried as well. But I declined, hoping all would be fine. After about an hour we reached our first destination of Pemuteran where the Lonely Planet said we would find “extensive, untouched coral reefs about 3km offshore, good snorkeling.” Strike Three. We paid a fortune in Indonesian Rupiahs to get a boat to take us out to the reef and there we found “touched” coral reefs with only mediocre snorkeling. The turquoise water was beautiful, but the snorkeling just was not. Either we weren’t in the right place or the things have changed drastically since the 2007 edition of the Indonesian Lonely Planet was written. So on we went. We had lunch at a little warung (tiny restaurant) and then headed further west to visit the national park. We made it about two kilometers when the car stalled again. This time it was the transmission and we were going nowhere. Strike Four. I guess we weren’t playing baseball today. Komang called home base and asked to have another car sent and then he took one of the motor bikes and went to find a mechanic. The mechanic came, assessed the situation, and drove off to get his tools. He returned with a plastic bag with a hammer in it, banged on the connection, and the transmission was temporarily up and running. He would drive the car slowly back to Lovina after our new car arrived. In the meantime, Justin and Jo drove their
bikes back to Pemuteran to visit the Reef Seen Turtle Project. This is an operation much like the one we visited on Gili Meno where baby turtles are kept in captivity for a few months before they are released into the wild in order to give them a running start. They returned, and we still had no car, but the ice cream man went by on his bicycle playing the local ice cream jingle. He must have seen the look of lust and he turned around and came back so we could enjoy a cool treat on a very hot afternoon. Eventually the new car arrived and we headed to Labuhan Lalang to an information office for Taman Nasional Bali Barat or the West Bali National Park. After a bit of driving around and haggling over price, we found a ranger to take us out for an hour’s walk. Strike Five. Nothing was going to be easy today. We did see black monkeys, macaques, little black squirrels, and a couple of deer, but the end of the day was nearing and we had many miles to go to get back to Lovina. It was a little difficult to fully enjoy the walk, knowing that we really needed to hurry on in order to get home before dark. Driving a motor bike on these busy roads in the dark just didn’t sound sensible, but we did have to get home. So we started our trek back around 5 pm with Mark on one motor bike and Justin and Jo on the other. We made arrangements to meet at a temple on the east side of Pumeteran to feed the monkeys. This would have been a whole lot more fun if we weren’t faced with a trip home in the dark. We finally got going with just Mark and Justin on the motor bikes and Jo fast asleep in the car. Between motor biking and snorkeling, she was pretty much wiped out. I just sat in the front seat with the driver and worried, and just about the time we reached the very busy town of Seririt just before Lovina, the last light of the day disappeared. Strike Six. I was quite nervous by this time as our driver hurried home and we left Mark and Justin in the dust.
The good news of the day is that Mark and Justin did return to Lovina safely about twenty minutes after we arrived. Komang had also made it home safely in the car that had broken down. So I guess all is well that ends well, but it was certainly a bit of a challenging day. I am just so thankful that we did all make it home safe and sound.
We’ll regroup in the morning and decide what comes next. But I’m sure none of us is interested in another adventure tomorrow. We need a day to recover.
