Arrival in Kumai

Lovina Beach to Kumai was almost entirely a motor job. Other than a little confused chop leaving Bali the seas were the flattest and the winds the most complete calm we have ever encountered over any significant distance. Since covering the roughly four hundred miles up to Kumai could take an infinite amount of time under sail, we motored. Flat seas are very welcome while motoring and the trip had its pleasant moments. But this is a sailboat. All in all, we've been motoring more than eighty per cent of the time since leaving Kalabahi a couple months ago. There just isn't much wind in this part of the world this time of year. Maybe this "Sail Indonesia" rally should be called, "Motor Indonesia".

Our almost new autopilot, installed at great expense only six months ago, picked this leg to blow a hydraulic seal. Of course before departing Lovina I had chosen not to install the Hydro Vane rudder because I knew we wouldn't have much wind. So when we did get some nice air early the second morning and I poled out the genoa I was pretty upset when the autopilot couldn't handle the loads and began steering all over the place. A quick check showed the hydraulic reservoir almost empty and and a closer look showed fluid blowing out the joint between the cylinder and the valve block every time it needed to exert any force. Pretty darn infuriating! A new, heavy duty Raymarine hydraulic drive shot to hell in less than six months! So we hand steered for a hundred miles over to the island of Bawean where we knew of a nice anchorage where I could safely install the HydroVane rudder and maybe get some more hydraulic fluid. We went through our supply in a hurry. Bawean proved to be a nice anchorage and we got the vane installed, borrowed a couple quarts of hydraulic fluid from a power boat anchored there (thank you Storey Teller!) and Janet decided we should spend the night because we were beat. A wise move.

Next morning at first light we were under way in very flat conditions and by occasionally adding hydraulic fluid we were able to keep the auto pilot working well. And that made for a decent trip. Hand steering with minimal crew is every cruisers nightmare. Ya just hate to do it, thus the emphasis on self steering devices, wind vanes and autopilots. We won't be able to replace the hydraulic drive until Singapore but we'll get a bunch more hydraulic fluid here and hopefully we can keep the unit working or sail using the Hydrovane. Come Singapore Raymarine owes us a new drive unit.

Kumai is very, very interesting and we really haven't done anything yet. We're anchored about ten miles up this jungle river abeam the town. There's the usual Indonesian shipping traffic along the wharfs. There are houses on stilts and hand operated fish traps from the houses and more of the chaotic Indo-town scene. There are also a lot of four or five storey buildings which at first appear to be businesses or housing. On closer inspection you can't tell what their purpose might be. There are hundreds of swallows flying around them constantly. As it turns out they are housing and they are businesses. These buildings are purpose built as huge bird houses. They have thousands of small round holes in the masonry walls. The holes are for the swallows. And the swallows build nests inside. And the nests are harvested and sold to the Chinese to make; you guessed it, BIRDS NEST SOUP! Incredible! And there are more of these buildings under construction. The locals say this is a great business.

So today we'll get things sorted and tomorrow morning we'll head out on our big plan for Kumai. Nine of us have booked a river boat to spend three days and two nights going up the Sekonyer River to the Leaky Reserve in the Tanjung Putting National Park. We'll have a crew of four; we'll sleep on deck and eat aboard. The purpose will be to view various great apes, especially Orangutans, and other jungle wild life. Borneo! A little jungle trekking with friends. Should be great!

Love to all,
Bill & Janet
SV Airstream

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Goodbye to Bali

We're about fifty miles north of Bali about to enter the Selat Raas, a straight between two islands enroute to Kumai. We departed Lovina Beach, Northern Bali at seven this morning and we've been motoring or motor sailing all day. Conditions have been just a little rolly with almost no wind but now we've got a few knots from aft the starboard beam and we have almost three quarters of a knot of positive current so it's all very comfortable. Along the lines of "too much information" it's ninety seven degrees here in the salon and I haven't worn a stitch since noon. This is to be expected at seven degrees below the equator and headed north. It's nice to be at sea again.

But it's rather sad to leave Bali. It has been one of our favorite places. Certainly much of Bali is over developed and touristy. Much of it is urban and far less than beautiful. But it's all interesting. Without exception everyone has been very nice. It's very inexpensive at all but the most luxurious resorts. The food is great. And where it's unspoiled and not in the tourist mode it's one of the most beautiful islands in the world. Its volcanic peaks to ten thousand feet and terraced rice fields amid tropical forest and quiet villages with Hindu/ tropical/Indonesian architecture and rural temples everywhere. It is a unique place and it's a place we may come back to again by other means.

We did have a very pleasant and social time at Lovina. The fleet had come together and there were about seventy boats in the anchorage at the peak of the celebration. We had good friends Tin Soldier, Baraka, Linda, La Palapa, Tamore and many others to enjoy. The rally events were very nice and we did some land travel, saw more temples, and got massages almost every day.

But now we're on the move. We should be in Kumai the thirtieth and on the second of October we have a river boat reserved to take twelve of us up to the Camp Leaky Reserve to watch Orangoutangs and do some easy jungle treks for three days. It should be great fun and a chance for a study in comparative snoring as we'll all be sleeping on deck under mosquito netting.

Love to all,
Janet & Bill
SV Airstream

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Back In Lomboc, Again.

Actually, right now we're anchored at Gili Air, again. Janet's out for a morning dive. My eardrum isn't healed up yet so I'm relaxing on a beautiful morning on the boat. I've overcome the urge to service the windlass. Maybe later. There's a gentle breeze cooling the cockpit. And here I sit slaving away over a hot update.

It occurred to me this morning as I walked along the sand trails that serve as roads for the horse carts on Gili Air (the only transportation) that this is one of my favorite places, ever. There are a few nice places to eat and drink. We have decent wireless internet. It's never more than a few feet to a lovely beach, the people are very sweet, the water is beautiful, there are sea turtles around the boat as I write and the anchorage is calm and secure in most conditions. If we want night life it's a few miles to the scene at Gili Trawangan. If we want the tourist zoo it's a day sail to southern Bali. If we want local culture and rural beauty it's here or  it's a short hop to Lomboc or most of the rest of Bali. This is a great place!

We came up to Medana Bay on Lomboc a few days ago to meet up with friends on other boats and participate in the Northern Lomboc rally event. There were over forty boats there as the clan came together after splitting between Kupang and Banda a couple months ago. We're back hooked up with Tin Soldier, Marnie,  Linda and First Light III and other old friends. The rally event was fun and we saw some more of Lomboc. Actually rented a scooter and braved the roads which is not something to be done casually. The the traffic is not so heavy as in southern Bali but there is just no way to figure out who is going to do what, next. We survived.

So yesterday, after the events were over, boats began moving out again. Linda is at Trawangan.  Tin Soldier is with us here. La Palapa and Amulet are already in Lovina at north Bali. We'll most likely take off early, like 0300, tomorrow morning for the twelve hour trip to Lovina. The plan is to use Lovina as a base for further exploration of Bali, do the rally events there, which we think will be spectacular, and jump off for Borneo. That trip should be about three days enroute. We'll take the boat up the river at Kumai and then probably do a "Lord Jim" trip further up on a river boat to view the Orangoutangs and other Borneo type jungle critters. And I know, I know, it's no longer 'Borneo',  it's Kalimantan. I like "Borneo" better.

We'll update again from Lovina. Early reports from there are very encouraging. I think we'll love seeing more of Bali.

Love to all,
Bill & Janet
SV Airstream

Three Faces of Bali

 Bali is complicated, very, very beautiful and full of cultural and religious symbolism and cluttered and congested and polluted by every form of tourist junk. It may be the most beautiful and interesting place we've seen. In certain areas it may be the most ruined.

Yesterday we went to the Carre Four mall  near Kuta to check out the provisioning and the A&W they have in the mall. Sure enough, the A&W had that thing I had been craving since leaving home back in March, a decent chocolate shake. Janet and Dave Pryde from SV Baraka had root beer float.  We all left deeply satisfied. Carre Four is a French super market chain. We encountered them in Papeete and they have a great store. The store in Papeete was perhaps better than any super market food store I had seen in the US. The store here in Bali is the heart of a three story shopping mall which is as glitzy and western as anything you might encounter anywhere. It's not quite the caliber of the Papeete store but it's excellent by any standard and the mall itself was a dizzying cultural disconnect. Spotlessly clean.  Brightly lit. Escalators! Baskin Robins! Large format, high definition, flat screen TVs on sale.

We had come back the night before from a few days on the west coast of Bali staying at a small bungalow resort on an isolated beach. We had no phones, no TV, no radio, and no computer. We had a beautiful black sand beach view and were surrounded by  rice terraces.  The countryside was beautiful. There are volcanic peaks to 10000' and terraced rice fields interspersed with heavy forest.

The food was good and inexpensive and we walked the beach and the local village. That village might be typical of how many, if not most,  Balinese still live. The villages are organized around at least three Hindu temples, each with a specific purpose. And each home consists of a stone walled compound with at least one temple within it and separate buildings for living, sleeping, cooking, etc. Many homes are multi-generational and quite large. Each home has a more or less elaborate stone gate in the wall leading off the street and the architecture is often Bali style brick work with stone carved figures.

The individual homes look much like temples to the western eye. Especially since they often have stone figures at the gates depicting mythological beasts with a black and white checked or pure yellow sash, Hindu colors,  wrapped around them. There are small market stores in the villages, schools and in general the rural scene is relatively clean and well kept. The rice fields are beautiful.  The temples themselves are lovely and peaceful. The people are at work in the rice paddies or around their homes or very small businesses. The schools are neat and clean and the children are in uniform and very, very cute and eager to be photographed. The streets are quiet but there is occasional moped and even automobile traffic. Certainly some homes are more elaborate and obviously wealthier than others but in general the rural villages we have seen give the impression of peaceful prosperity, stability and a happy people getting on well in life.

Then there's the tourist scene. We haven't even tried the Kuta bar strip. A few hundred stalls full of drunken Aussie teenagers is not what we're into, sorry. Sanur, just north of us, is more survivable. There are some lovely resorts along the beach, the Bali Hyatt being our favorite, and many, many businesses and restaurants along the road just off the beach. There are good places to eat quite cheaply and a great massage at a very nice spa costs $15 for ninety minutes. The less elaborate massage places usually cost about $8. A massage a day is very doable. This is the first place in the world where the driving habits of the local population have scared me out of driving. And we drove around for three weeks in Egypt without fear. Around the southern part of the island between Nusa Dua, Kuta, Benoa, Denpasar, Sunar, and Ubud the traffic is heavy, the roads are narrow and extremely congested with mopeds and autos and nobody has the faintest idea about what to do next. Traffic is supposed to drive on the left but it's pretty hard to tell sometimes. Four people on a moped is common.

The driving age is supposed to be 16 but I know some of these people are not yet twelve, maybe they're ten,  years old.  Street signs are pretty much nonexistent and no road goes where you think it might.  So we have hired a car and driver to do our serious traveling and we get cabs for local jaunts. The driver, who speaks good English, is a good guy and has a nice air conditioned Toyota, costs us $40 dollars for a full day. Plus he's a very knowledgeable person and a great  tour guide. This seems like a good deal. This area is extremely busy and full of every possible business designed to earn the tourist dollar. And that dollar can go a long ways here. Things are generally a good buy. It's just that we're long bought out and we just don't want much more in the way of tourist stuff even if it is good quality and inexpensive. So we do the tourist scene for it's worth, good cheap massage and good cheap food. Maybe an occasional luxury like evening drinks at the Bali Hyatt. It ain't bad but it isn't why we're here.

This anchorage at Serangan is a mess. There's more plastic trash in the water than I've ever seen anywhere. It's a muddy, noisy and unattractive place. But it's safe and secure as well. You could ride out a typhoon here with some confidence. There are some yacht services available like drinking water and fuel and the local Warungs (small eating places) are very cheap and have icy cold beer and decent Nasi Gori. There's free wifi!  The people are very nice. We're in the anchorage because it's a good place to leave the boat while we do land travel and the Benoa marina is almost as unpleasant and more expensive.

We came down from the Gili Islands in one easy day with the current with us for a change. Fishing outrigger canoes who had spent the night at sea were coming back into Lomboc as we crossed the strait between Lomboc and Bali. Hundreds of them! And they were spectacular under sail. 

We plan to be here several more days and then either go back to the Gili Islands for a few days or up to the North Lompoc anchorage to let the rally catch up to us. Then over to Lovina Beach on the north side of Bali for the rally events and then leave Bali for Kumi.

I'll update again before we leave Bali. Probably a couple times. This is one of the most interesting, beautiful and complex places we've ever visited.

Love to all,
Bill & Janet
SV Airstream