Monkey Beach 08. 23.11S 120.59.57 E

Hello. Its over a week since our last update. We can only attribute the delay to the heat - and it is HOT. The battery on the barometer/thermometer needs replacing so we can't say what the temperature is, however it is 1915 in the evening of the 25th of August and we have all the windows open and the fans going and the sweat is pouring off us. Not exactly lady-like but then as Peter says, he ain't no lady!.

Worse for Peter is that he had his head stuck in the hot engine compartment yet again working on the recalcitrant stern gland fitting. It is still leaking and has to be adjusted constantly. We need a more permanent solution and will revisit a permanent solution in Bali or Singapore. Yet another case of WIP, work
in progress.

We currently have all the portholes and hatches covered with insect screens and a big mesh awning draped over the cockpit (an insect screen for an outdoor umbrella from Bunnings Darwin) as we are anchored in a nice bay tucked behind an island and surrounded by mangroves, perfect for mozzies.

There are about 10 rally boats anchored in the immediate area and more close by. Allegedly the bay is so named because a family of monkeys was spotted on the beach but we do not hold out much hope of seeing any monkeys as the area has been burnt off. This burning off is a complete mystery to us. The Indonesians
seem fixated with burning anything that grows (and eating anything that moves).
Whilst this burn off was apparently originally to do with shifting cultivation it seems that nowadays the burn off is just to burn off. Cliff faces, rugged hillsides, little islands, anything is burned, with no apparent cultivation or grazing to justify the attack. We along with fellow crusiers have been disappointed at the lack of bird life and wildlife.

Anyway, to recap, starting from our last blog reported anchorage. We left our lovely anchorage with its clear water, pearl farms, sand cay and burnt off islands, on Monday 18 August and sailed to T.G. Gedong at 08 04.68S 122 50.71E where we anchored at 1501 hours in 23m of water, drifting back over 35m. There
were about 8 boats in the anchorage and the usual curious locals, particularly children to whom we gave out stuffed toys.

The next morning we left at 0645, motoring for an hour and a half then sailing in 10 kts breeze to Geliting, just east of Maumere, anchoring at 08 38.03S 122 18.49E. Bintang ashore (ie local beer, really good) followed by dinner at "SeaWorld" a Catholic Church run restaurant/bar which does good work for
disadvantaged children with the profits.

Next day (Wednesday 20 August) was the offical welcoming ceremony at the anchorage and the Kiwis were asked to do the formal thank you to the hosts (yachts Musketelle, Moon Mist, Solan, Nowadays, Pied a Mer, Catala). This we did in style (if we may say so ourselves) - Peter gave the formal thank you speech,
which was translated paragraph by paragraph and went down very well (the Indonesians like long speeches and Peter's was just right and addressed tourism development which is close to their hearts).

Then we did a powhiri, Rob on Moon Mist as the proud Maori Warrior with the Honorable Regent* accepting the challenge, followed by the haka (hmm yes well the timing left a little to be desired but the spirit was there) and then all singing Poekarekare Ana.

*Note Indonesia is divided up into Regencies (ie Provinces) and the head man is the Honorable Rengent with associated minders - security guards, protocol person, chauffeur etc etc.

Next day Barbara spent the day on the boat trying to burn music onto CDs (finally achieved after reading the manual umpteen times) and Peter went ashore to watch and participate in the canoe racing by the locals (as in wooden dugout canoes with no freeboard). After capsizing once, Peter and Grant from SY Nowadays (Hastings) came fourth out of ten. Theory has it that if they had knelt in the canoe instead of sitting in it they may have done even better.

Friday 22 August we went into Maumere to go to the bank and the internet cafe. We went with the cruisers off Catala, Pied a Mer and Moon Mist. Catching a bemo is a fraught experience, we do not know what the correct local cost is and when we ask before we get on, we get told one thing and then when paying the price has mysteriously doubled or quadrupled. We also only got 3/4 of the way to Maumere and had to change bemos (not clear why - our first one may have been unlicensed or there may be some bemo mafia controlling who can take whom where). This resulted in a "discussion" with the bemo driver which a local policeman resolved by determing the fare (considerably less than was being demanded) and we then got another bemo into town.

We went to the bank, big queue for the cash point machine and then spent 2 hours on a pathetically slow internet connection doing about 20 minutes work. This was followed by a walk towards the market, past
drains jammed with rubbish, past pigs checking out the rubbish, past pretty yucky type living environments - but lots of children calling out "Hello Meester" or "Hello Mrss" and "My name is" - by which they actually mean "what is your name".

Couldn't find the market and decided to head back to Geliting and stop at the town where we had had to change bemo and where we had seen a vege market. Much less bemo hassle getting back to the market town. Bought tomatoes and a cabbage, plus eggs, beer and cans of coke. Then caught motor bikes back to the anchorage - ie Peter on the back of one bike and me on another plus beer, coke, veg and eggs. By the time we got back to the absolute sanctuary of Musketelle we were exhausted!

On Saturday we left the anchorage and after motoring for the first hour and a half had a good sail to TG Batu Boga, near Dondo village, 08 27.62S 121 56.57E.  Anchored in 24m but quite close to fringing reef. Next  day, Sunday, we snorkeled, had visitors for morning tea, relaxed and had sundowners, a very strenuous day.

Today, Monday 25 August, we left TG Batu Boga at 0730 intially motoring and then when a breeze came in, having a nice sail the 57 or so miles to Monkey Beach.

Barbara made pizza for lunch (with proper pizza dough - at least as proper as one gets from Alison Holst's Bread Book) and a small white loaf of bread. We got to the anchorage at 1640 and had good waypoints to guide us past the reefs. We anchored in 20m of water.  Anchoring depth has been one of the surprises in this part of Indonesia - it is either very deep or over coral reefs - and we prefer the deep bit as it nerve wracking to a.) try to get a hold on the coral (and very bad for the coral) and b.) then swing with the tide/wind and find the spare 1.5m under the keel isn't there any more compliments of a protruding coral bommie.

Well thats all for now, time for dinner. Hope all is well in NZ, Aussie and France.

Indonesia 101 - Kupang - Alor - Lembata

Its a fortnight since we last published and thats because its been full-on for Musketelle and her crew.....Formal Welcoming Ceremonies (tropical formal) with Banquet Dinners and Cultural Shows, sightseeing, bemo and scooter riding, refuelling, the never ending maintenance and of course socialising !!! Its been a crash course in adjusting from the relative efficency of Australia to the topsy turvey tropical tumult of people teeming Indonesia. But so far so good and we are enjoying every minute as we adjust to the ways of this fascinating country.
Unlike most tourists who enter at an international airport at a major city we have slipped in through the back gate so to speak. We are sailing from the less populated and less developed eastern end of Indonesia and moving west toward the mega populated Java where over a thousand souls occupy every square kilometre. Being an archipelago of 14,000 islands sailing is the ultimate way to visit this country. If there are a reputed 300 million living here we are only going to meet a miniscule number. Those we have met are just so friendly and the youngsters are all being taught English and eager for dialogue. The method of approach is to thrust a notebook and pen under the nose and ask for
you to write your name and country as an ice breaker. Becomes a bit of a chore but its hard to resist the eager smiling faces.
The country is politically controlled by Jakarta but each province or regency has a Regent Governor who is "the man" locally !!! It has been the Regent Govenor or Deputy who has hosted these formal welcomes which emphasises the importance this rally of 116 yachts is, particularly in the fringe areas we are
currently visiting. To give you an example one island we visited normally gets 200 tourists per year and we all rock up!!! You can imagine the excitement among the locals.
To bring you up to date with our physical travels we have in the last fortnight sailed from Kupang on West Timor north to the island of Alor where we anchored off the town of Kalabahi pop 40k. To reach this place we battled huge wind against current seas in the Sawu Sea and inquisitive fishing boats in the dead
of night to reach the Selat Pantar passage right on daybreak. This passage has fast flowing currents, depths of not less than 1000 metres and is teeming with dolphins. Most of the time through the Selat Pantar we were headed by the current - going just 0.5 knots under motor!!. Not surprisingly the hills on either side of us took on a very familiar look - since we were effectively standing still!
Then our luck (or was that the tide?) changed and whisked us at times up to 10 knots in 5 knots of wind into Kalabahi passing numerous fishing villages on each side of the passage.
Kalabahi is a noisy little town that comes to life each morning with the call of the mosque and the local cocks. It kept up this sweltering bustle throughout the day meaning that it felt like midnight by 8pm. We hired motor- cycles and cruised to outlying villages and found a sublime lagoon for a dip. Highlight was passing a motor scooter with a man and woman on board and a huge swordfish draped across the bike with the sawn off stump of the bill scraping on the road at one side and the tail the other....fresh fish en route to market forthwith!!!
Our next port of call, travelling westward, was the volcano ribbed island of Lembata and its principal town of Lewoleba pop 10k located on a landlocked lagoon fed by another swift flowing pass that replenished the fishing grounds twice a day with fish for the countless fishers. Highlight of our stay was a day trip over the most backside testing 52km track you can imagine on the back of a ute to a traditional whaling village called Lamalera where the locals catch around 30 whales annually using big row boats and hand thrown harpoons. The boats were around 10m long and built of timber held together with wooden dowels and lashing twine. This village is a classic example of genuine no frills tourism with the visit involving total immersion in this working village along with the pigs, goats and cats not to mention the opportunity to buy local handicrafts including whale teeth. All this whilst surrounded by whale bones in various state of decay and whale meat hanging to dry in the sun.
The next day we recovered by filling our fuel tanks with diesel (locally known as 'solar') and what a fun experience this was involving a visit to the local petrol station which looks nothing like anything you can imagine. The place is identified by the 200 plus scooters always lined up waiting to fill their 5 litre tanks
with petrol, (benzine). Being big volume purchasers and wanting solar not 'benzine' we were invited to jump the queue and we watched agog as the disel was hand ladled in 2 litre amounts into our 20 litre containers, the operator dipping his ladle, bare hand and arm immersed each time, into this big drum being fed by a tap from a bigger tank ouside the filling room. It was a scene of controlled mayhem with the cashier sitting opposite also counting the ladles, as we were. The alternative was to pay a local middleman to bring fuel out to the boat in their containers but our experience in Kupang resulted in dirty fuel and most 20L containers only holding 17 or 18 L with talk of that being further diluted with kerosene and even palm oil to increase earnings for the middleman. Yes, Indonesia is a fascinating place and people are forced to go to extremes to make a buck. Needless to say we filter all fuel before it enters our tanks and then pass it through multiple filters before it gets to the engine or generator.
Our anchorage for the last 2 days has been a coral fringed lagoon at the eastern end of Adunara. The snorkelling here is excellent and to round off the days we have gone ashore each evening to a sandspit island for sundowners and last night a bbq with timber a few of us collected from some nearby islands. With drop dead sunsets and a full moon the general consensus from the 6 boats at this anchorage, paradise found,  10 out of 10 !!!
Our next major island is Flores. We will update soon.

Kupang, Indonesia - Friday 1 July and Saturday 2 July 2008

We are at anchor in Kupang. We dropped anchor at 1530 on Wednesday 30 July, 74.5 hours after leaving Darwin.  A very good time considering the wind or lack thereof. We motored for the first 42 hours then had a magic sail using our reacher, incl overnight.

We cleared Quarantine on Wednesday afternoon. Q had quite a few teams available and the yachts with the Q guys on board made contact with other yachts flying the Q flag so the Q guys could be delivered promptly from yacht to yacht.
Unfortunately Customs did not play the same game. We had to put our name down on a list on the local  Customs boat which is moored inshore, then Customs will call up each yacht on the VHF for the Customs officers to be collected by the yacht's dinghy and then returned to the Customs boat after the visit. Customs isn't working through the list in the order of the names so that some boats in for 24+ hours still hadn't been cleared whilst other later arrivals were, causing some grumping on the VHF. To compound matters Customs are issuing "Impound Notices" to be stuck to the cleared boats because of some incomplete documentation - either because (version 1) Sail Indonesia did not get the "sponsor letters" for the boats due to some alleged inter-Indonesian department politicking or (version 2) Indonesian Customs are wanting to enforce the requirement for an import bond on visiting yachts but the Sail Indonesia exemption from this has not yet been put in place. These impound notices mean that boats are not free to leave the anchorage even though the paperwork has been done. Some cruisers are extremely grumpy, whilst others just shrug and get on with being here. Since writing this we have all been advised that the situation has been resolved and provided each
boat completes one more bit of paper and pays 50,000 Rps (about AU$6) then Customs will come out to remove the Impound Notice.
To really make life fun for the 120 + yachts in the anchorage, on Thursday the wind got up, blowing over 20 knots for several hours, fortunately in daylight. The wind was not that strong but the tide enhanced chop really got things boiling. Yachts started dragging all over the anchorage, including one tangling its anchor chain with another, and yachts starting to drag out into the bay. Many owners had gone ashore and teams from other yachts had to frantically conduct rescue forays. The Customs Vessel also dragged onto a couple of yachts and then departed the scene to the relief of the yachts from an anchorage point of view but from a Customs inspection point of view that meant no more inspections for the rest of the day.
We had our own issue. We were not dragging but decided to re-anchor as we were a little close to another yacht. After only pulling up a short amount of chain it came to a complete halt due, we concluded, to the chain being caught on something below. We couldn't budge it. With the wind picking up we also could
not lay out any more chain due to our proximity to the other yacht. The wind forced us back on the tight chain and the pressure on the snubber (the nylon line clipped onto the chain and tied back to the boat to take the strain off the windlass) was huge. Fortunately the other yacht was kind enough to move although that was not easy in the strong winds and our position vis a vis their anchor chain so we had a bit of a scramble as they squeezed past our bow. However we were then able to let out more chain which quietened us down.
We will try to raise the anchor and if not successful will see if one of the divers in the fleet can go down the 20m and take a look at the situation.
Friday saw some more winds, with some more dragging. The tide was also very low and the combination of the wind and the low tide made getting ashore a challenge with some dinghies being swamped by waves on approach to the beach. The prospect of this put quite a few crews off going shore which was a shame as it meant that the Governors Welcome Dinner and cultural displays in evening was not as well attended as it deserved to be as the Indonesians had gone to a lot of trouble.
We went ashore at about 1915. On the way we got tangled in a floating anchor line that had been laid from the yacht "Pure Chance" which had put on a good display of dragging earlier in the day. A dark rope in dark water on a dark night is not exactly visible. Having extracated ourselves from this we diverted to "Keshi" to pick up Leanne, having assured her husband that we would get her safely to shore. We thought we had the waves right but looking over our shoulder we saw a huge breaking wave coming right at us. It caught us just as the bow of the dinghy touched the beach and before the dinghy boys could grab the dinghy and haul it out of the water. Result - dinghy swamped, all persons very wet. Undaunted we batted on and had a good evening.
Today Saturday is delivering winds gusting 25-28 knots and a couple of boats have dragged. Peter is going ashore to watch the Bledisloe 2 rugby match this afternoon which hopefully will be on the big screen.
The town is bustling, there is a mega party area on the foreshore every night, well attended by the locals. The streets are full of motor scooters and bemos (small taxi van/buses) all whizzing around, flashing coloured lights and sounding their horns. Walking in the streets is an exercise in watching where one puts one's feet due to the holes, rubble, disappearing pavements etc plus looking at head height due to low slung wires. It is very interesting but,not surprisingly, slightly chaotic. It is disappointing to see the huge amount of
rubbish just thrown into drains, rivers and the sea. Cruisers who take their rubbish ashore are horrified to see it tipped up on the beach, gone through and then the reject rubbish left to blow or washed away out to sea.
Signing off,
Saturday 2 August 2008.