Oct 10 2017 – Arrived at Ketawai, small island à la Gilligan’s Isle, anchored in shallow water, rather exposed to the mostly benign elements. Hope the wind doesn’t turn on us.
Oct 12 2017 – Organizers of the Ketawai rally stop boated over a make-shift stage, pavilion, kitchen, & store to this uninhabited island. Fed us all day yesterday, guided us on snorkeling tour, and had a young dance troop perform trad’l Indonesian/Sumatran dances for us accompanied by trad’l orchestra. Plus another band of excellent contemporary musicians & singers performed hits from Beatles, Bob Marley, country, & today. L & B took turns performing on stage. Earlier in the day, the boys & Uncle Nick had fun getting up to speed flying the drone, capturing cool images. Boys & friend Rainer r camping ashore tonight.
Today, organizers plan to shuttle boat us to main island, Bangka, for a town & mangrove tour. Marine police r on hand to guard our boats while gone. Mostly in case of weather, but maybe to keep the fishermen honest. The gov’t really takes care of us, insuring we’ve nothing but good experiences. It’s been off-the-charts great, especially the friends we make on each island. Astounded how quickly solid friendships can be formed over such brief periods. With sailors, I get it, but with locals, 2-3 days & you have a possible lifelong friendship. I think often the community’s brightest people are paired with us and those that speak English, of course, since we only know a couple words in Bahasa. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy.
Oct 13, 2017 – A police boat brought us cross the channel to main island Bangka. Police escorted our 2 busses to mrkt place. More police in mrkt including undercovers to insure nothing goes wrong. We are considered tourism emissaries, thus must have nothing but good to report. Indonesia even has its own special tourism police branch to help tourists, often young & attractive, English speaking.
Many photos taken of us by press & locals wanting selfies w/us. We made the paper twice. Gov’t wants to show they are developing tourism in their remote regions. Vocational High School went crazy for boys again, especially when Rainer quickly kissed a girl’s hand. CRAZY!!!
This region is more conservatively Muslim, but no feeling of tension, perhaps because we dress & act appropriately. Indonesian smiles are infectious.
Organizers had us take a panga boat thru narrow, windy mangrove waterway to an eco center for lunch. Elevated wooden walkways thru thickly forested mangroves, made for a magical adventure as we made our way to a treehouse restaurant.
Red Cross volunteers were completing training in the water while we were there, all dressed in red Tshirts, black pants. The First Lady of the provincial governor was there to meet us & support the Red Cross volunteers’ graduating ceremony, placing red baseball caps on their heads as they exited the waist-high marsh.
The speedboat ride back was quick. The dinner ashore was bittersweet as we bid farewell to many. Some boats leaving that we won’t likely see again. Rainer, the boys’ buddy from Santa Cruz CA flies out today & Nick flies out tomorrow. So last night’s dinner was a farewell celebration, with promises of meeting up again some day and keeping in touch.
I must make reservations for the next 5 marinas in Malaysia that are part of the Rally, plus Thailand. 75 boats are signed up. Not enough room for us all in each marina. We expect to meet & make more friends & find the group to transit the Red Sea. Although so many boats have registered for the Malaysia Rally, experience shows us that less than 25% stick with it. In our Sail Indonesia Rally, USA boats were a minority, but almost all stuck with it, making US boats the majority.
Slow, easy day today at Ketawai. Three of the 7 yachts have left. Breakfast was eaten Indonesian style, on the beach under palm trees, served over banana leaves. We had a great time releasing baby turtles into the ocean. An entire crowd gathered around to pray for them and see them off. Evidently, the surviving turtles will return to Ketawai after 10 years to mate. Evening entertainment: a great 5 piece contemporary band, a traditional band & young dancers, speeches, and gifts of handmade batik scarves.
We’ll miss Ketawai. After brkfst on the beach tomorrow, Nick will depart aboard a speedboat loaded with a suitcase full of our junk to store in our storage space. He will be taking a plane to Central Java to visit the incredible Buddhist and Hindu temples. Kandu will also depart and sail two days to North Bintan, our last Indonesian Rally stop. Lots planned for us. Few boats remain.
Oct 15 2017
This is Leslie @ 3:40 am on watch. Stars showing in full force. Motoring as no wind. Experienced most fab time at latest stop Ketawai. Ketawai is similar to a motu. Very small fishing and tourist island for locals from bigger neighbor island Banka to get away for the day.
Nick’s visit was way too short. He left this am to Java to visit the Buddhist n Hindu temples near Yogyakarta. He brought us stuff and is returning w/ stuff as usual. The boys loved their bday cards as did I and the very nice letters you sent. I spent at least an hour pouring over your letters/notes. Very sad to say goodbye to Rainer. Boys really enjoyed his N. California Santa Cruz flavor.
