Tag Archives: s/v Grand Cru

Delorme LogNotes: Ketawai & Bangka, Oct 2017

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.

Nick Rigney featured on left in photo.

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!!!

Once again Kandu Crew is surrounded by the ladies!

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.

Goodbye Ketawai!

Delorme LogNotes by Eric, Tanjung Puting, Kalimantan Sept 2017

Sept 30 2017 7:12 am – Fab 3d trip up jungle river, close up viewing of wild endemic apes, macaque monkeys, Proboscis monkeys, birds of all sorts especially hornbills, reptiles, insects, & plants. Inland excursions day & night to witness scheduled and much anticipated  Orangutans feasting on bananas and milk at the feeding stations. We traveled, ate, & slept aboard 3-decker Borneo river boat w/ Captain, guide, cook, & 2 deck hands which meant we did little but enjoy the experience. Went with 2 couples from 2 boats, so 8 of us. No cooking – food and drinks provided. Another 2 yachtie couples rented a smaller river boat for their 5. We buddy boated up & down the river. Smaller boats maneuver better. Saw many boats with just a couple on board. Recommend the experience highly. The key is a good guide w/strong English, or you miss half of the education and things you can/might see.

Tanjung Putting National Park

We went w/Mr. Bain. His guide, Usup (like YOU-soup) is great. Cost 2M rupiah ($180) pp all expenses included. We booked only 2 days in advance. Celebrated Trent’s 14th on board, rafted to other boat, tied off Eco Lodge dock. 1 sailor had toured western Amazon during rainy season said Amazon had much more life. We’re in the dry season, & the park is smaller. But he thought the Tanjung Puting National Park was fantastic & thoroughly enjoyed the different and truly extraordinary wildlife. Took lots and lots of pics.

We plan to sail tomorrow if we can repair mainsail furler. If not, will limp along with trysail instead until we can get to a place where we can repair it. Not the end of the world. Just means we travel a touch slower.

BTW: Nick Rigney is scheduled to join us on the 8th. Woohoo!

Sept 30 2017 13:48 – Repaired the furler. Transferred fuel from port to stbd tank. All is well. Decided to leave earlier for Belitung. Must go slowly. Less than 4.5 kts over 300 nm to arrive at daylight 10/3, 3 days Anchored. Squalls, lightning, countercurrent, & headwind suggested to me that we anchor the night & start first light, WITH the elements. So happy with our decision to wait out the storm!

Wild male orangutan in Tanjung Puting National Park, Kalimantan, Indonesia.

For more Indonesia Orangutan photos, visit our photo gallery!

Daily Log Indonesia: Onward to Timor’s Wini and then Alor

Traditional Indonesian fisherman with his sailing outrigger.

8-29-2017

Much has transpired since leaving Rote Island. We sailed our way back to Timor and headed north of Kupang to a small village called Wini where the rally was scheduled to stop. Quiet place. Leaving Kandu for the day, we bus-toured east to the border of Timor Leste (East Timor). The previous Portuguese colony fought for independence during a twenty-plus year bloody civil war starting in 1975 until gaining full independence in 2002. Close to the border, a Leste guard beaming a smile, beckoned openly that we should break international law and come visit his country. We smiled back and waved.

Border marker between Timor and Timor Leste.

We also enjoyed a fabulous local market chock full of interesting vegetables and some tropical fruits we previously had neither seen nor tasted – the ‘specially fragrant’ and unforgettable durian being one of them. Once you smell it, you’ll never forget it!

Durian – the smelly tropical fruit prohibited on buses and indoor public buildings.
Bryce, Trent and Rainer eyeing the Indonesian pastries.
Eric Rigney befriending the Wini locals.

The Wini local rally organizers held a simple dinner for us with music and dance. They offered us gifts of their lovely scarves that the local women weave here in Indonesia.

Wini welcome dinner of Sail Indonesia Rally 2017. Pictured: Complexity, Grand Cru, Esprit III, Wassyl. Notice the colorful scarves around everyone’s neck.

Off to the island of Alor, we stopped briefly at a fisherman’s pearl farm bay for a night tucking in along the southwest coast. We all wanted to swim, but instead explored from the safety of the siderail the world of rather innocuous yet scary looking jellyfish with Rainer Dawn and Sue Hacking from S/V Ocelot.

Later that evening, the adults from Grand Cru, Esprit III, Ocelot and Kandu enjoyed cocktails in the roomy cockpit of Ocelot, the lone catamaran while the boys enjoyed popcorn and movies. Great hors d’oeuvres and conversation made for fun camaraderie and conversation among cruisers. We miss our Polynesian cruiser family, yet we’ve been learning a lot from our new cruising family and are enjoying meeting different, yet like-minded people. We come in many shapes, sizes and from different countries: that night from Australia, South Africa, Washington and California states.

 

Map of Alor Island, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.

Motoring north around the western tip of Alor island, our next destination, Kalabahi, is located at the very end of a long wide fjord found on western Alor. The area is known for it’s spectacular coral gardens due to the cold swift currents passing by the islands generally from north to south. We were dramatically introduced to these currents on our way to the fiord pushing against their strongest at 5 plus knots on our nose. For hours we inched 100 yards off the bank of the channel in search of a counter current, which we on occasion successfully caught. What would normally take with the current a couple hours, took us against the current most of the morning. Once in the fjord heading nearly due east, the current abated significantly and we made excellent progress with just a one-knot counter current while dodging large anchored fishing platforms. From the entrance of the fjord, it took three more hours before we made the end of the bay and finally anchored off Kalabahi.

Fishing platforms in the western fjord of Alor heading to Kalabahi.

Kalabahi city is not a usual Indonesian tourist destination. The streets are not slick and tidy. It’s a bit dirty with plastic trash littering the sides of the street, river bottoms and the water where we anchored. It’s the principal city of Alor and the center of that region’s administration encompassing 4 to 5 neighboring islands. Many children on canoes approached our boat hoping for treats or gifts. We gave out writing pens and paper, some canned meat that I didn’t want, and a few candy bars. After that, whenever we were aboard, the children returned demanding more.

While walking the streets, our tall, blond haired, blue-eyed boys were sought after for photo ops by giggling girls. The local boys looked on in bemused and rather sullen silence.

Several boats of our rally arrived a day before schedule. Rally tourist organizers quickly finished a specially made dinghy dock for us and scrambled to push up events, setting us up with a nice tour of the island including a visit to a traditional mountain village known for it bronze drums and where the religious structures were built side-by-side, Muslim and Christian. The Vietnamese drums, likely found or traded centuries ago from Chinese ships, are today used by families to support marriage proposals.

Rainer Dawn, Bryce Rigney and Trent Rigney at the Traditional Village near Kalabahi.
Traditional headgear of the Alor regency.

Later that day, we were invited to visit the Alor regional museum that was heavily guarded and only allowed visitors by reservation. It was rather sparse and limited in local information. Pictures of the past and recent Regent Governors were prominent – all looking like military dictators. The tour continued with a boxed lunch on the beach and culminated in a rather arduous hike to visit a waterfall, especially enjoyed by our rambunctious boys. Sporting a dress and flimsy flipflops, after slipping and sliding on the muddy path, I opted out of that activity.

Eric Rigney and Bryce Rigney cavorting at the Kalabahi waterfall.

The next day with friends Bolo and Natalia from S/V Wassyl hailing from Poland, we headed off for a day of drift diving. The density and diversity of coral life and multitude of colors were beyond our previous diving experiences.

Polish friends Wojciech Maleika (Bolo) & Natalia Ptasinska from S/V Wassyl getting prepared for our first dive!

There were fernlike plants (actually animals) that curled up when touched, and thousands of small iridescent colored fish darting and swarming all over the underwater landscape. We later learned that all the ‘soft coral’ can move around to more nutrient locations like starfish. Neat.

Fabulous cultural interaction included witnessing the Indonesian Independence Day (August 16th) where locals reenacted their fight for Independence from the Dutch in the 1950’s – It was an amazing show!

Indonesian Independence Day Festivities in Kalabahi, Alor.

The day after, local rally organizers honored us with a beautiful welcome ceremony featuring two beautiful local dance troupes.

Bryce and Trent Rigney surrounded by beautiful Indonesian dancing girls.

Later that day, we were invited to walk in the ‘Indonesian Independence Day’ Regency parade where participants wear costumes representing their customs and traditions. Plus, that night to top-it-off the outstanding festivities, we were dressed-up in local attire to share dinner with the Regent Mayor. Wow! Our experience in Alor couldn’t have been more full and dramatic.

Eric and Leslie Rigney dressed-up in Pantar costumes ready to dine with the Regent Governor.

The three teenagers Bryce, Trent and Rainer escaped the girls to have a bit of fun one early morning before the wind picked-up skurfing behind Wee Kandu in the middle of Alor’s deep fjord adjacent to Kalabahi city.