The Watson’s took a ferry from Gili Air to Bali on the 22nd September and we cast off the following morning to have a brisk sail to Ambat on the north-east coast of Bali. Ambat is at the foot of the active volcano, Ugang. The Watson’s who keep abreast of the news, told us that volcanic activity was imminent and that people have been evacuated around the volcano.
When we set sail the next morning, Ugang emitted a light cloud of steam, barely 10km away, so we hotfooted it to Lovina Bay for an overnight stay.
The rest of our rally group was now in Kumai, Borneo to see the orangutans, so we day hopped from Bali along the coasts of Java and Madura, before we did an overnight sail to Karimunjawa. With a population of about 140 million people, Java is the world’s most populous island and is home to about 60% of the Indonesian peoples. Around Surabaya, the second largest city after Jakarta, there are extensive gas and oil fields with very heavy shipping traffic and thousands of fishing boats.
Approaching the strait between Madura and Java, I counted 73 large vessels on our AIS system. Mostly tankers waiting to take on oil and gas, but also ferries, tugs with longline tows of barges laden with mountains of coal and of course, the ubiquitous fishing vessels. It is best to only sail during the day because of the traffic intensity, but we had to do a 170-mile overnight sail to Karimunjawa, which was nerve racking. Most of these vessels don’t have AIS, and being timber built, not visible on radar.
Internationally, vessels at sea show three lights, red (port), green (starboard) and white (stern). In these parts, strobe type LED disco lights in blue, pink, purple etc. are popular, making it impossible to determine the vessel’s course. The larger fishing boats have very bright arc lights to attract fish. So, sailing at night is a real challenge, particularly when you factor in the fish traps and fish nets. After anchoring in Karimunjawa, Annie had to dive to get some fish nets off Esprit’s propeller.
Karimunjawa is a pretty place where we stocked up with fruit and vegetables at the market and had dinner at a local café. The two plates of Nasi Goreng cost us AUD2.40, all up. The beers were slightly dearer at AUD3.00 for 500ml of Bintang beer (Bintang meaning “Star” in Bahasa). We left the following day to do the long haul to Belitung island. The 274 nm crossing of the Java sea took us 52 hours. Very little wind, meant we motored for 49 hours, burning about 90 litres of diesel.
We arrived in Belitung in a heavy rain squall at about 3pm in the afternoon. A lot of familiar faces from the rally awaited us and we joined Burmese Breeze for a fish BBQ in the evening. Annie discovered a lesion on her calve which she thought should be checked in case it was a melanoma.
Kelayang beach on Belitung reminds a lot of our previous home in Bakoven, Cape Town, where we surrounded by these huge granite boulders and white sandy beaches.
The following morning a helpful local gent took her on the back of his scooter to the local hospital, where he announced her as an emergency. She saw a doctor who confirmed it was a beetle bite, picked up in Karimunjawa. There seems to be poisonous rogue beetles on that island. The doctor gave her cortisone cream and antihistamine tablets – total charge was AUD0.60.
We visited a local senior high school where the students and staff laid on breakfast, singing, acting and dancing of a very high standard.
Male students doing their thing.
Female students welcoming dance.
This was followed by lunch at a traditional timber house, with more dancing and music. Again the entry ceremony is a quaint and funny ritual where our host had to convince the owner of the house to let us in. In this case the owner was offered and accepted a fake A4 size, 100,000 Rupiah note (about AUD10).
On the way back to our anchorage we visited a timber boat building yard where fishing boats are built in the traditional style.
The evening was devoted to our welcoming dinner with various musical acts, excellent food and even the minister of tourism singing for us!
Another environmental act aimed at unlawful hunting.
Leslie Rigney, one of our yachties, singing for the locals.
The minister doing his thing.
We had to do a closing act, so we sang Rod Stewart’s “We are sailing” to the max.
The local tourism authority laid on an extensive programme of tours, cultural events and music performances for us. We also spent time talking to the local high school student’s “English Club” to give them the opportunity to practice their English and learn about our countries and cruising agendas. The students are bright and eager to learn, knowing that the future of their island is in tourism.
The East Belitung Tourist Authority took us on a bus day tour to the capital Manggar and on the way we visited an open pit tin mine, a Buddhist temple with dragon dances and the local fighting between young men who try to cane their opponents on the back.
We were treated to lunch at a restaurant on the water’s edge before visiting the tourist authority offices and finishing at a coffee bar (Manggar has approximately 1,100 coffee bars) where a local music group performed for us. The two 17-year old local vocalists were very good.
The talented 17 year old vocalist, Sasha
Another talented 17 year old.
That’s all for now folks!
How nice to be in Indonesia with your own boat. I wish I could have joined you for that lunch. I love Indonesian food!
groet Gijs