Chapter 31: July 23rd to August 25th, 2005 
Eastern Indonesia-Timor to Bali 
 
ORNATE HAIR ORNAMENTS ON ISLAND OF ALOR 
July 23rd-27th: Depart Darwin for Kupang, Timor, Indonesia — 475 miles, 4 day/4 night passage at Sea 
Day 1 (Saturday, July 23rd): Today, with wonderful memories of a great country and continent, we are leaving Australia, after our arrival here 10 months earlier (September 2004) heading for new adventures and a re-immersion into a 3rd world country — Indonesia.  For the first time, we have joined a rally and will be sailing today (and for the next 4 days and some for the next month) with 70 sailboats with crew of nearly 200 from 14 different nations around the world–The Darwin to Kupang, Sail Indonesia Rally.  After the initial stop in Kupang, the rally will continue for 2 “optional” stops at 2 more islands in the Eastern Indonesian chain of islands, Alor and Flores.  We intend to participate also in those stops as lots of cultural activities are planned, as well as opportunities to see places way off the “beaten path.” 
 
We left through the locks of Cullen Bay Marina this morning at 9AM.  They are starting this rally as a “race” with an official start-line with the boats lined up to depart exactly at 11 AM.  We however, being a Queen Mary heavy-sized 25-ton boat, are not exactly in the “running” race-wise, nor did we care if we were “disqualified” from winning, decided to not do circles around start line for 2 hours and left with the current in our favor, ahead of the rally pack.  We quickly found out we were not the only one with that idea as we were following about 11 other boats, also who were jumping the gun, so to speak.  What little wind there was, was from the NW instead of the supposed “usual” SE… and of course the direction we are going is NW right into the wind.  [Note, of course for the last 5 days (prior to the rally start), we had had high wind warnings in the area–and now, despite the predicted wind for today of 15-25 knots, we have less than 6 knots.]  But at least we started off with a nice ride with the current for about 4 hours so despite the wrong-direction-too-light-winds, we made good time.  That, however, was not to last; the winds eventually came around to the right direction, but the current reversed.  So now at my night watch, we have been motoring all day and are now going under 5 knots for most of the afternoon and evening.  Most of the other boats that left behind us, waiting for the official rally start time, are now within sight — i.e. quickly catching up and several have already passed us. 
 
It is strange to see so many boats all around us… and now at nighttime my radar screen is FULL of dots (sailboats).  Normally on a passage we see no other boats except occasional big freighters/tankers.  But with nearly 70 boats out here, not only all who left at approximately the same time, but all on the same course track it is quite a site.  Hopefully they are all awake tonight and are all going in a straight line and not tacking back and forth — so we stay out of collision paths.   
 
Day 2 (Sunday, July 24th):  It is VERY hot today–93 degrees inside the boat, with no wind and the motor going all day (contributing to the cabin heat), and we assume it will only get worse as we are approaching the equator.  Most of the rally boats are motoring, although some are trying every possible combination of sails and tacking — trying to sail to no avail.  The heat and humidity is really stifling and we don’t even have much energy for anything. Even reading is hard, as it is so hot, my eyes are burning so I close them and try to sleep when I’m not on watch.  However, even lying down, or when I try to sleep, I wake up in a sweat.  We are drinking water like crazy trying to keep up with the loss of fluids.  I’ve had a headache both days, probably due to dehydration and the boat motion. I got in the shower a bit ago and soaked myself quickly with cold water but within 3 minutes after drying off, I was wet again from sweat.    
 
There are not as many boats around us today. Many may have passed us in the night, and we have all spread out a bit, but there are still a few in sight behind us.  Motoring is slow for our heavy boat (we go faster when we are sailing) — at times less than 4 knots and then the current changes and we get to almost 6 knots… but we are making our hoped for average of 5 knots or 120 miles per day which will get us to Kupang in exactly 4 days.  Hopefully by tomorrow AM, we will pass the halfway point, which is always a lift of spirits–and, of course, we are praying for wind — the right amount from the right direction!  
 
We started our malaria prophylaxis today, as Indonesia with its tropical climate and low sanitation standards is a good breeding ground for malarial mosquitoes! 
 
Day 3 (Monday, July 25th): Still no wind!  We were half way there at 9 AM today… but that still means 2 more days of motoring with no wind in sight.  The emailed weather report we’ve gotten in, indicates a rise in wind on the day we are supposed to arrive… With our luck it will be blowing like snot once we try to anchor and we will have a windy wet anchorage!  At least we are lucky in that we are one of the few boats with a large enough fuel capacity to be ABLE to motor all the way.  We feel sorry for those smaller boats that do not carry very much fuel and are out there bobbing around praying for any kind of a breeze to push them forward. 
 
We did catch a fish today — our first tuna in 2 years, with bright red meat.  Unfortunately, it is too rolley to BBQ and that’s the way we like it best, so will opt to keep it on ice for 2 days until we arrive and can light up the barby. 
 
We have passed several small schools and “couples” of dolphins and schools of large brown jellyfish.  But otherwise there is not a lot thto look at out here.  We did see some sort of tornado-type things coming down towards the water from some black clouds–a first for us.  But none came close.  We did have one shower, which cooled down the boat for a few minutes, before it started steaming again. 
 
We thought we’d be giving Ross, our new crew aboard, lessons and a real work out on sail changes during this 4-day passage, but now we have given up and have taken all sails down and just are motoring with bare sticks. 
 
Day 4 (Tuesday, July 26th):  Whoopee, we got to sail and actually turn off the motor for 12 hours today, for the first time since we left Darwin.  However, ironically, since we were by then close to our arrival time in Kupang, and we were getting so much wind and were going so fast that, with our sails up, we would arrive at the harbor just after midnight — NOT a good idea.  So of all the luck, now that we had the wind AND the current pushing us, we had to take the sails down — all of them, and motor in order to slow down so we don’t arrive before first light 
 
Wednesday, July 27th:  Safe Arrival In Kupang, West Timor, Indonesia 
All 3 of us were up most of last night for our final night at sea.  The current got very strong and, as above, the wind increased as we approached a pass between 2 islands just before the Kupang Harbour that we were trying to get to.  Inside the very narrow pass we were met with lots of bright lights and even with night vision goggles, and 2 other pairs of binoculars and “all hands on deck”, it was hard to figure out which were fishing boats, which were lighted buoys, and which were lights on shore.  But we needed to go slow anyway to delay our arrival, so we motored at only 2-3 knots, and carefully avoided the multitude of fishing boats and other obstacles.   Once we exited the pass we were at our destination, Kupang Harbour, and despite our efforts to slow down, we still got there too early–prior to dawn.  Heading toward our anchorage, we could then see even more lights from shore mixed with the local boats that were night fishing, mixed with lots of boats at anchor that got there before us.  So we did circles for an hour or more offshore and as soon as the sun started to shed a bit of light so we could at least see outlines of boats, we headed very slowly into anchorage.  What we could see was about a dozen or more unlit local “traditional” fishing/sailboats deciding to leave just as we were slowly trying to weave our way in, giving us a bit more of a challenge to our tired soles.  About 45-50 of the 70 Rally boats had already arrived ahead of us, more than have ever been in this harbour at one time before, to complicate the challenge of anchoring.  We finally found a good “parking place” and dropped anchored at around 6AM, raised our quarantine and Indonesian courtesy flag and tried unsuccessfully (probably too much adrenalin flowing) to sleep.  We were greeted by the smell of smoke and some smells not quite so pleasant to the nose plus the chanting and “music” out of loud speakers coming from the nearby mosque, something else new to our senses.    
 
We could for the first time see the country that we are going to be visitors of for the next 2 + months — Indonesia.  The island of Timor is a long island with mountains, which was a change from the flatlands of northern Australia.   
 
Kupang, with its population of around 250,000, is the capital of the East Nusa Tenggara Province (which includes most of the Eastern Indonesian islands — most of those east of Bali).  As will be mentioned in more detail below, in contrast to the statistics about the Islamic religious majority in Indonesia, West Timor is 95% Christian.  (East Timor, which in recent years has gotten it’s independence from Indonesia, is 95% Catholic.)  So Muslims here are in the minority, although you wouldn’t know it from the many mosques around and the chants we can hear from all over the town.   
 
Today we’ve been in “jail” all day on our boat waiting our turn for Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine officials to arrive at our boat and clear us officially into their country.  They, obviously (even though they knew we were all coming) have been overwhelmed!  They were originally “organized” enough to take the boats in the order of their arrival for the clearance procedure, but now they are just doing their own thing — taking boats as they come to them.  Unfortunately they got all the boats around us, including many that arrived AFTER us, but somehow, they kept bypassing us.  So as of 5PM when they quit for the day, we were still confined to our boat.  However, they made an announcement on the VHF radio (the rally has it’s own frequency that announcements are made on) that anyone who was not cleared, could go to shore as far as Teddy’s bar, but not any further in town.  (I think that concession is they were anxious for us to start spending our money!!)  So at least after 5 days of being on water (and of course alcohol abstinence while underway), we will be able to touch ground again and have a cold drink or two.  Teddy’s is the local hangout for the cruisers as well as Rally headquarters.  It is an open-air bar/restaurant right where we land our dinghies on the beach, serves ice cold the local “Bintam” beer (HUGE bottles big enough to fill 2 large frosty mugs) and “western” liquors.   
Saturday, July 30th: Out and About in Kupang 
This is the 3rd year of this rally, I believe, with only 14 boat entries the first year, around 40 last year, and now a whopping 70 this year (with around 180 captains and crew aboard) so it is quite an event not only for the rally organizers but also the town of Kupang, who get so few tourists visiting.  West Timor has never been much of a tourist destination, but things only got worse when East Timor had a revolution and got it’s independence in 2002. With it came reports of instability and all of Timor was placed on the list of places tourists should not go to.  Also with the coup on the other side of the island, all scheduled flights were cancelled… however flights into the island were very recently re-started.  But still, tourists here are a novelty.   And we soon found we caused a bit of staring and commotion wherever we went.  Every evening the entire beachfront and waterfront street are lined with local Timor people — some single, some very old, and lots of families, just looking at the sailboats, watching all of us in our dinghies come to shore for the evening.  There are huge banners and flags lining the beach also “welcoming” us yachties.  And at the same time every evening there are spectacular sunsets to intensify the picture of the harbour loaded with sailboats.  Right ashore they (the town of Kupang in a money making effort) have organized a bundle of local men and boys who wade in the surf along the shore to pull us, and our dinghies, up over the rocks and onto the beach.  When we unload ourselves, they then literally pick up our hundred+ pound dinghies up and carry them up so they will be free from the tides and waves and provide “security” for them while we carry on our business ashore.  This is a great service for a cost of $2 per day for as many trips ashore as we want to make–that we gladly “contribute” to the economy and at the same time, save our back strains from lifting, pulling, tugging our boat.  They’ve also organized people to pick up our laundry, to do haircuts and manicures, take our garbage, etc.  And obviously, people selling handicrafts are lined up along the waterfront, and taxis are waiting for us right outside of Teddy’s Bar/Rally Headquarters to cater to our whims. 
 
We have tried a couple of times in the last few days the REAL local transportation called a Bemo.  It is a van/mini-bus of sorts that wind in and out of traffic beeping their horns, with one young “hawker” who hangs out and stands in the open van door, yelling out to the driver when he sees a possible fare, at which time he hits the brakes, and zigs or zags in the traffic to try and beat other drivers to the possible passenger pick-up.  They are decorated in bright colors, and paintings of everything from  “sexy” women, to cartoon characters (we saw one Popeye) on the sides and backs of the vans.  The fare is 10 cents for anywhere you go (short or long distances) that is handed to the “hawker” when you exit.  We haven’t even attempted to figure out their routes, but we attempt to tell them (realize that very few people here speak English) where we are trying to go and sometimes they drive off leaving us at the curb, and sometimes they wave us aboard and magically drop us off to our intended destination.  Last night we were going to a recommended restaurant and the bemo motioned us aboard but when I looked inside and it was jammed pack --there was no way our two American-sized butts were going to be able to fit in, so we waved them off.  But they just yelled at 2 of the people to get out and then squeezed us in!  The restaurant we went to is reported to be the best restaurant in Kupang.  We met some other people there and our dinner for 5 plus drinks and desert cost (total bill) around $26.  Amazing.  Some cruisers yesterday bragged that they had lunch for $1 each.  So things in general are really cheap — mostly because a few years ago the country almost went bankrupt and the Rupiah (money) took a nosedive.  What is hard though is they need to get rid of some of the Zeros in the money.  My first night ashore I went to the bar to buy 2 drinks and about had a heart attack when they told me it was 40,000 rupiahs… until I realized that was about 4 US dollars.  It’s very easy to be arguing (while trying to bargain for something) and realized we were bartering over 10 cents (1,000 rupiahs)!   
 
I went into price shock after the high costs of Australia where a tomato or two might cost 1$ and at the market here I got 4 lbs of beautiful ripe garden grown tomatoes for 50 cents.  We paid from $2.50 to a whopping $4.50 a gallon for diesel in Australia and here it costs less than $1.00 a gallon.   
 
Yesterday we hired our own “private” taxi with and English- speaking driver for $2.50 an hour for a 5 hours tour.  He drove us first to the public outdoor market, where I bought some fruit and vegetables.  It was quite different in comparison to the many markets we have visited in Mexico, and throughout the South Pacific Islands.  Instead of a large open air building with stalls, the market here meandered in and out of tiny winding muddy, rocky streets, some merchants with stalls, some just little old ladies with a mat on the ground with their goods to sell.  They had, besides fruit and vegetables, fish, live chickens , birds in birdcages, etc.  Little children followed us throughout our meandering, some with huge wooden 3-wheeled carts.  We kept stepping aside so they could pass us, but when we’d stop, they’d stop.  We later realized they thought we were going to buy enough stuff to put in their carts so they could wheel our goods for us.   
 
Next on our tour, we drove out in the countryside looking at the houses (some just straw huts/ others cinderblock) to see visit an old man who builds traditional musical instruments, called Sassando.  The unique instrument was made out of bamboo and sounded between a harpsichord and a harp…  His son played it for us as the old man clapped and danced.  We also observed his daughter weaving material called Ikat, on an old loom.  [More on Ikats later]  We continued our area tour to a place where monkeys just hang out waiting for you to take their pictures, it seemed, and to a place that displays a lot of antiquities from the island of Timor. 
 
We rally participants had a ceremonial welcome dinner the other night with the Mayor , city council members , Head of Indonesian tourism (flew in from Jakarta) and other “dignitaries” to welcome, greet us and share their appreciation for coming to their country.  It was held outdoors at Teddy’s and was quite an event, full of local music and dancing in traditional attire  and of course quite a few speeches and a wonderful spread of mostly barbecued chicken, fish, and meat cooked in Indonesian spices.  When I tried to take a picture of several of the costumed girls, others would race in to get in the pictures.  Before I knew it, everyone was saying, “Take one of me!”  and my digital camera card was soon filled up.  [Note: Most of the people around here, we’ve found are definitely NOT camera shy!  Some even boldly come up to us and even if our camera is not out and in sight, ask us to please take a picture of them and their children.] 
 
Not to be outdone, 2 nights later we had yet another ceremonial welcome dinner, this time sponsored by the Governor of the province of Nusa Tenggara, the eastern islands of Indonesia.  So there was more dignitaries, more food, more drinks, more dancing, and, of course, more speeches.     
 
Joe Receives Ikat as Gift from Lovely Timor Girls 
HISTORY/CULTURE: 
 
I always try and include some history in each initial writing about a new country we are visiting.  It’s difficult to summarize thousands of years of history in just a few paragraphs and I’m sure I will not do it justice, but here’s some general information and as brief of a historical summary as I could write.  (For those of you not interested in this part, just skip the italicized portion below): 
·      Indonesia is the world’s most expansive group of islands stretching over 3,000 miles.  Officially there are 13,677 islands, however with recent satellites, photography has shown there to be more than 18,100 islands, with only 6,000 of them inhabited. The 5 main islands are Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan (Borneo), Sulawesi, and Papua (the western part of New Guinea). 
·      Most of the country’s islands are mountainous, and volcanoes dominate the skyline of many of the islands.  There are 129 active volcanoes, more than any other country in the world. These volcanoes and their eruptions have provided Indonesia with some of the most fertile stretches of land on the planet.  On an average there is a major volcanic event once a year 
·      The climate has a very high annual rainfall so that nearly 2/3’s of Indonesia is covered with tropical rainforests (2nd in area only to Brazil)… however it is disappearing at an alarming rate as local and foreign timber companies continue to cut down the forests. 
·      Straddling the equator, Indonesia tends to have a fairly even climate year round — hot and wet (October —April) and hot and dry (May — September)… (although this is the dry season, and we are sweating profusely out our bodily fluids as fast as we can replace them!) 
·      Economy: Up until the mid 1980’s, Indonesia’s economy had been dependent on oil and gas for export.  However, helped by huge foreign investment in the 90’s (due to the very low labor costs), Indonesia is now a major producer of textiles, clothing, footwear, chemicals, cement, and glassware.  They also export timber and wood products, tin, coal, copper, rubber, coffee, coconut and fish.  Tourism HAD been a major part of the economy, but with the Bali Bombings (see below) and other political unrest, there has been a big downturn in visitor arrivals. 
·      With over 232 million people, Indonesia is the world’s 4th most populous nation (after China, India and the USA).  The island of Java, which has only 6.8% of the nation’s area, has over 59% of the population. 
·      Most Indonesians are Malay, descended from peoples who originated in China and Indochina over several thousand years.  However the cultures and customs of the various islands are quite different, with different languages, different religions and differences in traditional law.  The diverse terrain of mountains and jungles cut off tribes and groups on certain islands from the outside of the world, keeping many of their traditions and cultures intact. 
·      Although consisting of only 3% of the population, the Chinese are THE major force in the economy, operating many shops, hotels, restaurants, banks and industries.  This makes the Chinese, in general the wealthiest ethnic group in the country (and also has led to much anti-Chinese resentment.) 
·      Education: Fewer than half of the children will make it to secondary (after 6th grade) school, and less than half of those that make it there, will graduate.  Schooling is not free, not even at the primary level.  Fees are low, but with the combination of uniforms and books, many poor families cannot afford to send their children to school, and send them to work instead. 
·      Religion: Early Indonesians were animists, believing that all animate and inanimate objects have their own life force or soul, and they practiced ancestor and spirit worship. (There are still parts of several island groups where animism is still practiced today.) Then Hinduism and Buddhism spread into the archipelago, layered onto this spiritual culture.  Today, Indonesia has the largest amount of Muslims in the world (90% of its population).  But the Islam religion is very different almost making it unrecognizable from modern orthodox Middle Eastern variety, as it is “overlaid” over previous Hinduism, Buddhist and animism beliefs.  Indonesians have hundreds of holy places where spiritual energy is said to be concentrated and despite the Islamic belief against saint worship, Indonesian pilgrims flock to these sacred areas of graves of saints anyway.  Also Muslim women in Indonesia are allowed more freedom, are not segregated and do not have to wear head coverings and very few wear veils. Also polygamy in Indonesia is rare (Muslims in other parts of the world can have as many as 4 wives.) 
·      On the Island of Bali, Hinduism predominates, but as above with the Islam religion, it is far different from that of India as it is mixed over old animistic beliefs. 
·      Christianity is a fairly new religion in Indonesia, and it too as above often exists over a base of animist beliefs.  [Note on two of the islands we have visited, Timor and Flores… the first was 95% Christian, and the second was 95% Catholic.] 
 
HISTORY SUMMARIZED: One of the earliest human beings found on earth was Java Man in Indonesia, showing that there were people living here at least 1 million years ago.  As mentioned above, most of the people living in Indonesia today are of Malay origin (closely related to the peoples of Malaysia and the Philippines); much later there were migrations from Vietnam and Southern China, from where they learned the techniques of irrigated rice growing, and also they brought with them Hinduism and Buddhism.  The islands of Indonesia became important to the rest of the world as they were in the crossroads of the trade routes.  Merchants from Arabia, Persia and India brought goods to the coastal cities in exchange for goods from China and for local products such as spices from the “Spice Islands” (in the eastern part of Indonesia.) …. So two types of communities developed, the rich coastal states, commercially oriented from commercial trade and aggregarian cultures in the inland kingdoms that were separated from the sea by volcanoes that developed in the rich volcanic soil.  Islam religion first took hold from the coastal areas as the great Arab traders began establishing the biggest ports.  By the 15th and 16th centuries, the Indonesian rulers made Islam a state religion. 
 
The Portuguese in the mid- 1500’s were the first of the Europeans to take an interest in dominating the spice trade and quickly established fortified bases with their superior sea power at that time.  Soon after, other European nations, especially the Spanish, Dutch and English begin to battle for their rights to the islands for their spices and location in the trade routes.  By 1605, the Dutch took control, kicking out the Portuguese and formed an empire that was called the Dutch East Indies.  Although with the Dutch English War of 1780, where the Treaty of Paris finally broke the Dutch spice trade monopoly, the Dutch government continued to establish colonial power over Indonesia and began to develop more modern agriculture means.  But since controlling the trade routes (versus colonization) was their initial main interest, it wasn’t until the early 1900’s that the Dutch began to contribute money and resources to the health, education and other social reforms for the colony.  In WWII, the Japanese invaded Indonesia, and the Dutch government quickly abandoned their stakes.   As the war ended, the Indonesian leaders declared immediate independence before the Dutch could return.  However the Netherlands refused to accept the proclamation claiming sovereignty and bloody battles broke out with the British assisting the Dutch.  Finally in 1946, the Dutch recognized the new government and both sides agreed to work towards an Indonesian federation under a Dutch Commonwealth. But in 1948 the Dutch launched another full-scale attack on the Republic breaking the UN agreement.  The US threatened to withdraw its postwar aid to the Netherlands, if they did not honor their agreement with the new republic so finally the Dutch negotiated for Indonesian Independence in 1949 and it’s first president was elected in 1950.  When the Republic of Indonesia came into being, the economy was shattered after almost 10 years of Japanese occupation and war with the Dutch.  The population also was increasing and the new government was unable to produce enough food and supplies to keep pace.  Plus most of the population was illiterate and there were very few skilled workers and management.  Indonesia sunk deeper and deeper into poverty.  For many of its first years of independence, Indonesia came to depend more on support from Russia and then from communist China. In 1965, there was a coup to slaughter the Communist Indonesian generals and leaders, as well as hundreds of thousands of communists and sympathizers. Under their new leader Soeharto and his  “New Order” government, political stability returned.  Indonesia looked to the West in its foreign policy and sought out educated economists to help them control inflation, balance budgets, and to attract foreign investment.  Some economic progress improved under Soeharto’s 30- year rule and while life became a bit more tolerable for the poor, the rich became much richer and corruption continued to be a way of life.   
 
Another disaster happened when the Asian currency crisis spilled over into Indonesia.  In 1997 the financial markets tumbled along with the Indonesian currency, the rupiah, and the economy was left on the edge of bankruptcy.  Rising prices resulted in sporadic riots and many of the minority Chinese ethnic groups were blamed, and their shops were looted.  Foreign debt and inflation skyrocketed, banks collapsed, millions lost their jobs, and the past 30 years of Indonesia’s impressive economic and social gains in eliminating poverty were wiped out overnight.   In 3 days of rioting and looting in Jakarta, over 6,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed and 1,200 people died, most of who were trapped in burning shopping centers.  Hardest hit were the Chinese who were the scapegoats.  Soeherto (now in his 70’s) tried to hold on still to his presidency, but was finally forced to step down after 32 years of rule and the road to democracy began. The first free election for 40 years was held in 1999. Wahid was elected president however he was ousted 2 years later and his Vice-president took over.  Free elections were held again in 2004 and the government continues to struggle to fight corruption, and reform the country’s legal and judicial system.  
 
In October 2002, the entire world was shocked as 2 bombs exploded in 2 popular nightclubs in Bali, injuring over 300-- mostly tourists from 23 countries, many who died.  And again in 2003, the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta led many in the world to associate Indonesia with terrorism.  These attacks caused a huge downfall in tourism again affecting not only Bali, but also the entire Indonesian chain and the national economy.   
 
Monday, August 1st–Departure from Kupang, Timor for Kalabahi, Alor-- 134 miles  
We left today with most of the other rally boats (with some leaving yesterday and a few straggling behind in a few more days) — although not all are going to continue to the Rally’s 2nd “optional” stop, north of Timor on the island of Alor.  Many will continue on now at their own pace in different directions, most eventually making it to Bali — some on a fast track, and others leisurely visiting many islands and anchorages enroute. 
 
We finally put up all 4 sails for first time this year and wind was perfect for several hours allowing us to fly at 7 ½-8 knots (very fast for Mi Gitana)— with no swell so it was even comfortable. We were riding high and happy! But all of a sudden, as suddenly as the wind came up, it died, and at the same time we hit a counter-current and we were quickly down to 3 ½ knots with all sails up AND the motor going.  Eventually we gave up on the sails and now — at night time we have 0 wind but at least the current is helping us just a tiny bit again.  Once again, the radar is dotted all around us with lots of our rally sailboats so we are in a pretty tight pack.  I’m sure though by morning we will be spread out a bit more.  We should all still arrive sometime tomorrow morning and early afternoon.   
 
Tuesday, August 2nd:  Arrival in Kalabahi, Alor (Island), Nusa Tenggara Timor (Province) 
We picked up a little more wind this morning as we approached the island of Alor. [Note: The island of Alor has around 140,000 people and is part of the Alor “regency” consisting of a total of 15 islands, with a total population of around 170,000. A  “regency” is, from what I can gather, like a county.  The Alor regency is then part of the East Nusa Tenggara province, which is like a state.  Alor is the biggest and main island of the regency and we are located at the capitol, Kalabahi.  The main occupations here are farming, fishing, and trading.]  
 
To get to the town of Kalabahi, our intended destination, we had to go down a long fjord-like harbor about 8 miles long with beautiful villages   along the shoreline and plenty of strange looking bamboo fishing “traps” structures all throughout the passage.  There were already 10 boats anchored when we arrived and began our anchoring process.  And what a “process” it was.  In comparison to the huge amount of anchoring room we had in Kupang, this small village had only a very small amount of space for us to anchor.  (Probably they are lucky if even one or two cruising sailboats come to visit them in a year’s time… but now there were 10 all crammed into a small space).  Also the anchorage was very deep, mostly 40-65 feet, and we are used to anchoring in 12-25 feet of water, so of course all the boats were tightly spaced to use up what little of the 40 ft depths there were.  [For you non-boaters, to anchor you are supposed to leave out a 3:1 up to a 5:1 scope; that means in 50 feet of water, you need to put out 150 (3:1) —250 (5:1) feet of chain (or rode).  AND you need to have a circumference around your boat that allows you to swing all that chain in all directions.  The hope is that all boats will swing at the same time in the same direction, but that never happens.]  Anyway, we ended up dropping our anchor a record 8 times this morning in attempt to get in close enough to anchor as shallow as possible, and to not be too close to any other boat for our swing.  Obviously after the 3rd attempt, there were plenty of explicatives going around and lots of “blaming.”  (On a few of the attempts, we got in a good place but the anchor dragged, so we had to move; on others we just didn’t like how close we were to another boat and didn’t feel we had enough or safe “swing” room.)  Finally, after attempt 7, we were happy (talking to each other again) with where we were and how the anchor was set.  Then we get a call on the radio from the Rally “boss” who was watching us from shore, who told us our now NICE place was too close to a pier where a big freighter would be coming in the next day, and we would need to move again.  We rested a bit — mostly our nerves and tempers–and then moved our 8th and last time.  What made it worse is when we began to anchor, we were the 11th boat in the anchorage… but by the time we finished, we were the 16th — so all the new boats coming in (right after our arrival) were fighting for the same spaces we were… like cars battling it out in the mall parking lots during the week before Christmas, fighting for spaces.  Anyway, we ARE now settled and hopefully that will go down as Mi Gitana’s all time record of worse anchoring!  Amazingly we thought there was absolutely no more room for any more boats — but by the end of the day today almost 28 boats were  anchored here… of course we can all almost touch our neighbors! 
 
From what we can see from our boat (I’ll write more later when we go to shore), this quiet little town is again decorated up with banners and flags — Welcome to Alor, Sail Indonesia–along the waterfront and there are loads of people just sitting along the waterfront watching all us boats, as we are quite an unusual site for them to see in this normally very remote and often skipped-by-tourists island.   
 
This rally spot was timed around us arriving here to this town in time for a big festival and cultural “Expo” where participants from 28 islands around here will have traditional contests (drum beating, weaving, singing, dancing), parades, exhibits, etc. for the 4 of the 6 days we are here.    
 
Saturday, August 6th: Festivities in Alor 
Alor, terrain-wise is so rough and rugged that it is divided into 50+ tribes with almost as many different languages.  Although the Dutch installed some local governing officials during their rule, because of the rugged interior, they had little influence on the interior tribes, who were still practicing head hunting even as late as the 1950’s!  Today there are very few roads that traverse the island except some part of the coastline, so the main form of transportation is still by sea.  The town we are at, Kalabahi, is the chief town on the island, and by Indonesian standards is somewhat prosperous, until you get just a kilometer or so out of town, when living conditions are quite poor.  There are some beautiful white sandy beaches though all along the coast line that are spectacular with aquamarine lagoons, and coral reefs; unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), they have no hotels or resorts near them.  In fact it appears there is only 2-3 small motels in town and all in the middle of town, not on the waterfront — so not that conducive to what tourists usually look for.  The people we have spoken to from the tourism sector say that they hope to entice more tourists to come to their island, but they have a long way to go, in my opinion. They also keep telling us, “Please tell all of your friends to come and visit our island.”  And, “Please tell everyone we are peaceful people and are not terrorists.”   
 
I asked one of our tourism guides if they have much of a drug problem on the islands and they indicated no.  But it is thought that is because they do not have many Westerners or outside influence, whereas, for example, in Bali, where there are so many tourists, they DO have a problem.  He did indicate to me that some of the village chiefs and “medicine men”/visionaries do use magic mushrooms for certain ceremonies.  They do not have anything like Kava root like used in the Western South Pacific islands we visited in the last few years.   
 
In town, there are very few restaurants … mostly just roadside stands, some with a few plastic tables and chairs, and no bars, although many places sell Bintang beer from coolers.  Our “rally headquarters” was at a harbour front very basic small motel and they did have some tables set out for us and usually had somewhat cold beers and coke in their refrigerator.  So far, we have yet to find any diet cokes anywhere.  (Believe it or not, we have found coke-cola “lite” at almost every 3rd world island we’ve gone to until we got to Indonesia.)  Since I don’t drink either sugared Coke OR beer, I’m stuck with bottled water as the drink of choice. 
 
Our first day ashore we walked most of the town looking for an ATM.  We found a few banks but were unable to withdraw cash, so it looks like we won’t be buying a lot here — not that there is much to buy!  We also found the local market; I thought the one at Kupang was “primitive” — this one was even worse.  At least the one in Kupang had a few things that were fresh and recognizable.  There are wonderful fruit trees and gardens in the villages around town, but it is obvious, those must be for their personal use, as the ones in the market were pretty poor looking.  We have yet to find anything that resembled lettuce (although there was something that looked like wilted, limp Bok Choy), or cucumbers, and the tomatoes were about the size of a 50-cent piece.  After our years of traveling in island nations, we thought we had seen most everything in the markets.  Here we still found some items new to us: a bundle of 5-6 string bean looking things, that turned out to be some sort of chewing gum (as the ladies demonstrated to us), brown piles that looked like cow turds with almonds in them (which we were later told was tamarind and tamarind paste), piles of white powder (which we were later told was lyme (sp?) that is used to mix with the beetle nut the older people all chew), barrels of something that looked like macadamia nuts, (which Unfortunately, we were informed later actually WERE macadamia nuts… and boo hoo! Not knowing that’s what they were at the time, we didn’t buy any!!!)  I searched all over town for a loaf of sandwich bread to no avail.  Also there is no fresh milk or even the boxed UHT milk to be found… for the first time in our travels we will need to resort to powdered milk! 
 
While we were walking in this winding outside market, a little old lady (about 4’10, no teeth and about 90 years old!) came up behind Joe and slapped him with a loud smack on the butt.  Of course he thought it was me, and he had quite an expression on his face when he turned around and saw it wasn’t me, but this lady. She just cackled with glee and ran off.  I’m not sure what the meaning of that was, but I noticed several times (men and boys, especially) came up to me and just touched me on my arm… not brushed by me, but actually touched me.  Strange.   
 
Wherever we walk in the town (similar to Kupang), we continue to be quite a novelty, as people stop what they are doing, stare at us, smile, and mostly say “hello mister”.   (Some are able to differentiate and to me say “hello missus”, but mostly, even to me, it is “mister.”)  Some follow us around like we are Pied Pipers.  As mentioned above they love getting their picture taken and seem to rush to get together at the first sign of a camera being brought out.  At times the “friendliness” is a little overwhelming, and as our crew person, Ross, said, “they are killing us with kindness.”  It is a relief to go somewhere (usually back to the boat or sitting at a table at our “rally headquarters” — where they have a gate to keep out the locals) where we are not greeted, stared at, and touched (They DO still stare at us through the gate, but the little bit of distance does help).  One cruising couple has 2 small (18 months and 2 ½ yrs.) blonde very pretty girls.  The older one, keeps breaking out in tears here, as everywhere she tries to walk, she is hoarded by the locals who want to see her and touch her… to the point of frightening her.  The parents are now having to carry both girls whenever they walk down the streets.   
 
The idea of living on a boat is such a foreign concept to the local people, they really have a hard time understanding it.  To villagers, a house is where you live, and boats are for fishing or transportation.  They feel if you are living on a boat, you must be really poor but then it is obvious to them that we are not poor by their standards.  Then of course when they ask the question, "how many days did it take you to get here from America" and we respond "over 4 years," well, that really throws them for a loop! 
 
I mentioned beetle nut just above.  It is quite the “thing” here with the adults, and they all look like blood-drooling vampires.  The lyme (white powder) that they add to their mouth to accompany the beetle nut, causes their mouth to turn bright red, and increases saliva.  So when they smile their teeth, gums, and saliva are all bright red. It also must rot out their teeth, as the older they were, the fewer teeth they seemed to have.  In contrast the youth have beautiful very white teeth.   Unfortunately, there were very few men we noticed that were NOT smoking cigarettes, although it did not seem to be a habit of the women. 
 
As in Kupang, there have been lots of activities and cultural events planned around our fleet’s arrival.  2 days ago, after all the boats finally arrived and somehow safely anchored in the tiny harbour (35 boats total), we were traditionally greeted by outrigger “war” canoes.  The Bupati (the mayor), and several costumed warriors weaved in and out the anchorage, shooting out loud “bangs” from their bamboo made cannons to “welcome” us to their island and village.     
 
Last night we had yet another “gala dinner” outside in the garden of the local Bupati’s (mayor’s) house.  It was just a few blocks from the harbour, but they had police escorts for us as we walked down the street… and it was like we were on parade, as the streets were lined with locals watching us all walk down the street together, us all dressed up (by cruiser standards, that means the men at least have a collared shirt, and most of the women wore sarongs or long shift type dresses and shawls).  Again we had some speeches, gifts were exchanged, beautiful dances were performed and a large buffet dinner was laid out for us of several kinds of rice and fish, chicken, and fruit.  (We have not seen any “real” deserts in our travels so far either at the official dinners, nor on restaurant menus… mostly all they have is fresh fruit, so Joe is really missing his sweets and ice cream.)  After dinner some new awards were handed out to the cruisers including one to us for the most “touch and goes”–(referring to when a plane is practicing landing at an airfield, they land their wheels, and then immediately accelerate and take off circling the airport again to again practice landing)  -- this award of course being for our anchoring fiasco upon arrival here at Alor! 
 
Yesterday, also was the official opening of the Expo.  We yachties were directed to an outdoor stadium where we were guided to our VIP seats in the shade side by side the local and Nationally visiting dignitaries.  In Olympic opening ceremony fashion, each of the islands that were being represented came out in a parade of traditional costumes (anywhere from 20-80 costumed people from 28 different islands–we estimated over 1,400 people) with a band/orchestra of island music playing as they paraded in front of us.   It was an introduction to us costume-wise, just how different each of the islands are (and these are just the nearby islands of the 18,000+ islands) culturally.        
 
Village Chief In Ceremonial Dress 
As part of the Expo (officially called the Festival Budaya Flobamora), there was also 40+ stalls/booths set up along the waterfront with displays of traditional ikat weaving (see below for explanation), agricultural presentations, and other local crafts.  In the center of the stalls was a stage for daily (and nightly, unfortunately) performances, speeches, and music.  I say, “unfortunately” in that they had huge speakers set up, some of which were facing the water and we would hear quite clearly the music (and some very bad karaoke-type singing) into the wee hours of the night and morning.  This coupled with the 4AM wake up call from the chanting on loud speakers from the waterfront mosque, meant that most of us had very little good sleep during our stay in Alor.   
 
2 days ago, I had pre-arranged a dive trip for 9 of us cruisers.  The dive company, Dive Alor, is actually based in Kupang and owed and operated a father-son Australian team.  The son, who is the dive master flies in here and meets up with their boat and local crew.  Although I don’t know what I expected, none of us expected our dive boat to be a local Indonesian style wooden boat.  But that’s what picked us up and it actually worked quite well.  We did 3 spectacular wall dives at different sites and had a marvelous time.  We left at 7 AM and didn’t get back until about 5 so it was a long day, but it was fun having someone else do the driving on the water so we could just sit back and enjoy the scenery along the way. 
 
Today we took off on a free “day trip” which we were told was a snorkeling trip to the other side of the island.  We rally cruisers loaded up on a locally hired bus that took us on some “challenging” roads through the countryside and along the coast — and, as they say, getting there is half of the adventure.  We came around a bend in the road and noticed hundreds of people standing in the road in traditional costumes.  We didn’t realize that this was one of our stops.  The locals guided us up to a house to see some of their treasures.  We were shown a 600-year old Koran (Islamic “bible”) that was made of animal skins and then a demonstration of playing their Moko drums.  These bronze hourglass shaped drums (only found on the island of Alor) are between 300-500 years old and are still today part of the “bride price.”  To get married, a young man has to present a Moko to the bride’s family as sort of a male dowry.  (So it seems to me, since these drums are very rare, and considered very very  drums, but it is thought that they may somehow have gotten to this one island from either Vietnam or China around 700 BC.  Thousands of them were found buried in the ground centuries later, and the Alorese believe them to be gifts from the gods.  We felt privileged that this village shared with us their moko drums for us to view, touch and even play.   
 
Then the village (again I’m talking of several hundred people) took us down to the shoreline where they had set up brightly colored banners, chairs in the shade, and a stage.  They performed dances and sang songs, and played their local instruments for quite a show for us.  The ladies in the village also set up a display of all their ikat weavings [see below for explanation], including showing us all the stages of making the ikat.  Afterwards we were led to another place with more chairs (again under a shaded canopy,) and a buffet of barbequed fish and rice steamed in banana leaves was set out for us.   
 
We then eventually got back in the bus and proceeded to the promised white sandy beach and snorkeling site.  We got out of the bus and walked down a path through a village to get to the beach.  A few people indicated they needed to use a bathroom, and others needed to change into their bathing suits.  Our guide just went to one of the bamboo homes along the path and asked the residents if they would step out and allow us to use their homes to change (and for the bathroom). [Can you imagine someone walking up to a “cottage”/mansion along La Jolla or other California beach community and knocking on the door and saying “Excuse me, can I use your house to change into my swim suit?”  Here the people, of course, gratefully allowed it to happen.]  The beach was beautiful, but again all the locals gathered around to watch us in our bathing suits (they swim fully clothed) snorkeling around their beach lagoon!   
 
So from the above, you can see we’ve had a very full 5-day stay here and are about to pull anchor tomorrow for our 3rd and final “optional” rally stop.  Between the late night music from the expo, and the early morning chanting (now there are several mosques chanting at the same time so it is like in stereo), we feel perhaps we will get more sleep and rest while at sea!  (That’s a change!) 
 
Sunday August 7th: Departed Kalabahi enroute for Riung 218 miles — 2 days/2 overnights away 
We thought we were smart leaving a day before the Expo and rally activities ended (our schedule had us departing Kalabahi tomorrow, Monday) but were tricked, as over half of the boats left yesterday, a day before we did.   In fact, when we left this morning, only 8 of the 35 boats remained in the anchorage so we are really at the tail end of the departures.  Our plan to leave early (besides needing rest from the music and chants) was based on not wanting to arrive at our next destination, Riung, late, and having the same anchoring “challenge;” We wanted to get to the anchorage before the majority of the boats arrived.  However I believe a lot of the boats are day hopping west along the islands here, so perhaps even though many left ahead of us, we may still “beat” them to the anchorage. 
 
All day we have had calm seas and light and variable winds… By the way “variable” is not a good term to a cruiser: it means that every time we set the sails for one direction, the wind either dies or changes to another direction…which also means although our sails are up, the motor is mainly powering us.  Another trip where we feel like we are a large motorboat with 2 sticks in the air.  To break up the monotony, besides sailboats out here, there has been lots of shipping traffic, which seems to only appear at night — the most frightening time to see a big ship! 
 
Monday, August 8th–Day 2 of Passage to Riung 
Today is just more of the same as yesterday — plenty of sunshine, and hot, hot, hot w/ motor running (95 degrees — and that’s a Florida 95! very humid… not a dry desert Las Vegas 95!) and very little breeze to cool us or the cabin down.  We are going very slow on purpose to time our arrival tomorrow morning, as we are entering a very tricky anchorage with lots of reefs and coral heads and very poor charts so we need the sun overhead to do “eyeball navigation” --slowly entering and hopefully safely making our way into the anchorage. 
 
Joe fell outside on the stern of the boat last night in the pitch black (while trying to adjust something on the mizzen sail) and dislocated his little finger.  He howled in pain and showed me his finger with the middle knuckle joint at 90 degrees to the rest of his finger.  I grabbed it and jerked it back in place and applied an ice pack.  I thought that was the end of it, but later on while just putting his hand in his pocket, the finger caught and again went out of the joint again.  I’ll contact a fleet rally doctor (we happen to have an orthopedic surgeon in our group of yachts) tomorrow morning in the net for treatment advice. 
 
Tuesday, August 9th — Safe Arrival to Riung, Flores Island 
Following doctor’s advice, Joe now has his finger splinted (diagnosis is probably damage to tendon which holds finger in joint) and taped to his ring finger, and he has no pain, so that is good. 
 
As we approached the anchorage today, we had stormy skies, rain —meaning the worse type of visibility to see the reefs in the passage.  But we radioed ahead to one of the boats at anchor there already and were given good waypoints to guide ourselves through the reefs, plus we were surprised to see buoyed reef-markers (a real novelty in 3rd world islands) to make sure we saw where NOT to go.  But the biggest surprise was on our approach, a launch boat from the village came out to meet and greet us and show us the way in.  That was the first of many more to come great impressions of how much this very tiny village wanted us to visit them.  The 2nd thing we saw as we entered is that the village had built us (all brand new) a floating 50-60 foot dinghy landing dock — another welcome surprise, meaning we would not have to fight surf or tides or mud flats to get to shore! 
 
There were already 6 boats in the anchorage, but we easily (thank goodness) got anchored without any problems.  Before we barely got our anchors set, the village launch boat that greeted us asked us to please come to shore after the rain stopped to be “greeted” by the village people.  Then a few minutes later we heard on loudspeakers that were set up on the shore, “All yachts please come to shore to meet us.”  We quickly got our dinghy launched and joined the rest of the boats (along with a few more that followed us in) and walked down a long dock to the shore. There waiting for us were huge banners “Welcome to Riung” and the local bupati (mayor), many other “dignitaries”, the local tour guides and English interpreters, and about 40-50 well dressed (and local costumed) locals, not to mention at least as many curious and observing local villagers on the outskirts of the crowd.  We were each given a flower bouquet, asked to shake hands with each of the dignitaries, and motioned over to set at some decorated bamboo tables under a canopy.  I should mention, we had been given a program and this “official” welcome was to occur 2 days from now after the majority of the boats arrived.  (Remember I mentioned above we were getting to the anchorage a few days early).   Our rally coordinators had not even arrived yet (and were not due in for a day or two.)  We later figured out that they were afraid we would not come to shore unless we were invited, and also afraid that we might leave … so they decided to welcome those that had gotten there already “officially.”  Whatever, it was a nice surprise and we enjoyed again the VIP treatment.   
 
The village was really just that --a small village.  No "real" gas stations,  no grocery stores, a very tiny tiny outdoor market, a couple of very small 2-3 table restaurants (with no customers except us), one paved road, no taxis or bemos, lots of motorcycles, etc.  All of the “houses” along the waterfront were made of bamboo, or scraps of wood and metal with thatched roofs, and up on stilts over mud flats (many, for a real cultural clash had huge satellite dishes outside their homes).  We were told the stilted homes belonged to the Muslims.  (It seems to be the trend that the Muslim population on these islands is along the waterfront, and inland are the other religions.  On this island of Flores, 95% of the island is Catholic.)  From one end of the village to the other was about a 3-4-block walk.  And man-oh-man once you get away from the sea breeze, it was really hot.  I kept blotting my face with a yellow napkin I found in a restaurant, and later it was pointed out to me that I had pieces of yellow stuck all over my face!  We ate in one of the 3 (supposedly the best) restaurant in town for lunch.  The fare on all the menus in all 3 towns now we have visited has been quite similar, fried rice or fried noodles with either fried fish or fried chicken (no normal recognizable pieces of chicken, by the way — it’s like someone took a cleaver and just whacked the chicken into small pieces and they fry them bone and all; finding the meat on the bone of these skinny chickens is quite a challenge...Us Cruisers began to call this Indonesian "specialty" -- Chainsaw Chicken!).  By our standards, the food is pretty simple and even bland, but that is because, they usually serve it with a VERY hot sauce on the side to spice it up.  We quickly learned to not let anything that was going in our mouth to come even near that hot sauce!! 
 
Traditional Riung Village House in a Coconut Grove 
More of our fleet of rally boats is due to arrive in the next few days and there are lots more “cultural” activities and tours planned.  Like the last town, here they also have a cultural “Expo” type of event planned (timing it around our arrival) with representatives from many different towns and villages presenting their dances and music and crafts.  We will certainly have observed our share of Indonesian dances by the time we leave here!   
 
Saturday, August 13th: Tours and Events in Riung 
We have really been on the go since we arrived here and have been enjoying ourselves.  We took one all day tour to go see this islands giant monitor lizards, locally called “mbo” which can grow up to 9 feet long (related to but not exactly the same as the komodo dragons).   Our tour bus could only get so close to the mbo preserve, so when it stopped, there were 4-5 Timor ponies (Small horses) that were all decorated and dressed up.  The men riders got off and offered us rides on their horses.   Joe took them up on the offer and got on one, only to be thrown off the horse a few minutes later.  Fortunately since the horses are so tiny, he didn’t have a very long distance to the ground to fall.  After the short horse ride for several of the yachties, we began our jaunt to see the dragons.  Unfortunately, before we started this tour we were told that the walk was about 20 minutes, which we thought we could handle… and we failed to ask what type of terrain it was.  Joe still has an arthritic knee (where normally 2-3 blocks of walking causes him pain), I recently pulled something in one of my knees and walking on uneven surfaces causes pain, and neither of us are adjusted to the heat.  The “20 minute” walk turned out to be about 1 ½ hours each way for us, in the blazing sun, up and down a mountain, on a very narrow, gravelly, dirt sliding uneven path.  The group we went with were way ahead of us (obviously some younger and all in better shape), as we lingered slowly making our way.  Finally I told Joe, “I just can’t go another step; we have to go back.”  It wasn’t so much my knee or being tired, as it was the heat.  I was so red in the face, light headed, and so hot, I felt heat exhaustion was quickly coming to me.  Despite the liter of water that I had drunk on the path, I had sweated out at least that much.   
 
Joe was panting away just a few steps feet in front of me and looked down and saw that just a few feet ahead of him was the group that had left us behind and the lizard watching spot.  So good thing we did not turn around!  We joined the group, that by now had been “resting” and “observing” at least 30 minutes ahead of us, and were now about ready to head back!!!  Unfortunately, no one saw one of the giant mbos.  The guides had warned us (but not until we paid for the tour and were on our way to the wild sanctuary where these lizard/dragons live) that there was only a 25% chance of seeing any in the wild.  However, they had captured one in a cage that was just a short distance from our observation post so we at least got to see one that way.  So after a VERY short rest for Joe and I, it was time to turn back and return to the tour bus… we made it BUT…. NEVER AGAIN! 
 
I forgot to mention that for our bus trip tour, we were escorted by 3 police men in 2 vehicles, one in front with blue lights and sirens running the whole way, and the other behind, PLUS an ambulance.  We never did figure out why they thought we needed this much protection, but we certainly had it — and of course, we certainly caught our share of attention as we were driving by the villages along the road.  When I got back from our “hike”, one of the guides noticed that my leg had a scratch on it with a few dribbles of blood.  He quickly raced me over to the waiting ambulance and they got out their kit and went to work on cleaning me up.  It was a little overboard, but perhaps they needed to feel justified in sending the ambulance with our motorcade.   
 
Our next stop on the tour was to a “traditional” village, called Marutauk, about another hour away on the bus.  There, similar to the greeting we got (that I wrote about above) in Alor, we were greeted by hundreds of the villagers , most in traditional ikat weaving sarongs.  They brought us into their villages with music and dances and asked us to join in and dance with them their “friendship dance.”  We were led to some chairs (in the shade) and they, first, ceremoniously served us beetle nut and lyme… and waited for our reactions as we all attempted to follow their demonstration to try it.  The first bite and taste sensation was bitter beyond description, followed by a crunch of something like a clove/nutmeg-flavored explosion, and then followed by dabbing some of the powdered lyme, with more bitterness and quickly a numbing sensation of the mouth.  After many expressive contortions of my face, I lasted about 15 seconds before I spit it out much to the amusement of the locals.  We then got a welcome speech from the chief of the village and were presented with a feast of guess what — more fish and rice.  However here they had special rice that was wrapped in banana leaves, then placed in the hollow of bamboo, and then placed over an open fire to steam and cook, giving it a slightly smoky sweet taste.    This again was followed by another hour at least of more dancing for us and another demonstration of their ikat weaving.  
 
Finally the ikat story: I’ve mentioned several times above that I would explain Ikats.  At each of our (so far 4) ceremonial dinners, we have been welcomed with a gift of an Ikat.  (So far we have been given 4 each, plus we’ve bought a few from the villages we’ve visited.)  The word ikat, means “to tie or bind” and is the name for the intricately patterned cloth of threads which are painstakingly spun from cotton, then tie-dyed before being woven together in patterns passed down from generation to generation.  Traditionally the threads are dyed with juices from local plants and minerals, for indigo, burnt red, and brown tones.  However, some of the villages are now using brightly colored factory made threads.  Each region has their own style and patterns and the ikats are woven in a variety of sizes — from shawls (which is the size we are receiving as gifts) to sarongs (which are worn by both the men and women) to blankets (which are used as burial cloths for the dead and bought by tourists for tablecloths).  The ikats are made by the women of the village who produce the dyes, spin and then dye the threads and then strengthen the threads (by immersing the threads into baths of grated cassava or rice to stiffen them).  They then dip sections of the thread in dye (while binding and tying together other sections to NOT receive the dye).  A separate tying and dyeing process is carried out for each color that will appear in the finished cloth.  After this process, the threads are woven into the intricate patterns on a simple handloom.   
 
We have now observed several times in several different villages this process and will cherish the skill and many many hours that were put into the ikats we possess.  We were told for the small ikats it takes an experienced weaver 7-8 days to make one working “full time,” whereas the larger ones can take months.  We now have some that are in bright (almost fluorescent) colors of Orange, purple, cobalt blue (with the “modern” threads) as well as some in the subdued maroons, black, browns from the natural dyes — some with geometric patterns, and some with human and animal figures…and the ones we just got from Riung are in their village “colors” bright yellow/gold (with actual gold threads woven in) and black…  all are very unique. 
 
After that wonderful tour, we returned back to our boats and prepared ourselves for our final “welcome” dinner for the rally.  As in the others, we were seated together with the local bupati, and all the city council members, village chiefs, and anyone else “important”, served a wonderful buffet (best yet with chicken and beef sate, and other interesting beef and coconut and vegetable very spicy dishes, with of course more fish and rice!), as much Bintang beer as one could drink (for me that is none–but Joe and Ross made up for my lack!).  There was yet another show of singing and dancing and speeches and friendship dances, and a marvelous performance by a band with all their instruments (flutes, drums, xylophone-like instrument, horns, etc.) all made from bamboo.    Unfortunately, still only half of our rally fleet had arrived by now, (about 17 boats) so a great many missed this wonderful 2nd welcome.  It seems though that the officials were still pleased with the turnout (not knowing that more boats were enroute), as most probably, this tiny village and bay get perhaps only 1 or maybe 2 sailboats a year, and now their harbor and village was filled with us yachties.  They certainly put out the red carpet for us.  
 
Yesterday, was more or less a day of rest for us… we needed it after the climbing of Kilamanjero-like mountain in search of giant lizards yesterday!  We caught up on some boat chores (yes, we still have those to do!), some refueling, and then in the afternoon, we took the dinghy to one of the Seventeen Islands National Park — the area in the bay here.  (Actually there are 21 islands here in this bay, but 17 is a lucky number, the calendar day of Indonesia’s independence, so they decided to call it “17 Islands”…) We found a white sandy beach loaded with sand dollars to pull the dinghy up on and we all 3 went snorkeling over a beautiful reef.  Unfortunately they still use dynamite as a form of fishing in Indonesia, and although this area is now “protected”, the damage has already been done.  Despite that, there was still much underwater beauty to behold, including the famous coral formations called Sea Roses.  For sure the water was a wonderful break from the mid-day heat.   
 
Today, we took another tour — this one a 13 hour one, and I thought the roads were treacherous on the last tour… the road on this trip WAS paved (for most of the trip), but it was more or less single lane up over 4,000 feet to the mountains with no guard rails over the sides and of course there were places where the one lane road had to turn into two as vehicles came at us from the opposite direction.  There was many a time that I tried my don’t-be-scared-technique of closing my eyes (something I do a lot of with Joe’s driving anyway!) for a minute or so until the treacherous part disappeared.  On the way up the mountain, we were on the “inside” lane, so it was not so bad, but on the way back we were on the outside — very bad (and lots of eye-closing!).  At least the last several hours of the trip back down was in the pitch black so we could not see the drop off below the side of the road.  On top of that it was a real kidney killer with the bumps (and unpaved parts), ruts, etc.  By the trip home, I was holding my side tightly, which had developed an acute pain, for most of the trip.   It was also painfully slow — as we traversed only 50 miles in our first 4 hours!  What did I say above about the “getting there being half the adventure”???? 
 
But the scenery WAS wonderful as we went through rice fields in terraces down the hills, coffee, banana, coconut, and papaya plantations.   We saw many “traditional” homes made only of bamboo, (walls, roofs structural supports, etc.), and most homes had graveyard of their ancestors out in the front yard.  Many had almost no front yard as there were so many graves; (The graves were concrete slabs on the ground surface the entire length of the body, not just a cross or gravestone, so they took up a lot of space in the yards.)  We went by a huge extinct volcano, Inerie, where we stopped to take photos, and through a small mountain town called Bajawa.  However the main purpose of the trip was to visit the traditional village called Bena.  This is one of the most traditional villages in the islands with its people living as they have for hundreds of years, following traditional beliefs and customs.  The houses, lining a ridge of a high mountain,  have high thatched roofs, with spaces filled between them with strange stone monuments–monolithic-type structures-- that no one is sure quite what they are.  On the roof of each house is a symbol of that particular clan.  The village is frequented by tour buses from all over (such as ours) so the villagers are used to people walking around taking photos of their strange houses.  Many of the houses had Ikats hanging outside for us “tourists” to admire and purchase.   
 
ON the day we were there, they were having a burial and funeral.  They had taken a whole (very large) pig (hopefully killed first) and laid him over the open flames of a large fire…  and then poured gasoline all over him to further bring up the flames.  We believe this was to burn off the pig’s hair and possibly to crispen the skin, because then we saw them remove the pig from the fire and cut him up in small chunks.  A huge pot of water was then placed over the fire and the pig chunks were placed in it to boil.  (Obviously not eating pork was not part of their religion).  While the village men were doing this, the women were tossing rice in large baskets (?to clean the rice? — not sure).   
 
On our trip home from Bena village, we stopped in the mountain town of Bajawa for lunch and to pick up some fruit and veggies in their traditional market (much better than those described above in Kupang and Alor), and then started down the mountain to a wonderful hot springs.  There we took a break from the bus ride (much needed!), donned our swimsuits, and headed for the very hot mineral springs.  There was a rock “pool” we all got in and then made our way down a small waterfall into where the hot springs joins a roaring river… so we had a combination there of hot and cold… very refreshing. 
 
We returned to Riung at about 8:30 PM, very tired, and decided to forego the “closing ceremonies” (more speeches, more traditional dancing) of the island “expo,” and head for the boat.    Tomorrow we sail off again leaving Riung for Komodo Island — so another busy day. 
 
Sunday, August 14th: Departed Riung, Flores Island for Komodo Island-- 108 miles (another overnight trip) 
We spent this morning taking down our “tent” (sun awning), putting the dinghy again on deck and preparing for another overnight trip.  We left mid day — and again have had no wind, lots of sun, but calm and fairly flat seas — and most of all no problems.   
 
We had several “evil spirit” attacks, but otherwise it was a ho-hum trip.  The local fishermen have a belief that to get rid of evil spirits, if you go very fast at a right angle to another boat and then at the last minute, turn away, that the evil spirits of your boat cannot make the quick 90 degree turn, so they instead land on the boat you are heading towards.  Mi Gitana is filling up with lots of Indonesian “evil spirits,” from all the local boat “attacks” — I guess to get rid of them, we are going to have to find a tanker to attack! 
 
Monday and Tuesday, August 15-16th: Looking for Komodo Dragons 
We had a pleasant trip arriving Monday morning, along with our friends on Pacific Bliss and 2 other sailboats.  We had a hell of a ride on a southerly current (for a change IN our direction) for the last several hours.  It was quite exciting actually with whirlpools all over and breaking waves (that looked like we were going over a reef — but actually areas where currents were meeting).  After our trip, I looked at the lined track that we traveled over ground on the computerized map and it looked like we had a drunk driver, as we made “S”s all over trying to control the boat in the 5-6 knot current and whirlpools.  (When we leave here we have to go north in the opposite direction, so we hope we can figure out how to do that and NOT be going INTO that current, less we end up going backwards!)   
 
The island of Komodo is hilly, and quite dry and desolate looking, with the main attraction being it’s gargantuan lizards (9-10 feet, 200-300+ lb monsters).  It and its neighbor island, Rinca, are the only places in the world (other than zoos) where these “dragons” inhabit.  The “dragons” are actually monitor lizards that live up to 50 years and have been around these islands for an estimated 4 million years.  They have powerful legs to allow them to sprint short distances, although their preferred method is to lie in ambush and “lurk and lurch.”  Just before attacking their prey, they often rise up on their hind legs and can deliver well-aimed blows that will knock down their prey.  Their best weapon is their sharp teeth and dagger-sharp claws, which inflict severe wounds.  However if they do not kill their victim with their attack, the bacteria in their mouth is so deadly, that if the “victim” gets away, it will shortly thereafter die from the bacteria in the bite wound — and the dragon, with it’s keen sense of smell (that cantrack prey up to 4 miles), will follow the smell to it’s now dead prey. 
 
We anchored near the park ranger station of Komodo National park, and went to see Komodos an hour before dusk.  In the past, the rangers used to feed the dragons with goats for the tourists to watch, which made it easy to view the dragons (as they used to gather at the feeding sight).  This practice was stopped many years ago by the environmentalists who wanted the dragons to live “naturally” and to hunt for their own food (deer, wild pigs/boars, occasional fish, and even water buffalo!)  They also are cannibals and will eat their own kind.  Somehow they can expand their mouth so they can practically get a whole goat down their throat at once.  We asked if there had been any known deaths to humans and our guide said the only one known of in “modern” times was a Swiss tourist who got separated from the tour group.  All they found of him several days later were some glasses and a camera.  There IS one small village on the island, made up of mostly fisherman, which makes more sense than farming or hunting while being hunted or stalked by the komodos!  (Most of the homes in the village are on stilts--another way to keep themselves safe from the dragons, or "ora" as they are called locally.) 
 
9 ft almost 300 lb. "adult" Komodo just hanging out near Ranger Station 
So since the ranger feedings have stopped, sighting the dragons by the tourists is no guaranteed.  (After our expedition to see the Komodo-like Mbo in Riung, we had heard this tale before!) Anyway we hired a park guide, "armed" with a large (5 ft) forked stick for komodo protetion and set off on our half hour -- this time on level ground and shaded, so not so hot -- walk to the “watering hole” (a dry river bed, actually) where the komodos sometimes hang out.  Our guide was  Unfortunately, none were “hanging out” there, but we did see several wild boar/pigs, and deer very close to us.  And at the ranger station there was one big Komodo (and a baby up a tree) just “hanging out” for our photo enjoyment.   (The babies have to hide out and live in trees until they are bigger, as the adults will actually eat the babies if they get the opportunity!)  Ironically, the park has a study going on now being conducted by our hometown San Diego Zoo.  Many of the dragons have large collars around their necks with built in GPS Units so their activities can be tracked. 
 
As mentioned above, there is one small village on the island of Komodo, and the local people have found out that tourists like souvenirs … so the beach outside of the ranger station was lined with stalls of the villagers selling carved wooden komodos in various sizes, komodo teeth strung on a necklace, and pearl necklaces (not sure what the pearls have to do with the Island of Komodo, but they certainly had a lot of them!)  We were able to escape the hoard of salesmen that evening when we returned from our dragon hunt with “promises” to think about it overnight and “possibly” return in the morning to purchase goodies. 
 
The next morning, i.e., today, instead of leaving (like our cruising buddy boats), we decided to just hang out for another day — as a sort of lay day.  We have just been on the go with so many tours and activities, and this anchorage is so calm and beautiful, that we decided a rest day is called for.  Joe did some things on the computer, I caught up on my website and journal, and Ross decided to have another walk in the park to look for more komodos.  It didn’t take long for the villagers to see that we were not planning to come back to buy their beachside souvenirs, so they loaded up their canoes and headed to our boat.  We were just making some “deals” with one canoe, when quickly approaching from the horizon we saw a fleet more of them heading our way.  Before long the locals were (much to our dismay) crawling on our boat all poking in our faces handfuls of strands of pearls, komodo carvings and t-shirts.  We eventually (and quickly now) picked out our “souvenirs” and told them no more money — and most of them left.  A few hanger- on-ers persisted and I told them again “no more money” — but I did have some old t-shirts and ball caps I would trade them for shells and more pearls, and the bartering began.  They left happy (finally) and I had more junk that I didn’t need!  An hour later another canoe approached but this one had 2 lobsters–One giant one with a tail enough to feed 2 and a smaller one.  We “found” some more money and purchased them… with the idea that they will be a perfect birthday dinner for Joe’s 65th birthday tomorrow! 
 
Ross also returned and was more successful on his 2nd day of dragon exploration, seeing several komodos in the wild, plus several more at the ranger station.  We also viewed at sunset from our boat several large wild boars searching for food along the beach.   
 
Thursday, August 18th: Blue Lagoon on Banta Island  
We left Komodo early hoping to be going with the current north — and although that did not happen (it seems to constantly be a southerly current), we at least did not hit is so severe and had about a 1 knot current against us.  We only had a 35-mile trip today just going a bit north and then over the top of Komodo Island to a small island a bit northwest called Banta.  We even were teased with a bit of wind from the right direction and got to sail a bit before it moved around to an un-sailable direction.  We knew getting into the lagoon at Banta with it’s small reef fringed entrance would be a bit of a challenge, but didn’t know how bad of one it would be.  We have come to rely a lot on our computerized charting (we have paper charts also as back up, but they are never as reliable as the computer) which shows our boat’s position from a GPS hook-up on the chart on the computer.  When we were approaching the entrance to Banta, we could see 3 boats already at anchor in the lagoon and it looked like we should be turning in.  But we have learned many a time that looks are deceiving and that we should, in general, follow our waypoints (latitude and longitude coordinates given by people who have made the entrance before us), instruments, and the computer charts; AND our electronic information said we needed to proceed further before turning into the anchorage.  However, eventually we had gone further, and somehow were still NOT at our turning in waypoint, and now the boats at anchor were no longer even in sight.  So we first thought perhaps our GPS was not working, so Joe hooked up the computer to a spare GPS (we have 4 on board) — same results.  So then we thought perhaps the computer imaging was not working and so we changed computers.  And the same results.  My compass outside (as well as my eyeballs) told us we were going North, however the GPS showed us going South.  At the same time we had “boiling water” all around us, breaking waves, and suddenly our depth meter (which had previously read >200 feet deep) read 15 feet and was dropping quickly — so we thought perhaps we were on a reef!  Mass confusion!  I turned us out away from the island quickly due to fear of hitting a reef, and again the depth now read >200 feet.  So while Joe was below switching around equipment and trying to troubleshoot, I was at the wheel trying to keep the nose of the boat into the wind (which was now howling at 20 knots!) and go slow (so we wouldn’t get any further off our path).  What eventually we figured out was we were being swept backwards by a 6-8 knot current, so that although our compass (and the boat’s nose) were pointing north, we WERE actually heading south, which is what the GPS indicated.  The 15 ft. reading on the depth meter was due to the boiling water (from the current), which was causing so much bubbling under the boat, the meter thought it was the bottom of the ocean.  Anyway now we had a big problem, trying to get back north into our entrance point going against a 6-8 knot current and going INTO 20 knots of wind.  We revved the engine as hard as it would go and could only go about ½ knot forward and then we got a sail up and were able to go finally up to about 1 knot.  It took us only a few minutes to slide backwards in the current, but took almost 1-½ hours to get back to our entrance point to the lagoon.  At that point, one of the boats in the anchorage on the radio “talked” us in between the reefs and we, with a big relief, got anchored easily.  What an experience — a totally new one for us.    We, shortly after anchoring, joined the other cruisers in the anchorage aboard one of their boats for a much needed and deserved cocktail and exchanged “sea stories.”   
 
After our drink aboard the neighbor’s boat, we headed back to Joe’s birthday lobster barbecue, some champagne, and a double layer cake I had made earlier in the day.  Not much of a birthday, but we will celebrate again when we get to Bali. 
 
Today, the first thing we had to do was dive on our anchor as it seemed after all the excitement of getting into the lagoon yesterday, we managed also to anchor, unbeknownst to us, on and around a coral reef and our anchor chain was wrapped around a bommie.  It is a shame that so many boats come into this anchorage and we all contribute to destroying the reef below.  In most “civilized” countries with beautiful reefs, they have either buoyed off reefs or install mooring buoys for boats to tie up to, so boats don’t anchor on them.  Not so in 3rd world countries.  Anyway Joe had to don his scuba gear with tank and go down to unwrap the chain from the bommie, and then we moved the boat to a different spot.  First time we’ve had to do that!  (Too many unpleasant firsts in the last 2 days!)    We did have a wonderful rest-of-the-day snorkeling, shelling along the beach, and just relaxing.  And that is exactly what we plan to do again tomorrow — minus the re-anchoring! 
 
Tuesday, August 23rd:  Banta to Lombok Island — a little “Bali”–another 2-day/2-night trip! 
On Saturday (Aug 20th), we left Banta’s beautiful lagoon and carefully navigated our way out again between the reefs heading for our next destination of Moyo, another island just NW of a large island called Sumbawa, renowned for it’s diving and snorkeling — a marine park.  For a while we had a nice strong wind and with just one sail up, we were flying fast, although not comfortably --as with the strong winds, came the big 9-10 ft seas on the beam, so we were being tossed around quite a bit.  This was to be another one over-nighter.  Unfortunately the next morning, when we got to the anchorage waypoint we had been given for this marine “paradise”, the wind was still blowing at 20+ knots, there was no visible beach, there were breaking waves and huge swells all around us, and we could see no real protection in the area from the wind or the waves.  And NONE of that looked like it would be conducive for snorkeling, plus it certainly did not seem like an idyllic anchorage… so we did a U-turn out of there and decided just to head straight to our next destination, the western side of Lombok.  It would be another all day and overnight sail and we would need to go slow (not much of a problem, usually for Mi Gitana!) so we could again time our arrival for just after daybreak.  
 
It was a fairly uneventful day and night sail with a beautiful full moon, and volcanoes lining the shore of the islands we passed.  At daybreak, Joe woke me up early from my sleep (on his watch) to help him outside.  We were surrounded by literally hundreds (300-500) of tiny outrigger canoes with small upside down triangle shaped multicolored sails heading west as we were heading south right in the middle of them.  It was as if they were in some sunrise spinnaker sailing race with all the colors around us.   Although we were frightened that we wouldn’t be able to maneuver around these tiny boats, they seemed to know exactly their speed in relation to ours and they easily passed in front of our bow or just behind our stern, but some close enough to reach out and shake hands.  After we realized they were going (and able) to maneuver around US, we sat back and enjoyed the scenery of it all with them heading towards a huge volcano on the horizon (Bali) and a full moon still out, and the sun coming up.  It was breathtaking! 
 
We anchored in Sengiggi Bay (island of Lombok) right next to a huge resort Sheraton Hotel on the beach.  Other than the private section of the Sheraton’s beach, the beach was filled with these small outrigger fishing boats that we had seen earlier.  We later learned that most of the boats depart at sunset and return just after sunrise, making us super-glad that we had again not been trying to navigate our way in this area in the dark! 
 
 
This west side of Lombok is touted to be the new “Bali” — just 50 miles to the east of Bali.  The area has been developed for tourists, complete with beachfront 4-5 star hotels, pretty beaches, and hawkers selling their wares along the beach and streets.  What a culture shock from the rest of the Indonesian islands we have so far visited… but it is also nice.  We went to shore and had huge cheeseburgers and club sandwiches poolside at the Sheraton, and I even had a great frozen pina colada!  Civilized paradise!  We then were even able to find an ATM machine (none at other places we’ve stopped in Indonesia would take our bank card), a bakery with real loaves of bread and fresh milk (other things we’ve seen none of since Darwin!), etc. 
 
This island is 90% Muslim  and mostly inhabited by indigenous Sasak (hill) people. Tourism has been their #1 industry since the 1980’s but since the political turmoil, Bali Bombings, and economic crisis of the last 10 years, that has suffered greatly.  Their other main income is from farming (rice coffee, and as of lately tobacco as a big cash crop.) 
 
We’ve managed to have some time here for internet (first really since Darwin!), a manicure and pedicure along the beach for me, some nice meals ashore, and a full day of touring around the area.  For our tour, we hired a driver and an English-speaking guide for the day for around $22.00 — quite a bargain.  It seems typically that villages (that are not farmers) “specialize” in different things… one village we went through made nothing but red clay roof tiles, another specialized in bamboo furniture, and another in clay pottery (Banyumulek village) and another in weaving.  We stopped in the latter 2 villages and of course I got some souvenir pots (different in that they finely wove basketry INTO the clay pots), and bought another ikat, which was woven with beautiful bright colors (purple, cobalt blue, bright pink and green) in geometric patterns with lots of gold threads interspersed.  We then went to visit several Hindu temples (Pura Meru, Pura Lingsar, Surandi) and the Mayura Water Palace — all built in 1700’s   They were somewhat disappointing though, very run-down and in bad need of restoration.  Once away from the beach and the sea breezes, the air became unbearably hot and humid, and with the intense tropical sun, spending too much time meandering amongst the temples was also not a pleasant experience, so we quickly took advantage of the photo ops and then returned to our driver and car to continue on our journey.   
 
Rice Paddy on Side of Road 
We did have one bad experience in Lombok. As mentioned above, the beach and streets were lined with “hawkers” peddling their tourist souvenirs.  They were really relentless (100 times worse than any place in Mexico) and would not leave you alone if you ever even dared to make eye contact with them or what they were selling.  They would follow you for blocks not taking “no” for an answer.  It was like walking a gauntlet everywhere you went.  Usually they were not allowed to follow you INTO a restaurant or hotel so that was your escape.  On our first day there, one lady offered to do a pedicure for me (mentioned above) and I agreed.  She also asked (nicely) if we had laundry to do which all 3 of us did have plenty of from our long journey.  Thinking it might be cheaper than in Bali, we agreed to bring our laundry to shore.  Anyway to make a long story short, we agreed on a price in advance of 55,000 rupiahs (or approximately $5.50).  They promised to deliver it back to us that evening, which they did.  Only instead of $5.50, they said we owed them $55.00 US!!  Of course we said “no way” --that was ridiculous. [Note, we had about 2 loads of laundry, if it were being done in a laundromat, which at Australian standards — a lot more expensive than Indonesian standards–would have cost about 8-9$ to have done, so I had felt 5-6$ in Indonesia was “reasonable.”] When they started to grab and run with our laundry, (picturing them taking off with our only bed sheets, and most of our sailing clothes!), I basically had to tackle our laundry throwing my body over it to reclaim it from the fleeing laundry lady… and then it got ugly with a lot of yelling and screaming.  We eventually had a restaurant owner call the police for us as the laundry mafia man would not go away, even after we offered him $15.00 — about 3 times the agreed on price.  He said he had witnesses as to the agreed on price, etc.  Unfortunately the policeman could not understand a word of English and so only listened to what the laundry mafia man said to him.  By now we also had a crowd of about 20-30 beach hawkers watching in on the fight.  Eventually we got an interpreter and a “negotiator” and we ended up paying $20.000  (now 4 X the agreed upon price) just to get him (as well as the rest of the crowd to go away.  It was quite a stressful ordeal, leaving a bitter taste in our mouth.  And the phrase “it all comes out in the laundry,” is appropriate for this story — as we felt we had gotten previously good “deals” on purchased souvenirs, on our driver/car and tour around Lombok, etc., but were then taken to the cleaners (so to speak) with our laundry–counterbalancing all the money we had “saved!” 
 
Thursday, August 25th: Arrival in Bali 
We had a nice trip over to Bali, negotiating through some currents (mostly in our favor) and overfalls (whirlpools), arriving at the Bali Marina about 2:30 PM today.  The marina here is very dilapidated but it is the only marina around and right now space is in much demand.  They don’t take reservations and this is their busiest time of year.  Most of our 70 rally boats have been arriving for the last few weeks with more coming in behind us and there is NO space here at all.  Some of the early arrivers lucked out and of course, we are all now hoping that they will soon be departing leaving space for us and others.  However we got permission from our friends on Pacific Bliss, a catamaran that DID get a space here (arrived last week) and is end-tied to a long dock… to tie up to the side of them.  We have fenders between their boat and ours and in order to get to the dock, we have to walk over their boat, but as a temporary arrangement, it is better than being at anchor.  We’ve been at anchor now for almost 5 weeks — so we are more than ready to be tied up to electricity, water, and to be able to go ashore without the use of a dinghy — to not worry about tides and currents and anchors dragging, running the generator twice a day, etc.  So even with the not-so-great-marina and having to side tie to another boat, we are just glad to be here — back in civilization again, etc.   
 
Coming to Bali has been my cruising dream.  I was first here in 1979 on a one-week vacation (while assigned in Korea as a nurse), and fell in love with this island.  Reluctant to return to Bali, in fear that it would not live up to my wonderful memories, a girlfriend, Mary Anne (a fellow Navy nurse I was stationed with in the Philippines) talked me into going with her for another vacation in 1988 back to Bali.  And much to my wonderment, Bali was just as beautiful, just as exotic, and remained as one of my favorite places I had visited in the world.  So now I return here again 18 years later and am anxious to revisit my memories and previous experiences, and love-affair with this island…this time with someone I love, my husband, Joe. 
 
Bali also marks the official end of the rally with the closing dinner next week on the 30th.  We will say our goodbyes to many cruisers that we will not see again as they will soon be heading off to Thailand the then into the Indian Ocean, as we stay another season in Malaysia, and Thailand (next year). 
 
I am going to end this “chapter” for now and will continue next month with the finale of this year’s cruising season — with our explorations of Bali and continue on from here to Borneo.   
 
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