This morning we recieved an email from one of our best friends Jack saying that Marsha had passed away. She had cancer and put up a good fight. We spent the morning emailing and making skype calls. It is time like this we feel that we are too far away from our family and extended families.
Marsha has been a great friend to us and our children having know them all as babies. Our daughter feels like Marsha was a second Mum to her. We will miss Marsha but have great memories of our times together.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Busy Times
After sundowners on the beach we had an early evening and then an early start the next morning. We were off around 6am with some of the other boats. Our plan was to sail about 30 miles up the north coast of Flores Island and had an anchorage that looked ok on the charts. Arriving at this place we decided it was not that great and moved on another 30 miles to an island called Pulu Besar where the reports were for a better place to stop. There are a lot of reefs here and most are not well charted probably because of the earthquakes and tsunamis that have caused a lot of damage to all of this coast. The light was not good getting after 1600 and we managed to tag a bit of the bottom! No damage just a little reminder to pay attention. We stayed the next day and went ashore with Callisto. The village is Muslim so the girls wore sarongs around their waists. We were met by the chief who took us on a guided tour of the village. We ate the fruit of the cashew nut which was kind of peach in taste. Lots of kids were with us and this was a poor village so we gave them lots of pencils and pens etc and came back in the afternoon with clothing and old shoes and sandals. They appreciate anything but ask for nothing.
Monday morning we left and headed to Mausambi which is a small village that looked ok for an overnight anchorage. There were three rally boats there when we arrived and one had made contact with a local guy named Vincent who spoke pretty good english. A few more boats arrived and Vincent wanted everyone to meet on the beach at 1600 so he could show us a new head house for the village. We did this and about 20 of us yachties followed him up the beach and through the forest and across a stream to the village where everyone was waiting for our arrival. It was just getting dark and the men were invited up onto a covered platform with a thatched roof and sat cross legged and were served a dinner of rice and I think goat in a broth. Meat is very special for them so this was an honor for us. Marian very quickly became a vegetarian and enjoyed rice and cooked veggies!! After this came the palm wine and some form of rocket fuel that we drank sparingly. After this we all danced around a pole in a circle holding hands to the beat of drums.? You never know what is going to happen travelling in Indonesia.
The next day we stayed and in the evening Vincent put on a BBQ at his home and BBQ'd a pig. It was very nice but with all the yachties in a small town we managed to drink all the Bintang beer. Did I say it is very hot here? Well it sure is. Even Marian is drinking beer.
A very early moninng with us up at 0330 to get in a Bemo which is a truck with a couple of benches on either side for a two hour trip up to Kalimatu at about 5000 feet above sea level. It is a national park and the main attraction are three crater lakes all different colours. One is blue the other is green and the third is black. Apparently they do change colour from time to time. The reason we left so early is to be able to see all this before the clouds build up over the mountain. It was a wonderful sight and worth the discomfort of the ride. The area is mountainous and the valleys are full of rice paddies. Miles and miles of them! We went through small towns that had wonderful veggie markets and we stopped and stocked up. We got back to the boat around 1600, had a swim and shower and around 20 of us went to Callisto to celebrate Michael's 60th Birthday. Lots of food and talk of the day with a glass or two of wine. Being a long day and most of us being over the age we were all back on our boats and in bed by 2100.
Monday morning we left and headed to Mausambi which is a small village that looked ok for an overnight anchorage. There were three rally boats there when we arrived and one had made contact with a local guy named Vincent who spoke pretty good english. A few more boats arrived and Vincent wanted everyone to meet on the beach at 1600 so he could show us a new head house for the village. We did this and about 20 of us yachties followed him up the beach and through the forest and across a stream to the village where everyone was waiting for our arrival. It was just getting dark and the men were invited up onto a covered platform with a thatched roof and sat cross legged and were served a dinner of rice and I think goat in a broth. Meat is very special for them so this was an honor for us. Marian very quickly became a vegetarian and enjoyed rice and cooked veggies!! After this came the palm wine and some form of rocket fuel that we drank sparingly. After this we all danced around a pole in a circle holding hands to the beat of drums.? You never know what is going to happen travelling in Indonesia.
The next day we stayed and in the evening Vincent put on a BBQ at his home and BBQ'd a pig. It was very nice but with all the yachties in a small town we managed to drink all the Bintang beer. Did I say it is very hot here? Well it sure is. Even Marian is drinking beer.
A very early moninng with us up at 0330 to get in a Bemo which is a truck with a couple of benches on either side for a two hour trip up to Kalimatu at about 5000 feet above sea level. It is a national park and the main attraction are three crater lakes all different colours. One is blue the other is green and the third is black. Apparently they do change colour from time to time. The reason we left so early is to be able to see all this before the clouds build up over the mountain. It was a wonderful sight and worth the discomfort of the ride. The area is mountainous and the valleys are full of rice paddies. Miles and miles of them! We went through small towns that had wonderful veggie markets and we stopped and stocked up. We got back to the boat around 1600, had a swim and shower and around 20 of us went to Callisto to celebrate Michael's 60th Birthday. Lots of food and talk of the day with a glass or two of wine. Being a long day and most of us being over the age we were all back on our boats and in bed by 2100.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
A day or two off
After the arrival of Declan we just stayed at anchor for the day, went for a walk and had a quiet evening. Marian was up during the previous night texting Natalie which I was oblivious to and slept through the night. We feel very happy for them but do feel a little guilty not being home at this time. Oh well someone has to do this sailing stuff and we are enjoying Indonesia. Everywhere we go the children call out Hi Mister and know who Justin Beiber (sp) is? |Nice as all that is it is good to get away and find some peace and quiet. That is what we have done sailing just ten miles back to the little white sandbar reef, swimming and snorkeling and reading. This morning there are just five of us here' the sun is shining and there is a nice little breeze. We will stay here for the day then leave and head westward tomorrow. No idea where but to the west.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Lambata
We motored out of the inlet at first light to make the northerly current out of the pass. We did this OK and then the winds came up and we were able to sail for the rest of the day. We anchored at a small village called Balurin on Lebata island. We were with Callisto and Pakia Mist (Mike and Gloria who live just up the road from us in Ocean Park) and had a lot of canoes with very young children out to great us. They were very well behaved and were happy with the pencils we gave them. They were all smiles and laughter. We had a happy hour on Kilkea and then a good nights sleep.
The next morning we along with Callisto went to town for a walk about. We were surrounded by at least 50 children who were delighted to show us around. This is a very poor village and they do not get many visitors especially ones who sail in. They did not ask for anything and were delightful. Pakia Mist must have had 12 or so of the children on board teaching and learning from each other. Mike took some of them for a dinghy ride and there were many shouts of joy as I would doubt that any of these kids had gone that fast is a boat before. It was an enjoyable time and we finished off the day with a pot luck dinner on Callisto.
Saturday the 11th of Aug we went just a few miles to where some of the other boats were anchored out on a reef. We spent the day there but the reef was small and too many boats were there so we moved on with Sea Mist the next morning over to another reef behind a small atoll of white sand with clean clear water with all the shades of blue you can imagine. We started with just the two of us but then five others arrived but there was lots of room. We finally went swimming and snorkeling for the first time in a long time and it was really good with lots of fishes and some beautiful coral. That evening all the yachties gathered on the sand bar with snacks and drinks to watch the sunset. Very nice place.
On Sunday morning we went for a swim and snorkel then sailed over to Lambata Island to the town of Lewoleba where most of the Sail Indonesia boat are anchored. We did this because we wanted to have better Internet as our daughter Natalie is due to have here second child at any moment.
On Monday morning we joined Callisto for a day trip to a traditional whaling village on the south side of the island. Although it is only 37km away it took three hours in each direction as the road, if you would call it that, is like driving up a riverbed. The village only gets 30 visitors a year so again we are rather unique. The beach area has all these thatched roofed boat houses that have in them what else but boats. These are about thirty feet long with woven sails that are used for fishing and if a whale comes along they will go for that as well. We don't like the thought of killing a whale but for these people it is a way of life that goes back a long way in time. There is nothing high teck about it and there is great danger for the hunters that go after a whale. The whale is shared by everyone in the village and possibly beyond. When we were there they had killed their second whale of the year and there was whale meat and blubber hanging drying in the sun. Surprisingly there was little smell or flies about. The men do most of the fishing at night and sleep in the day and the women do all the day stuff of gardening and running their house hold affairs. It was a very rough ride back to the main town with the back tire of the 4x breaking its studs off and falling off the truck. The driver and guide were very adapt at fixing the problem as we assume this happens fairly often and after 45 minutes we were on our way. That evening there was a big reception and yes more dancing and singing which were by far the best we have seen and the dinner was very good so all in all a very good day.
Last night Marian was up texting Natalie and things were happening. At 16.05 Calgary time on the 14th of August we welcomed Declan Paul Marshall into our family. He weighed in at 9lbs 10 oz. Both mother and babe are well and we are delighted. We had our first visit with them on skype just a few hours after his birth. Today we will just chill and enjoy some quiet time before we move westward tomorrow.
The next morning we along with Callisto went to town for a walk about. We were surrounded by at least 50 children who were delighted to show us around. This is a very poor village and they do not get many visitors especially ones who sail in. They did not ask for anything and were delightful. Pakia Mist must have had 12 or so of the children on board teaching and learning from each other. Mike took some of them for a dinghy ride and there were many shouts of joy as I would doubt that any of these kids had gone that fast is a boat before. It was an enjoyable time and we finished off the day with a pot luck dinner on Callisto.
Saturday the 11th of Aug we went just a few miles to where some of the other boats were anchored out on a reef. We spent the day there but the reef was small and too many boats were there so we moved on with Sea Mist the next morning over to another reef behind a small atoll of white sand with clean clear water with all the shades of blue you can imagine. We started with just the two of us but then five others arrived but there was lots of room. We finally went swimming and snorkeling for the first time in a long time and it was really good with lots of fishes and some beautiful coral. That evening all the yachties gathered on the sand bar with snacks and drinks to watch the sunset. Very nice place.
On Sunday morning we went for a swim and snorkel then sailed over to Lambata Island to the town of Lewoleba where most of the Sail Indonesia boat are anchored. We did this because we wanted to have better Internet as our daughter Natalie is due to have here second child at any moment.
On Monday morning we joined Callisto for a day trip to a traditional whaling village on the south side of the island. Although it is only 37km away it took three hours in each direction as the road, if you would call it that, is like driving up a riverbed. The village only gets 30 visitors a year so again we are rather unique. The beach area has all these thatched roofed boat houses that have in them what else but boats. These are about thirty feet long with woven sails that are used for fishing and if a whale comes along they will go for that as well. We don't like the thought of killing a whale but for these people it is a way of life that goes back a long way in time. There is nothing high teck about it and there is great danger for the hunters that go after a whale. The whale is shared by everyone in the village and possibly beyond. When we were there they had killed their second whale of the year and there was whale meat and blubber hanging drying in the sun. Surprisingly there was little smell or flies about. The men do most of the fishing at night and sleep in the day and the women do all the day stuff of gardening and running their house hold affairs. It was a very rough ride back to the main town with the back tire of the 4x breaking its studs off and falling off the truck. The driver and guide were very adapt at fixing the problem as we assume this happens fairly often and after 45 minutes we were on our way. That evening there was a big reception and yes more dancing and singing which were by far the best we have seen and the dinner was very good so all in all a very good day.
Last night Marian was up texting Natalie and things were happening. At 16.05 Calgary time on the 14th of August we welcomed Declan Paul Marshall into our family. He weighed in at 9lbs 10 oz. Both mother and babe are well and we are delighted. We had our first visit with them on skype just a few hours after his birth. Today we will just chill and enjoy some quiet time before we move westward tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Alor
Kupang is a very big and dirty city. We did a tour for the day with a group and were taken to a man who makes a musical instrument called a sasandu/sasando? It is a twenty string harp with the strings stretched across bamboo. There were three of these in a wrapped palm frond. The music was quiet enchanting and the makers put on a very good demonstration. The rest of the day we were shuttled around the area in the back of Bemo's which are small vans that you scrunch yourself into and hope the driver does not go over too many pot holes. We went to the museum but it was mostly closed and then to a Tikat place that makes weaving and is one of the specialities of this area but it looked like the building had collapsed and no weaving today!! Then it was off to see some monkeys. It was a very hot day and none of us were drinking enough water so we will have to remember to take more with us when we go out.
The next day there was another big dinner and reception with again lots of singing and dancing with the locals dressed up in there traditional outfits. The people that we have met all are very nice and want so much to please. They will always answer yes to any question even if they do not understand the question so we can see a lot of patience will be required for our travels here.
On Saturday a number of boats left Kupang. We left along with Sea Mist and Callisto and sailed up the Timor coast about forty miles and anchored for the night. It was a good days sail with enough wind to move the boats along around 6 knots. The next morning we uped anchor at 0400 and set off for Alor and the town of Kalabahi with a population of around sixty thousand. The distance was just ninety miles so we felt we would be able to make it before sunset. The first thing we noticed was that we had an adverse current of two and a half knots which did not let go until we were very close to Alor. This now meant we would not arrive until after sunset but there was worse to come. Once we were into the channel between Alor and Pantar we ran into currents against us of over six knots. This meant that we were actually going backwards at one point. On Pantar there are two active volcanoes both of spuming out fumes and ash so along with that and the evening fires the locals use to do there cooking it was rather hazy. The only way to get out of the current was to use the back eddies on the east side of the channel but the problem was that it was dark and our electronic charts are not accurate here as the charting has not been updated. We used the radar and worked our way up the east side of the channel ooking for back eddies which worked fine and the moon finally came up giving us some visibility but we could not paint or see if there were any mooring buoys or debris in the water. We could here the waves breaking on the shore. It took us about three hours to go seven miles up to the turn off into inlet that leads to Kalabahi. Once around the corner we lost the current and all was well and the radar painted all the pearl farms and other bamboo rafts that seem to be anchored all over the place. We got in at 1130 pm so it took us nineteen and a half hours!!!
The next day there was another big dinner and reception with again lots of singing and dancing with the locals dressed up in there traditional outfits. The people that we have met all are very nice and want so much to please. They will always answer yes to any question even if they do not understand the question so we can see a lot of patience will be required for our travels here.
On Saturday a number of boats left Kupang. We left along with Sea Mist and Callisto and sailed up the Timor coast about forty miles and anchored for the night. It was a good days sail with enough wind to move the boats along around 6 knots. The next morning we uped anchor at 0400 and set off for Alor and the town of Kalabahi with a population of around sixty thousand. The distance was just ninety miles so we felt we would be able to make it before sunset. The first thing we noticed was that we had an adverse current of two and a half knots which did not let go until we were very close to Alor. This now meant we would not arrive until after sunset but there was worse to come. Once we were into the channel between Alor and Pantar we ran into currents against us of over six knots. This meant that we were actually going backwards at one point. On Pantar there are two active volcanoes both of spuming out fumes and ash so along with that and the evening fires the locals use to do there cooking it was rather hazy. The only way to get out of the current was to use the back eddies on the east side of the channel but the problem was that it was dark and our electronic charts are not accurate here as the charting has not been updated. We used the radar and worked our way up the east side of the channel ooking for back eddies which worked fine and the moon finally came up giving us some visibility but we could not paint or see if there were any mooring buoys or debris in the water. We could here the waves breaking on the shore. It took us about three hours to go seven miles up to the turn off into inlet that leads to Kalabahi. Once around the corner we lost the current and all was well and the radar painted all the pearl farms and other bamboo rafts that seem to be anchored all over the place. We got in at 1130 pm so it took us nineteen and a half hours!!!
Musical harp Sassandu
The last two days we have been walking around the town and did a tour with Callisto up to a traditional village and out in the country side. This area has a much better feel with good roads and tidy homes and gardens. Again we are greeted in a very friendly manner with many curious of where we are from and what we think of there country. Last night we were all bused to the governors house for a dinner with more dancing and speeches. Ten of the cruisers were picked out at the ceremony in the morning that welcomed us all to Alor, another big deal with lots more ceremonial dancing, and were all dressed in traditional costumes. Very ornate with big head dresses etc. Today we are just going to do boat stuff and have a quiet day but will do a walk around town again. Tomorrow we will be off and will try to find a quiet anchorage and just chill for a couple of days before we arrive for the next welcoming ceremonies at Lembata.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Kupang Indonesia
We did not get out of the lock until 11.00 so were at the back of the fleet leaving Darwin. There were 80 boats heading for Kupang and we managed to pass most of the slower boats before sundown and then worked our way through more through the night. Fortunately we had a big moon so it was not to bad and everyone obeyed the rules of the road. The first day was fine with light winds but enough to sail with and by midnight the winds picked up to around 20k so good sailing. We had winds of around 15k for the rest of the sail which was great as in years past many of the boats had to motor all the way to Indonesia. As it turned out for us we actually slowed down so that we would arrive in the daylight hours. We did that and arrived at 0900 on Tuesday morning local time so three days and 473 miles behind us. There were about twenty boats ahead of us and we anchored outside of Teddys bar where all the Sail Indonesia folks were set up to welcome us. The procedure was to wait on the boat until customs and quarantine arrived and then to go ashore for immigration etc. Well this is Indonesia and I think it would be called organized chaos. We had the customs people arrive to us right away while others who arrived ahead of us waiting most of the day to be cleared. Lots and lots of paper with much signing and thankfully we had a boat stamp which saved us a lot of time. By noon we had finished and headed for the bar for big beers (500ml) that cost 30000 rupiah each which is about 3 dollars so pretty good. After three of these it was time to go back to the boat and have a nap as we had not that much sleep for the last three days. We napped for two hours then back to shore for the evening festivities of much cultural dancing with all the costumes and music. The meal was very good and the people we have met are very friendly and happy.
There are boat boys on the beach who look after the dinghy when we go ashore for a small fee. They grab the dinghy when we land and four guys just pick it up and hike it up the beach and then back down when we want to back to Kilkea. The fee is four dollars a day for as many times as you like to come and go. Today was getting online and having our phone re carded. This took a lot of time and patience for Marian who is Kilkea's teck person. Anyway we are now online and looking forward to another good nights sleep.
There are boat boys on the beach who look after the dinghy when we go ashore for a small fee. They grab the dinghy when we land and four guys just pick it up and hike it up the beach and then back down when we want to back to Kilkea. The fee is four dollars a day for as many times as you like to come and go. Today was getting online and having our phone re carded. This took a lot of time and patience for Marian who is Kilkea's teck person. Anyway we are now online and looking forward to another good nights sleep.
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