Silolona
23 August 2010
Randy Repass
> 23Aug2010
Silolona
When we were in the Banda spice islands, we met Patti Seery, an American lady who has lived in Indonesia for 30 years. She speaks Indonesian and has been a great source of local information on many topics. She built a 160 ft wood traditional Indonesian sailing ship to be used for very high level charters. Silolona was built with top quality materials using traditional methods and launched in June 2004 just a few months after we launched Convergence. Silolona, fortunately for us between guests, was anchored at Labuan Badjo about 10 miles east of Komodo Island.
Patti invited us for dinner aboard and flew over from Bali where she lives to join us.
Patti sent her launch over to Convergence to pick us up. We were welcomed aboard by Patti and her crew of 17 all in matching Indonesian crew garb. We were greeted with a fresh cool juice drink and cold towels. Next hors d'oeuvre s and drinks were offered on the main deck which covers about 2/3 of the yacht. This deck is where most meals are served, and guests spend most of their time. Silolona has three large spacious and tastefully decorated cabins plus two smaller guest cabins. The yacht is typically charted by families who bring their grand kids. Charter fee is $13,000 per day and people charter for from 10 days to three weeks. The yacht is also used by folks involved in marine conservation here in Indonesia. There are complete facilities for snorkeling and diving which due the the very high quality dive sits are prime activities here. There are kayaks, several launches, and water skis. Take a look at HYPERLINK "http://www.silolona.com/" www.silolona.com for more photos and information.
After a complete tour of the yacht, we were served a gourmet vegetarian Indonesian ricestoffel. Patti offered Tim a steak, his first in well over a month, as he had been treated to Sally-Christine's superb vegetarian cooking while aboard Convergence. Tim while almost converted to being a fish eating vegetarian, graciously accepted his steak cooked medium rare.
Our experience aboard Silolona is one we will long remember!
We are enjoying several other anchorages in the area. We were well ahead of the planned Sail Indonesia events when we arrived here but several other yachts have arrived while we have been here.
We will spend a few more days here then head to Bali where we plan to arrive by September 1.