> 28Sept2010

Orangutans

We made the 400 mile passage from Lovina, Bali to Kumai Kalimantan (formerly Borneo) in 53 hours. We had about 15 hours of good sailing but had to motor sail in light winds the rest of the way. At night off the large island of Madura (adjacent to Java) we encountered lots of small difficult to see fishing boats along with several large commercial ships. A warmup for the Malacca Straights! Fortunately crew members Kent-Harris, Sally-Christine and Randy avoided all of the obstacles.

Kumai, at 3 degrees South of the equator and the base for the Orangutan tours, is about 5 miles up a tidal river. Once a mile inside the mouth of the river depths run 20 to 40 ft but for 5 miles approaching the river and the entrance the depths are from 13 to 20 ft. if you are in the �"channel�" which is not marked. And as we found out our charts are off about 100 meters. Fortunately the bottom is mud and our keel did not find it although we came very close once when the depth sounder read 0 ft. below the keel. We went into reverse fast and got back into the deeper water post haste.

Orangutans live in tropical jungle. Unfortunately due to heavy logging of tropical jungle they, and many other species, are endangered and only live, other than in zoos, in two places, both within Indonesia. Several years ago Indonesia designated a large chunk of mostly jungle up a side river near Kumai, as the Tanjung Puting National Park. There are three research camps in the park where visitors can closely observe Orangutans. 10 to 40 kilometers up river, the camps are accessible by river boat. We were accompanied by Yono our guide, Ian our captain plus a cook took a �"klotok�" Indonesian boat for a three day trip. The boat, about 36 ft long and 10 feet wide, served as our transportation, restaurant and accommodation for two nights and three days.

The DNA of Orangutans is 97% the same as humans. Orangutans are smart and learn by watching humans. Among other things, they have been known to steal canoes from the locals and paddle them away! The first orangutan we saw, a female carrying a baby was very friendly. She came up to Kent-Harris and took his hand to hold. Then he did the same with Sally-Christine while dad took photos. We all had a number of amazing encounters with these amazing animals so similar to humans.

There are also macaque and probiscus monkeys as well as gibbons, wild boars, yellow- orange-blue kingfishers, and hornbill birds all of which we observed. An amazing three days during which we also had lots of time to read, play backgammon and just relax while the crew took care of the boat and meals. A very nice break.

We are on our way to Batam, 600 miles away and our last stop in Indonesia. From there we will head to huket Thailand via Malaysia bypassing Singapore.