Showing Up At The Wrong Party
22 August 2017
Kim
At Maumere, we caught up to the Rally... actually, the 'other' Rally (two are running concurrently). As luck would have it, the anchorage off Sea World Dive Shop happened to be one of their Rally stops and we arrived just in time to wedge ourselves into a tightly packed flotilla of boats.
An onshore afternoon wind created boisterous seas adding to the challenge of anchoring on a steeply inclined shelf. Our typical cool, collected (and silent) anchoring system fell apart as we yelled back and forth and waved frantically at each other, while villagers in dug out canoes paddled around us asking whether we wanted to buy papayas. Ummm... "Tidak, terima kasi, lain kali!" No thanks, another time!
We met up with friends we had originally met in Vanuatu and shared a taxi to the Tri-Colored Lakes of Kelimutu the next day. The colors of the three lakes in the centre of the dormant volcano are so intense they're hard to believe. The 6 hour drive there and back was definitely worth it, giving us ample opportunity for sightseeing past small villages, through jungle, and terraced rice paddy fields.
Flores is a very Long Island with a fair distance between good anchorages. We still have a lot of miles to cover to attend the critical check-in points of our own Rally so we left early this morning to give ourselves ample time to settle ito the next anchorage before dusk. We've sailed our way though enough minefields of small unlit buoys and fish attracting devices to convince ourselves that the extra distance you can cover on longer overnight passages isn't worth the risk of getting tangled in nets or losing your prop!