Kailana

Vessel Name: Kailana
Vessel Make/Model: Nauticat 38
Hailing Port: Fremantle
Recent Blog Posts
06 November 2014

15. Singapore

Singapore is an amazing city. It is the city that never sleeps, always something going on with a plethora of places to eat, shop and drink. You can buy a cheap meal in a hawkers food stall for $3-5 (Beef Hor Fun quite a good choice) or you can go to a fine dining establishment and feel the need to either [...]

06 November 2014

14. Kumai to Singapore

From leaving Kumai (Borneo) we headed to Pulau Belitung. A distance of 330Nm, which we completed in 51 hours, hence 2x overnighters in a trot - not really our favourite. There was quite a bit of traffic to avoid at night, with both tankers and fishermen dotting our path north and not always on AIS, so [...]

26 October 2014

13. Kumai (Borneo)

We were quite surprised to hear that Sam, our Sail Indonesia agent, had made his way to Kumai. After going AWOL in Bali we basically wrote him off as being of any assistance with our visas, leaving it to a 'proxy' Agent named Ruth to organise the passports to be sent to Nongsa Point, our designated check-out [...]

22 October 2014

12. Java Sea Crossing

In the last blog we were happily sailing away from Bali, safe in the knowledge that our passports and visa extensions were speedily and professionally being processed before being sent ahead of us. Or were they? We had now dropped behind all the rally boats due to the immigration administration slow-boat [...]

07 October 2014

11. Gilli Air & Bali

The last you heard from us we were on our way to Lombok from Sumbawa. We are now back in the company of our other yachties. The crossing to Lombok was easy enough, only being able to sail about half the way. We stayed in a decent enough anchorage on the North East of Lombok, which proved to be a bit [...]

17 September 2014

10. Labuan Bajo to Sumbawa (via Komodo & Rinca Islands)

Indonesia really is a unique place. With a population of about 190 million, it has 300 different ethnic groups living within it, over 13,000 islands, with 580 languages and dialects spoken. That is diversity at its best. Not only does it have the largest population of Muslims, but it also has the [...]

9. Monkey Beach to Labuan Bajo (Flores)

12 September 2014
Monkey Beach was being raved about by our fellow yachties, but with no beach and only the promise of monkeys, it wasn't too much to write home about (but here we are typing home). However, it was an all round protected anchorage, brilliant if you happen to find yourself in a cyclone. Also, nice to get the odd night where the boat is perfectly still. Rebecca went ashore with Fiona & Andrew from Apa Lagi to look at the little village, which was found to be in very poor shape. The town was full of dirty kids with runny noses and bad skin with the village's primary source of income coming from the rice paddy fields. There were many of the trees that grow cotton which we can't remember the name of...but we have included a picture of it. Andrew from yacht "Apa Lagi' has spent much of his life involved with disaster management, fixing up destroyed villages after earthquakes, tsunamis, etc, hence fresh water supplies were his specialty. This village only had one water supply, this being a dirty hole in the ground that everyone helps themselves to with buckets. There was no control over sewage within the town and it was evident that it was contaminating the water table. With no education the villagers are unaware as to why some of their people were becoming very sick, but life goes on regardless. This is not uncommon is these remote areas.
We were now doing some fairly longish days on the boat to get ourselves to Labuan Bajo, the capital of Flores and the most westerly point of the island. Leaving Flores and heading ever west means breaking back into civilisation with all the creature comforts it offers, but also the hassles. Starting early from Monkey Beach we set our sights for Lingeh Flores, a little village to our west. We still had little wind and needing to run the motor almost constantly. Along the way the wind instruments digits spark up to a whopping 9 knots of wind, up go the sails, then 4 minutes later the wind is back at 2 knots on the nose, the sails are brought back down and packed away, to do it all again in 15 minutes time. It is almost a sure bet that the wind will drop as soon as the flappy white things go up. Leaving them packed will ensure constant usable winds, all very frustrating. Flat seas means more fishing activity. We were into new territory and new fishing techniques. The latest method involves dropping a buoy, presumably with something to stop it drifting too far and paying out about a mile of line with the tiniest little floats along its length, about the size of golf balls, to another similar buoy. From this mile long line is draped a curtain of net that is allowed to hang in the water to catch whatever happened to be passing. However with such small indications of line in the water, what they sometimes catch is a yacht. Hence a buoy in the water may be just that, a buoy, or it might be an indication of a very swift about turn is needed as there is a road block ahead. Such was our experience when Rebecca yelled out 'Oh Shit' and swung the helm to starboard just in time before we got ourselves 'caught'.
Lingeh Flores was our next stop, a little village and an anchorage that put us behind a very protective reef. Every little village is like a different eco-system to the last little village. Although they might be 40-50 miles away on the water, it is common that the road connecting them , if there is one, can be a very long, tedious journey. Many of the village members therefore have never been to their nearest neighbouring village, so the culture, ideas and expectations from passing yachts can be completely different. This is particularly evident with the villages either being Muslim of Catholic, or both. What is worth mentioning is that there seems to be no animosity between these religions, where they seem to exist harmoniously.
Lingeh Flores certainly had the culture of passing yachts and tour boats, when entering the anchorage we were followed by an entire fleet of school kids on dugouts, many fitted with engines. Differing from the villages we have visited prior, the kids were all dressed in their school clothes and were very keen to know what we 'had' for them. We had one lot of kids paddle out from the village (which was about 1km away) on what appeared to be a large square piece of polystyrene. There was no practicing their English and joking around, just a list of stuff they wanted. It starts with books and pens, then moves onto ropes, fenders, etc. Also, if you don't give them anything they just hang around the back of your boat, inching there way onto the dive platform, then slowly slithering their way onto the back deck of the boat. A constant watch is required. Our one solution was to jump in the water and go for a snorkel. Finally Kev 'cracked the shits' when he found a couple of kids trying to unscrew the shackles on the dinghy davits, used for lifting the dinghy out of the water. Also, Dream Maker, another yacht alongside us, had a fishing lure stolen from their boat. This is the first place where we have encountered anything like this happening and perhaps only an isolated incident within this one little village.
Early the next morning we were up and away to Gilli Bodo, our last stop before the metropolis of Labuan Bajo. We knew that Sagata and Esoterica would be there, so a chance to catch up with all the goss, etc. We had a good sail to Gilli Bodo, catching a very welcome current. Gilli Bodo offered a lovely sandy beach and some good coral to snorkelling on. Six yachts in total were in the bay and we ended up staying two nights, having fires on the beach each night with all the other yachties. To get some exercise we both took a hike to the top of the hill on the island, traipsing through the 2m high long grass and hidden ankle breaking rocks to the top. The view from the top provided a 360 degree view of the island. On the way back down we happened upon a strange Muslim or Hindu temple shrine thing in the middle of the tall grass. Not too sure of its purpose or why it made its way to this remote island, but here it was. We knew there was a chance that we might stumble across it on our hike after reading 'Relapse's' blog (thanks Mark and Cath!). We bought our 'first' touristy souvenir, a carved wooden komodo dragon...very nice, but Rebecca has had bad dreams since where she is chased down and eaten by Komodo dragons. As a result we have relocated the dragon to the saloon.
After two nights we were ready to go, leaving all the other yachts at anchor for another night, with them putting off the inevitable of their sudden arrival back into civilisation. There was a bit of wind and we used this to blow the cobwebs out of the sails. We hoisted everything we had and we managed to sail door to door all the way to Labuan Bajo. It was an exciting sail, narrowly dodging islands and just scrapping the edges of sandbars to keep the sails full and our momentum up. So very nice to have the engine off and use the boat for what it was designed to do.
Entering into Labuan Bajo means passing through a narrow passage and skimming alongside the main harbour, where all moving vessels have full disregard for the 'International Collision Regulations' for passing vessels. It is anyone's guess where they are going and what side they are going to pass on, but we are the outsiders so everyone has right of way over us. Labuan Bajo has a very eclectic selection of vessels either on anchor, tied up at the harbour or terrifying the odd passing cruising yacht. It was impossible not to take many photos of all the interesting types of ships, some very impressive. It seems that Labuan Bajo is currently the fastest grown region in Indonesia, no doubt driven by the influx of tourists after a good diving holiday. Unfortunately it is clear that land management, building regulations, sewer systems, sanitation, etc have not followed pace with this mass influx. We weaved Kailana through the commotion to an anchorage offshore of the beach from an Eco Lodge. Anchoring in 4m of very sticky sandy mud, we had made this milestone. Within minutes we had several boats alongside asking what we needed, fuel, food, beer, water, transports, etc. We needed all of the above, so they were more than happy to take our order.
We took a trip into the town via the Eco Lodge's little van. Although Rebecca's first time to Labuan Bajo, Kev was here in 1998 and the town was unrecognisable to him. There are now lots of trendy Italian restaurants, ice cream parlours, and many dive shops perched up on the hill. The idea of ordering a pizza and having an ice cream to follow was too tempting and we had to indulge ourselves.... This was the closest we have come to creature comforts since Darwin, now 5 weeks behind us. We were not going to ignore this opportunity....so we did what any sensible people would do and...yes....we went on a pizza / fry up breakfast / ice cream bender for 3 days and mighty fine it was too!
The reason tourists come to Labuan Bajo is for access to the dive sites in the Komodo National Park. There is some world class dive sites close-by, all you need is you own personal gaff rigged, twin mast sailing ship to get there. There are plenty of these sailing ships on offer in the bay of Labuan Bajo, which the tourists sign up for to take them to the dive sites, living aboard for several days. These are quite impressive vessels, however with not a lot of wind to speak of around, we didn't often see the sails up... is it only for show? Judging by the weight of them and that their masts aren't that big, would those sails actually do anything anyway? Anyway, if it gets the money out of the pockets of the tourists, then better to have all that stuff than not. Speaking of tourists, there seems to be a predominantly 'Italian' feel to Labuan Bajo, with many of the dive shops and restaurants being owned by Italians. It was kind of amusing to hear Italians speaking Indonesian with an Italian accent!
We took up the offer of a 'water taxi' to the town from our diesel supplier, as we had some bulky provisions to get back to the boat. We also had a much needed visit to the local fruit & veg market on the agenda. Although there are many variants of the Indonesian boat, the basic lines of the hull remain the same. Long, slender, high bow, little freeboard, etc. They all have no creature comforts and are as basic as they come. Our water taxi was just that, basic. The engine is hand cranked, which is connected directly to the propeller. No clutch or gearbox, so no idling and no reverse, so when hand cranking the engine the propeller is being turned. Throttle control is via a length of string, no lies. So, when your moving forward, all is well, just steer the boat via a tiller arm, which you use while constantly working a manual bilge pump. When you want to come to a stop, well that's the tricky bit. It basically involves stalling the engine before your destination and drifting. Cutting the engine too early means not getting to your destination. Cutting it too late means destroying your destination. There is obviously a lot of skill involved, which the locals seem to have mastered.
So after 3 nights at anchor and with a lump in Kev's throat to be moving geographically away from the wood fired pizza ovens, we up anchored and turned Kailana's nose to the south.
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