10/24
We are on passage, yet again! This time on the way to Singapore. By the time we arrive, we will have covered over 1,150 miles since leaving Bali, which wasn't that long ago. We'll cross the equator along the way and be back in the northern hemisphere, but although "northern" sort of conjures up images of coolness for us, it is nothing but cool here. We are actually baking hot and the inside cabin temp is 95 during the day. Jon is going around panting and stating that the first thing we're doing when we hit land is searching out a portable AC. Fine by me. We're planning to pull into a marina called One Degree 15, given it's location, and it is really close to downtown Singapore. We are pretty preoccupied with thoughts of getting in their pool. After a month of total remoteness coming up the AU coast and then 3 months in Indonesia, and no rain the whole time since it is an El Nino year, we are all feeling a little starved for good food, heaps of water, some TLC for the boat and some TCL for ourselves. We sure will miss the diving though! It's funny because I was looking at the blog archives that our friends Mark & Judy gave us and they passed through here in 2008 on their circumnavigation. It is practically down to the same day, and they even pulled into the same marina that we plan to, craving the same things of course. She described the marina as "plush" and we're hoping it's still up to snuff.
From Sail2Indonesia Rally 2015


We've been to two islands since the last time I wrote. Kariumunjawa is an island group off of the big island of Java and it is a popular vacation spot so it has a laid back tourist infrastructure. It was nice to meet up with other rally boats again and we got some good ideas on things to do there. We took our bikes out for the first time since AU and made our way to a small national park that had a mangrove boardwalk. It feels like we know everything there is to know about mangroves, but the thing about this spot was it was beautifully done. Like something out of a New Zealand boardwalk, culminating in a large covered tower out at the edge of the mangroves, we sat up there in the shady breeze for a long time having lunch and cooling down from the ride over. The road there was half paved, half potholes but a big re-paving project is in the works and by next year I'll bet they have the whole thing completed. It is amazing to see how they make this happen. They are literally making their own asphalt in big 50 gallon drums over an open wood fire. They are also cutting their own stones to fix the roadbed. It is hard, hot, work.
From Sail2Indonesia Rally 2015
From Sail2Indonesia Rally 2015

A group of us got together and rented a local boat and driver to take us out for a day of diving. We did 2 tanks, one on a local wreck and another on a reef, both of which were OK, but nothing outstanding. We had lunch at a lovely little cay, sitting under pine trees and the best part was, for that whole day, it cost Jon & I $12 for the boat and another $11 to rent the 2 extra scuba tanks. It is amazing how you can stretch your money here.

We found a great restaurant with plenty of grass called "Amore" and we had a bit of a love affair with their frozen lemonades. If we sipped it fast enough, we could actually get a frozen headache for a second or two which, in this heat, was welcome. We went there both days and had two each, and we always had plenty of other yachtie company. Everyone in the town was so friendly and we found that we just felt really at home right away. We rented motorbikes one day with Jan & Rich and toured the island and we chatted with some of the locals we met along the way. One thing we started noticing in Bali, but was hugely popular in Karimunjawa, is the caged bird. Most houses have at least one bird cage but often several- like I saw 7 on one porch. You can see everything from parakeets to songbirds to larger black birds. And practically all the cats have no tails. So I asked about the birds and was told that it is "a macho thing". To have a bird is a guy thing and the better your bird sings, the more macho you are. The man said that they even have competitions where the cages are arranged in a tower like manner and there are judges who pick who has the best singing bird. Who would've thought? And Jon looked up the no tail thing and I guess one theory is that the cats on Karimunjawa have bred in that feature, much like the 6 toed cats of Key West at Hemingway's house.
From Sail2Indonesia Rally 2015

On our passages, there have been times where there could easily be 100 lights on the horizon from local fishing boats. Thankfully, most of them are anchored in very deep water or not moving fast so you can weave around them. But what a sight and you have to keep a good watch because you never know what they are going to do. Squid fishing is huge in these parts and the boats have extremely bright lights all over them to attract the squid. We passed one of these boats and then had it turn at a right angle toward us and go full steam in our wake. It was only a few meters off our stern and we were blinded by the lights, which they had shining directly on us. Jon turned on the motor and we powered away as fast as we could to regain some distance and then they finally turned off and slowed down again. There were no nets or anything for them to be warding us off from. We weren't particularly alarmed, because we'd already read that fishermen have been known to do this type of thing. But we asked a local in Kariumunjawa just to get confirmation. He said that fishermen will sometimes ride as close to you as they can to get the bad luck spirits to jump off their boat and onto yours. Then they will start having good luck again! One thing about Indonesia, they do have a fair amount of animistic beliefs along with gods & spirits. It has been interesting to learn these little factoids. We haven't noted any uptick in our bad luck but we are guarded!

After another passage of 2 nights, we arrived in Belitung. This would be a beautiful spot but the smoke that has plagued much of SE Asia for the past 2 months from palm oil plantation burning and random fires, has all but occluded the sun and makes everything dim and gray. Our noses and throats burn and we have spent a fair amount of time wishing we could literally get out of here to some fresh air. I've been checking Singapore's haze reports recently and they are still in the unhealthy category, so no real improvement by getting there. And actually on this passage, the smoke has gotten even worse. The problem is aggravated by the fact that this is a strong El Nino year and we've had no rain to put the fires out or cleanse the air. We both feel disgusted about it and incensed that we see people started yet more local fires for no reason that billow out even more smoke and ash. It is just that they are so used to it that it doesn't phase them a bit. Plus, nearly everyone in Indonesia smokes. Cigarettes are dirt cheap and Indonesia grows a lot of their own tobacco. They infuse cloves also which leaves an unmistakable scent in the air. Both rallies have visited Belitung which is something like 80+ yachts and it just seems nutty to have this anchorage packed with boats and full of smoke and black ash fallout. So it wasn't hard to make the decision to check out of Indonesia in Belitung rather than renew, which is what we did.
From Sail2Indonesia Rally 2015

From Sail2Indonesia Rally 2015


We did a couple of nice things in Belitung while shallow breathing. A group of us rented a car and visited a blue lake- it is actually some kind of mine, like for clay or talc but anything colorful or pretty is a draw, we did some grocery shopping and then stopped at a Tarsier preserve. A tarsier is a very small monkey, unique to Asia, with different subspecies and this one, unique to Belitung. They have huge eyes, are nocturnal, have grippy little feet that they use to cling to tree trunks, they mate for life and they communicate in the ultrasonic range. Once thought to make no sounds, it was a group of scientists from Dartmouth College who found that they make a lot of sound, it is just that we can't hear it! They are another victim of lost habitat, and this tiny preserve was started to protect tarsiers and learn more about them. We only saw one- his name is Benji and he lives in a large cage that you walk into to see him, but there are more that live free in the preserve and they are difficult to spot. We never even knew that they existed at all.
From Sail2Indonesia Rally 2015
From Sail2Indonesia Rally 2015

We also dinghied over to a large lighthouse on the next island over, built by the Dutch in the late 1800's. It was just refurbished and so glistens with brand new paint throughout and you can climb all the way to the top for great views. One of the main features of Belitung is all these crazy boulders that are littered all around the island. They're beautiful and fun to swim around. They liken them to the rocks of the British Virgins. The air was so bad that we couldn't get any decent pics of them.

It feels really odd to have all of Indonesia behind us after so much anticipation these last few years. The time went by so fast and we're actually leaving sooner than we'd planned, but not by much really. The smoke has sent more than a few boats on their way sooner. It's been a wonderful experience and we will never forget the overwhelming friendliness of the people and the diving at Komodo. I think those are the two highlights. Knock your socks off creature diving. We had planned for the orangutans too, but that is all on hold till the smoke clears and it is going to be expensive now to fly there. We are torn between that and a few days diving in Raja Ampat. I think I know which I would choose! The rally experience has been great too, even if we didn't stick with it too tightly, we made the friendships and did do a lot of things together. The first 2 stops that we did are etched into our minds because of the newness of it all and the fact that we shared those experiences and emotions together. We liked having the backing of the rally in case of any beaurocratic issues but really, everything went smoothly for us. We felt very safe in Indonesia, we found the people to be just wonderful and so genuine and once we got out of the very eastern parts, the internet got much better so we could communicate. The food, well, we had our provisions! Every rally stop had fuel, water and the major things yachties needed and I don't know how we did it, but we never got really sick. But many people did. On the islands where there were things to do, there was always a good infrastructure to do them so we could get around inexpensively and easily. But some of the places we went there wasn't that much to do and the water wasn't dependably clear. In those areas, we went stir crazy. Because of the El Nino, we enjoyed fantastic sailing that was unexpected but so great and we didn't have to buy much fuel. But what we did buy was clean and we've had no issues with bad fuel. I think Indonesia has really made great strides in so many areas and a lot of the concerns of the past for cruising yachts are not much of an issue now. I heard that the government is even loosening the requirements for CAIT"s and visas which would be a huge step in the right direction since we would have actually spent more money and time if we weren't constrained by the tight visa rules. We would've hung out longer in Komodo & Bali.

It is unfortunate that there is so much litter, air pollution and disregard for the reef. Those are issues that we kept having to wade through during our time here and while we understand that it takes time to change and that each country has to go through it's own growing pains, it is nonetheless difficult to witness. The people here seem so happy and that made us happy and better able to overlook some of the ugly stuff. But it is ever present. And we are concerned that as we head north, the pollution is not going to get any better.
From Singapore

I loved how the digital photo is held in such high regard in Indonesia. You don't have to worry about asking if it is OK to take a photo here- actually, we posed for about a million of them! And when we went to take photos of the lovely people we'd met, we'd get huge warm enthusiastic smiles in the camera lens. So there probably won't be any more "Hey Mister's" in our future but we can still hear the kids calling out to us in our minds. And we have lots of pictures to jog our memory.
From Sail2Indonesia Rally 2015