Kailana

Arriving into Lowoleba meant catching up with the Peloton of the Sail Indonesia yachts. We were surprised to see so many yachts there, as Loweleba was not officially on the list of destinations for the rally. It was only when we arrived into Darwin and went to the farcical technical briefing that we all found out that the rally route had completely changed, the route now travelling to Sulawesi, a long way to the north of the original route. Most yachts had prepared for the less taxing original route, including us. In fact, we would have had to rearrange our insurance if we took this alternative route. Some of the boats have family flying into certain locations to join them for a holiday, with flight tickets long since booked. Only around 6 boats out of the fleet of about 45 actually took the Sulawesi route, much to the anger of the Sail Indonesia organisation, as more boats means more money in their pockets. Everyone had lost faith in the organisers, calling the event 'Sail Indo Confusion'.
When we arrived into Lowebeba there was a little stage being set up at the dinghy dock for an upcoming event. We were very surprised that this was being set up for us. Thankfully there were enough boats that happened to be there on the days we were originally meant to be there, but nobody from Sail Indonesia had told them that the route had changed. Lucky for us!
Loweleba was another opportunity for us to stock up on water and fresh food for the next stage. Not a particularly exciting little town, but friendly enough. The location had strong tides and at about 2pm every day it would blow from the opposite direction to the tidal flow, hence making the harbour quite choppy and confused. This makes for an interesting situation on boats that are anchored. Boats with small slender keels are not effected that much by the tidal flow across it, where large long keels (like Kailana) tend to make the boat want to 'sail' against the tidal flow. Also, with such strong winds, boats with a lot of structure out the water (like Kailana) tend to make the boat 'sail' against the wind. Put a whole lot of different types and shapes of boats together in the same anchorage with these conditions and you end up with something quite comical to watch (albeit a bit dangerous!). Some boats stay completely still and point into the wind like a well behaved boat should. Others (like Kailana) are just downright unruly, taking off this way and that, testing the full extent of the anchor chain and feeling for what is beyond.
Sitting in the little makeshift bar we noticed that the wind was picking up and the boats starting to dance and we decided we should head back out and make sure everything was ok. We were catching a lift with Phil & Lesley in their dinghy and the closer we got to Kailana the more excited Rebecca seemed to get as when we looked over at Kailana, she was getting a little too close to a catamaran named 'Relax'. By the time we reached Kailana it was a mad scramble aboard as it was clear we were now on a collision course with Relax (or it with us). With only a couple of seconds to spare (seriously!) we managed to get some fenders down giving us just enough time to get the engine started and drive out of the situation. If we were not around and didn't get the boat in time, this would have resulted in some quite extensive damage to both boats. We raised the anchor and found a spot in the harbour for Kailana to behave like a demented chained animal, but with nothing for her to run into. For the following 3 hours all the boats danced around, everyone onboard ready to take action. A scene we have never seen before and don't really want to repeat any time soon.
The following morning was a ridiculously early start...but for good reason. We were going to hike an active Volcano. Waking at 12:30am, we were off ashore and loaded into a car for a 1 hour drive to the base of 'Ile Api' Volcano (1400m tall), a volcano that had been in our sights as a beautiful backdrop whilst sailing for the last couple of days. Starting at about 300m above sea level and armed with head torches, our team of 6 yachties and 1 guide headed off through the forest to the top of the volcano in time for sunrise. It is a strange experience, hiking in the dark, only able to see a small pool of 'head torch' light in front of you. Volcanos tend to be steep and this one was no exception. The trees of the forest start to thin out at a certain height and eventually the soil underfoot is replaced with rock and gravel. On and up we went, stopping occasionally to catch our breath, until the terrain was at least 45 degrees and some of the party had resorted to scrambling up on all fours, grabbing whatever was available. The higher you go, the colder it gets, and eventually, after almost 3 hours we were at the summit in time for the sun to pop its head up over the rim of the volcano crater.
The interior of the volcano isn't the red bubbling lava that the movies would have you believe, more a barren oasis of toxic sulphur air with the odd thermal vent pumping out steam, where your lungs feel hot and breathing is tricky with the air so full of sulphur. The crater of this particular volcano was the consistency of sand. Nothing lives up there. No birds, no animals, only a tough shrub that clings to the rocks being the only sign of life.
We spent about an hour exploring the crater, before returning to the track for the trip back down. It is typical that the going-down bit is harder than the going-up bit. your legs are already past their best before date by this stage and descending can often be very hard on the old knees. This was always going to be the case and some painful steps were taken on the 2.5 hours it took to get back down. All in all a very nice thing to do, but you can only say that afterwards, during it you are constantly asking yourself why you are doing it!
We slept hard that afternoon, but no time for lazing, we had to up and ready for the show that was being put on for us onshore. It seemed there were 9 regional areas going to be competing with dancing and singing. All being a variation on a theme, what with it being such a small island, it was a bit like 'Lembata's Got Talent'. With us yachties being the guests, we were plonked right at the front of the many people present to see this display. All very nice, only thing was the 10 minute speeches in Indonesian between each performance, which tended to drag the entire evening out a bit. Anyway, we were fed and watered and sent on our way late into the night.
We were quite sad to hear that there was a few issues with the boats while we were up the volcano. Fiona from Apa Lagi stayed onboard while Andrew accompanied us up the volcano. It seems a young lad in a dugout canoe came over, climbed aboard, and asked her in Indonesia if she 'would like to play', while playing with his willy. Later that morning, someone on a dugout canoe was seen trying to climb onto Kailana, before getting the raspy side of Lesley's tongue advising otherwise. We are unsure if this was the same guy, but the police were told and everyone seemed to take it all quite seriously. It is the first time we have heard of anything like this happening, but proves we still have to be vigilant, etc.
Anyway, this was a natural conclusion to our time here in Lowebeba and Lembata Island. The next stop would be Flores Island, before Komodo, Sumbawa, Lombok and then Bali. We lifted the anchor and turned the bow to the west.