Bali to Johor Bahru (Malaysia) Sept-Nov 2010

Eric stayed in the North of Bali at Lovina beach onboard “Erica” for the Indonesian rally celebrations while Cathy went to the Denpaser airport to meet her sisters arriving from Germany, Australia and NZ. We were met by Margaret’s friend Marion and her driver who took us to her resort at Balina Beach near Candidasa. - Marions place is a real haven - beautiful gardens and typical Balinese style buildings.

We had relaxing days in and around the pool with massages to get rid of the physical strains of travel

Margaret wrote this in her blog which captured the night sounds beautifully…….

It's an interesting experience listening into the night. There are the constant sounds - the surf breaking on the stony beach and the continual singing of the cicadas. Then there's the booming sounds of the toads and the erratic chorus of water frogs. During the course of the night there are various lizards raising their surprisingly loud voices - geckos and another called a chitchat which makes a noise like a kissing sound.

In the early hours of the morning the roosters begin to crow - dozens of them, to be followed at 5am. by the melodic sung prayers from the nearby Muslim centre. The dawn is then greeted by a bird chorus of various previously unheard melodies as well as the cooing of doves. What she didn’t mention was the giggles of 5 sisters as they enjoyed being together!!

After a spring tide at full moon the surf was calm enough to take a local outrigger canoe out snorkelling at a nearby reef. We saw a large variety of very colourful tropical fish around the reef. They were completely unafraid of us and swam really close. The little boats are great in the surf. By the time we went to come back inshore the swell had increased and our Balinese boatman was very skilled at bringing us in.

We swam in the surf, explored the area in a local minibus and ate out

All too soon the week was over and it was time to say goodbye….  3 sister’s  returned to Australia and NZ and Margaret and I travelled along the coast to Lovina beach in the north to meet up with Eric aboard “Erica”. He had had a great time enjoying the festivities

Margaret wrote in her blog…. 28/9/2010

We've been sailing from Bali on a direct route to Kumai in Kalimantan for about 30hrs now. Not a lot of wind so are motor assisted. Seas moderate but swell causes a lot of rolling. I've not been sea sick though.

Yesterday we saw dolphins, but they didn't come right up to the boat.
 I was fascinated by the little flying fish they flew with their iridescent wings for up to 100 metres at a time across the surface of the water. After going to bed last night with the port-hole open above my bunk, I was rudely awakened by something wet and slimy on me UGH! - a flying fish had come right through the port-hole!

Weather is very hot and humid - about 32 C and it doesn't cool down much at night either. Catherine and I like cooling off with buckets of seawater.

The locals anchor small bamboo rafts well out to sea to attract fish they are mostly unlit and just fly a little flag - takes a lot of looking out for at night.

It was a new experience for me to be out of sight of land and often out of sight of all other boats. It was like being on a huge circular disc with the horizon to be seen all around. At night we took turns at watch - Catherine and I did 4 hr. stints together and found ourselves one night crossing a shipping line with huge ships bearing down on us in the dark and tug boats towing enormous barges which looked like islands against the night sky. Some experience!

Other times there were only the lights of little fishing boats to be seen. During the day we saw fish jumping , both big and little, but in spite of having fishing lines out we caught nothing

Once we came into sight of Borneo's, coastline we felt very excited - most of the coast line has huge trees growing right down to the sea. The delta of the river Kumai is huge and the river transports silted water very far out to sea.

After a 4 day, 4 night passage from Bali we arrived in Borneo (1^st Oct 2010) and anchored in the river delta where we celebrated our arrival

The next day we motored several miles up the river Kumai to the town of Kumai, where we moored with about 18 other Sail Indonesia yachts, is a typical small port town with bigger and smaller ships to transport the Palm Oil. There were new buildings being built to house swallows for collection of the birds nests for the expensive  “birds nest soup”  We could hear the loud chirping sound and realised that they have loud speakers to attract the birds in.

We teamed up with Dave and Melinda from SV Sassoon and hired a klotok, a flat bottomed double decked boat along with the crew - the captain, a cook, and a guide.

The growing of Palm oil being the big environmental problem here as the indigenous forest is cut down to make room for these plantations.

Our guide, Andie, spoke pretty good English and is a Dayak.  Dayaks are the indigenous people of Borneo and are farmers who move their villages about every few years to find new fertile farming areas. These people have offered strong resistance to the logging that has been changing the face of the country. Andie took us through the jungle, in bare feet. When asked how far his village is from here, he said "quite a long  way - 4 hours by speed boat, then 3 hours by motorbike and 10 hrs. by foot”. His family live in a community of about 15 families, about 60 people living from what they cultivate - use no money.

He imitated the sounds of the Orangutans to attract them down from the trees and the sound of a mother crocodile to get the baby crocodile lying in the reeds to swim towards us!

We travelled like the colonialists of old, sitting atop the deck on chairs at a table for meals cooked directly by the cook below, sleeping at night on mattresses on the deck beneath flowery mosquito nets and having every need seen to.

The conditions were simple but everything was kept very clean. We never had a meal without about 6 different dishes - really delicious. Fish  with mild green curries, large crabs and shrimps with different sauces, Stir-fried vegetables with almonds, tofu dishes, chicken curries, soybean or fish deep fried patties, banana fritters, and a huge variety of tropical fruits just to mention some of the dishes.

 We saw wild Orangutans along the river bank who were, very interested at taking a look at us, as well as proboscis monkeys who jumped into the river and swam across behind the boat - apparently because the boat frightens away the crocodiles

We had some nice walks through the rain forest - most of it secondary growth - Andie said you have to go much further into the forest to get to primary forest. These insect eating plants are called condoms by the locals!

The river we went down into the jungle was very brown and muddy – the result of the alluvial gold mining further up stream, but once into the smaller tributaries the water was clear but black from the natural tanins in the water from the rainforest. It was quite a contrast to the muddy water in the main river caused by the goldmining

The river was very flooded and we eventually had to use a canoe to get into the rainforest. There was a walkway well beneath the water. The houses of the caretakers were completely flooded but our guide said it was OK, they had made their bed a bit higher

 When we went back in the canoe balancing carefully so we didn't upset the boat, two half grown Orangutan youngsters swung to a tree beside us and threw a rotten branch in the water  to splash us. You could almost hear them laughing.

Later at feeding places in the two research centres  we visited we saw many Orangutans, mothers with babies on their backs - young ones of all ages and the huge alpha male of the area. It was amazing how human-like they behaved.

This Alfa male was huge. They called him Tom Cruise!

We arrived back to our yacht which had been looked after by a boat boy for the 2 days we were away

On the 4^th Oct we were invited by the Indonesian government for a day of festivities. We being the participants of the Sail Indonesian Rally. There are over 40 yachts anchored up the river here from the rally now. 3 buses took us with a police escort to the town of Pangkalan Bun about 25km from here. The buses were quite a sensation as there are no cars on the roads here, only motorbikes and mini buses. All the people in this small town waved at us and the school children stood outside their schools to wave and shout.

We attended a local festival with traditional dancing and music and were encouraged to join in .

 The local women had stands to display their local cooking and the kids played local games. The most exciting being football with a burning coconut. They soak the shaved coconut in kerosene and light it. The boys then kick it with their bare feet. Certainly doesn't encourage any one to hold onto the ball too long. The men in our group had a try as well - there were a few singed hairs on their legs after that. Eric managed to shoot a goal.

We tried the dayaks blowpipes with shooting arrows (without poison) when they competed they hung the birds high in the trees.

We also took part in a reforestation program where we were all invited to plant some trees. We thought we'd be going into the forest to do this but we ended up planting roadside trees around a big traffic roundabout! The PR effect was good I guess.

After all this hard work we were taken to a wonderful dinner at a traditional wooden house where the regent of the area gave a speech and even sung to us later.

We plan to leave Kumai tomorrow morning and will sail through to the island of Belitung.
We plan to arrive  there on Saturday or Sunday and hope for better winds this time.

Sunday, 10 October 2010

What mixed weather we are having on this passage. We have been sailing and/or motoring 3 days and two nights now. As I write this we are motoring on a relatively calm sea along the northern coast of Belitung which looks to be quite mountainous. This afternoon we had a sudden local front come through with squalls of up to 27 knots catching us unprepared under full sail. That was some fun sailing! Half an hour before we had lunch on a mirror-like sea with not a breath of wind. We've had one early morning of rain preceded by good sailing wind through the afternoon and night.

I have seen a variety of wildlife: quite a large pod of dolphins a little way off the boat - they don't come close here to accompany the boats as they do in the Pacific - are they a different breed or have they learnt to be wary of nets? Large schools of fish jumping out of the water - Tuna we thought, accompanying them were white Terns. We passed though an enormous area of blue saucer-sized jelly-fish and watched flying fish skimming across the water - mostly at night. Land birds get attracted to the masts and rigging. One evening as we sat having dinner just before nightfall a little swallow turned up and flew inside the cockpit, landing on Catherine's head - he then re circled and took up a perch on the railing, where he stayed for most of the night. We were about 15 nm from land at that stage.

Then at about 5 am in heavy rain a whole group of swallows kept circling the boat shrieking loudly. They followed us for about an hour.

Tuesday, 12 October 2010

Belitung - "Island of my dreams........."

What a beautiful place this is - must be a slice of paradise! This small island of Malay peoples has made us so welcome. The mooring site is in a small bay at the north of the island - white powdery coral sand and huge granite rock formations. We are anchored directly next to a coral reef - so it's just a dive from the boat and a snorkel in the morning.

Margaret with Mr & Mrs Belitung

The yacht rally seems to be very important to this island as a way to promote tourism. Yesterday they took us on a long drive around the east of  the island and at every stop we were greeted by song and dance , local music and sporting events.

They grow palms for palm oil here and there has been a lot of strip mining for tin. Some mining is still done but  most of it was during the Dutch colonial times. The island relies on the fishing industry as their main source of income. We had dinner yesterday at the Regent's house (all 50 or so of us!) He lives in a large old colonial house - kept in original form.

He has only been a few months in office and is of Chinese origin and a Buddhist so their democracy seems to work well, as the population is about 80% Malay and of Moslem religion.

We will be staying here for another couple of days before progressing on towards Malaysia via various smaller islands

Friday, 15 October 2010

Tanjung Kelayung Beach

Still enjoying Belitung at Tanjung Kelayung  Beach at the north end of the island. We leave tomorrow for the neighbouring Island of Bangka. We have taken part in many festivities, offered to the sailing rally, on this island. The picture below was a very fearsome dragon dance put on for us by a small Balinese community here in Belitung, who have come here to help promote tourism.

These people performed for us, gave us baskets of food and made us so welcome. We had a fantastic final festival for the end of the rally yesterday - we were entertained by numerous dance and music groups, we feasted on a huge buffet meal of local foods and danced . Ever since we have been here there is music and performances day and night - they have set up a stage on the beach.

A representative of each country displayed their flag

Yesterday Catherine and I went out to the neighbouring island and large rocky granite outcrop with the kayaks and had great fun kayaking between the rocks and shooting through on the swell of the incoming tide. We snorkelled from the kayaks in the hope of seeing some of the turtles that we see coming up on the surface to take air - but haven't been able to see any under water yet. Some very nice coral though and tropical fish - Nemo included!

Sunday, 17 October 2010

It was almost with tears in our eyes that we said goodbye to the people of Kelayung Beach and their beautiful Belitung Island.

We left at 5.30 am. Saturday and had fabulous sailing weather all the way throughout the day and night and after 128 nautical miles, arrived at 8.30 this morning (Sunday) at the island of Bangka, which is just off the coast of southern Sumatra.

The trip was good and quite exhilarating having such good sailing conditions. The night passage wasn't bad as far as the shipping went - we are getting to know what to expect of the many little fishing boats now, even though the boats and the fishing methods seem to vary with each island. We had no luck with the fishing though. I thought we had got something as there was a huge tug on the line - turned out to be some sort of wooden and leather ladder! The rubbish, particularly plastic is shocking here in the sea - we were miles from land and still saw plastic bottles, bags, expanded polystyrene (Steropor)and cans floating by. This was particularly bad out of Bali but was better between Borneo and Belitung but upsetting here in the South China Sea.

What are we humans doing to our World?

Today it's very hot - 32 C and the humidity must be near 100% - good enough reason to spend most of the day swimming off the boat - that is when we aren't catching up on sleep after the night passage. The temp. seems to be between 28- 32 C most of the time I've been here, it doesn't cool down much at night either. The locals find it cool though - wearing long sleeved garments and the babies all have woollen hats on! I am finding I'm getting more used to it - just poured with sweat all day in the beginning.

Tomorrow we leave for the island of Kentar - another overnight passage during which time we will pass the equator. We plan a party on the beach to celebrate the occasion.

Thursday, 21 October 2010

What did the Equator bring.....?

....heat and more heat and today a tropical thunderstorm with strong winds(up to 30 knots) and lots of rain (managed to fill up the water tanks)and exciting sailing too

We had a great equator party on the beach with the crews of several other yachts - we all got dressed up in our self crafted Neptune garb and cooked dinner on a beach fire, and got bitten mercilessly by little midges, despite repellent.

We are now at the island of Mesanak, one of the Riau group on that long chain of little islands before Singapore Island. We are staying on tomorrow and I hope to do some snorkeling. The local lads who came out to the boat in their canoes this afternoon indicated that there is good snorkeling on the reef. The Indonesian people row their boats in a standing position. The kids loved coming out to visit these strangers on yachts. They almost always wanted school books and pens from us and were very eager to try out their English. All Indonesian kids greeted us on land with "hello Mister!"

The fish traps that the locals erect over the water are an interesting feature here. At the last stopover there were about 150 of these up to about 5 km out to sea. They are platforms made out of long poles, each platform supporting a large circular net that can be lowered into the water and lit at night to attract the fish. Each platform has a little one roomed hut on top, presumably someone sleeps there overnight. It's a nightmare for us to navigate amongst them at night - as they are not always lit but so far we've been successful - we met hundreds of these around the islands - sometimes many miles out to sea

Eric caught this big Barracuda on a line behind the boat. It was about 120-130cms long , but we had to throw him back in due to risk of ciguetera poisoning. This is a poison that reef fish pick up from a type of algae and when Barracudas feed off a lot of reef fish they can have high levels in their flesh. Causes damage to peripheral nerves

We travelled in daytime sailing in stretches up the Riau Island group.  Sembanka, Mesanak,and  Galan. We mastered the shipping lanes in the Singapore Strait

and the 30nm trip down the Strait of Johor to the Danga river. The strait of Johor was patrolled by armed police boats and the whole coast was protected by a fence with signs with skull and crossbones and "Danger, live firing area" written on it. We had a rain storm on the way down with almost nil visibility so was a bit worrying trying to keep out of Singaporean waters!

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Sailing has come to an end in Danga Bay, Johor, Malaysia

 We have settled in here well at the Marina at Danga Bay, just a 10minute bus ride from the centre of Johor Bahru, Malaysia's second biggest city. The marina is part of a big development plan in this area and has recently been built onto - in fact they are still working on it.

We joined a bus trip for the next rally. Sail Malaysia, (but we won’t be joining the rally) and visited the surrounding area of Johor Bahru

welcome ceremony

Moch Indian wedding ceremony

Margaret took a trip to Singapore to catch up with a friend which gave us a chance to clean out the entire boat. Humidity and salty conditions pay their toll on equipment so it was good to freshen everything up ready for our next guests…Our son and daughter in law were arriving to sail up the coast of Malaysia with us

It was wonderful having Margaret aboard who was an enthusiastic companion for 7 wks from Bali to Malaysia. .. You can join us anytime Sis…