Rincah – 22nd – 26th August

Oh my goodness, we have sailed into Jurassic Park.

On our approach to Rincah island it is engulfed in low, misty low clouds and the closer we get to the hills it is easy to make out, with a bit of imagination, animal skulls, heads and profiles in the many cliff faces that emerge from the surrounding jungle. The heady jungle smell (a welcome change from the smoke of village fires) reaches our noses many miles before we enter the anchorage, no doubt made all the more acute by the rain drenching the tops of the hills. The air is still and heavy and we are both expecting to see Teradactyls flying about and hear the distant roar of dinosaurs. It’s altogether another world. We slowly guide Bluestone into the anchorage and find another ‘Sail Indonesia’ yacht already ensconced in a bay. There are moorings here also of ‘Jurassic’ proportions, so we tie up to one and invite ‘Sunray II’ to raft-up to us so we can both hang off the one mooring. We haven’t been here for too long before we see our first Komodo dragon on the beach slowly making its way along foraging for food and a couple of wary pigs also foraging on the beach – pigs like scraps – Komodo’s like pigs!

The island is a national park and home to monkeys, wild pigs, deer and the dragons. During the hot, still days not a sound is heard, no bird calls, no shrieks but towards late afternoon a few calls emerge from the dense jungle and a bit more wildlife is sighted on the beach. Of course, we have the obligatory visit from the local fishermen and a couple of boys trying to sell some pearl necklaces. One of them has a string of black pearls and although the crew was keen to get her hands on these, the skipper was bit skeptical about their authenticity. A few other yachts arrive during the day and we catch up with them in the afternoon when we celebrate a wedding anniversary for a couple on an American yacht also in the rally.

We are awakened from our slumber in the early hours of our second morning in the bay with the noise of ropes and fenders being rubbed and jerked violently as ‘Sunray II’ and ‘Bluestone’ rock and roll dangerously in the wind and the swell that has developed overnight and we must make the decision to part company. ‘Sunray II’ untie from us and motor away leaving us alone on the mooring. As we were to depart this morning anyway, they decide to keep going and we arrange to meet up in the next anchorage during the day.

This was a lovely anchorage

Shy monkeys retreat as we approach

A coral bommie in the clear water

The next anchorage is on the western side of Rincah and we enter the bay on our journey northward to discover more sailing companions already anchored here. This side of the island has quite different habitat having rolling hills dotted with palm trees (not so ‘Jurassic’ here) however, in the distance is still the jungle terrain we left earlier and thank goodness, a lot less rubbish on the beaches. Monkeys grace us with their presence in the late afternoon but as we approach to take photos, they amble back to the safety of their dense jungle. Rubbish is a huge problem in Indonesia. While the villagers tend to burn what rubbish they have, which is mainly organic, the towns and shorelines are strewn with plastics and rubbish bags. They do not have a rubbish collection as in Australia and just do not know how to cope with the amount they have. Most of it ends up in the harbor making anchoring hazardous as often plastic bags full of rubbish get caught on the anchor. The rest wash up on beaches around these lovely islands, plastics the most prevalent.

Onward to Lombok, a distance of around 400nm – we intend to anchor each night rather than do a 3 day cruise. We leave Rincah to make our way to the top of Komodo Island and turn left (westward). Another anchorage is found on Gili Lawa Laut – a small island north of Komodo Island where the water is the most amazing colour. It is deep here – around 17 metres to anchor in but absolutely crystal clear giving the water a rich royal blue colour and we can easily see from the deck of Bluestone, that our anchor has dug in quite well. Here the crew is very keen to don goggles and snorkel and we don’t take long to jump in and enjoy the coral floor. It is only the crew’s second time snorkeling (she would much rather be ON the water than IN it, let alone UNDER it) but I am happy to say her fears are overcome and she is hooked – the skipper often having to beckon her back closer to the boat so he can keep an eye on her.

The skipper takes the opportunity to inspect the hull and tickle the errant speed indicator back into life after it decided to stop working. Many Indonesian charter boats come and go in this bay and we learn that the diving is spectacular off the rocks just outside the bay. We meet another two ‘rally’ boats here and enjoy exchanging stories on the deck at sundown – one from Japan, the other from Scotland. The local boys who try to sell us their wares here are very disappointed that we won’t buy anything. We try to explain we already have pearls, dragons, masks, etc., and just cannot buy any more. They put on sad faces and ask us for coca-cola or cigarettes neither of which we can oblige with but they did wangle a couple of ‘Red Bull’ drinks out of the crew. She was glad to part with them actually, they tasted awful. Not the same as Aussie ‘Red Bull’.

A couple of days lazing in the water and we must continue on. Unfortunately, Tony on ‘Sunray’ has had a dose of ‘Bali belly’ since we left Kupang and the antibiotics he has been taking have not had the desired effect so they decide to push onto Lombok to seek further medical advice. We wish them luck and cruise alone to our next anchorage on Banta where we find our friends on ‘Amulet’ anchored. An idyllic two days are spent here again snorkeling (in between the poor skipper changing the toilet pump which had been threatening to die for a while now). ‘Amulet’ have had the chance to scout the area for the best snorkeling and we enjoy a two hour swim and snorkel through into the next small bay with them. The decision is made to depart the next day for a bay on the island of Sumbawa. We have been warned not to stop on Sumbawa (not all the Indonesian natives are friendly) and after taking a look at the anchorages which are not very suitable we decide to continue on overnight to the island of Medang. The night is very calm with a slight breeze and we sail slowly along enjoying the calm conditions.

The next stop Medang is a pretty bay lined with coconut palms and gave us a chance to have a swim to cool off before once again departing early in the morning for Lombok – another overnight sail for Bluestone. However, we pick up some wind crossing the strait to Lombok and sail quickly across which means that we will arrive in our next destination during the night – not a good idea – so we sail as far as we dare, drop the sails and just float about for around 5 hours trying to catch some sleep. As it turns out, we could have easily sailed into Medana Bay, Lombok in the dark as they have ‘lead’ lights and a marked channel. Anyway, here we are safely tied to a mooring in another paradise.

 

Sumba

Sumba is a very large island in the Indonesian archipelago and has a moderately large harbor and fishing fleet. We arrive mid morning after an overnight ….. – I was going to say sail, but we had to motor all night due to very light winds – so after an overnight cruise and are met by two young men who advise us, in very good English, where to anchor, or more to the point, where NOT to anchor. Slowly the rest of our small fleet arrive and we seem to be the afternoon entertainment for the locals. Sumba is a very friendly place, they are totally organized and so very happy to see us. Eight representatives from Police, Army, Navy and Government are posted full-time on the wharf to guard our boats (hmm, makes one wonder why) but they bend over backwards to organize water, fuel, guides anything we might need and we feel once again, like royalty. Skipper loses no time in organizing one of the young men who greeted us when we anchored, to scrub our water-line and hull as we are slowly accumulating growth again and ‘Amar’ works hard for two days to make Bluestone’s bottom clean. He takes great pleasure in helping us raise our ‘dress ship’ flags and tie off the halyards and shows us photos (on his mobile phone) of his house, family and friends. He is very polite and offers to guard the dinghies while we are all away on official tours etc. The crew impresses him with her knowledge of counting to 10 (in Indonesian) and the few other words she has learned and he asks if she went to school to learn Indonesian. Sweet. As we will be here for Indonesia’s National Day (17th) those of us who have them hoist our coloured flags and any other flag we may have to make the day memorable – this is met with much enthusiasm from the locals. Some of the local fishing fleet also ‘dress ship’ in honour of the day. 

 Our new best friend 'Amar'

 At 0600 hours next day we are collected by bus to be taken the 500 mtrs to the official Indonesia National Day celebrations. Every school child is present and also every government official. We are expecting much dancing, marching celebrating etc. however, the morning is taken up with the official flag raising ceremony and speeches which takes around 2 hours before we can shake hands with the Regent and then the fun begins. We have front row seats to witness the official Tug-of-War finals – Army vs Prison Guards, Army vs Navy, Girls vs Girls. It is all taken very seriously but everyone is smiles at the finish. (Remind us to not ever upset an Indonesian – they are more scary than the Maori doing the Haka when in competition). The ever-present PM or MP – Military Police try to keep the creeping crowd back. They have also erected two poles. At the top of these poles are the Indonesian flag and below the flag, tied on, are all sorts of pots, pans and kitchen bits apparently with money in them. The person who manages to retrieve the flag apparently gets 1000,000 rupiah (around $130 Aus) but there is a catch. The pole is greased and watching the boys attempting to climb these poles is hilarious. Eventually, both flags are retrieved and many of the kitchen utensils also. The rest of the day is ours until we are official guests at the Gala dinner that evening at the Regent’s house. 

Flag Raising ceremony, all very offficial

The greased poles the boys had to climb

 Tug-of-war Ready boys?

 Army vs Prison Guards

 Then it's the girls turn

Skipper has been asked to give a speech at the dinner and is a little bewildered at the prospect. It seems, as we were the first one anchored that makes us ‘special’ and it is up to him to speak on behalf of everyone. OK, out comes the computer and it takes a little while to put something together as we have only been here for a around 8 hours but with a little assistance from the crew we have a nice speech compiled by tea-time and a shell necklace donated by another cruiser to present to the Regent. One thing we are aware of in this trip is that we have been treated and welcomed so very well and it seems that all we do it ‘take’ – it is really very nice to be able to ‘give’ something in return and the Regent is very, very pleased with his gift. During the evening all the top government officials and their wives are called up one by one and fed a little of the celebratory cake by the Regent and his wife and all of a sudden Neil and his ‘couple’ (wife) are called to participate in this ritual and we are absolutely chuffed by the gesture. I’m sure not many other western couples have been asked to participate in this ritual, we are so honoured. Following this, Neil is asked to introduce the fleet after which we all receive a locally woven cloth and much to his horror, our solo sailor David is asked to sing a song. They like to spring these little things on you but fortunately he knows the words to Waltzing Matilda so the crowd are pleased with his rendition and we give him big applause, relieved that we didn’t have to help him sing. 

 The Regent and his wife

 Officials get a piece

 And so do we

 The microphone stand is a bit short

Next day we are taken to the museum which consists of one room with a few interesting artifacts but some particular bowls caught the eye of the skipper and crew. On a bench are bowls one on top of the other with little paper labels, we spy one that says MING DYNASTY ! In fact, they have some local bowls and then more Dynasty labels – truly amazing. Our next stop is a local village where the late King’s wife invites us to her house where we can sit on comfortable chairs and rest a bit with her. The villagers have all their wares out on display to sell and follow us relentlessly showing us these wonderful carvings, beads, earrings, weavings hoping we will buy something. A few purchases are made just before we head back to the bus and we are now on our way to a beach for lunch. On our return to town we stop at a few shops and the bank so everyone can do what they need to do before returning to the boats. We are told the staff, bus and a car are at our disposal while we are here so we can all stock up on water, fuel, phone cards etc. and hopefully get into an internet café to check emails. 

 Admiring some weaving in the museum

 And this is how they make the pattern for the weaving

Day 3 – Another tour of some traditional villages is organized for today, however, crew and skipper have other things to do (deliver more water to the overheating generator for one) and a few other jobs about the boat. But the others leave around 9am and obviously have a good day or at least travel a long way as they don’t return to the harbor until 6:30pm. Our new friend ‘Amar’ knocks on our hull after dark very worried that we didn’t come ashore today and bearing a gift of a lovely bunch of bananas. Yum. He stays long enough to give the skipper a massage and have a chat then he is off home again.

Day 4 – Skipper’s birthday ! Today we visit the markets which are open every day and wander around the other shops and finally to the internet café so we can upload some more photos on the blog. The others then continue on to the local swimming pool for the afternoon. We return to the boats, open some red wine and toast the health of our skipper – Happy Birthday Neil.

The last two days are spent readying Bluestone for another voyage this time to the island of Rinca where we are told we can see the famous Komodo Dragons. After a farewell dinner with our new best friend Amar, we exchange phone numbers and leave in the early morning. The fleet splits up here with a handful of boats going onto West Sumba and the remainder heading to Rinca or Komodo to join up with the boats that took the northern leg of the Rally.