On to Mauritius and a Brush With Anais

Mauritius is only about 400 miles from Rodrigues, but is very different. It is much larger and has a population of more than 1.3 million. It has a busy economy with an emphasis on sugar cane, tourism, and being a transshipment point for goods to and from eastern and southern Africa. Our passage was quite pleasant although we ran into the same problem of having to slow down so as not to arrive too early.

Port Louis is the capital of Mauritius and a bustling city of 150,000.

Port Louis has a small yacht basin in a lovely harbourfront development but it was reserved for the arrival of 23 boats that were part of the World ARC rally, an event that has its participants sail around the world in only two years. Because of the ARC, other cruisers were allowed to tie up in the centre of downtown. This was pretty good except that you became a major tourist attraction, it was a bit dirty and there was a surge in the harbour that was hard on docklines - we had one part in the night even though we had chafe gear on it..

Port Louis has the best market we have seen anywhere with excellent quality food at very good prices. The sellers took great pride in presenting their food attractively. There were also interesting snacks and drinks to be had. A tasty lunch was less than a dollar including a fruit drink.

Mauritius is also a very beautiful island. It is not a surprise that it is becoming a major tourism destination.

We really enjoyed Mauritius and would have liked to stay longer, but  ended up there for only two nights because of a lady named Anais. Tropical cyclonic storms can happen in any month in the south-western Indian Ocean, but they are rare in November with an average of three every ten years. In fact, this is one reason why we crossed the Indian Ocean when we did, in early November. 

We were listening to the Peri-Peri Net which is a terrific, twice-daily weather net from South Africa, when we heard that a tropical storm was forming well to the northeast of Mauritius. At the time it was regarded as an interesting curiosity. The next day it seemed that the storm might die out before developing any real intensity. But then it all changed as the disturbance became a strong tropical storm .. and then continued to strengthen. We were left with a series of choices. First was whether to stay in Mauritius or not. The dock we were at was exposed and a bit rough in normal conditions. The storm was to pass well to the north, but such predictions can be wrong of course. If it stayed north the wind would be from the land side, but if it slipped south we would be in a very exposed spot with few alternatives close at hand. It seemed best to leave Mauritius post-haste. The next question was whether to stop at Reunion (about 100 miles to the west). Reunion's harbour is entirely artificial and the yacht basin looked to be wonderfully protected from all directions. Then word came through that the harbour was already jammed with boats and we would have to just keep going towards South Africa.

The tropical storm became a cyclone (72 knots) and was named Anais, and then a category 3 cyclone (130 knots). It was the first time that there had been such a powerful storm this early in the year - yes, we are 'special'. It basically completes our natural hazards set for the trip with a volcanic eruption, a tsunami, earthquakes, and bush fires. Guess we haven't had a blizzard yet.

I don't want to suggest that we were in any life-and-death race with the storm. We started with a 500 mile head-start and it was only doing 10 knots to the west while we could do 7+ to the southwest. Indeed we did not even notice any swells from the storm which was odd. It does complete our natural hazards portfolio though since we could now add tropical cyclone to volcanic eruption (Montserrat), torrential rains and flooding (Panama), tsunami (from Japan in Galapagos), earthquakes (Vanuatu), bush fires (northern Australia). Guess we haven't had a blizzard yet

Anais at its finest. It caused no harm since it had pretty much died out before reaching the coast of Madagascar. Note that southern hemisphere cyclonic storms rotate clockwise unlike those in the north.

A prediction of the path of Anais. Mauritius is called 'Maurice' on this French map. We left Mauritius shortly after the 15/10h date and time shown on the map so the situation we were in is shown quite accurately. By the 19th of November, we would be more than 600 miles south and west of Mauritius. Note that this is the distance between 20S and 30S.

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An aside that has nothing to do with Anais. When you get into this area and start talking about Mauritius, Madagascar, the Mozambique Channel, etc,, you really realize that you are a very long way from home.

An Ocean Behind #3 (to Rodrigues)

This post should have been called, "An Ocean Behind #3 (to Madagascar) because that is where we we originally going, but we are nothing if not flexible ... Anyway, when we left Cocos we had two routes to South Africa - either north of Madagascar or south of it. The classical, and shorter, route is to go south, with stops at one or more of the islands along the way - Rodrigues, Mauritius, and/or Reunion. This route does expose you to some pretty nasty connections, in particular west of Reunion. Going north of Madagascar and down the Mozambique Channel should give you lighter winds but it is a longer passage. Until that last several years few yachts went this way because the government of Madagascar was not welcoming and corruption among the officials you had to deal with was rampant. Both situations have improved with the government encouraging tourism and (most) officials not expecting or asking for 'gifts'.

When we left Cocos our intention was to go about 2800 miles to the northern tip of Madagascar. This turned out to be exactly downwind and we mostly used just a poled out jib. In spite of a bit of helping current and good winds (15 to 25 knots), our progress was not wonderful (112 to 140 mile days) and we had an uncomfortable roll most of the time. We (the captain tends to employ the royal we at times) decided to change our strategy and head south. The change in course was only seven degrees but it made a huge difference to our speed and comfort. Our next nine days ranged from 150 to 174 miles and ride was much more comfortable, even with swells building to the 12 to 15 foot range at times. For the entire passage (2016   miles) we motored for a total of 4 hours - 2 hours getting out and away from Cocos and 2 hours getting into the harbour at Rodrigues. We really have to give the Indian Ocean credit, it is a wonderful place if you like to      sail.

The 'X' marks on the chart are our daily posiotions on the way to Rodrigues (where the boat icon is - Mauritius and Reunion lie to the west as shown). You can see that we started out heading further north for the first four days before veering about 7 degrees to the south. Note that for long passages like this that are basically east to west the shortest distance, the 'great circle route' does not appear as a straight line. Even though we going almost directly westward along 12S we would have gone almost to 13S before heading back to 12S.

 Rodrigues Island is a semi-autonomous territory within Mauritius. It has a population of about 37,000 and basically no source of income other than that that flows from its wealthier neighbour. This is actually a bit amusing because there is a strong independence sentiment on the island - people feel that they would do better if they were not part of Mauritius. Indeed, when the referendum was held over whether to become independent or stay a British colony, Rodrigues voted to remain a colony while those on Mauritius, which has many more people wanted to be independent - and it was an all or nothing vote, so Rodrigians (or whatever they are called) became reluctant citizens of Mauritius. One shop owner we talked to, who has relatives on the very rich island of Reunion (overseas French department), said that if they were independent they could join France, "because the French really like us".

Speaking of France and Britain, Mauritius and Rodrigues were French until 1814 when they became British  (earlier they had been Portugese (the name Rodrigues is Portugese) and Dutch (Mauritius comes from the Dutch). There were African slaves here to work the cane fields and after slavery ended huge numbers of Indian indentured workers arrived. As a result the population is very diverse.

In spite of two centuries of Britishness and the fact that English is the official language, most people speak a type of French Creole. In schools, the language of instruction is French, but written work is done in English - go figure. Hence many people do not speak English well, but can read and write it fluently. In any case, the baguettes here are cheap and tasty, although shorter and wider than Napoleon's original.

Rodrigues is a very pleasant, somewhat sleepy place. This is a major street at a busy time fo the year.

At Rodrigues we had to do some sail repairs to the jib as stitching along the foot had just worn away. Here Kristian and Wynne take their turn at it. It is a slow process to replace hundreds of tiny stitches by hand. We have a sewing machine onboard but it is not up to penetrating several layers of cloth. Have to give North Sails a lot of credit for this sail. It has been up for more than 20,000 miles, often in winds stronger than it was designed for. The cloth is still strong and the sail shape is not bad. There have just been wear and tear issues, for example, chafe of stitching when the sail is partly furled. It was repaired in Brisbane and again in South Africa. Touch wood, it should complete the circumnavigation still in decent shape.

Mea culpa, mea culpa - an ocean behind #2 (to Cocos I)

From Christmas to Cocos-Keeling Island is about the same distance as Bali to Christmas. In total it is about 1100 miles from Bali to Cocos Island, which is actually an atoll with several islands around a very shallow lagoon. The sailing was lovely although we ran into the same problem of going too fast so we would arrive at night - and you really, really don't want to try to enter here in the dark.

And the crowd says action shot. Every so often you have to fix something in an awkward location. One of 'Morley's' (the Monitor vane) control lines snapped on the way to Cocos so it meant climbing down to attach new ones. The point of attachment is about mid-calf with my feet dragging in the lovely water that was almost 30C. Harness is attached because it is a  long swim to anywhere. Note the fishing line with rubber snubber behind the vane. We enjoyed five mahi-mahi on the trip across the Indian Ocean - Kristian was a very keen fisherman.

Cocos is also Australia territory, but has little practical value except for its strategic location well out into the Indian Ocean. There was action here in WWII and even WWI when a German raider was sunk by an Australian cruiser. It was also a refuelling stop for military aircraft in WWII and for early airliners going between Australia and Africa. Today it extends Aussie sovereignty far to the west. Other than that it is only a drain on the Australian economy. The only jobs for the population of 600 are with the government and most people receive some form of welfare or unemployment insurance. There is a minor tourist industry but it is very costly place to get to, so few tourists come. But it is loverly!

Cocos is also a significant destination for refugee boats although these ones come from Sri Lanka which is much further away and hence a more dangerous trip in the crappy old boats they use, with no trained or experienced crew. There is a small naval vessel on watch here and while we there they took several boats that been seized out to sea to burn.

For most of its history, Cocos-Keeling was owned by a Scottish family who imported labour to produce copra (dried coconut). As such it was part of the British Empire. After the family business went belly-up, the islands were British. A referendum was held to decide if they should become part of Indonesia or part of Australia. In spite of proximity and cultural links, the people chose to be part of the rich, democratic country rather than the poorer, autocratic (at the time) one.

The beach at Direction Island is stunning.

Cocos has excellent snorkelling including through 'The Race' a pasage next to Direction Island. You drift through here with the current and see what there is to see. These pictures were taken with our new underwater camera. It is built into a diving mask so you just point your head and reach up and push the button.

Cocos is very susceptible to cyclones (hurricanes, typhoons - call them what you will). Also the entire island is only a few feet above sea level at most. Storm surge would easily cover the entire island. They have a robust cyclone shelter on Home Island just in case.

Memories of Suwarrow in the Pacific. The lagoon in Cocos is well-populated with sharks. The ones in the lagoon are black-tipped reef sharks which we have swum with before and are now used to. You don't have to go very far to find tiger sharks though and they are an entirely different thing.

Mea culpa, mea culpa - an ocean behind #1 (to Christmas I)

I do apologize for not keep this up-to-date but between being very busy and often being in places that do not offer good (or affordable) internet I have fallen an entire ocean+ behind. We are now in Richards Bay, South Africa but I will tell the story in chronological order because that is easiest for my simple mind.

The last posting got us as far as Bali but did not really cover the island at all. A few Bali comments are in order. First, it is not at all like the romanticized image we have of it. The island itself is quite beautiful with high mountains and even a smoking volcano. Secondly, it is not like the rest of Indonesia. The population is largely of Indian ancestry and hence Hindu. Add to this the fact that there are still many Moslems and a big expat and tourist presence and it is a very busy, interesting place. Traffic can be terrible with many cars and trucks and an incredible number of small motorcycles  There are dozens of large hotels and it surely must rank as one of the world's largest tourist destinations with huge numbers of Aussies and Europeans - when  you wander down the street of the tourist area there are restaurants advertising Foster's beer and 'great tucker', that have satellite TV showing foreign sports. Perhaps it would be best to describe it as an interesting place - if not an entirely  pleasant one.

To get to the harbour in Bali you have to pass through the strait between Bali and  Lombok. Currents can be strong,  although they tend to be favourable if you are heading south and there are lots of big ships, including supertankers. Smoking volcano is in the back. 

For our Indian Ocean crossing we had, for the first time, crew. Wynne is American and Kristian is German and they turned out to be competent crew and pleasant companions. They had experience on tall ships in the US and had crewed across the Pacific. Before joining us they had been volunteering in a remote village in Laos. After reaching South Africa they plan to find a sailboat (perhaps a delivery) to Europe, before settling down to a more 'normal' existence in the US. Wynne was waiting to hear about acceptance for a PhD program while Kristian would be finishing the editting of his second novel (first draft completed on the voyage) and looking at job and educational options.

From Bali our first stop was to be at Christmas Island which is an Australian possession about 530 miles away. The Aussies have demonstrated some common sense here by not having the ridiculous $330 quarantine fee that they have on the mainland. All you need is a visa (ours had run out and we were able to get one online in Indonesia. You also have to send them an email at least 96 hours before arrival to say you are coming.

This short passage went very well. We had an unusual second day. We picked up a terrific current and were moving at 8.5 to 9.5 knots. The problem was that this pace was going to get us there in the early part of the night, and I am never comfortable going into a strange harbour (or anchorage) in the dark - although in this case we could have done so. Anyway, I decided that we needed to slow down which was a bummer because we were going so fast and comfortably. Even with 11 hours of slowing down we still did 183 miles for the day. Without slowing down I suspect we would have had about a 210 mile day which is 17 miles more than our best ever. Oh well. We managed to get to the island at about 7 am which is what we wanted. The bottom there is very rocky and deep and the government have banned anchoring to protect the coral. Instead they have installed about six very good moorings which was helpful.

This is the anchorage (actually mooring field) at Christmas Island. We are on the right with Beach House, an American catamaran next to us.

The economy of Christmas seems to be based on two industries. The first is the mining of phosphate rock. During our time there two relatively small freighters loaded. The process took less than a day. The other 'industry' is dealing with illegal immigrants, largely from Indonesia, although others are from countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. The immigration officer we talked to said that it is not unusual for some of these people to have first class stickers on their luggage from their flight from home to Indonesia. There is a large detention camp on Christmas that holds a couple of thousand asylum seekers, although just when we were there the government passed a new law that would have most of these people held in camps in Malaysia and Niue (a now mined-out phosphate rock island in the Pacific). Most refugees are granted admission to Australia but it can take several years for the processing.

The phosphate loading dock is critical to the economic health of Christmas Island. There is no dock as such. Freighters merely tie to a series of large mooring buoys. They have done a very nice job hiding the mining infrastructure, except for this dock of course.

When we were at Christmas the Australian navy 'caught' an asylum-seekers boat. I say 'caught' with tongue firmly in cheek because they want to get caught and will often call on the radio to give their location. This boat had about 60 people on it who were taken ashore on a couple of the local boats (one seen here). There is no crew on these vessels. The smugglers buy a cheap vessel in Indonesia, show the people on board how the engines work and how to use a handheld GPS and send them on the their way. Last year one of these vessels ran into the rocks around the island and 100 people drowned. The navy burn the smuggling ships after removing fuel and other dangerous materials.

Christmas Island had a very nice community feel, although judging by the size of the liquor department at all of the grocery stores, I suspect it might get a little boring. Prices are very high though since most things are flown in. A nice Chinese cabbage, for example, was $12!! Our inner stay arrived by air and cost $200 for shipping from Perth (it weighed something like 7 pounds).. They have a permanent outdoor movie theatre that shows a newish film every Saturday night.We went and saw the most recent Batman film. 

There are a couple of sets of blackboards like this in the centre of Christmas. They had everything on them from what movie was showing on Saturday to what the specials were in the restaurants and who had a house to rent. There also was an island radio station. Pretty good for an island of 1400 people. We had a chat with the owner of the hardware store whose daughter was running in the New York marathon. The whole family was going to cheer her on and the island got behind her since she was raising money for cancer research. Not sure what happened when the race was called off because of Hurricane Sandy.

Indonesia – Part Dua (2 in Indonesian)

In theory we have had internet while cruising through some of the poorer parts of Indonesia. In reality, we could often connect but could not even open Hotmail the connection was so slow. This country has followed the route of many developing countries and just skipped the entire idea of wired telephones. Instead, everyone (except us) has a cell phone. It is quite bizarre to see someone in a dugout canoe with a cell phone – says something about convergence of cultures and technologies, but too complicated for me to figure out. Anyway, as you cruise along the coast you will see red and white painted radio towers that combine both microwave transmissions and cell antennas. One tower means quite a small village and four or more, quite a sizeable town. The only problem is that the signals are better-suited for phones than data. There is an additional problem in that you buy time but have to register it using a series of SMS messages – all in Indonesian. Now we are in Bali and the cell signal is very strong.

We have now gotten well ahead of the Sail Indonesia schedule since we need to leave for South Africa soon. It appears we have not missed much. We went to the first three Sail Indonesia stops and quite enjoyed the festivities. We now have been to five events that featured traditional dancing which sounds like it should be boring and repetitive but nothing could be further from the truth. The range of dances has been incredible and there is always something different to see. Turns out that at the next two stops in the route the planned activities did not happen since the local governments did not approve the needed budget. In a way this does not bother me since the money could be more usefully spent meeting the needs of the local people rather than those of rich boaters. The whole process is supposed to promoting tourism but I don’t see how this actually happens to any significant degree.

This is the anchorage in Lembata, Flores. There is never a shortage of wonderful scenery.

Sailing along the coast from Alor has both its pluses and its minuses. On the positive side of the ledger there is a great deal to see. All of the islands are quite mountainous (to more than 3000 m) and its not rare to see smoking volcanoes. The villages are interesting as are the local watercraft which range from very small dugouts to elaborate fishing vessels and tourist boats that look like the trading boats of a generation ago. The people are incredibly friendly, welcoming, and curious. 

On the way to the market in Lembata we were passed by several trucks and buses filled with kids in different uniforms. Later we passed a field where all these groups had congregated. We thought it might be a soccer tournament so went to look. Turns out it was an effort to pick up trash in the entire community so it would cleaner before for the National Day holiday that was coming. This was much needed as the country (and often the water) is pretty dirty. The ability to produce trash in a developing country seems to come long before the ability to deal with it. When we appeared we were swarmed by kids who wanted to know where we were from, etc. They all wanted shake hands and be in a picture with us. I got this picture when they these girls were too busy with June to  notice that I was taking their picture.We also talked at some length with one of the teachers who was organizing the venture.
June's Aussie straw hat was later lost at sea which was a bit of a tragedy.

Shopping is great fun. In Lombok we walked to quite a large market and returned home in a pony cart. There are dozens of these that play the role of taxis. June is remarkably adept at communicating with the merchants and managing to bargain for a decent price. You really need to do this otherwise you end up paying way more than market. For example, one of the pony cart drivers wanted 50,000 rupiah for the relatively short trip back to the boat. June asked a merchant who did speak good English how much it should be – 10,000 and this is what we paid. It was such fun that we added a 5,000 rupiah tip (about 60 cents). Told the driver it was for a treat for the little horse but we don’t think he understood.

In the market. Many of the market areas have sun awnings but they are not tall enough for me to walk through without bending over. June does not have a problem though. June has learned enough Indonesian to do most bargaining, but shoppers who know English are very helpful and want to make sure that you are paying a fair price.

Indonesia is a country of scooters and small motorcycles. This is the family car.

On the negative side of the ledger … we have been motoring way too much here. The winds tend to be weak and not at all reliable. If you end up sailing more than motoring (or motor-sailing,) on a given day that is good, but not common. The exception to this is when you cross the straits that exist between islands. Here you often will have 25+ knots. Some of these straits are quite wide and it can take several hours to cross, during which you may have currents helping (or hurting) your progress.

The other problem in many areas is finding a decent anchorage in many places. Particularly more to the east, the islands are very steep right to the water’s edge and there is little if any shelf next to the island. Often, in shallower areas, the bottom is covered in coral, which is a good thing except when you are trying to anchor. Near the eastern end of Flores island we happened to be with about 8 other boats as it was getting onto anchoring time. It verged on the humorous as boats ducked into (and out of) every little indentation in the coast looking for somewhere to drop the hook. After about an hour of this, all but one boat had found something, but with water depths to 30 m and still very close to shore. We found a spot in about 15 m but were very close to shore – 25 m or so. I slept in the cockpit with the anchor alarm on in case the wind came up. Needless to say I got very little sleep. In some places you cannot avoid coral. In one anchorage I was horrified to bring up a piece of coral on the anchor. We could not see since the water was 20+ m deep and not all that clear. Further west it was much better since there were areas of land that were flatter and this meant that there was a decent amount of shallow water (<10 bottoms.="bottoms." m="m" mud="mud" or="or" sand="sand" with="with">

Also it is hard to keep the boat clean. Most people cook on open fires and there is a lot of soot in the air at times that ends up on the deck. Finally there are the prayer chants. Some are quite melodic, others just loud. But it would be nice if the first one was a little later than 4 am. When we visited large Islamic cities like Cairo and Amman there was one chant that came from high—quality PA systems. Here, each mosque does its own chant often all at the same time. Even smallish towns will have multiple mosques/chants. Our record was five going at one time.

One of the neat things we got to do was see Komodo dragons. They are only found on four islands and most are on only two:  Komodo and Rindja. These two islands are in the strait between Flores and Sembawa. We could have taken our boats to them, but the usual problems of currents and poor anchorages encouraged us to go on a local tour boat.  We started with crews from four sailboats, but a half hour or so out there were large clouds of smoke coming out of the engine room of our boat (everyone had brought their life jackets with them since the local boats do not have such luxuries). After a few minutes another tour boat that was passing took us on board. One couple who are cruising with an 11 month old baby decided that they did not trust the local boats and asked to be taken back to their boat. This was perfectly understandable. 

We were picked up at our boats for the tour to Rindja. This is the tour boat that caught fire. the replacement one was not as large or fancy.

The rest of us, along with three English tourists who were already on board, had a great day. We went to the national park on Rindja and saw a dozen or so dragons, and they are nasty looking beasts. The males can be 3.7 m long. There was a list of ‘incidents’ on a bulletin board in the park. Since 1987, 17 people have been bitten in the park and three have died. When you are in the park you are accompanied by a ranger with a long (2+ m) forked stick if one of the dragons should prove too aggressive. A real problem is that they are camouflaged very effectively and if their tongues are not flicking around, the only thing that is moving are their eyes.

Komodo dragons on Rindja island. These ones are attracted to the smells at the kitchen in the national park. The park staff live there with their families in buildings on stilts but the dragons on occasion will go up stairs. The biggest one in this group was about 2.5 m long. Nasty looking beasts.

We are now in Bali which has a small marina that is not particularly nice but the only option in the area. It is also quite expensive by regional standards – as is Bali in general. Getting to the marina was chaotic. The channel in is not all that wide and very shallow on either side and very busy. As we came in, there were ferry boats (mainly fast catamaran type), tugs, and many recreational boats coming and going. These include numerous jet skis, boats pulling tourists on floats, people fishing, and parasail boats. We passed one small boat with two guys fishing while wearing motorcycle helmets. Couldn’t quite figure that one out but it was a fitting commentary on the chaos.

We originally planned to stay in Bali to Sept. 15^th but it turns out there is a race coming from Australia and we have to leave on the 10^th. Our Indian Ocean crew were able to change their schedule so we can leave then. This is actually a plus since it gives us more flexibility down the line. We have been very busy doing every kind of maintenance we can think of on the boat in preparation for the passage. We have also remade the boat as a cutter by setting up the inner stay and putting the sail on it. As well, we will have the storm trysail lying on deck on its track. Our route to Richards Bay, just east of Durban, South Africa will include stops at Christmas I, Cocos-Keeling I (these are both Aussie territory so we had to get new visas), Rodriquez I and Mauritius, then north around Madagascar and down to South Africa. It will be more than 5000 miles through some windy, rough ocean so we want everything working well.

An addendum to this post. Did an inspection of the rig today and was most annoyed to find that one of the lower shrouds has a broken wire. This should not happen since the rigging was replaced only three years ago. There are no riggers in Indonesia and I checked with DHL who are the best couriers here and it would take a week for delivery and would cost almost $400. At this point I am considering  hopping on a plane to Perth, Australia to get the needed wire and fittings. Darwin is much closer but at least three airlines fly to Perth so the fares are much cheaper. I should be able to do it for about the DHL cost. The joys of cruising in areas that are not the home to many sailboats.

In answer to the questions posted in the comments to our last posting. The security situation in Indonesia is much improved. The problems used to be near Singapore and in northern Sumatra and there has been more policing. Apparently the great tsunami that ravaged Sumatra contributed to a major reduction in piracy since so many people were killed and so many boats destroyed. We have found Indonesia to be a very honest country with the exception of merchants who try to charge foreigners a ‘special’ price – which does not bother me at all. In one place I left my Crocs on the dock by accident when I was getting in the dinghy (they were very sandy). Next morning they were still there in spite of many people wandering by.

We have a Northern Lights 5 kW generator and it seems to have worked very well for us overall. We had to have it rebuilt when we bought the boat because the previous owners had not used it enough. It had barely 300 hours in something like 12 years. Apparently the secret is to use a genset regularly and when you do, make sure there is a good load on it. The newer generators seem to have fancy, solid-state controls that monitor and report on everything and we have run into more than a couple of boats who have had problems with the control units. It may pay to keep things simple.

Less Than 500 Miles ... But a World of Difference

 From Darwin to Kupang in Indonesia is only 460 miles and most of that is heading westward rather than directly northward where the distance from Oz to Indonesia is less than 150 miles, but in terms of the economic and cultural differences between the countries it should be an immense distance. It is easy to see why the Australian government spends so much time and effort trying to stop ‘boat people’ from sneaking into the country from Indonesia.

A few words about the start of the rally and the passage. Technically, the rally was to begin at 11 am with all of the boats crossing a starting gun after a starting sequence just like a race. In actual fact, boats started leaving just after dawn to take advantage of an excellent, favourable wind. Wwe were anchored pretty much on the starting line after leaving the marina the previous day and had the anchor up just before 9 am and could not resist the lure of the wind, so started heading towards Kupang.

It would be hard to imagine an easier, more pleasant passage. The first day the winds moved around a bit and quit for a couple of hours (we motored for 1 ½ hr) before settling in just about perfectly behind us, where they stayed for the next three days. We ended up wing and wing (main on one side and genoa  straight course in these conditions. The passage took us 3 days and 3 hours and we arrived at Kupang with a group of boats that were in the 47 to 52 foot range which was nice.

Next was our introduction to Indonesia bureaucracy – which is legendary. Three officials, all extremely pleasant and very young came on board to start the process. Then we went ashore to a room that had been set up for the rally to finish the entry process. There were twenty (20!) more pleasant young people there that you worked your way through as you went from department to department – customs, immigration, quarantine, health, and port authority. All of them were busily filling in forms and stamping and stapling. We handed in many copies of our passport with the visas and the boat registration, and the CAIT (cruising permit) – and we got to use our boat stamp, which he purchased in Toronto and had only used once, in Ecuador. Here it go a workout as we filled in forms, signed them, and stamped them. Most boats did not have a stamp and went out to get one made in Kupang for $5 with the stamp pad and ink each costing 60 cents. One boat had both a stamp and an embosser like a lawyer would have. The officials were most impressed with this and all wanted to feel the raised stamp on the paper.

Our introduction to Indonesia proved two things: things here are much, much cheaper than in Oz (not surprisingly) and the people here are remarkably friendly and accommodating, although efficiency is not a word found in the language. An aside, during our briefing in Darwin, the Indonesian man behind the rally commented that in Mexico there is the concept of manana, which in Jamaica would be expressed as “soon come”. He said in Indonesian there is no such word to express such a level of urgency. He said that many people wear wristwatches, but these are for decorative, not functional reasons.

We also began our lives as celebrities here. There was a dinner sponsored by the governor with folk dances and Indonesian interpretations of Western music (some quite good). Two nights later there was a dinner put on by the mayor of Kupang, again with entertainment. A few hours before that we were on a tour and stopped at a festival put on the district mayor and there was more dancing and a ‘snack’, the tbag, meet the local officials, and get your picture taken with them. I have no idea what they do with all the pictures.

One of the many dance groups we have seen. They are most often remarkably elegant-looking dancers.

The tour we did was most interesting, thought-provoking, inspirational, and a bit sad – all at the same time. It was led by a young man named Alfredo who is part of a unique and special family. About 20 years ago his parents who are farmers started to take in orphans. Over time, a few became many and the family now support 92 children ranging from infants to university age, and with no official status as a charity or as an orphanage. The rally indirectly supports the orphanage by providing for an optional $25 fee that goes to a scholarship so the best kids can go to university (so far about 10 have gone to university or are going). Many cruisers also chip in more money when they get a chance to visit the children who seem very happy and well looked-after. The parents have two hectares (4.4 acres) of first-rate rice paddies that have enough water to allow two crops a year – this provides the bulk of the food. Alfredo works during the week and looks after the orphanage from Friday to Sunday so the parents get a break. He also teaches the kids English (he is self-taught and quite skilled) in the evening and gives academic help as well. Apparently he is quite good at this since one of the girls who graduated from high school this year had the highest exam results of any student in Timor – which has a couple hundred thousand people. She is going to university sponsored by Sail Indonesia and wants to be a math teacher. Alfredo’s sister works as a nurse and donates most of her salary to the kids. An uncle and aunt also help out (he is also a minister and leads services for the children). The older children also look after the younger ones.  A remarkable story that makes you want to question how you have spent your life.

Rice being transplanted. There are very few such areas in the eastern part of the area we visited. The family who run the orphanage own 2 hectares (4.4 acres) of this land. It provides most of the food to support almost one hundred people.

Two of the orphans who have lived in the orphanage since around age 7. They are going to university in a few months and both want to be math teachers. The water in the background comes from a spring and is a critical part of the rich rice paddies in this area.

During the tour we visited the children and saw where they live. Remarkably, 42 boys sleep in one room that was not all that big. Up to 4 kids sleep in one, largish bunk. The 50 girls sleep in slightly more space. They also grow food around the orphanage. We visited Alfredo’s home and met his parents and toured the rice paddies and saw the spring where the water comes from.

If anyone reading this has some spare change and would like to help some delightful children and an admirable family, post a comment and we will get in touch. I have contact info for Alfredo and we can figure out how to get the money to him.

A visit to a monkey sanctuary in Kupang.

This was taken at a forge next to the road in Alor where they make knives and machetes. This guy's job is to power the bellows which he is doing with his right hand. It does not require any attention so he can use his other hand and eyes to keep in touch with friends with text messages.

After a few days in Kupang it was time to move on and we were ready for a change as it is a pretty hectic, dirty place. The next scheduled Sail Indonesia stop was in Kalahabi, Alor which is about 135 miles NE of Kupang. Less than half of the boats in Kupang actually came here as it was going east and everyone has spent so much time getting west that it seemed (and was) like going the wrong way. Also it was our introduction to the strong currents that exist between islands in Indonesia. When we left Kupang our original plan was to make this a two day trip with an anchorage somewhere on the north coast of Timor. Anchoring here is complicated by the fact that the water gets very deep quite close to shore and you are very near the border with East Timor which is not one of the happiest border regions in the world (Google it for more info). At least the wind was good for going there – and then it changed and we ended up with NE winds (should have been E to S quadrant and it started that way). I thought this would mean an exposed anchorage so we kept going and ended up hard on the, not very strong, wind. We ended up with our shortest 24 hour run ever – 104 miles and this included a few hours motoring. The fun had just begun though. Once we got close to the strait between Alor and the neighbouring island the currents started. We did as slow as 1.9 knots in spite of motorsailing because of the strong and swirling currents. At times we were doing 7 knots as we hit patches of counter currents. To top it off, when we were about 10 miles from the anchorage the engine alarm came on. Turned out we had had a complete failure of the impeller that circulates cooling water to the engine. To those not familiar with these little beasts, it consists of a wheel with eight rubber lobes sticking out that push up against the pump housing. They wear out gradually as the lobes break off. When this happens you notice that you do not has as much coolant flow are normal. This was not the case here though. It turned out that the rubber part of the impeller and pulled away from the metal hub inside so we went from lots of cooling to none at all. On some engines you can replace the impeller fairly easily, but not on the mighty Westerbeke 58. The impeller housing is turned in such a way that it is not very accessible (you have to take the drive belt off and turn the whole pump). Also the engine was very hot. It was not a great time as we had about 4 knots of apparent wind behind us and a few knots of good current but the tide was scheduled to change against us. Also, the water was very deep, right up to shore so we could not anchor. Fortunately another rally boat was coming up and they towed us into the anchorage where we were able to replace the impeller after the engine cooled.

Alor is quite lovely and we like it much better than Kupang. It is not so busy and much cleaner. They teach English in the schools and lots of the young people want to talk to you. Again the people are incredibly friendly and helpful whether you are trying to figure out where a mini-bus (‘bemo’) is going or how much the bananas are in the market. 

This is a 'bemo', the staple public transport of the region. They are very low inside and barely adequate for most Indonesians - who are not large people.

We shared the cost of a bemo rental for a day with a Dutch couple and had a great time exploring this end of the island. We could have gone on the tour organized for the cruisers, but ours was much more fun and also much cheaper. We visited a ‘traditional village’ well up in the hills – actually very nice up there as it was cool – which is the major tourist attraction. The people in this village look quite different – much darker skin and different facial features. Apparently cannibalism still happened in this area until the 1950s, but today the ‘warriors’ have cell phones and may live in the city and drive up to work on their motorbikes. We bought some handicrafts there that were quite nice.

We went to a 'traditional village' in Alor where the locals danced and sold handicrafts. This is one of the dancers. He only looks like he is 150 years old. He is 50. We bought a bow and two arrows. Not sure how many people live in the village now. It is up in the hills and not as hot as near the ocean. 

The local rally organizers have done a terrific job here. We had our dinner with the regent – a regency is bigger than a district, but smaller than a province with terrific entertainers. They arranged a good price for diesel delivered to the dock and had built a dinghy dock as well. There always were people at the dock to take your lines and answer questions. They even had a couple of buses organized to take us to the Regent’s dinner even though it was only about 400 m away. Overall a great job.

Indonesia is the most populous Islamic country in the world but there are sections that are majority Christian, like the parts we have visited so far. Even so, there is still a significant Moslem population. This, of course, means prayer chants from the mosque (there is one in the background as I type this). We had experienced these in Egypt and Jordan a number of years ago and quite like them – they tend to be quite soothing. There was one mosque, or at least one with chants, in Kupang and that chants there were particularly pleasant. This is a good thing since the first one is at 4 am and it does not completely wake you up but you are aware of them.

It has been fun getting used to Indonesian money. The exchange rate locally is something like US$1 = 7000 rupiah so when you cash in a few hundred dollars you are suddenly a millionaire and you have bills in your wallet up to 100,000 rupiah. Apparently there has been a large amount of inflation at some point since 1 rupiah is divided into 100 sens. The smallest denomination we have seen is 500 rupiah which was enough for a deep-fried banana on the street (around 6 cents). BTW, the bananas were so good we went back for seconds.

Have to mention this – we have had our three fancy dinners and at each the Elvis song that starts, “Wise men say …” was performed, twice with a reggae beat. We are wondering if this is like a second national anthem or something. At one of the performances there was a blues singer who could have walked directly onto a stage in Vegas. She was fabulous. The joys of globalization.

On to Darwin

The last blog entry went as far north as Port Douglas which was an elegant small town with many nice restaurants and places to stay. It was also the end of civilization for the next several weeks as we moved into extreme northern Queensland and area with only Aboriginal reserves, national parks and some of the giant, legendary cattle stations (ranches). It is an area that combines sameness with variety and is very lonely. The only village we stopped at, Portland Roads, had a population of a few dozen. There are also a few Aboriginal villages but you can only stop there if you have made previous arrangements. In general it was a very interesting journey to a part of the world not well-known. The weather also was pretty consistent. There would be a few days of light winds from the SE, followed by a few days of heavy winds (25 to 35 knots) also from the SE. Since we were going generally NW it meant lots of broad reaching and running (genoa only, the assymetric did not get up) and more than a few gybes (only a few that were not planned and since the main was not up often, not a problem. For the most part, I will tell the story from the perspective of pictures. The first one is of the anchorage at Lizard Island (there are quite a few lizards wandering around that are in the 3 to 6 foot size range). It is very tall island and apparently the northern terminus of some Aussie cruisers. They come here and wait until the wind switches at the beginning of summer. They go south with the northerly winds that develop. We went to Lizard after a short (9 mile) run from the mainland in winds in the 30 to 35 range. The protection was quite good but the winds still were blowing like this for the couple of days we stayed. The picture was taken from the trail to the top of the island, which was a pretty challenging walk.

This picture was taken from the top of Lizard looking out toward the outside of the Great Barrier Reef. The spot is called Cook's lookout because he came here in 1770. The Great Barrier Reef gets closer and closer to the mainland the further north you go so that in some places it is less than 10 miles away. Cook did surveys as we went north and realized this fact and was very much afraid he might get embayed if the reef closed completely to the land (he did not know about the wind switching later in the year). He came to the top of Lizard and looked out toward the open ocean and could see a passage that he used to escape from the reef. BTW, a few months earlier his ship hit a reef (now called Endeavour Reef after his vessel) and was very fortunate to escape. He only got off the reef by throwing his cannon and many other heavy items over the side. Having come up through the reef with accurate charts (first survey by Cook), GPS, an engine, and depth sounder you stand in awe of people like Cook who had none of these.

One of the realities of sailing this area are saltwater crocodiles. They were hunted almost to extinction in the past, but for the last 20+ years they have been protected and they are expanding their range. There were even some in Cairns harbour. This is lovely, tiny island that is part of the Reef. At low tide there was a long sandbar to the north that was probably half a mile long. Lovely spot for a walk, you say? Could be except for the croc that lives on the beach.

More croc evidence. We spent a couple of nights in an excellent anchorage in the mouth of the Escape River, just south of Cape York at the northernmost point of Queensland. This boat was there about the same time. If you look at the Canadian flag you can see that most of the outer red stripe is gone. About 1 am, a croc jumped out of the water at the flag (they have a very small brain, but great killer instincts and physical power). He (she?) jumped again and bit the swim platform on the boat, breaking through the gelcoat and leaving tooth scratches on the bottom of the platform. The couple were sleeping in the aft cabin very close to the action and thought they had been hit by another boat. A very friendly couple run a pearl farm in the Escape River (they invited us to visit, which lasted for about 5 hours. When we talked to the woman on the radio she said that the crocs in the river were well-fed and we should be fine as long as we kept moving in our dinghies - Oh, Mr Mercury Motor, don't fail us now. They have lovely place to live on a point at the entrance to the river, but there were small crocs on the beach there.

There are warning signs like this all over northern Australia and they mean it. You can't even stand near the edge of the water since this is prime hunting area for the beasts. As we headed to Darwin water temps went above 30°C and there were lovely beaches, but you coule not go swimming. In Kakadu National Park (mentioned later) they say that the only save place to swim is the pool in the village.

When one looks at a map of Australia and neighbouring countries it appears that there is a big piece of ocean between Cape York and Papua-New Guinea. Turns out that this area (Torres Strait) is actually an extension of the Great Barrier Reef and is full of islands, shoals, and is all quite shallow - even extending out westward towards Darwin. There was one spot that was 50 m deep right at Cape York but that was the deepest place we saw since north of Bundaberg. Our crossing of the top of the Gulf of Carpenteria (4 days) was not too bad. Our last day was blowing (the usual 30 to 35 knots) but at least the water was a bit deeper so the waves were not too bad. Boats that were a couple of days behind us had quite unpleasant conditons. THe highlight of our crossing was catching a 52" barracuda that weighed between 25 and 30 pounds. Quite a handful with only a handline. After finally getting him aboard I realized that we should hav bought a gaff rather than the big fishing net we have. We tried to lift him up with the net but only about half of him fit in and he did not like the idea. We finally just lifted him with the line. I thinked we ended up with 8 meals. Sorry the picture is the wrong way, it is vertical in the albumn but got turned here and I can't figure out how to turn it.

When we got to Darwin we took the opportunity to head into the interior of the country in a rented campervan ($49 a night with unlimited mileage - one of the few bargains in the country other than the 30 cent ice cream cones at Mickey D's). We ended up driving more than 4000 km in a week. To be fair, there is not much else to do but drive. The distances are large and the towns are few. The third biggest city in the Northern Territory is Katherine which has a population of only 11,000. Alice Springs is not a whole lot bigger, but we had to go there after June read "A Town Like Alice". These are some of the rock paintings in Kakadu National Park. It is a World Heritage Site, likely because of the paintings that range from 26,000 years old to less than 30.

This is the famous rock called either Uluru or Ayer's Rock depending on your level of political correctness. It is quite remarkable at sunset, when this pic was taken. The colours are indeed accurate. We also got up before dawn, along with a few hundred other people, to see the sunrise on it - not worth disturbing the sleep. There is something quite odd happening here. The rock is a sacred place for the local people and they do not want people to climb it. The national park people ask that you don't climb it, but don't actually stop you from climbing and have installed a rope handrail to help you with the climb (it is very steep). Why they don't just forbid climbing (which they do if it is too windy or wet) is beyond me?

Driving down the 'Stuart Highway' which goes about 3000 km south to Adelaide is not like the long distance highways at home. It is only two lanes and that makes sense because there is really not that much traffic. Most common, about equal numbers, are rental campervans and small motorhomes. Next would the locals' vehicles which are, in the countryside, overwhelmingly small diesel trucks (not pickups) with snorkels for the air intakes. These reach up to the top of the roof and allow the vehicles to go through quite deep water when the road floods - which is very, very common in the wet season. Back to crocs, we were told that you have to be very careful when you drive through flooded bits not to get stuck since you can't really get out run a cable ashore or to get help because the crocs really spread out in the wet season. Anyway, back to the highways. This picture is of a couple of 'road trains'. These are a tractor with either three or four tralers behind. The length limit is 53.5 m! We saw one carrying dry cement (4 trailers) and it was and 82-wheeler. If you want to pass one of these monsters in a gutless Mitsubishi campervan with over 200k on the odometer you want to be able to see a long way ahead.

This was an interesting spot along the highway called the Devil's Marbles. It is a large area of eroded granite. This was about the most extreme of all. You wonder how many years (or centuries) it will be until the little join breaks away.

We did see kangaroos. These are in a zoo in Alice Springs where they let you wander through the 'roo enclosure. Later we saw a mother and baby (joey?) right next to the road just after dawn. When we got quite close (20 m) the baby decided he had had enough of the scary world and dove into the pouch.

We did not go on this road because our rental agreement only allowed us on 'sealed' roads. The picture is good for showing a) how red the soil is in the 'Red Centre' and the kind of secondary roads there are in the country, with no gas (or settlement other than cattle stations) for 500 km). BTW, the redness of the soil is the result of tremendous amounts of leaching of nutrients for many thousands of years. All that is left in the soil are the insoluble minerals like iron and aluminum - so what we end up seeing is really a lot of 'rust' in the soil as the iron oxidizes.

Just so you don't think we were only concerned about crocs, at the zoo in Alice Spring we saw a fairly small snake called the 'Desert Death Adder'. The guide said that it was on the list of the 10 deadliest snakes in the world but not near the top. She did say that if you were bitten you better have the anti-venom with you because you would never make it to the hospital. You mentioned that the deadliest of all is called the Great Brown. The problem with these guys is that they are very aggressive and will chase you (nice thought). She said that if you see any small to medium-sized snakes in Oz you should back away from them but if the snake is large it should be Ok, except that we saw a python that was 19 feet long and looked like it could look after itself. A few comments about the city of Darwin. It is a lovely spot and would be a great place to live - for about 5 months of the year. This is the dead of winter here and every day the high as been about 30C with bright sun. You can tell it is winter because some of the locals wear a woolen sweater (jumper) over their longsleeved shirts, even at midday. The problem here is the other 7 months. In midsummer it often reaches 43°C with high humidity and lots of rain. Darwin and the adjacent parts of the Northern Territory (the residents are called 'Territorians') have a fairly brief history that is dominated by two events - World War II and Cyclone Tracy. If you have ever wondered what the Japanese fleet did after Pearl Harbor, they came to waters north of here and bombed Darwin in Feb., 1942. In fact, more than four times as many bombs were dropped here than in Hawaii and hundreds of people were killed (many women and children had already been evacuated or the toll might have been much worse. Many people thought that an invasion would follow and there certainly was nothing here to stop them. Apparently the Japanese navy wanted an invasion and the army thought that they would be spread too thinly. The Australian government took the threat seriously and had a secret plan to pull back to a line at the latitude of Brisbane. As we drove south we past signs pointing to the locations of many WWII airports stretching quite far south. Tracy hit Darwin on Christmas Day in 1974 and is the largest natural disaster in Australian history. It was a Category 4 hurricane and one of the most compact hurricanes ever recorded. More than 60% of the buildings and 80% of the homes were destroyed and dozens were killed. The result is a very modern-looking city since few homes predate the storm and many of the surviving buildings have been modernized at some point in the past 30+ years.