Cruising Indonesia Part 3 

All is well here. We are at the Bali International Marina...sounds great, but really not too fancy. It has all the services here except laundry facilities and labor is really cheap. We are getting Sea Fever spit and polished for US$2.50 an hour. Well worth it.

Last night we went to town for dinner with friends and the streets were filled with young people dressed in red waving all kinds of red flags. They had just finished the congress meeting of the PDI, a democratic party which has been banned for many years by the previous government. It is headed by a woman, Sujarto’s daughter, Megayati. Everyone was really celebrating. Ah very happy and celebrating. Order was kept which was really good, as the current government could shut them down if they so choose. Quite interesting! Too bad the young people of US can’t get that enthusiastic about a candidate and do it without violence, drugs, booze. None of which was present here. (Hindu)

We will probably leave here on 13-14 October. Hopefully everything will work okay. Our engine problem was quite serious, but Rob did a great job fixing it. We had other problems on our way here, but nothing we could not handle while sailing. Listening to the problems other boats are having, we feel pretty lucky. The main thing is to be near a port if something goes wrong, otherwise you can really be in trouble. But that is why everyone stays in touch by HF radio. You can always call another boat for help if needed. People will come and help you out if necessary.

It is very hot here. I think the rainy season is about to start. We are planning on going off for a few days to explore. Not sure what we will do yet. We are going to try to find Rob a windsurfer. He had to leave his in Arlie Beach ‘cause we did not have the room for it. We are a bit more organized now, so we can make the room for it. It is good exercise and he has missed it.

I have been eating up a storm here! Food is so good. It is the first chance we have really had to eat out 90 it is a real treat. I have lost so much weight, I feel I can eat as much as I want, knowing I will lose it again once we get underway. Not sure why that is!

Rob and I have planned our itinerary south and depart Tana Beru on 15 September. We motor for two hours to the beach resort town of Bira to have dinner and anchor for the night. Anchoring proved difficult as the water was either very deep or very shallow with reef. We finally get the anchor down in what seems a good spot. After sunset, we go ashore for nice relaxing meal. Met the nice young English speaking man who helped Louise and I at the market to make arrangements for her driver to UP. It was really good to see him again because he was such a help to us that previous day.

After dinner, we head back to Sea Fever and she is thrashing about, caught between wind and a strong current. You could hardly stand up on her. Rob decides we cannot spend the night here, so we motor around the point (back where we came from) to find a calm anchorage.

Our plan was to head south to the island of Seleyar and on to Flores, somewhat taking our time. After a morning swim, we lifted anchor and the engine alarm goes off. Rob turned it off immediately and we lowered the anchor again. This does not seem good. After taking a quick look at the engine, we sailed back to our anchorage in Tana Beru and dropped the anchor once again.

Rob worked for 1 1/2 days taking the main pulley off. It is cracked. This is the part that turns everything on the front part of the engine, runs the alternator, refrigeration and dive compressor. We hope the shaft is okay. He takes more bits apart and finds that the salt water pump and its shaft is also broken. It looks like we will be here awhile. Needless to say, we were both disappointed as we were anxious to get on our way. As Rob is painstakingly taking all the bits apart, I help him like a nurse would help the surgeon, handing him tools, holding nuts, getting almost as greasy as him and offering support, all the while, learning more about the engine.

He makes a detailed list of what we need, diagrams, measurements, serial numbers to send to our Sea Fever mechanic in Airlie Beach. Luckily we have met a man here in Tana Beru named Amad who does a lot of business which requires imports and exports. We asked his advice as to the best way to get the parts here and he offered us to use his address in Ujung Pandang. He also has drivers coming from there from time to time and they may be able to deliver the packages here to Tana Beru, saving Rob a six hour round trip to the big city. Rob has to travel a hour to get to a place to send the fax to Airlie Beach and make phone calls to Australia. We know all this will take at least two weeks before we can leave here. As we were planning a fairly long trip when we left here, I had stocked up on provisions. We have a lot of fresh vegies and two very fresh chickens, and one that has been in the freezer, lots of soft drinks and a case of beer. Without the engine, our refrigeration does not work. We have to eat this food in three days or it will go bad. Fortunately some friends came over the first night and shared dinner and beer with us. (We have to drink the beer before it get too warm!) I also gave them one of the chickens.

Now taking an engine apart is a lot different than putting it all back together. We hope everything that has been sent is right and all of it there. All the parts look good, but the salt-water pump intake and outlet is configured a bit differently, so a bit of creativity is in order here. We will also have to sacrifice the dive compressor pulley, so we will need to figure out another energy source for its operation.

Rob works again as painstakingly putting it all back together in his most careful manner. We are both feeling tired from the stress of it all coming back together and actually working. If it starts up, we will never complain about diesel smell ever again!

Here we also encounter the first commercial charter boats since leaving Darwin. Among them, are two very interesting traditional boats for snorkel/dive trips and island exploration. Rob goes aboard two of them for closer inspection. There is a possibility we could put an Indonesian Reef and Island Exploration trip together in the future if there is enough interest. After an absolutely fabulous lunch on shore (a real treat!!) and picking up some provisions, we up anchor and head towards the island of Ringa. This island is one of three islands which make up the Komodo National Park.

On the way, we pass a couple of very small islands that looked charmingly beautiful. We could not resist a bit of exploration and a snorkel. A large billed heron was fishing on the rock’s edge so we headed in that direction to get a closer look. We jump in the water and were not disappointed. We enjoyed seeing so many species of coral and tropical fish. Absolutely beautiful!! One unusual thing for me during this snorkel, was to find so many different species of anemones and anemone fish in such a small area. There must have been at least ten different species, different colors and shapes with matching fish!

Late afternoon we go about 3 nm to anchor in the lagoon where the Komodo National Park Headquarters are located. We put on our "land gear" and head for the office. We sign up for a guided tour as here we will find the infamous Komodo Dragon, as well as interesting birds, monkeys, wild deer & pigs, water buffalo and new (to us) vegetation and environment. Our guide spoke English pretty well and was able to answer most of our questions. He had a great eye and found many of the animals mentioned above.

We head south through the Lombok Strait. Smooth sailing, then all of a sudden, huge white caps ahead. We encounter 6 foot swells and everything on the boat has to be immediately closed up, anything out has to be put away very quickly! We are tossed about a quite a bit and it is over in 10 minutes! We are in a tide versus wind situation. Then the sea becomes smooth again, then wham!, huge swells, It comes in bands across the strait. We crossed four of these before getting to our destination.

Coming into Benoa was also a challenge. We had to negotiate a narrow channel, with the tide against us. Rob had done his homework and had all the bearings in his notes. I was at the helm, him telling me what to do, which way to go. We finally arrive at the Bali International Marina. Lots of boats here, so hard to find an anchorage. But we find a temporary one, while we check out the marina itself. We will go into the marina if there is a space for us and we can enter without too much hassle. We do, up anchor and enter the marina.

Culture Shock! Boats from many parts of the world (Lots of American boats); people speak English; you can get a great hamburger and fries; good cold beer; access to Internet, fax and phone. We also catch up with other boats we started out with in Darwin and renew friendships.

Locals offer to work on the boat for USD$2.50 per hour. Other yachties recommend their work. So Sea Fever is getting cleaned and polished. She has worked hard these past few months and will look like new once again. I could use a cleaning and polish myself!!

The boat is safe here in the marina, the security is very good. We plan to take a couple of days and explore a bit.

Listening to the talk on the HF Radio, many of the other boats in the "fleet" (those from the Ambon Race who are cruising like us) are having much worse engine problems than we had. Guess it is part of the world cruising adventure experience!