The Bluewater Rally in their wisdom had declared that the rally boats must be at “Nongsa Point” a couple of days earlier than we had all expected and planned for…..something to do with it taking a long time to deal with so many boats all at once. Nongsa Point I should say is the last stop in Indonesia where we would expect to “clear out” of the country before hopping across the Strait of Singapore to…….Singapore (!) which is all of 15 miles away.
Indonesian customs and immigration rules are strict and having tangled with them in Kupang, over a 1000 miles away to the east, we were all keen to do the correct thing, pay our dues and not upset anybody but, hey, Indonesia is absolutely huge and full of the most amazing and unique things…….I’m talking about orangutans here of course. Would you come all this way and just sail past? I think not!! And so, of course did most of the other Rally boats. As I write this part, anarchy rules and some of us are sitting at anchor in the midst of the most incredible thunderstorm awaiting a short trip up the river tomorrow morning to Kumai and thence a daytrip by boat forty miles upriver to commune with our hairy orange cousins. My only orange experience up ‘til now has been a daytrip to Jersey Zoo with Richard, then aged 7 in about 1994, when one of the Big Daddies swung across in the branches over our heads leaving in his wake the most overpowering stench of BO. I’m hoping to get a little closer to a couple of relatively fragrant babies this time!!!
The trip here to Kumai, Kalimantan (used to be Borneo) from Bali has been quite entertaining .The sail northwestwards into the Java Sea meant negotiating the Lombok Strait (again…we did it on the way to Bali from GiliAir) but in the opposite direction. I only just learnt recently that this narrow channel is the main one where water streams through to the Indian Ocean from the Pacific. Wow!! That’s a lot of liquid coming through. No wonder we saw whirlpools and reached 11 knots…in the right direction luckily. Be ignorant of your tide times at your peril. A significant number of yachts went aground en route to or from Benoa, Bali. Moonshiner was not one of them!!
We were in company for the 5 day trip to Kumai with Canadian “Angel”…..she’s a 42’ Halberg Rassy, lovely expensive Scandinavian boats but heavy and therefore slower than most of the racy new designs and the bigger boats or catamarans…….. OK, slower than nearly everybody else except Moonshiner and even we can beat her under sail, apart from the fact that we had to motor practically the whole way from Bali to Kumai. Refueling was therefore first on the agenda before any thought of going upriver into the jungle.
Tomorrow duly arrived after a very peaceful night, storms having abated, with us three boats resting at anchor in the river mouth. Around 6.30am after hauling up the “pick” (navy speak for anchor), we motored in a little convoy up to the strange little town of Kumai, a very busy port full of local and foreign trading vessels of all shapes and sizes. I quickly learned that this was a town with no beer! A lovely local man “Harry” arrived alongside and told me that the local governor got so fed up with all the drunkenness and killings that he banned alcohol in the town. Indonesia is not like other places.
Angel Val very quickly organized a daytrip for she and me via speedboat about thirty miles into the deepest Borneo rainforest while her husband David and Dick sorted out the refueling for both boats. We had the most wonderful time and the photos hopefully show a little of the experience. The orangutans, of which we saw around fifteen individuals, were absolutely delightful and it was such a privilege to be able to see them at such close quarters behaving quite normally around us. There were several other varieties of animal/bird/insect to spot too. We saw macaque monkeys, a gibbon, peccaries, a hornbill and other exotic birds as well as hundreds of spectacular butterflies. A very special day.
After getting back to the boats we were treated to the most incredible lightning display I have ever seen, several massive forks at one time striking the ground repeatedly in virtually the same spot and accompanied by such hard rain that it took your breath away. Nothing in Indonesia is ordinary it seems. I wish we could spend more time here……
And so the next day dawns with Angel and Moonshiner setting off again southwards downriver and then northwest for about 600 miles towards Nongsa Point with perhaps an overnight stop or two en route…………
Three days into this leg and we have had to motor the whole way so far. Not very good for the fuel consumption and there is some concern that we may run out before we get to Nongsa Point! Hmm. This part of the coast of Kalimantan is a haven for fishing boats and for the first two nights at sea we had to negotiate hundreds of them. I think they might be after squid as they fish at night with dozens of brilliant lights around the deck. This makes them easy to see at least. One boat though also had a long line trailing from the stern which Angel just managed to miss by sailing over and then tell us about before we hit it, so we turned away from it and tried to go around it. It turned out to be over three miles long, just little white floats every twenty feet or so and the odd flag on a stick every mile, no lights at all. Could have been a disaster!
There is almost constant lightning somewhere nearby at night and yesterday morning, we were given a spectacular close up of a rather black thunderstorm which passed by with a waterspout in its wake. Not something to get too close to but I hope the photos turn out well.
Another day and about 120 miles closer to our destination. Still lightning around but a long way off over land somewhere to the north. We are very close to the equator now. It’ll be strange to be back in the northern hemisphere after about 8 months and over 11000 miles south of the equator. We are away from the shipping lanes and fishing fleets now which makes being on watch a little less arduous. As I write, it’s 3.15am and the only light visible is Angel, about 2 miles ahead. Last night, I wouldn’t have been able to find time to use the computer as there were constant lights all around. Earlier on this afternoon we saw some dwarf spinner dolphins. This is a fairly newly discovered species according to the book. Interesting! The sea was also absolutely teeming with jellyfish, millions of them. Nice!
And so another day or two has passed….losing track of time. It’s quite normal when you spend long periods at sea because days blend into one another when watches start at 1am and never seem to end. Actually, we are now safely tucked into a snug berth at Nongsa Point marina which on first inspection is quite wonderful. Even civilized. We made yet another dramatic entrance however. This would be our fifth such except that this time, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the boat! Shall I remind you of previous arrivals? Why not?!!
No 1…. Being towed into Chaguaramas, Trinidad October last year by Pete on Troutbridge…high pressure fuel pump.
No 2…..Being towed into Puerto Ayora, Galapagos by Aqualuna, March this year after 5days of trying to make it back to the Galapagos. HP pump and generator failure.
No 3…..Charging almost uncontrollably into Papeete, Tahiti in May when the gearing went meaning the boat could only go full ahead or full astern or sit in neutral. No one waiting for us on the dock knew this. Had they known, they would not have been standing there!!
No 4….. Being towed for the last 500yards into Neiafu, Tonga by dinghy in June. Reason? Good old HP pump again….fixed once and for all by ace one legged engineer, Tevita in Tonga who fitted the replacement. No trouble since!
And No 5……Arriving here at Nongsa Point, Indonesia in the middle of a terrific thunderstorm with 35 knot gusts, overhead lightning and horizontal rain. As I said, dramatic, but at least the boat was running perfectly with just the slightest chance of running out of fuel within the next few minutes!
So we are here in this very pleasant marina for another day before the dash across the Singapore Strait to..............Singapore! Photos next I hope.
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