Left at dawn to do the 45 miles to Port Klang. We have had the worst sailing we have seen since leaving Canada, we have pretty much motored or motor sailed all the way from Singapore, no wind.
There is a steady stream of ships up shipping lane off coast, not many fish boats today.
The Malay coast is not too interesting, suppose to get better further North.
We arrived at the entrance to Pulau Indah Marina around 4:30pm. There was a good current running with us as we approached marina, so we turned and came up into current to come along side outer pontoon and tie up. It took some playing with the throttle to get the speed right in the 2 knot current and get onto the dock without banging things. There is three separate outer pontoons, could squeeze two 40fters on each one. This huge marina is empty except for 4 boats. We had tried to call marina by phone and VHF 61, but no answer. Though someone did greet us to take our dock lines, I guess they saw us approaching. Another yacht said when they came in they were on their own and when they went up to office one guy was sleeping on couch and the other playing a video game. But they are friendly and laid back here.
It is not wise to enter marina until the current is near slack, there is no break water to stop current and apparently if they built one it would silt up marina. It is only $8.00 a day here, very cheap and has showers and power if you need them. Nothing else here in area. You can get a taxi into town for 35 to 50 RP.
There is a small grocery store, no veggies, about 35 minute walk away. Turn right at road and walk for 15 min and then go left and follow this road for about 20 min, go straight on this road, do not take any right or left turns, just go straight and after 20 min get to a intersection, and store is 200 feet to your right on intersecting road.
We had a montster Thunderstorm go by last night and were wondering if we were going to get hit. You could see bolts of lighting going straight down all around us and and huge cracks and then bangs of thunder, and the rain monsooned down on us.
Entrance waypoints to marina: Channel entrance 02 52.352 101 16.183 then 02 52.745 101 16.183 then 02 53.088 101 17.590 and Marina is at 02 54.453N 101 18.691E
I give these points off our track, because I noticed the depth got down to 13 feet at one point, very close to low tide. Not sure if this is where we were suppose to be but this worked for us and there is no channel markers. There was some small ships in here as well which gave us some confidence to enter river. We stayed more to the right side or South side of river as it looked like it would be deeper, generally 18 to 25 feet, low tide, then crossed near the marina, good depths.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Up Malacca strait to Port Dickson Malaysia
The time has come to leave Puteri harbour and leave friends behind. It was a nice place to stay. We left at 8am and of course had a 1.5 knot current against us as the channel ebbs South and the coast of Malaysia ebbs North, so can't have both. There was no problems with the many ships around as we stayed inshore of the shipping lane. The current was finally with us late in day.
We found that the current changes about 2.5 hours after the tide change on our Navionics chip. There was very little wind all day and when it did blow it was almost on nose. One big Thunder lightning storm went by but no problem. There is a few yachts that get hit every year and lose all their electronics.
By 4:30 PM we had the anchor down. Anchored of Pulau Pisang Island in 9ft at low tide at 1 27.936N 103 16.384E. All night there is sheet lightning on the horizon making for dramatic night scene.
Anchorage was okay got a bit bouncy for an hour or two. Left at first light to do 70 miles to next anchorage. Had current against us until late morning and then we had good going. Today we saw many fish nets. They are about a half mile long and very difficult to see. Usually have a black flag at one end and then small white floats along net and a vertical white float at other end. We ziz zagged around a few and actually went over the top of two during the day as we did not see them in time, but nothing happened
Often there is a small fish boat at one end of net but not always. Should probably stay on edge of ship lane but it is a few miles out.
We got in well after dark and anchored in 33ft at 02 06.233N 102 19.983E. Was okay here. Some people have anchored at 1 50.1N 102 45 4E about 35 miles south if they had bad conditions. The Malacca Strait so far has had very little sea and is surprisingly calm could anchor almost anywhere at night.
Left at dawn again for the 40 miles up to Port Dickson. Current direction changed around noon and then we where often hitting 7 knots and more instead of 3.8 to 4.5 knots. Arrived about 4PM and used approach waypoint of 2 28.45N 101 49.80E then to 2 28.80N 101 50.61E by entrance to Admiral Marina which is easy.
Did not see many fish nets today and shipping no problem, just had to watch for one near Malacca. We paid 50 RP a night here, pretty reasonable. The marina is nice with a free swimming pool and showers and wi fi at bar. The next day we walked part way to town for some exercise about 10 km north and then caught a taxi the rest of way for 10 rp though it is about 20 to 25 to get back. We caught a bus back for 1.3 rp.
In town I finally found a Celcom dealer with good english and who could make my Indonesian modem for USB port work with a new Sim card and get Internet working. Good to bring your laptop with you as I did, as it first did not work and they had to do something to get it working. For one month it is 48 RP. Much cheaper than buying their modem which other dealers try to force. Found some good grocery shopping in the two malls here. Both fairly close to each other and not far from Celcom dealer. The town otherwise is not particularly interesting, just a town.
We will probably leave in a day or two for port Klang.
We found that the current changes about 2.5 hours after the tide change on our Navionics chip. There was very little wind all day and when it did blow it was almost on nose. One big Thunder lightning storm went by but no problem. There is a few yachts that get hit every year and lose all their electronics.
By 4:30 PM we had the anchor down. Anchored of Pulau Pisang Island in 9ft at low tide at 1 27.936N 103 16.384E. All night there is sheet lightning on the horizon making for dramatic night scene.
Anchorage was okay got a bit bouncy for an hour or two. Left at first light to do 70 miles to next anchorage. Had current against us until late morning and then we had good going. Today we saw many fish nets. They are about a half mile long and very difficult to see. Usually have a black flag at one end and then small white floats along net and a vertical white float at other end. We ziz zagged around a few and actually went over the top of two during the day as we did not see them in time, but nothing happened
Often there is a small fish boat at one end of net but not always. Should probably stay on edge of ship lane but it is a few miles out.
We got in well after dark and anchored in 33ft at 02 06.233N 102 19.983E. Was okay here. Some people have anchored at 1 50.1N 102 45 4E about 35 miles south if they had bad conditions. The Malacca Strait so far has had very little sea and is surprisingly calm could anchor almost anywhere at night.
Left at dawn again for the 40 miles up to Port Dickson. Current direction changed around noon and then we where often hitting 7 knots and more instead of 3.8 to 4.5 knots. Arrived about 4PM and used approach waypoint of 2 28.45N 101 49.80E then to 2 28.80N 101 50.61E by entrance to Admiral Marina which is easy.
Did not see many fish nets today and shipping no problem, just had to watch for one near Malacca. We paid 50 RP a night here, pretty reasonable. The marina is nice with a free swimming pool and showers and wi fi at bar. The next day we walked part way to town for some exercise about 10 km north and then caught a taxi the rest of way for 10 rp though it is about 20 to 25 to get back. We caught a bus back for 1.3 rp.
In town I finally found a Celcom dealer with good english and who could make my Indonesian modem for USB port work with a new Sim card and get Internet working. Good to bring your laptop with you as I did, as it first did not work and they had to do something to get it working. For one month it is 48 RP. Much cheaper than buying their modem which other dealers try to force. Found some good grocery shopping in the two malls here. Both fairly close to each other and not far from Celcom dealer. The town otherwise is not particularly interesting, just a town.
We will probably leave in a day or two for port Klang.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Singapore and our first week in Malaysia
Puteri Harbour marina turned out to be a nicer place than we thought and very well protected. Nicer than Danga bay we thought after a speed boat trip up there a bit later. We found a few boats we know in our marina which was nice. Shadow Trader gave us the scoop on the area, buses and shopping and Mojombo told us the ins and out of going to Singapore.
We took the free shuttle into the night market the 2nd day there and then another free shuttle up to a big mall not too far away. I got a broken tooth that needed fixing. Puteri front office suggested a local dentist. I went in without an appointment and had to wait a few hours and then went in and found it was a old office and equipment you would find in the 1950's. He drilled about around the tooth and filled it, no x-rays or freezing. Though it did not hurt. When it came time for the bill I was a bit worried, but all's they asked for was 50rp or about $16.00, super.
We did a bit of cycling in the area as the roads in this area have no traffic as they are in the middle of building a city here and have just done the roads and started a few toweres, so no one is living here yet except us. The walking is great as well, fantastic after Indonesia with it's lack of sidewalks and narrow busy roads and if there was sidewalks they had 2 foot holes in them or motorbikes parked on them or people selling their wares on them.
Today just got back from a day trip into Singapore. It is an exciting place and would keep any shopaholic happy for months. We bought some electronic toys I wanted and a couple of small items for the boat and just explored the city and waterfront, well worth the trip in. It took about 2 hours to get right into town from Puteri , 2 buses and the train and through Malaysian customs and Singapore customs each way.
We are thinking of leaving Puteri Harbour in 2 or 3 days and start heading north and seeing some of Malaysia and Thailand.
We took the free shuttle into the night market the 2nd day there and then another free shuttle up to a big mall not too far away. I got a broken tooth that needed fixing. Puteri front office suggested a local dentist. I went in without an appointment and had to wait a few hours and then went in and found it was a old office and equipment you would find in the 1950's. He drilled about around the tooth and filled it, no x-rays or freezing. Though it did not hurt. When it came time for the bill I was a bit worried, but all's they asked for was 50rp or about $16.00, super.
We did a bit of cycling in the area as the roads in this area have no traffic as they are in the middle of building a city here and have just done the roads and started a few toweres, so no one is living here yet except us. The walking is great as well, fantastic after Indonesia with it's lack of sidewalks and narrow busy roads and if there was sidewalks they had 2 foot holes in them or motorbikes parked on them or people selling their wares on them.
Today just got back from a day trip into Singapore. It is an exciting place and would keep any shopaholic happy for months. We bought some electronic toys I wanted and a couple of small items for the boat and just explored the city and waterfront, well worth the trip in. It took about 2 hours to get right into town from Puteri , 2 buses and the train and through Malaysian customs and Singapore customs each way.
We are thinking of leaving Puteri Harbour in 2 or 3 days and start heading north and seeing some of Malaysia and Thailand.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Enjoying Belitong and on to Singapore
The four days we spent in Belitung flew by. We enjoying a couple of free tours of the island put on by the local government. Part of one tour was to the local schools where we talked to the students and they could ask us questions in minimal English.
On Belitung we had our biggest welcome anywhere in Indonesia. We joined up with the rally for this island and the locals went all out. They put on lots of performances for us and greeted us everywhere we went with big smiles and 'hello mister'. We had our pictures taken with dozens of young people who would walk up and ask to have their picture taken with us. They had vans available to drive us into the nearby town for shopping. They supplied a driver and guide and the vehicle for $10. great deal. We just told the guide what we wanted and they found the correct store for us, even a store with a rat trap. That story coming up.
We had a Canadian thanksgiving party on the Canadian yacht Cop-out with all the Canadian yachts in anchorage.
We left Belitong late in the morning to do a 125 mile overnight passage to the NE corner of Bangka Island. After motoring for the first two hours we had a nice sail for all but the last 40 miles. We crossed two busy shipping lanes in the day and a big fleet of fish boats at night.
We dropped anchor late in morning in 19ft at 01 30.627S 105 52.478E. It was a pretty spot with a nice beach that we took a walk on. Not sure how legal that was as we were officially checked out of Indonesia and suppose to leave directly. No Internet here, but tons of room for many boats.
The next morning we left at 7:30 am for Kentar 115 miles away. Had mostly good sailing and got to Kentar near dawn and decided to keep going another 26 miles to Mesanak island which is anchorage #85 in book. We arrived mid afternoon at waypoint recommended in book and found it very bouncy and windy with the E wind we had so decided to go on to the Asundra group about six miles away. This turned out to be a great anchorage, well sheltered. We dropped the hook in 25 ft at 00 28.466N 104 26.382E There is a village on stilts nearby and we even got some Internet here.
We left at first light to go between Bintan and Batam Islands, up Selau Riau Channel. After motoring for an hour we sailed for a few hours and then back to motoring as we got up the channel. A large T storm and heavy rain squall grazed us and we had rain for 2 hours but avoided the worst of the lighting. These storms are now becoming daily as we get into the storm season. We found a good anchorage on the East coast of Batam about 10 miles South of Nongsa point marina. Anchored at 01 03.571N 104 09.516E in 40ft. was a quiet anchorage but not very pretty with the ugly shipping port on other side of channel. We could have anchored a half mile south in the bay but a big tug and barge were messing around there so we moved up a bit to the waypoints I gave above.
Left at 2:30am for the Singapore area, a big day today. We had hoped to spend a few days at Raffles marina in Singapore but it was full. Instead our destination now is Puteri Harbour marina just across the channel from Singapore, in Malaysia and 5 miles further up the channel than Raffles.
We had to motor pretty well all the way. As we headed along the North coast of Indonesia we had a 2 knot push with the current . We stayed on this side (South side of channel) until near Buffalo rock and crossed here to the Singapore side.
Our Ais on the chart planner was going mad. This is the busiest shipping area in the world. The chartplotter would lockup every hour or so as it got overloaded with all the hundreds of targets. I heard several other Raymarine plotters had same problem on other boats. There was not too much traffic on the Indonesian side but now as we lined up to do a 90 degree crossing of the shipping channels we could see a steady line of ships. Supposedly they average about 1 every 12 minutes. We motored to edge of channel and then waited 15 minutes for two big ships to go buy and then saw a larger gap and gunned the engine and crossed the east bound channel and then stopped again for a few minutes and shot across the next channel to arrive safely on the Singapore side. We could see the high rises of the big city near by.
We then motored along the shore out of the shipping lanes, dodging the occasional ferry or work boat. The shore here was lined with hundreds of fuel storage tanks and ship loading cranes and also piles of dirt as they filled in more of the ocean to reclaim more land.
After we turned the corner to head North up the channel we left all the ships behind and and had a easy trip up the channel. We called Puteri Marina as we neared the bridge over the channel. No answer from them, we tried 4 or 5 times over the next hour and finally got them and they said they were ready for us. There was a two knot current against us up this channel.
We soon arrived at the entrance waypoint to the marina I got off google earth. 1 24.929N 103 39.750E and it was bang on.
We were greeted at the dock by a couple of line handlers and were soon tied up. Welcome to Malaysia they said and to come up to the office when ready for customs clearance. At the office they did the preliminary clearance and then drove us down to the customs office in town and while we sat in a chair they took care of everything. The customs and immigration people did not say a thing to us. All was down in 10 minutes, easy, no hassle, what a difference from Indonesia.
On Belitung we had our biggest welcome anywhere in Indonesia. We joined up with the rally for this island and the locals went all out. They put on lots of performances for us and greeted us everywhere we went with big smiles and 'hello mister'. We had our pictures taken with dozens of young people who would walk up and ask to have their picture taken with us. They had vans available to drive us into the nearby town for shopping. They supplied a driver and guide and the vehicle for $10. great deal. We just told the guide what we wanted and they found the correct store for us, even a store with a rat trap. That story coming up.
We had a Canadian thanksgiving party on the Canadian yacht Cop-out with all the Canadian yachts in anchorage.
We left Belitong late in the morning to do a 125 mile overnight passage to the NE corner of Bangka Island. After motoring for the first two hours we had a nice sail for all but the last 40 miles. We crossed two busy shipping lanes in the day and a big fleet of fish boats at night.
We dropped anchor late in morning in 19ft at 01 30.627S 105 52.478E. It was a pretty spot with a nice beach that we took a walk on. Not sure how legal that was as we were officially checked out of Indonesia and suppose to leave directly. No Internet here, but tons of room for many boats.
The next morning we left at 7:30 am for Kentar 115 miles away. Had mostly good sailing and got to Kentar near dawn and decided to keep going another 26 miles to Mesanak island which is anchorage #85 in book. We arrived mid afternoon at waypoint recommended in book and found it very bouncy and windy with the E wind we had so decided to go on to the Asundra group about six miles away. This turned out to be a great anchorage, well sheltered. We dropped the hook in 25 ft at 00 28.466N 104 26.382E There is a village on stilts nearby and we even got some Internet here.
We left at first light to go between Bintan and Batam Islands, up Selau Riau Channel. After motoring for an hour we sailed for a few hours and then back to motoring as we got up the channel. A large T storm and heavy rain squall grazed us and we had rain for 2 hours but avoided the worst of the lighting. These storms are now becoming daily as we get into the storm season. We found a good anchorage on the East coast of Batam about 10 miles South of Nongsa point marina. Anchored at 01 03.571N 104 09.516E in 40ft. was a quiet anchorage but not very pretty with the ugly shipping port on other side of channel. We could have anchored a half mile south in the bay but a big tug and barge were messing around there so we moved up a bit to the waypoints I gave above.
Left at 2:30am for the Singapore area, a big day today. We had hoped to spend a few days at Raffles marina in Singapore but it was full. Instead our destination now is Puteri Harbour marina just across the channel from Singapore, in Malaysia and 5 miles further up the channel than Raffles.
We had to motor pretty well all the way. As we headed along the North coast of Indonesia we had a 2 knot push with the current . We stayed on this side (South side of channel) until near Buffalo rock and crossed here to the Singapore side.
Our Ais on the chart planner was going mad. This is the busiest shipping area in the world. The chartplotter would lockup every hour or so as it got overloaded with all the hundreds of targets. I heard several other Raymarine plotters had same problem on other boats. There was not too much traffic on the Indonesian side but now as we lined up to do a 90 degree crossing of the shipping channels we could see a steady line of ships. Supposedly they average about 1 every 12 minutes. We motored to edge of channel and then waited 15 minutes for two big ships to go buy and then saw a larger gap and gunned the engine and crossed the east bound channel and then stopped again for a few minutes and shot across the next channel to arrive safely on the Singapore side. We could see the high rises of the big city near by.
We then motored along the shore out of the shipping lanes, dodging the occasional ferry or work boat. The shore here was lined with hundreds of fuel storage tanks and ship loading cranes and also piles of dirt as they filled in more of the ocean to reclaim more land.
After we turned the corner to head North up the channel we left all the ships behind and and had a easy trip up the channel. We called Puteri Marina as we neared the bridge over the channel. No answer from them, we tried 4 or 5 times over the next hour and finally got them and they said they were ready for us. There was a two knot current against us up this channel.
We soon arrived at the entrance waypoint to the marina I got off google earth. 1 24.929N 103 39.750E and it was bang on.
We were greeted at the dock by a couple of line handlers and were soon tied up. Welcome to Malaysia they said and to come up to the office when ready for customs clearance. At the office they did the preliminary clearance and then drove us down to the customs office in town and while we sat in a chair they took care of everything. The customs and immigration people did not say a thing to us. All was down in 10 minutes, easy, no hassle, what a difference from Indonesia.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
Kumi and the Orangatangs and to Belitong Island
At first light the next morning we rode a one knot tidal current up the river. To get from the Kumai river delta to the mouth of the river we followed the waypoints below. After you enter the main river the water is deeper and you can move around the river somewhat, no channel. We arrived at the anchorage of the town of Kumai after 2 hours and anchored in 50 ft at 02 44.371S 111 43.953E
We took the dinghy to go ashore but there is no where to land as is it all commercial, no beach. But you can tie up at Henrys who runs most of the Kumai river tours. Need to ask someone where it is. People who booked there jungle tours back in Lovina Bali paid twice as much as those of us who booked them locally in Kumi. We paid 1,050,000RP or just over a $100 for the 3 day trip, one of the best spent $100 ever. There are a lot of operators and boats, no need to book in Lovina and even those that booked with Henry got a better price in Kuami..
The town of Kumai has many large apartment style buildings that are actually giant bird houses to house swallows for bird nest soup for the Chinese, and is big business here. We explored the town some and it had a little different flavor to it and seemed more Muslim than others. It is not a tourist town and was like many of the down and dirty towns we have visited. There are ATM machines here now and we got some more Indonesian cash. There is a BNI bank just 10 minutes from where we left our dinghy and a market a few minutes beyond that.
We are booked to go on a three day jungle trip up a branch of the Kumai river and see the famous Orangutans and jungle. There is 8 of us off four Yachts. Just Magic, Nuka Lofa, Sharita and ourselves. The old fashioned looking wooden boat is about 40ft long and 10 feet wide and 2 levels high. The 4 man crew lives below and the upper or top deck is ours for the 3 days.
We are picked up at our boats at 9:30am, an hour late and at the same time a boat boy is dropped off to stay on the boat to look after it while we are gone. Sometimes large islands of grass come down the river and can dislodge your boat from its anchor, and they protect against theft as well. You lock the boat up and the boat boy sleeps in the cockpit and food is brought out to him.
Our boat crew consists of a female cook, boat skipper/helmsmen, a deckhand and our guide who speaks passable english. They all work together to look after us. We motored up the river at a sedate 5 or 6 knots and stopping along the way to look at birds and long nose monkeys swinging in the trees, also pass the occasional crocodile. Over the 3 days we stopped at 3 different feeding stations where you walk for 20 minutes or so into the jungle to where a platform is set up and food is put out for the orangutans. They are fantastic to watch. We saw some along the trails and others high up in the trees near the feeding platforms waiting for the food. They swing from tree to tree not like regular monkeys as they are too big. They climb up a tree until high enough that their body weight bends the tree enough that they can grab the next tree and go like this from tree to tree. They do a lot of funny things and are very intelligent.
We watched one dominant male, bigger than all the rest sitting high up in a tree. A female came on the platform and suddenly the male descended the tree at a unbelievable rate of speed and grabbed the female by the leg as she started to run from platform and pulled her up to him and proceeded to rape her, though she did not struggle after things started.
The boat crew waited on us hand and foot, cooked our meals, did the dishes, put our beds out each night with a mosquito net around each double mattress and hung from the sun cover. There was a cover on the mattress, but no sheet for ourselves, I just put my rain shell over my shoulders and that was enough. (We are almost on the equator). We all just slept in a row on all the mattresses. These were put away each morning. There was actually very few mosquitoes as we were well into the dry season. There is suppose to be malaria in much of Indonesia. They brought out drinks for us during the day, no alcohol, that we had to bring ourselves. It was all a nice change from boat life on our own boats. We had a nice sing along in the evening tied up to the edge of the river on a small rickety dock, just forest all around us. We were sorry when the trip finally ended as it was a great experience with great company.
We found out our boat boys had mutinied and abandoned our yachts while we were gone. Though all was well on the boats, nothing missing. Nuka lofa had dragged anchor while the crew was with us, but some other yachties rescued it. Adi our trip organizer we heard is bit of a shady character. Probably better to use Henry. but our trip was great do in part to the great 4 man crew on our boat.
We left the following afternoon to anchor again at the mouth of the Kumi river after negotiating a fish net that was strung across most of the river. We had to go near the river bank to get around it and were worried about running aground. Early the next morning we headed our for Belitung 260 miles away which meant 2 nights at sea. While up the river we had our first real rain in 3 months, the season is coming to and end.
We plan to check out of Indonesia in Belitong and then head up to Singapore from there with 2 or 3 stops along the way. The first two days were great sailing with moderate seas and good winds. Then we had to motor the last half of the last night at sea. Also had lots of sheet lighting late that night. I dropped the main sail since we were motoring anyways, in case there was some big wind coming with the lightning. But the big squall was saved for the coming morning. The second day out we passed a very busy shipping lane with more ships than we had ever seen before just past Kalamitan. Two hours later all was quite again with just the odd fish boat around.
The next morning with about 15 miles to go to Belitung, a huge squall came on us. I dropped the sails again and waited as this huge black cloud came down on us, the sea in the distance looked like it was boiling.Then the wind went from zero to about 20 knots and very heavy rain was onto us. We were glad the wind did not come up to bad, but you never know with these big squalls if it is going to be 15 knots or 50 knots. It poured rain for about an hour and a half. This is the first big rain squall we have seen since last year. The wet season is coming for this area and a change in the monsoons.
We got into our anchorage just after the squall passed and another one was coming on our tail with more rain. We used the approach waypoint of 02 31.519S 107 40.539. Then straight into the anchorage to drop anchor at 02 33.093 107 40.572 in 35 feet. Then the rain poured down again with 18 knots blowing off the beach into us.
Navigating into Kumi river:: Cmap and Navionics was farily accurate until you get further up the river then out some. 02 56.92S 111 41.55E , 02 54.23 111 42.52, 02 53.46 111 42.19, 02 51.17 111 43.55, 02 49.83 111 43.48, 02 47.63 111 42.03, 02 47.15 111 42.10 When in river it is deep and can move around it.
We took the dinghy to go ashore but there is no where to land as is it all commercial, no beach. But you can tie up at Henrys who runs most of the Kumai river tours. Need to ask someone where it is. People who booked there jungle tours back in Lovina Bali paid twice as much as those of us who booked them locally in Kumi. We paid 1,050,000RP or just over a $100 for the 3 day trip, one of the best spent $100 ever. There are a lot of operators and boats, no need to book in Lovina and even those that booked with Henry got a better price in Kuami..
The town of Kumai has many large apartment style buildings that are actually giant bird houses to house swallows for bird nest soup for the Chinese, and is big business here. We explored the town some and it had a little different flavor to it and seemed more Muslim than others. It is not a tourist town and was like many of the down and dirty towns we have visited. There are ATM machines here now and we got some more Indonesian cash. There is a BNI bank just 10 minutes from where we left our dinghy and a market a few minutes beyond that.
We are booked to go on a three day jungle trip up a branch of the Kumai river and see the famous Orangutans and jungle. There is 8 of us off four Yachts. Just Magic, Nuka Lofa, Sharita and ourselves. The old fashioned looking wooden boat is about 40ft long and 10 feet wide and 2 levels high. The 4 man crew lives below and the upper or top deck is ours for the 3 days.
We are picked up at our boats at 9:30am, an hour late and at the same time a boat boy is dropped off to stay on the boat to look after it while we are gone. Sometimes large islands of grass come down the river and can dislodge your boat from its anchor, and they protect against theft as well. You lock the boat up and the boat boy sleeps in the cockpit and food is brought out to him.
Our boat crew consists of a female cook, boat skipper/helmsmen, a deckhand and our guide who speaks passable english. They all work together to look after us. We motored up the river at a sedate 5 or 6 knots and stopping along the way to look at birds and long nose monkeys swinging in the trees, also pass the occasional crocodile. Over the 3 days we stopped at 3 different feeding stations where you walk for 20 minutes or so into the jungle to where a platform is set up and food is put out for the orangutans. They are fantastic to watch. We saw some along the trails and others high up in the trees near the feeding platforms waiting for the food. They swing from tree to tree not like regular monkeys as they are too big. They climb up a tree until high enough that their body weight bends the tree enough that they can grab the next tree and go like this from tree to tree. They do a lot of funny things and are very intelligent.
We watched one dominant male, bigger than all the rest sitting high up in a tree. A female came on the platform and suddenly the male descended the tree at a unbelievable rate of speed and grabbed the female by the leg as she started to run from platform and pulled her up to him and proceeded to rape her, though she did not struggle after things started.
The boat crew waited on us hand and foot, cooked our meals, did the dishes, put our beds out each night with a mosquito net around each double mattress and hung from the sun cover. There was a cover on the mattress, but no sheet for ourselves, I just put my rain shell over my shoulders and that was enough. (We are almost on the equator). We all just slept in a row on all the mattresses. These were put away each morning. There was actually very few mosquitoes as we were well into the dry season. There is suppose to be malaria in much of Indonesia. They brought out drinks for us during the day, no alcohol, that we had to bring ourselves. It was all a nice change from boat life on our own boats. We had a nice sing along in the evening tied up to the edge of the river on a small rickety dock, just forest all around us. We were sorry when the trip finally ended as it was a great experience with great company.
We found out our boat boys had mutinied and abandoned our yachts while we were gone. Though all was well on the boats, nothing missing. Nuka lofa had dragged anchor while the crew was with us, but some other yachties rescued it. Adi our trip organizer we heard is bit of a shady character. Probably better to use Henry. but our trip was great do in part to the great 4 man crew on our boat.
We left the following afternoon to anchor again at the mouth of the Kumi river after negotiating a fish net that was strung across most of the river. We had to go near the river bank to get around it and were worried about running aground. Early the next morning we headed our for Belitung 260 miles away which meant 2 nights at sea. While up the river we had our first real rain in 3 months, the season is coming to and end.
We plan to check out of Indonesia in Belitong and then head up to Singapore from there with 2 or 3 stops along the way. The first two days were great sailing with moderate seas and good winds. Then we had to motor the last half of the last night at sea. Also had lots of sheet lighting late that night. I dropped the main sail since we were motoring anyways, in case there was some big wind coming with the lightning. But the big squall was saved for the coming morning. The second day out we passed a very busy shipping lane with more ships than we had ever seen before just past Kalamitan. Two hours later all was quite again with just the odd fish boat around.
The next morning with about 15 miles to go to Belitung, a huge squall came on us. I dropped the sails again and waited as this huge black cloud came down on us, the sea in the distance looked like it was boiling.Then the wind went from zero to about 20 knots and very heavy rain was onto us. We were glad the wind did not come up to bad, but you never know with these big squalls if it is going to be 15 knots or 50 knots. It poured rain for about an hour and a half. This is the first big rain squall we have seen since last year. The wet season is coming for this area and a change in the monsoons.
We got into our anchorage just after the squall passed and another one was coming on our tail with more rain. We used the approach waypoint of 02 31.519S 107 40.539. Then straight into the anchorage to drop anchor at 02 33.093 107 40.572 in 35 feet. Then the rain poured down again with 18 knots blowing off the beach into us.
Navigating into Kumi river:: Cmap and Navionics was farily accurate until you get further up the river then out some. 02 56.92S 111 41.55E , 02 54.23 111 42.52, 02 53.46 111 42.19, 02 51.17 111 43.55, 02 49.83 111 43.48, 02 47.63 111 42.03, 02 47.15 111 42.10 When in river it is deep and can move around it.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Lovina Bali to Kumi Borneo
When Dorothy flew back to Bali, I hired a car and driver to go pick her up at Kuta a town a few miles from the airport. Swannies crew shared the car with us making the 3 hour drive more fun. The car and driver costs $45 and we split that between us and Swannie. It is safer to use an Indonesian driver than drive yourself especially if you have an accident, as it is always your fault.
We looked around Kuta a bit after picking up Dorothy and saw a fabulous beach, and some western type food products at the Bali Deli. Then did a brief stop in Ubud another tourist town. I can now see why people fly to Bali for a resort holiday. It is a different world on the South end of Bali. this one small area is not like the rest of Indonesia where we have spent the last two months. It is more expensive, much cleaner and really geared up for the tourist . Lots of fancy hotels and great cleaned up beaches. lot more vans and SUV's here, the rest of Indonesia rides scooters and small motorbikes mostly.
The last day before we left we hired another car and driver with the Kelli and Chad of Just Magic and toured around a bit more. Looked around Ubud a bit more and did a nice hike up a small road through some farm land and into a back entrance to Ubud where we met our driver. Then to a coffee plantation and then another temple site and park area where we got another good walk in.
That night the rally put on a dinner for us at a local pub on the beach. This is the first event we have attended since Kupang.
After more than two weeks in Lovina the time has come to pull up the anchor and leave. Our next major stop is the Kumai River Kalimantan province of Southern Borneo. We planned to stop at Rass island 70 miles away for a rest, so left at 2PM to do an overnight sail. After motoring for 2.5 hours a nice breeze came up and we were soon sailing along nicely. By dark the SW wind had increased to much more than we needed and soon had 2 reefs in the main. The seas got unusually rough after a few hours and occasionally a big breaking wave would throw us over on our side with large splashes of water in the cockpit.
We ended up making much better time than planned and got to Rass Island by 4AM so decided to just keep going and not waste a fair wind. We passed to the West of Rass and headed for Bawean Island 120 miles away.
We had not been looking forward to the overnight passages on this section, as we have heard about all the fishing boats and unlite fishing platforms out after dark making for difficult overnighters. Also heavy ship traffic. From Lovina to Rass there were lots of these fishing platforms made of bamboo and anchored to the bottom in deep water. We did not hit any jut through good luck. We saw a number of ships on AIS as well and called up one that was close to a collision course, but it never answered so I but on the engine to speed up a bit to clear him. After Rass we saw much more fishing boat traffice. The ones with the dim single light were difficult to deal with as you could not tell if they were 200 meters away or 2 miles away, and they do not show up on the radar. I turned on our radar during the night. At one point I turned the radar from the 1 mile range to 2 mile range ( 2 miles per range ring or 12 miles across screen) yikes, there was dozens of targets, so I switched back to the 1 mile range as I did not want to think about those targets that would mostly go by us without a problem. There was enough to worry about close by. Late in night I heard a small bang and snap beside our hull and figured we must have grazed one of the unlite fish traps that are everywhere. These are 3 or 4 thick bamboo poles lashed togheather with a small tree branch sticking up so they can see them in daylight. But glad we were sailing otherwise could get a rope in prop or a bent prop from the rafts, we were not worried about the steel boat.
We arrived saftely at Bawean Island by 8:30am very tired and dropped anchor in 35 ft at 05 43.754 112 39.990. It is a easy anchorage to enter and lots of room. We anchored further out than needed to keep away from bugs and locals. I had picked up a cold yesterday and feeling rotten so we decided to stay another day here and then get a very early start for Kumai. Later we had a laugh as the muslim call to prayers came on over the amplified speakers they always use. There was 3 different ones from different areas of the village and being out on the water we could here them all as they all overlapped and each singing something different making for real noise, especially since one of them had a bad singer.
After 2 nights here and feeling much better we set out to do the 180 miles to Kumi. We left at 3AM motoring for awhile with a few fish boats either side of us, but not a problem. The rest of the way we did not see many fish boats, just a few ships.
During the day a 100ft wood fishing vessel altered course to approach us. As he got closer he turned as though he wanted to come up along side. I quickly rolled in head sail and started engine and then turned hard to port and steered around the back of him and then just kept going away from him. He then went back on his course and kept going. Things like this always make you think of pirates when no other boats are in sight. I think he maybe wanted to bum some stuff off us or was just curious, but it would be dangerouse to let him get to close in the big seas.
By 4::30 pm we arrived at the mouth of the Kumi River in Southern Borneo Indonesia. We dropped anchor in 12ft at 02 53.820S 111 42.141E. The wind got up for a couple of hours and made the anchorage a bit bouncy. If you cant make the Kumi river before dark, some boats anchored anywhere along the west side of the point of land leading into the Kumi anywhere up to about 30 miles back, just behind the light at the point.
Tomorrow we will head 2 hours up the river to the town of Kumi. We just heard on the radio from Just Magic that they had booked us on a 3 day jungle trip to see the jungle and famous orangatangs with 2 other yachts.
We looked around Kuta a bit after picking up Dorothy and saw a fabulous beach, and some western type food products at the Bali Deli. Then did a brief stop in Ubud another tourist town. I can now see why people fly to Bali for a resort holiday. It is a different world on the South end of Bali. this one small area is not like the rest of Indonesia where we have spent the last two months. It is more expensive, much cleaner and really geared up for the tourist . Lots of fancy hotels and great cleaned up beaches. lot more vans and SUV's here, the rest of Indonesia rides scooters and small motorbikes mostly.
The last day before we left we hired another car and driver with the Kelli and Chad of Just Magic and toured around a bit more. Looked around Ubud a bit more and did a nice hike up a small road through some farm land and into a back entrance to Ubud where we met our driver. Then to a coffee plantation and then another temple site and park area where we got another good walk in.
That night the rally put on a dinner for us at a local pub on the beach. This is the first event we have attended since Kupang.
After more than two weeks in Lovina the time has come to pull up the anchor and leave. Our next major stop is the Kumai River Kalimantan province of Southern Borneo. We planned to stop at Rass island 70 miles away for a rest, so left at 2PM to do an overnight sail. After motoring for 2.5 hours a nice breeze came up and we were soon sailing along nicely. By dark the SW wind had increased to much more than we needed and soon had 2 reefs in the main. The seas got unusually rough after a few hours and occasionally a big breaking wave would throw us over on our side with large splashes of water in the cockpit.
We ended up making much better time than planned and got to Rass Island by 4AM so decided to just keep going and not waste a fair wind. We passed to the West of Rass and headed for Bawean Island 120 miles away.
We had not been looking forward to the overnight passages on this section, as we have heard about all the fishing boats and unlite fishing platforms out after dark making for difficult overnighters. Also heavy ship traffic. From Lovina to Rass there were lots of these fishing platforms made of bamboo and anchored to the bottom in deep water. We did not hit any jut through good luck. We saw a number of ships on AIS as well and called up one that was close to a collision course, but it never answered so I but on the engine to speed up a bit to clear him. After Rass we saw much more fishing boat traffice. The ones with the dim single light were difficult to deal with as you could not tell if they were 200 meters away or 2 miles away, and they do not show up on the radar. I turned on our radar during the night. At one point I turned the radar from the 1 mile range to 2 mile range ( 2 miles per range ring or 12 miles across screen) yikes, there was dozens of targets, so I switched back to the 1 mile range as I did not want to think about those targets that would mostly go by us without a problem. There was enough to worry about close by. Late in night I heard a small bang and snap beside our hull and figured we must have grazed one of the unlite fish traps that are everywhere. These are 3 or 4 thick bamboo poles lashed togheather with a small tree branch sticking up so they can see them in daylight. But glad we were sailing otherwise could get a rope in prop or a bent prop from the rafts, we were not worried about the steel boat.
We arrived saftely at Bawean Island by 8:30am very tired and dropped anchor in 35 ft at 05 43.754 112 39.990. It is a easy anchorage to enter and lots of room. We anchored further out than needed to keep away from bugs and locals. I had picked up a cold yesterday and feeling rotten so we decided to stay another day here and then get a very early start for Kumai. Later we had a laugh as the muslim call to prayers came on over the amplified speakers they always use. There was 3 different ones from different areas of the village and being out on the water we could here them all as they all overlapped and each singing something different making for real noise, especially since one of them had a bad singer.
After 2 nights here and feeling much better we set out to do the 180 miles to Kumi. We left at 3AM motoring for awhile with a few fish boats either side of us, but not a problem. The rest of the way we did not see many fish boats, just a few ships.
During the day a 100ft wood fishing vessel altered course to approach us. As he got closer he turned as though he wanted to come up along side. I quickly rolled in head sail and started engine and then turned hard to port and steered around the back of him and then just kept going away from him. He then went back on his course and kept going. Things like this always make you think of pirates when no other boats are in sight. I think he maybe wanted to bum some stuff off us or was just curious, but it would be dangerouse to let him get to close in the big seas.
By 4::30 pm we arrived at the mouth of the Kumi River in Southern Borneo Indonesia. We dropped anchor in 12ft at 02 53.820S 111 42.141E. The wind got up for a couple of hours and made the anchorage a bit bouncy. If you cant make the Kumi river before dark, some boats anchored anywhere along the west side of the point of land leading into the Kumi anywhere up to about 30 miles back, just behind the light at the point.
Tomorrow we will head 2 hours up the river to the town of Kumi. We just heard on the radio from Just Magic that they had booked us on a 3 day jungle trip to see the jungle and famous orangatangs with 2 other yachts.
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