After almost three weeks being tied up to the marina in Bali we finally slipped our mooring lines four days ago and are now anchored off the beautiful island of Bawean 240 nautical miles North West of Bali. I think we can honestly say that we really loved our time in Bali, for one thing it was great not having to worry about the boat dragging anchor or being boarded by 'uninvited guests' while we were ashore but also being just a 10 minute taxi ride from the town of Kuta made us feel like 'normal' land dwellers again. The Balinese people like all the indonesians we've met so far are extremely friendly and happy people and the feeling completely rubs of on you everywhere you go. We probably only cooked on the boat two times since we arrived in Bali as for less than $2 you can buy a great meal in just about any restaurant! The shopping is fantastic and us girls enjoyed many days out bargaining for ridiculously cheap prices in all the different streets packed with shops. Of course no hard days haggling was complete without a five dollar full hour of blissful Balinese massage...what more can you ask for? The guys were more than happy to spend the time sitting in a bar drinking huge bottles of Bintang beer for just $1.50 a pop...Perfect!
It wasn't all fun and games however as being in a marina always means more work, with endless amounts of water available on tap we have to make the most of it and scrub the whole boat down inside and out. Everything on board gets washed including carpets, cockpit cushions and every damp piece of clothing that hasn't seen the light of day for a while. It's basically a spring clean for the boat and a great feeling to reset everything until we hit a marina again...which may be some time.
So after delaying our departure again and again (it was hard to drag ourselves away) we finally headed out on friday and motor sailed up the coast to the North eastern tip of the island. We had to hug the coast extremely close to pick up the counter current running north and were at times only 20 ft away from the surf breaking on beach, it was a long day and we dropped anchor just before the sun set behind the huge volcano overlooking the bay. The next morning we headed out early and took 48 hours to get to where we are now on Bawean island. The passage was good and we were able to sail most of the way but we had to keep a really good look out for fishing boats and huge bamboo fish traps which line the waters as soon as you get close to any land which makes it hard to have a relaxing sail!
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment