Underway from Kumai to Batam...just crossed the equator back into the Northern Hemisphere!

Current Position: North 00*13'547 East 105*11'643

Sorry for the wait but for some reason I've been really slow at doing any up dates lately, it could be because of the intense heat that we're getting at the moment which makes sitting down at the computer dripping in sweat a pretty uncomfortable experience - but here goes...

Our trip up the river to visit the Orangutans in Tanjung Putting national Park was once again one of the best experiences I've ever had. We stayed on a large 'Klotok' (wooden river boat) along with Ingvil & Gunnar off s/v Helen Kate - Astrid, Jasper and their 2 year old son Marijn off s/v Antares - and Pete & Cathy off s/v Wave runner. It was a fantastic two day trip and we couldn't have asked for more, the Orangutans are absolutely beautiful and we were lucky enough to see many of them at all three camps...I won't write any more about it here but keep an eye out on the main blog page and I'll give you all the juicy details!

For now though we are underway and have been for five days from Kumai to Batam island which is just 20 miles south of Singapore. Batam will be our final stop in Indonesia where we'll catch a ferry over to Singapore for the day and then check out and head on to Malaysia. This trip has been extremely frustrating so far as our wind died out after the first 24 hours and so we've been motoring a lot only turning the engine off when we get hit by a thunder storm which brings way too much wind and plenty of rain! The rest of the time the boat is like an oven reaching up to 37*C and the seas are flat calm like a mirror... we found that pegging up towels and sarongs around the cockpit to block out the sun drops the temperature just enough to be bearable. Our usual cooling off system of dumping a bucket full of sea water over our heads is also useless as the water temperature here is about the same as our bodies so we just get wet!!

The big excitement today however was that at 10 am we crossed back over the equator and are now in the Northern Hemisphere once again. It's a strange feeling as we both feel a lot closer to home all of a sudden like we've crossed an invisible barrier back into own part of the world. It certainly feels like we're at the equator though with eerily calm conditions much the same as we experienced over a year ago when we crossed into the southern hemisphere on our way from Panama to the Galapagos! There were very little celebrations this time though as it's just too hot and we're keeping a constant eye on the thunder storms around us just hoping they'll head the other way.

We have roughly 100 nautical miles to go to get to Batam and fingers crossed we should arrive at Nongsa Point Marina before dark tomorrow night...we're all very excited about the large swimming pool at the hotel so finally we can cool off!

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Kumai, Kalimantan - Southern Borneo!

Position at anchor up the Teluk Kumai River - South 02*44'267 East 111*44'037

After not such a nice two day motor sail from Bawean Island, due to being hit by a heavy storm and then loosing all our wind and having to motor for 24hrs, we arrived at the Kumai river in South Kalimantan last night just as night was falling. We had to navigate the last 10 miles up river in the dark which was a little worrying but not a problem with the help of our Radar and Way points. Kalimantan is the southern part of Borneo Island belonging to Indonesia and the reason we're here is to see the 'man of the forest' otherwise known as Orangutans! We're anchored off the town of Kumai and tomorrow we'll be picked up by a boat that will take us up river and deep into the jungle of Tanjung Putting National Park the home to the well known Camp Leaky. We'll be gone for two days and one night sleeping under the stars on the deck of the boat so I'll let you know how it goes as soon as we're back.

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Bawean Island.

Current position: South 05*43'940 East 112*40'143

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!

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Benoa Harbour, Bali

It's been a long time since we've been tied up to anything solid but now we are marina bums again... We arrived in Benoa Harbour on the south east coast of Bali three days ago and picked up the last available slip in Bali Marina. This is where I first sailed into Indonesia seven years ago as crew onboard an Australian yacht so it's great to back in familiar territory. Nothing has changed in the marina, the dock is still made of concrete and falling apart, water is a rare commodity and the dock master is constantly being pulled in four different directions! However, it is a great place, the staff are friendly, the restaurant serves great food and most importantly Blue Moon is safe and sound allowing us to leave her all day to go exploring.

Kuta Beach is a ten minute taxi ride and Bali's main tourist town, this place has changed a lot in seven years and is apsolutely crazy! We've been heading in everyday and discover something new everytime, Jimmy's says it's like Asia meets Miami meets New york city...a shoppers paradise where $10 can go a long way!! We plan to do some work on the boat over the next few days and then take some inland trips up to the mountain town of Ubud to see the rice paddy fields and check out some local art work.

Nusa Lembongan.

Current Position: South 08*40'740 East 115*26'315

Nusa Lembongan is a small island in the channel between Bali and Lombok, we arrived here two days ago and picked up a mooring belonging to a fisherman - no charge. This is another touristy place with huge floating platforms covered in water slides and cafe's for the big motor cats coming out of bali to moor up to during the day. The town along the waterfront doesn't appear to be too affected by the tourists except for the scattering of restaurants and quite fancy hotels. Everything here seems to focused on water sports and the guys were very happy to find three good surf brakes in paddling distance of the boats! Jimmy rented a long board for US$7 a day and every evening and morning along with Gunnar and Jasper head out to catch the high tide break. I've been really tempted to try but all the breaks are on shallow reef so I guess I'll keep watching for now!
The island is mostly populated by Hindu's so there are beautiful temples throughout the town and flowered offerings line the ground of the streets. The people as always are extremely friendly and on the whole it's a very relaxing little spot. Tomorrow we plan to head to Benoa Harbour on the south of Bali, just 15 miles away, to try and organize getting Blue Moon into the marina for a week or two in the hope of heading in land to explore for a few days!

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Teluk Kombal and Gilli Trawangan.

Current Position at Teluk Kombal: South 08*24'327 East 116*04'388

At the moment we're happily nestled on a mooring in a calm bay called Teluk Kombal on the North West side of Lombok island-East of Bali. We spent a few days moored off the outer of three small Gili islands called Gili Trawangan where we Tossed about on a mooring ball by rolling seas and heavy currents! There was a good reason we put up with this however, our Norwegian friends Ingvil and Gunnar off of s/v Helen Kate met on this very island seven years ago. It's been a huge mile stone in their circumnavigation to have been able to return here on their own sail boat and revisit where they first set eyes on each other and ultimately fell in Love!! I've never seen either of them so excited and so putting up with a little rolling was the least we could do. The island is pretty small and took us roughly an hour and a half to walk around but there is a lot crammed in to a small space. When Ingvil and Gunnar were first here it was known as the party island but they weren't prepared for how much more touristy it's become. The main street has many Restaurants, cafes and hostels all filled with white backpacker faces and offering western style food, swimming pools and Magic Mushrooms! There is still a lot of charm here and it doesn't yet seem ruined by tourism, there are no cars or trucks just horse drawn buggies and most of the roads are made of sand. The beaches are covered in small fishing boats and as soon as you walk off the main street you step into what could be any Indonesian village.

It was a little too rough during the day for us to spend any time on the boat so we would head ashore in the morning and return late at night. Anywhere else this may cause a problem but here we were more than happy to laze around on one of the fabulous beach huts propped up on pillows listening to music and ordering whenever we got hungry or thirsty...tough life! They even had little cabanas with TV's in where we could pick out a copied DVD and watch it as we ate...this is what we do in paradise?! We were just as happy to pick out a nice cafe and sit and people watch for the afternoon, we haven't seen this many tourists for a while and they're just so elaborately funny! The island has great charm and is really chilled out, it was a fantastic re-introduction into a more touristy area before we hit Bali and I'd definitely recommend it as a stop...just maybe at a less windy time! Most other cruisers stopped at the closest island to the main land 'Gilli Air' as it offers a lot more mooring balls in a calmer spot. From what we heard it was also very beautiful with more larger resorts and a quieter atmosphere.

Now we are enjoying a nice calm anchorage on Lombok for a couple of days, there's not much right here but yesterday we hired a 'Bemo' (mini van) to explore some of the island where we saw loads of friendly monkeys up in the Jungle and visited some weaving and pottery villages. The Landscape here is a lot more tropical and humid...today we even got our first rain fall for over four months. We ran around with buckets and a scrubbing brush trying to clean the boat down with it's first fresh water shower in a long time!

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Sumbawa Island.

Current Position: South 08*28'036 East 117*22'333
Anchored off the village of 'Badas'.

After leaving Komodo island we spent a couple of days relaxing on the smaller island of Banta where we snorkeled on some beautiful reef and had beach fires at night. We then took an over night sail along the north coast of Sumbawa island, roughly 100 miles, to the village of Badas on the north west coast. The scenery has changed dramatically, from very dry, brown hills to lush green mountains and the smell of flowers that seems to linger in the air. We anchored in a deep inlet used as a small port in 40ft of water. We're probably the only boats they've seen here in a while as the locals are surprised to three yachts anchored on their doorstep and as far as cruisers are concerned we're now 'off the beaten track'.

Roughly 10 mins drive from the anchorage is the large town of Sumbawa Besar which used to be the capital of Sumbawa. On Saturday we met a local guy called 'Borex' who knew a little English and rented a 'Bemo'(mini bus) for us for the day so we could explore the area. We visited the Sultans palace which is actually a building site as it's in the process of being reconstructed from scratch and then wandered the small shops in town. Most importantly we found a great little restaurant with probably the best food we've had in Indonesia so far, we ended up returning there many times and the guys loved endless supply of cold Bintang! Sumbawa is a great area and although it's a shame that very few tourists visit the island it's also kind of nice that we haven't seen another white face the whole time we've been here!

Today we plan to start moving west again but not sure as of yet where we'll end up...We're all still trying to decide whether to go north or south of Lombok Island so I guess we'll decide underway or maybe just find a nice little sandy island to spend the night!!

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