Oyster News 62
5/6/07
11:47 AM
Page 43
OWNER REPORT
“
The children test the strength of almost every feature close to the toe rail. We can assure Oyster they are child proof.
”
this is always done after some introductory conversation, in a non-aggressive and kind manner. Sometimes we get mangos or bananas in return for our small gifts. When they are disappointed because we have run out of T-shirts, we tell them "ini kapal, ini bukan pasar" "this is a boat, not a market" they laugh (maybe at our pronunciation?) and agree. Our last stop on Flores was the town of Labuanbajo set in a scenic bay. Here for the first time in two weeks we saw another sailboat. We had not seen any since Kupang. We also learn about the Indonesian ‘liter’ having ‘filled’ our three 20 litre jerry cans with 20 indo-liters of diesel each, I observe that they are only about two-thirds full!
Komodo Dragons From Labuanbajo, we moved to Rinca, next to Komodo, where the famous dragons live. The anchorage is in a delightful little bay, and from the cockpit we watched macaque monkeys running up and down the beach. Early in the morning we went ashore to see the famous dragons. These lizards, about three meters long, are carnivorous and it is wise to stay some distance away. The ranger suggests a walk of 5 km to see more dragons, but it is hot and a good wind is just starting to blow. We had to choose between seeing more dragons (after all just big lizards) and a good sail. Well, not much hesitation…
Sumbawa We returned to Adesso and enjoyed a wonderful sail to Sumbawa, the next island to the West. From here on, we started experiencing stronger sea breezes. Sumbawa is the largest island of the province of West Nusa Tenggara, the province we are in. It is home to the
Tambora volcano. The 1815 eruption sent 150 cubic km of ashes up into the atmosphere, enough to lower global temperature for a year - snow fell in London in August 1816! Again we moved by legs of about 40 miles, stopping overnight in friendly villages. Many of the villages have no electricity and at night the only light is the communal fire around which villagers gather, it is hard to believe we are in the 21st century. At night, the fishermen in their little sampan sing softly. Some of them have beautiful voices and it is marvellous to lie down in our comfortable bed listening to their melody. Sumbawa like Flores offers many good anchorages. In one of them, we had just dropped the anchor for lunch when an open boat shows up with four men on board, two of which were holding machine guns. Seeing our astonishment, they shouted: friends, friends! We wondered why friends would need machine guns, but they told us that they were coast guards, even though they had no uniforms. They climbed on board Adesso, which was difficult to refuse under the circumstances. We started chatting in broken English and broken Indonesian about everything; they are quite open and laugh all the time. They asked us for cigarettes but we had none. We offered them a chocolate bar instead and that was accepted with enthusiasm. Half an hour later they left thanking us and wishing us a pleasant stay in Indonesia. Only then did we discover the mess they had left: chocolate stains everywhere on the teak deck! Oh, well, better than having bullet holes in the hull… After a couple of anchorages, we arrived in Bima, a deeply Muslim town. The city has a fairly large market and the time had come to do some provisioning. >
FAR LEFT: Armed ‘sea police’ on the island of Sumbawa ABOVE LEFT: Coloured lake in the crater of a volcano, Kelimutu ABOVE RIGHT: One of the beautiful beaches of Gili Air
www.oystermarine.com 43