Monday, September 30, 2013
Kupang, West Timor, Indonesia
Kupang, W. Timor, Indonesia (Saturday, August 3 to Wednesday,
August 7, 2013)
Kupang is the capital city of W. Timor
– it’s a busy, noisy, scruffy old city where Captain Bligh hanged out after his
mutiny. Because the Portuguese had once
settled Timor, there is a Catholic presence on the
island; including a university and a few churches nestled in amongst the
mosques. Despite the Catholic/Christian
majority on Timor, we did hear the Muslim call to prayer
five times a day (Indonesia
is about 75% populated with friendly Muslims).
For us, it was mostly cruiser business stuff – like checking
into the country, getting internet and phone service, provisioning up with
diesel and food. We were boarded by
customs, immigration and quarantine and then went to shore to meet again with
customs, immigration and quarantine - Indonesians sure like paperwork and many,
many copies of all your documents!!!
Very little English is spoken in Kupang, so good to have an
Indonesian phrase book handy! Warm days
and language struggles wore us down at times.
We ate out very little as other cruisers were getting sick from the food
but did have two nice prawn lunches at Resto 999 on the beach near Teddy’s Bar.
It was here that we had our first experience with toilets in
Indonesia –
thank goodness that my 87 year old mother chose Singapore
over Indonesia
to visit us. I honestly don’t know how
older people or people with joint/knee problems handle these toilets buried in
the ground – you must squat to use the toilets.
Aside from the toilet being on the ground, they do not flush – you must
use a bucket sitting in a nearby sink filled with water to flush. I’m still struggling with the squatting
position. If this isn’t challenging
enough, keep in mind that Indonesians don’t use toilet paper. Instead they use their left hand to wipe,
really, I kid you not. In fact, it is an
insult to touch someone with your left hand.
When I was in the market, the shop keeper wanted me to taste some
sugar. At that moment, I was holding
many bags with my right hand so I naturally reached over with my left hand. The shop keeper blocked my left arm and
quickly stuffed the sugar directly into my mouth as I suddenly realized what
she was doing!
We attended the SAIL INDONESIA farewell ceremony and enjoyed the young dancers. After that, we lingered a few days to get ready for our Indonesian cruising adventure!
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Sail to Indonesia from Australia
Passage from Darwin (Tuesday, July 30) to Kupang, Indonesia (Sail Indonesia Rally)
Day 1 (July 30) - Although
Dennis was still in pain, we finally took off in very light wind and calm
seas. How lucky we were to have single
hander Jim Pearson along for the ride!
Had chicken, rice and veggies for dinner.
Day 2 (July 31) – No wind, no
fish! Motor sailed all day. Clear skies, about 90 degrees Fahrenheit,
water about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Read
and checked in with radio nets. Brilliant
night skies lit ups with stars, the southern cross, milky way and other
galaxies. Same dinner entrée as day one.
Day 3 (August 1) – More of the
same from Day 2 except that we caught a lovely Wahoo. Passed wells and oil platforms along the way
– joint Australian and Indonesian project.
Chicken salad for lunch and Wahoo with zucchini, tomato, mushroom and
onion sauce for dinner.
We got buzzed by Australian
customs for the last time! So strange to
be leaving a very western world. About 150 miles from Indonesia, we saw a
fleet of Indonesian fishing boats – all old wooden boats painted red and green
with an oriental look about them.
Other boats underway with us
were Solstice (Southern California, USA),
Nahani (Vancouver, Canada),
Libertad (Santa Barbara, CA,
USA) and Galatea (Menlo
Park, CA, USA)
– most of the other rally boats had arrived by Wednesday.
Day 4 (August 2) – Still no
wind! We slowed down before entering the
channel to Kupang – too many fishing boats and nets to make this final leg of
our passage and arrived at Kupang on Saturday morning, August 3rd.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Darwin, Australia
Darwin (Wednesday, July 17 to Tuesday, July
30)
Well we finally got to Darwin
after a very long passage from Bundaberg – probably somewhere between 1800 to 2000 miles – all long day hops
from Bundy to Seisha and then three short passages from Seisha to Darwin
for the last 800 mile
stretch, including the Gulf of Carpenteria
crossing. Almost every cruiser that we
spoke to said that they were exhausted – what a haul!
On top of being exhausted, we
had boat and body parts to fix plus the normal provisioning, laundry, fueling
chores for the upcoming passage to Indonesia
with the Sail Indonesia rally. The jib
sail was an easy repair but the “body” part was more onerous. Poor Dennis had fallen hard on his
rear/tailbone when we got to Wigram Island. This injury triggered a painful sciatic nerve
condition from his tailbone to his foot plus a severe outbreak of psoriasis. The pain did not let up and was quite
severe. The doctor had xrays and blood
work done, initially thinking that Dennis might have a form of bone cancer – we
anxiously waited a week for the results and fortunately, no bone cancer was
found and the doctor gave Dennis clearance to continue on sailing from Darwin
to Kupang, Indonesia. At this point, Dennis had been in severe pain
for nearly three weeks. About all of Darwin
that Dennis saw were doctor offices.
Fortunately, Jim Pearson flew in
on Friday, July 19th and joined us on the boat on Sunday, July 21st. Jim was very helpful during this period with
provisioning and boat chores – fortunately we were able to take a few nice
walks along the scenic Darwin coastline
and MaryLee was able to swim in Fannie
Bay (with no croc’s).
Monday, September 2, 2013
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