Bali to Lombok June 2015
Well after a great time in Bali we left for Lombongan on the 5th of June in the company of Slipstream and some other of the race boats. Spent a night there with drinks on MS and the next day sailed up to Gili Air, Gili meaning island in Indonesian and Air meaning water. We stayed here a couple of nights, the first night warren was tied up helping two yachts who had got stranded on the reef, luckily no serious damage done on either boat. Morg and I hired a bike and biked around the island, there was a good track for about half the distance and the other half was sand which wasnt bikable and hard going with Morg liking his back seat too much to hop out. So we stopped at a few places for cold drinks. Lots of bars and tourists accomodation around the whole island,-only took us 2 hrs to get around. Matt would go ashore for a few cold ones and we’d pick him up in the evening when his legs gave up functioning properly.
From Gili Air we needed to go and find somewhere to park the boat for a few weeks as Warren was flying back to NZ. The thought of going back to Benoa and staying on the boat wasnt too appealing to me as not great facilities and a way out of town. So we decided to check out Medana on the north coast of Lombok. Little 3 fingered marina with a nice hotel and restaurant plus some showers for the boaties. The owners were welcoming and had great English, Peter was a mining engineer so Warren and him knew a lot of the same people. Felt comfortable here so Warren left two days later and we also bid farewell to Matt, sad to see him go but he also had the convoluted job of renewing his visa. So for the next 2 weeks Morg and I settled into a routine of schoolwork and swimming in the afternoons. Walked through the local villages, which were bamboo huts on the beach, most of the men doing cargo runs in their boats to the Gillies or fishing. The children would be out in force evry afternoon and Morg spent some time swimming and playing with them. They lived a very basic lifestyle, no luxeries here and a pencil or book were an enormous gift too them. Brickhouse with Patrick and Rebecca aboard joined us after a few days and we were the only 2 boats in the bay. We went into Mataram the main town, an hours drive away, either round the coast or through the mountains full of Macaques. Also had a great afternoon snorkelling on the reef, a lot of the coral is dead from bombing but there were still a few colourfish around.
Work was being done on the marina and I think the digging and piling disturbed a few rodents as they decided theyd come and stay on MSinstead. One night was particularly bad when I’d locked the boat and they were gnawing at the companion way to get out, I didnt sleep much that night and when I woke up with one on my leg it got a bit Hitchcockish so I moved the boat onto a mooring the next morning. I also managed to catch the buggers with plates of sticky glue left around the boat and hoped like hell I’d got them all as we were off to Singapore in a few days to meet Warren. Rats arn’t great pets but rats on a boat are real bad, they can chew through wiring, wood anything. As it was we flew off to Singapore for 5 days and came back to an intact boat. Happy days.
Singapore was great, the main reason of our visit was to extend our visas for Indonesia which had to be done out of the country. Visas and cruising permits are complicated and basically a P in theA to sort out. We got those sorted quickly in Singapore and then spent the rest of the time sightseeing. Its a stark contrast to Indonesia, clean, organised and wealthy. So we had a great few days there,a nice hotel with a pool much to Morgs delight. We arrived back on the boat for another 10 days in Medana in which Warren worked and then finally said goodbye to everyone. We had become good friens with the staff at the restaurant, particularly the young girls who were very fond on Morgan. Indonesians love children, so it was a little sad to depart after such a long stay.