Karimanjawa to Belitung Oct 2015
From Karimanjawa we did a two night sail to Belitung and had mainly nice winds from behind the beam. Started motorsailing the next morning for a while and hear which heard the engine falter then regain power a few times until it finally gave up. We had refueled in Semarang and Warren had a feeling that the fuel wasn’t that clean, but luckily only put diesel in the starboard tank so clean fuel in the port one. A change of filters and it was going again.
On the second day I noticed quite an acrid smell, a little bit scary when you think it may be something on the boat, Warren quickly checked down below, but no smell. It was just the beginning of a haze that was to encompass us for the next couple of weeks as a result of burning the forests in Sumatra. Unbelievable really. This has been happening for a few years, in fact Warren remembered it from 12 years ago. At times the haze was so thick and yours eyes felt gritty and sore, can only imagine what it was like in Sumatra itself. News reports said that they were evacuating women and children in close proximity to the fires and I’m sure there must have been numerous fatalities that weren’t mentioned.
The nights were the usual mix of fishing boats, squid boats and tug and tows all with various coloured lights that you could only guess at. There was also a few big ships but these had regulation lights and were also visible on AIS. A great system that tells us the direction, speed, bearing, length, destination etc of ships along the way and as we transmit as well they can see us too. Visibility wasn’t to great though with all the haze.
We arrived in Belitung in the afternoon and joined a few of the rally boats in a very choppy anchorage. Needless to say no one ventured off their boats and the next morning we motored around to the western anchorage which was a lot more settled. The rally boats had organised a trip on a local boat to the lighthouse island and nature reserve close by. Spent a lovely day sightseeing finished with a nice snorkel, then to shore to celebrate Andy’s (off Spruce) birthday. Nice dinner at a beach warung (restaurant) complete with a very loud electric organ accompanied by a couple of singers who then opened up the microphone for a bit of karaoke. The song book selection was pretty limited and so was the pianists repertoire. But this didn’t stop Engelbert Batt getting up for a croon (or five).
We had a lovely social time with the other cruisers, spending days tikki touring around the island and dinners ashore. Belitung is a beautiful island, long white sandy beaches with huge granite boulders scattered along them.
We weren’t part of the rally but were encouraged to join in a few of the festivities that the island put on for the ralliers. Numerous dances and dinners, speeches etc. Sadly I think as this was nearing the end of this particular rally a lot of the boats had reached saturation point as each island and port of call seems to go out of their way to provide entertainment etc, and after visiting numerous anchorages all with pretty full entertainment schedules, most of the cruisers just want to do their own thing-understandably. So a lot of the functions were poorly attended if attended at all.
Belitung is also home of the smallest monkey in the world the tarseus. Its habitat is endangered- again because of the deforestation for palm oil plantations. We visited a few held in captivity, but nice captivity. It was a strange looking thing, a cross between a pigmy possum and ET. Huge eyes and a head which can rotate 180 degrees.
So after a week in Belitung we were on our last leg in Indonesia-on to Nongsa Point where we would clear out. This was a 2 night passage through dense haze and what should have been a picturesque trip up the Riau Strait looked instead like something akin to a nuclear fallout. It had an eerie feeling about it complimented by a sharp smoky aroma. Nice.