BING BANG BUNG

I've given up trying to remember the names of the islands we are visiting. There are 17000 of them, but I've realised that most of them have Bing, Bang or Bung or similar in the name, so I just try one of those or a combination of them.  I appreciate this sounds very disrespectful, but my ageing brain has made the decision to just remember the places that are off the scale beautiful or have created massive trauma.  

BingBang, BingBung, Bungban ... all highly plausible. Letter B must be the most used letter here.

You will all be familiar with the concept of the 'shit sandwich'.  Something nice, something shit then something nice to soften the blow.

Well since our last blog a month ago, we have been in the midst of a 'Shit Mille Feuille.' 

Let me explain. 

I last left you when we were on our way to Borneo.   

We stopped at Bawean island en route where we met several other fellow cruisers all heading for the Kumai river in Borneo.  We formed a little posse with our own WhatsApp group for communication along the journey.  This has proved to be very helpful for all of us.

We stayed a few days on Bawean and one of the highlights was a tour of the island by motorcycle and a trip to see the waterfalls. Sadly provisioning was very limited and definitely nowhere was selling beer or wine. For a country where the most hardy produce is double or triple packaged in plastic and foam, it seems strange that eggs get sold to you in a single plastic bag.  Yes, by the time we had bounced about in the dinghy getting back to the boat, we had a plastic bag full of scrambled egg and shells.

This is how eggs get sold to you unless you buy a whole carton.  I bought a kilo - about 10, but 8 were totally smashed by the time we got back on board

This is an individual lemon.  For some strange reason it requires
individual cushioned plastic packaging.

The tour of Bawean island was great.  Some of the padi fields are breathtakingly beautiful and we experienced a continuous paved road all round the island which was a first since we arrived in Indonesia. We stopped at a local Warung where the most expensive meal was 13,000 rupiah. - approximately 50pence.  To be fair apart from a bit of spinal column, the chicken had just been wafted over it rather than included in the dish, but it kept us going. 

The waterfall walk was a nice change, but a two hour motor bike ride to get there was probably low on the cost-benefit scale

We left Bawean and embarked on a stressful overnight journey to Borneo.  Sailing at night here is treacherous and we were both a bag of nerves.  There are so many hazards to contend with; shallow patches, unmarked rocks, fishing nets, unlit fishing boats, Fish Attraction Devices and huge squalls. Sailing in Indonesia is not for the faint hearted. 

As we approached Borneo I was on night watch and was convinced I could see the coastline, yet according to the charts we were 60 miles away.  That seemed impossible, but I could not guess what the massive line of loom was on the horizon, if it wasn't coming from cities.

Sixty miles away the lights ahead in the night sky looked like a UK or US coastline - densely populated and highly lit, but google maps did not suggest that was likely

As we got within a few miles, the reality became clear; this was a continuous line of squid boats and fish attraction devices with huge arrays of LED lighting to attract fish

As dawn broke we saw hundreds of squid boats, packing up to go home after fishing at night, with very bright lights shining outwards to attract squid and fish.  

This is what each light turned out to be close up.  They have huge out rigging with lights attached. We spent the whole night dodging them.  Trying to see the boats and squalls on the radar made for a stressful night watch.

You definitely can't afford to doze off on night watch

We finally made it up the massive Kumai river to the port of Kumai which is a very industrial place.  

Not a pretty town to be honest

Slits in the top of the building so the swiftlets can get in to make their nests

One of the main exports and support for the local economy is the sale of the ingredients for Birds' Nest Soup.  This area has thousands of Swiflets that make their nests in the tall buildings which have been created to encourage their nesting. There are tiny openings into the upper stories for the birds to fly into and make their nests.  The nests are held together with spit from the male, which then hardens.  This is a delicacy in China and Japan and commands high prices.  There are external ladders on some of the buildings to go up and harvest the nests.

The main reason for our visit to Kumai and one of the absolute highlights of our travels has been the boat trip up a tributary of the Kumai river to see the Orangutans. We left Viridian on anchor in the main river and embarked upon a romantic river boat trip where the crew steered us up in to the jungle, fed us, pointed out wildlife and generally pampered us.  It was a very relaxing experience, not worrying about navigation, provisions, organisation; all done for us.  Absolute luxury. The view from our open air bedroom was spectacular. 

Our open air bedroom with excellent mosquito protection

The evenings on the boat were delightful. It was so peaceful.

The food was plentiful and tasty, so we probably ate a lot more than we needed.  But it was nice to not be cooking and washing up for a while.  

We were lucky to see many orangutans and other wildlife, including Proboscis monkeys, snakes and kingfishers. 

This Orangutan has seen a lot of visitors.  She looked a bit jaded.

This Orangutan came to the feeding station to grab some sweet potatoes

This lady has a baby on her back.  I'm working towards that level of strength to body weight!

After Kumai we had some gruelling passages involving huge squalls and more fishing hazards on our way to Belitung.  The anchorages are very rolly in this part of Indonesia, so it's difficult to sleep.  We have worn our oilies more here than anywhere since we left Portsmouth over 9 years ago! 

The boom has taken a lot of stick over the last few weeks and when we got to Belitung we realised that the bolt had broken at the gooseneck where the boom joins the mast.  So Greg tied it up with Dynema rope and we decided we can not risk using the mainsail until we get a replacement part from the UK.

Greg making use of his oilies

We are constantly looking out for squalls and adjusting our course to minimise them where possible. Squalls made up quite a bit of the shit in our Mille Feuille

Belitung turned out to be one of the delicious flaky pastry leaves in the Mille Feuille.  It is breathtakingly beautiful and largely unspoilt. We had never heard of it but apparently it was popular before COVID and has never recovered its full tourist trade, so it seemed very lovely to us.

The water is so clear - note the Viridian colour of the sea here

The granite rock formations are spectacular and the anchorage was beautiful. With our posse friends, we were the five boats on the anchorage. The water is so clear and clean.  We didn't see any of the debris, plastic and rubbish that we have seen in other parts of Indonesia.  We felt comfortable making water here. 

The granite rock formations are stunning and beg questions about their origins

View from the yacht club bar

Drone footage of Viridian on the left and our friends' boats in the anchorage. No filters.

Our evening meal at the beach restaurant - fresh fish and prawns with vegetables and Nasi Goreng plus 4 large beers - total cost £8

The posse out for dinner in Belitung

Well it couldn't be all relaxing and enjoying ourselves in Belitung.  We heard that we needed to get some interim paperwork before we can check out of Indonesia at our final port, so we hired a car and went to the town with Eduardo and Kamen from Shonandra to face the bureaucracy. It took all day.  We left the boat at 7am and finally got back at 6.30pm.  It involved hours of trailing from office to office, hanging around and then filling in paperwork with the inevitable charges at every stage.  It was exhausting and that was with the help of Kamen who speaks the language.  Imagine trying to do it by ourselves.

The captain had to fill in endless paperwork across four different offices and then back to the Harbour Master again to collect the signed documents

Here is the captain 'enjoying' using his boat stamp which is an absolute essential here.  I could  sense his satisfaction in giving the papers a good bang after 2 hours of bureaucratic madness

Three boats in our posse left Belitung and we followed with Shosandra the following day.  We are all now making our way west with the intention of finally checking out of Indonesia and checking into Malaysia. 

We headed to Gelasa Island which is a small and tricky anchorage which is why we went in two batches as there isn't enough room for five boats.  

We know there is a lot of reef there but it's hard to see at high tide.  Anyway we got the anchor laid after two attempts.  It was a nightmare anchorage.  the waves were rolling in hitting is on the beam all night.  we were rocking and rolling like a washing machine.  We got up early and stared in horror at the rocks at low tide.

pic from Greg

Shonandra set sail a few minutes before us.

Then disaster! We couldn't start the engine. We tried everything and it wouldn't start, so we realised we would have to sail off the anchorage.  We had one more go and got the engine to turn over, so I took up the anchor and as we started moving, Greg realised we had no power or drive in the engine going forward, so we had to float backwards off the anchorage and out to sea without being blown on the rocks.  It was awful.  Good job Greg is a very skilled yachtsman.

As soon as we got clear of the rocks we just got the genny out because remember we could no longer use the mainsail! So we were in a very vulnerable situation without a main sail and no engine.  We continued to try to fix the engine as we were sailing but it wasn't having it.  We messaged the rest of the group and said we were going to keep sailing including overnight because there was wind and we needed to get as far as we could while there was wind.  We were aiming to get to an easy access anchorage xxxxxx.

It was another night of sleeplessness with multiple hazards to contend with.

Endless squalls with torrential rain and high winds

A fish attraction device fixed to the sea bed

A tug pulling a barge of coal.  Not all boats have AIS. We thought it was an island looming up!

We were exhausted when we arrived, but how happy we were to see our friends coming out in their dinghies to help us into the anchorage without an engine.

Greg steering us into the anchorage under sail

The rescue party racing to our aid from S/Vc Tobyrruff, Le Reve and Malaika

And then they all piled onto Viridian and set the hive brain in motion to fix our engine.  They brought over their magic ingredient Start Ya Bastard (yes it's obviously an Australian product!)  but even that didn't work.

But after lots of trial and error, amazingly we got it going again.  It turned out that the rolling and rocking had dislodged something linked to the cold start which we didn't even know existed; so all our efforts to bleed the air and change the filters was never going to solve the problem. 

Anyway you are probably beginning to see why it's a shit Mille feuille rather than just a sandwich.

But this rainbow cheered us up

Sailing at night is particularly stressful in Indonesia, so we are constantly trying to get into an anchorage before dark.  We just made this one by the skin of our teeth.

But then waking up at dawn and experiencing this view, makes it all worthwhile

Just seeing the colours change over 10 minutes is magical

On our way to Nongsa Point we crossed the equator for the second time; this time going from the southern hemisphere to the northern and pointing towards home.

So now we have arrived in Nongsa Point Marina.  This is the first marina we have been in since Darwin nine months ago.  It is very relaxing to stop worrying for a bit. 

Of the four boats we have been travelling with for the last few weeks, two of them are heading to Langkawi to sell and to give up their boating dream for now.   Although it looks like a glamorous life when seen through the lense of a blog, with carefully selected photos, it is also quite a tough and challenging life.  It takes a huge toll on relationships, being in close proximity for 24/7/365 involving all of the power balances that shift in an arrangement that includes great danger and lack of creature comforts.  We are coming up to our 38th wedding anniversary and almost 10 years at sea.  It's a miracle we haven't killed each other...yet! 

We are looking forward to checking out next week, checking into Malaysia and then spending a few days in Singapore before we fly back to UK and start the countdown to Miranda and Jake's wedding. It may be a while before our next blog, but one things is certain, our life is never dull.

Thank you for following us 

WE ARE MISSING LOMBOK - A TALE OF DELIGHT AND TERROR

There are many songs about missing good things only when they are gone; well we are feeling a bit like that about Lombok, which in retrospect was a very calm place to hang out.

We went back to UK for a few weeks in March to get my implants finally completed.  Very relieved to say that they look good but it's a year since the disaster that led to all this dental work and its been an expensive and painful experience, a bit like boat repairs come to think of it!  

So with that behind us, we returned to Lombok where we had left Viridian on a mooring ball in Gili Asahan, West Nusa.  Ardy from the local village had done a great job of looking after Viridan, and we were reminded of how lovely people are in this part of Indonesia.  He dutifully turned over the systems in the boat each week and sent us photographs, so when we got back everything was working pretty well. 

We call the local boats here spider boats due to their outriggers which they use to drive onto the beach  and stabilise in rough seas.  We got picked up in a spider boat when we came back from the airport. 

We then left Gili Asahan and returned to Medana Bay marina where Gun fitted the new injectors we had brought back from UK; so we now have an engine that does not blast black smoke when it starts up! 

We were confident the rainy season was finished but then the rain gods decided to teach us a lesson for making assumptions.

I was out shopping when the heavens opened so had to shelter for an hour

Meanwhile Greg was 'sheltering' in the marina bar watching
the whole marina complex get flooded

The rain finally stopped and the sun came out.  

Greg took advantage of the breeze to fly his two kites off the back of the boat 

which were very much admired.  The galleon one was probably the most popular. 

The scary squid kite

Finally we said goodbye to a few fellow travellers that we had met in Medana Bay Marina and set off heading west.

Gili Air was our first stop for a few days.  It's a great island and definitely sang to the hippie in me.  It has a very relaxed vibe with restaurants and bars all the way around the coastal path.  There are lots of little stalls and shops selling crop tops and baggy trousers, or macrame/crocheted bags, but no-one is hassling you to buy; if you say 'no thank you' they are very respectful and don't pursue you, which all adds to the chilled vibe on the island.  

There are no cars allowed on Gili Air.  You walk, cycle or take a horse and cart.  Excellent!

Gili Air has a large choice of chilled bars and restaurants.  The lighting at night is lovely. We were there in April before it gets really busy. 

Chilled beach Gili Air and the spider boats 

There are also many spas to choose from.  I had a full body scrub and massage for £12 for 90 minutes.  Absolute result!

We met an Australian couple  who had arrived nine years ago, fallen in love with the place and never left.  They now own a lovely villa in the centre of the island.  It's good to meet people with local knowledge so we ate at a great restaurant they recommended and enjoyed the sunset with them at Mowies bar.  

Mowies is a good sunset bar 

Huge choice of bars and restaurants.  
Season only just starting when we were there. Pretty sure it's wild in peak. 

I was particularly impressed with the outdoor gym where all the equipment was hand crafted from Indonesian hard woods.  

Leg press machine, all in wood

The dumbbells are all handmade from local wood. Some of them look pretty big!

We would definitely recommend Gili Air! Sadly we said goodbye, and headed west towards Bali and Java.

Well we can safely say  the last four weeks have not been boring, in fact there have been several events that have been pretty terrifying. 

Having already visited the south of Bali we decided to head round the north coast this time.  The north coast of Bali is much nicer from a sailing perspective.  We stopped in Lovina where there is a great supermarket and stocked up on provisions and some alcohol.  In retrospect we should have got more because its been a bit bleak since then. 

We then sailed on to Banu Wedang Bay which was lovely.  It's a great anchorage and nearby beach resorts offer restaurants, swimming and hot pools which we took advantage of.  

Nice swimming pool at Mimpi resort

This thermal volcanic pool was really hot.  Had to get out PDQ

Greg went for the mummy bear pool - temperature just right!

Our favourite resort was Mimpi.  You can get a day pass to use all their facilities, pool, towels etc for £4!

The hot springs have been adapted with tiling to create hot bathing pools one of which was quite a bit hotter than we were expecting and we scrambled out quickly.  The other was perfect.

Then we relaxed by the swimming pool but not for long.  Within minutes of our drinks arriving, mine was stolen by a very cheeky monkey. He grabbed the glass and bounded into a tree above us, then proceeded to chuck down the metal straw then drink the whole thing with a smug look on his face before hurling the empty glass into a bush.  

Sneakily assessing his chances from behind the sunbed 

Quick as a flash up in the tree, swigging my drink! 

Im sure he was burping here! A very cool customer!

The resort replaced my drink, we guessed this wasn't the first time it had happened, but guarding the second one wasn't the relaxing experience I was going for!

We can fully recommend lunch in Mimpi resort.  The food was delicious and inexpensive. We had fabulous seats with a view of the local jetty.  

Great table with views

One of the best cold coconut drinks we have had so far 

From the restaurant, we watched a local funeral where the golden sarcophagus was taken out on a boat into the bay and put over the side after a short ceremony.  We watched it, expecting to to sink but it floated away for quite a long time after the funeral goers had all gone home... we noticed it float past Viridian, then we saw that it was heading toward the shore.  Not sure what happened to it next, but we spent a while speculating!

On 13th May, it was exactly 9 years since we left Portsmouth in 2017.  

We had an exciting and memorable day to mark the occasion. We went on a trek to a stunning tower/tree house which was a feat of amazing engineering, using single tree trunks shipped from Borneo which were then carried on the backs of 200 local men, from the beach to the site in the interior. 

There was a swing on the top deck and the breeze was perfect.  It's a long way up for the waiter to bring drinks though, as there is only a spiral staircase to the top deck.  This was one of our highlights so far in Indonesia.  

The tree house tower, built around a single huge trunk 

The swing on the top tier. There is no lift. The waiters trudge up with your drink!

This tree trunk goes from bottom to top of the structure.
It came from a Borneo forest.  Very impressive.  

View to the sea over the tree canopy 

Feeling very relaxed after a few days in Badu Wedang, all the washing done and full tanks of water made in the clear waters there; we set off towards Java.  Amazingly we managed to  actually sail as the wind was in the right direction and a good strength.  That isn't often the case around here.  There are days of absolutely no wind, so its nice to take advantage when we get some. Not only did we have wind, but we had a massive pod of dolphins shadowing us and playing in the bow wave for miles.  These are the exhilarating things that make us pinch ourselves and make up for the difficult moments.  

Delighted by our escort

Silly to assume everything is going well though.  We headed for an anchorage called  Tanjung Bilik.  It  was very, very deserted. Pretty, but very isolated. We were the only boat there.  So when a fishing boat with five guys came along, circled us several times then dropped anchor right next to us and stared in an unfriendly manner, we started to feel nervous.  

After a conversation about Greg's fighting prowess and attitude to violence, we decided to leave, even though it was late in the day and getting to another safe anchorage before dark was going to be challenging.  

Our slightly intimidating neighbours.  
This was a massive empty bay but they parked right next to us.  

After nine years of travelling, we have managed to avoid any human trouble, theft or violence, some of it is luck, but the rest is intuitive that probably comes from experience.   Always trust your instincts!  

We headed on hoping to get in somewhere before dark. Finally made it to Jangkar but it was dark when we got there and there was a very disconcerting boom across the harbour which didn't show on the chart.  We just hoped for the best and dropped anchor, but it felt less comfortable than we would have liked.  

Racing to get there before the sun goes down

The next day we woke at dawn and saw the  huge long unlit boom crossing the route in.  We could have so easily hit it.  Things are so different visually in the dark which is why we try to get into an anchorage before the light goes.   

Our next stop was the island of Gedugan.  We negotiated a pass in the reef, then found ourselves in a bay that was peppered with huge FADS (Fish Attraction Devices). These are made of bamboo and are like floating platforms, often with a house on them.  The fish are attracted to the shade they provide and then they have nets that come down and trap the fish underneath.  

Spotting about 30 of these FADs in the bay as we arrived.
'How pretty' we thought 'and what interesting engineering, all made from bamboo'

We anchored in what seemed to be a good sized space between some of the FADs  and decided to stay on board as it was getting late in the day.  We realised that the tide was going out and the tidal range was quite large.  We were relieved that we were still in enough water when low tide hit as the rocks and reef were fully exposed quite near to us.  The charts that we are using for navigation are not that accurate in Indonesia, so it's often a bit of a worry.

Just after midnight a massive storm blew up and Greg noticed that one of the FADs seemed to be getting nearer to us.  We were trying to decide whether it was just because we were swinging around but it loomed closer still out of the dark and we went into full panic mode! 

I was dispatched to take up some anchor chain, Greg started the engine to reverse and then the engine stopped.  Something was round our prop.  The storm worsened and it was absolutely terrifying to have this enormous construction on our stern and no engine working.  Doubly terrifying as we knew we were near the reef and rocks. 

We stayed awake all night, fending it off and waiting for dawn when we could see what had happened.

Not so pretty when looming next to us in the middle of a storm with no moon
This was terrifying. 

As soon as it was light Greg started diving under Viridian and discovered that one of the lines that was attached to the fad was now twisted round our prop and the Fad had been held on our prop throughout the night.  We were very worried in case there was prop damage which would be hard to get fixed here.

We found a contact on the No Foreign Land App, described as a local teacher who spoke English, so we messaged to Ali on shore to see if we could get help; but the message didn't get picked up, so Greg continued to dive for almost three hours to untwist the rope and free our prop.  

We didn't want to cut the rope as we didn't know what would happen to the FAD if we did, although that would have been the easiest thing to do from our perspective.  During this operation we were crashing into the FAD and the stern of Viridian is seriously scratched from banging into the bamboo poles. Miraculously, our prop seems undamaged. 

Greg getting ready to dive under our boat to get the rope off our prop

We are finally free but not before the stern of Viridian has been badly scratched by the bamboo poles

Greg was exhausted by the time he had got the rope free, then we had to harness the rope to stop it going back under the boat.  

Finally we were free, just as Ali arrived with his friends to try to help us.  Ali insisted we needed to come to shore with him and to visit his house where we were treated like royalty and given food  and drink.  Many photos were taken as we met the extended family.  Then we went on a motor bike ride all around the island, and were taken to the market to top up on fruit and vegetables.  What lovely people we have the fortune to meet on our travels.

Ali arrives with his friends to see if they can help us

It was quite a mission getting to shore.  The waves are quite choppy here and landing spots are rare

All the children from the surrounding houses came to Ali's house to get a look at us and practice their English

Outside Ali's home with his son Gabriel 

As Ali took us back to Viridian later in the day, we noticed the FAD was now on the beach, totally untethered to its anchor.  We did our best but it looked like its main line had broken and the other had twisted round our prop. Not an experience we would want to repeat.

The FAD has floated across the reef and is now stuck on the beach 

From Gedugan we headed to Mandangin island further along the Java coast, and got there just at sunset in time to anchor.  It was a tricky anchorage with masses of boats buzzing around and some very shallow areas of reef to contend with.  We were a bit nervous, but eventually found a spot and settled down for the night only to discover there were at least 6 mosques competing with each other on call to prayer and subsequent praying.  It was a very rowdy night and it started again at 4am so we got up and left at first light.

This was a very densely populated island.  
Fishing is the main occupation here, so there were boats everywhere and coming in and out all the time

Our next stop was Surabaya.  This is a massive port with huge ships constantly on the move as well as thousands of parked vessels to dodge around.  It's the second largest port in Indonesia.  Greg had a serious sense of of humour loss as we went under the suspension bridge in the middle of the shipping channel.  On the other side, there were swarms of little fishing boats with their nets spread out across the main channel.  We spent ages trying to thread our way through them to get to an anchorage.  It was all very worrying and after a few days of high stress, Greg started to wonder whether this was the reason that so many of our friends have sailed quickly through Indonesia and moved on.  

This impressive suspension bridge connects the main city.  It has separate lanes for scooters which is the main form of transport here

We finally found the anchorage but the holding was poor; even with our massive anchor we had to have three goes to get it to hold.  There were a number of half sunken vessels nearby, quietly rusting and the water was just a cesspit of rubbish.  Not very appealing but we hoped we could re-provision in the city.

We launched the dinghy and puttered our way through the garbage to shore.  There was a restaurant and an absolutely wonderful lady called Ayu working there, who went out of her way to help us.  She found someone to drive and she came with me to the city to get provisions and alcohol which is very hard to find here.  It was dark when we got back and not a pleasant experience trying to load the dinghy and get back to the boat through the murky waters.

The wonderful Ayu, who stopped work in her restaurant to come with me to track down alcohol at Tipsy Tales and some provisions that are hard to find at the local market

Subaraya is a massive city.  I would have struggled to navigate my way around here without local help

Tipsy Tales turned out to be a pop up off-licence hidden in an office building that caters for foreigners.  No signage to be seen. I would never have found it on my own.  Wine is hard to get here and is very expensive.  It is charged at the same rate as spirits on its volume rather than on its proof level; so it's a lot cheaper to drink gin here, if you can find any tonic.  Greg is in the process of creating his own tonic recipe!  I'm counting on you Jackie and Clive Goodhall!

The next day we moved a few miles down the channel, still dancing round parked oil tankers and coal barges until we found another anchorage that would mean we could set off early the next day to head north, crossing part of the Java Sea.  

Tug boats are lugging huge mountains of coal around on barges

We were anchored next to this mountain of coal 

We are now north of Java on the island of Bawean where the excitement continued. Another ferocious overnight storm caused a nearby catamaran to drag its anchor, just missing us as it floated by and then scraped on the reef.  We had yet another sleepless night although our anchor held firm.  That oversized Mantus anchor we bought when we were in Europe has been the best purchase we have made.

Yesterday we had a tour of the island on motorbikes and visited a beautiful waterfall.  Again we were helped by local people who are absolutely generous with their time and patience.  

Lakkas waterfall with Aan, our local guide

We have decided to stay here for a few days before we head across the Java Sea to Borneo. We need to decompress after the multitude of near misses and anxious situations we have found ourselves in over the last week. 

We will have to sail overnight to Borneo, so we are waiting for a full moon and hopefully some wind to help us get there. 

Thank you for continuing to follow us!  Next blog will hopefully be from Borneo.