Monday, August 17, 2009

Sail Indonesia 2009! - Weeks 1 & 2

So it has been a long while since I have written on my blog. For this I apologize. But I assure you all that I have been having a great time in the mean time, so busy that I have not had much time to get online. Plus, it is extremely difficult to get online when you are on a boat in the middle of the sea. We have visited some amazing places this past month. They are mostly small little Indonesian islands that are off the beaten track, most of the time these islands do not have Internet access. I am sailing as part of a rally, the Sail Indonesia 2009 Rally to be exact. There were 140 boats that signed up for this 3 month journey across Indonesia with pit-stops set up for us, full of cultural events. It really is an incredible opportunity.
As many of you know, when I arrived in Darwin, Australia, where the rally started, I did not have a boat to crew on. I spent 3 weeks in Darwin finding a boat to join. This meant a lot of socializing while stalking the yachties :) It was actually pretty fun, because even though it took me about a week to find a boat to join, I was meeting all of these cool and interesting people, yachties. They have a whole inner community amongst themselves that I never realized existed in this world. Many of them have been sailing around the world from port to port for years. And as such, they run into each other across the seas. Some of them haven't seen each other for ages, some of them hook up and travel together for certain legs of similar journeys. The majority of them are really nice. It is pretty funny though, their are definitely two groups. The ones who like to socialize and relax and accept every unknown as an adventure, and then there is the other type. The ones that want answers to everything right away. This second type is having a hard time dealing with the unavailable and ever changing answers that a culture like Indonesia provides. But anyway, back to the main story. As I was in Darwin becoming friends with this interesting community, I boarded many of their yachts and started learning heaps about the many different kinds of yachts out there. And every one is just so individualistic on the inside. Seriously, I was in awe of just how varied and clever the interior designs of each vessel were. Sinks that slide in and out of small places, doors that open up to expose one room, while becoming a door to shut another room, that didn't even look like it was its own room a second before hand. Very practical for bathrooms (heads). Storage places you would not think of, bedrooms (births) that double as the kitchen table (saloon area), and some of these cruising yachts even have washer and dryers and freezers with ice makers, a definite luxury at sea! So I ended up getting a call from a woman about helping her crew her boat, 'Whitsunday Passage', an Adams 40, but it is really only 39 ft and 11 inches. And trust me, at sea, every inch counts. Her name was Joanne (Jo) and she wanted an all woman crew. She is a dental surgeon from Airlie Beach, Australia who works one week a month in Papua Indonesia, and volunteers every year in India for a month. She was a ton of fun, and I thought this sounded perfect. I spent my last weeks in Darwin helping her fix up her boat and getting ready for passage. A couple days before we left her friend Robyn flew up from Airlie Beach. She was to be the other crew member. There were also 2 other boats, 'Felicity' and 'Layaleeta', from Airlie Beach going on the rally, all 3 boats traveled up the Australian East Coast to Darwin together. I really liked the crew on each of these boats as well and it was looking like it was going to be a fantastic trip!
Well July 18, at 11am the gun was shot and the rally was officially on its way! It was such a site to see 140 boats all cross a line at once. The wind was behind us, so each boat was flying its kite sail, a spinnaker. This made the view even more colorful and amazing to watch! It was so exciting seeing these varied vessels weave in and out of each other, with the bigger ones and the catamarans taking the lead. The race was on, who would get to Saumlaki, our first destination, first?
Well during the next 4 day passage, it was clear we were not going to be first. In fact, we were almost last. The first day of sail had been so exciting with perfect conditions for an easy sail. I had a cocktail at sunset while I wrote in my journal about how lucky I felt to be a part of it all. Day 2 started out beautifully. It was a wonderful sunrise and dolphins decided to pay us a visit. A pod of about 20 or 30 dolphins played on our bow for about 20 min! It was incredible!! But by mid-day it was apparent we were out of reach of Australia, in the open blue ocean and the winds and seas had changed on us! It became utterly choppy and the boat was pitching and rolling like you wouldn't believe. For the second time in my life, it happened. The dreaded 'it' for any sailor... I became seasick! :( I spent the next 24 hours laying in the cockpit on the comfy spinnaker sail all folded up in its bag, creating a couch. I could not go below at all. Every time I had to use the head it was a nightmare. Thankfully, it was not as bad as I have seen others. And I was okay, as long as I lay still outside. It lasted a full 24 hours, then went away. Day 4 ended with a beautiful late afternoon sail into the harbor of Saumlaki. We met up with our friends that had been there for 2 days already and went to celebrating. After all, there was a lot of celebrating to be done, we had been at sea for 4 days with nothing to terrible happening, we were in a beautiful and new place, amongst good friends, and our birthday's were beginning at midnight! Yes, I said "our" birthdays. My skipper, Jo, and I had the same birthday.
The next day we checked in with customs and finished celebrating our birthday in style, at a tropical bar, on a dock, in front of a fancy hotel :) The next day in Saumlaki we all went on a private tour of the beautiful island, including a carving village. The woman there chew this white powder, beetle nut, like tobacco. They offered us to try some but we didn't know you were supposed to spit it out again at that point. So my friend Loz swallowed it and it made her throw up almost immediately afterwards. It was hilarious!! We had fallen victim to the language barrier again. I love this adventure! Myself, Loz, and Skye all got up on a stone wall in front of the crashing waves and sang "Brown Eyed Girl" for the kids of the village. They loved it, their smiling faces were adorable. Then they all sang the Indonesian anthem for us. We all laughed together and then played a game of kickball. We ended our tour with a 'Sopi' factory. This is nothing merely more than a shack in the rain forest where they heat up coconut milk and water. Then let it ferment and heat it up so much the water evaporates. It is all stored in large fuel containers to make the site even more scary. It tastes like the worst, cheap wine you can imagine, mixed with a port. They distill it 3 times, each time is a new level of alcohol content, so they sell each of these three levels for the customers liking. We all tried each level, some even bought some, but it has yet to be drunken. It was a fantastic day!
Well then the time came for me to get off of Whitsunday Passage, as Jo did not know what she was doing next and if she would or would not follow the rally. Therefore, I hopped on board with Layaleeta, a Bavarian 42, which is actually 43 ft. long. I was the 6th person on this, and they didn't need me, but wanted to take me along and keep me with the group anyway. Plus this was better for me as I was with a group of people pretty much all my age. With excitement we all packed up, filled up on water and got ready for our next leg in our voyage across the Indonesian Seas together.
We went 12 miles around the corner of the island. There was a great anchorage there, beautiful beach and quiet! No more hustle and bustle of the city. The next day we went for a 45 min. walk across the island to a village. No one spoke any English, but it didn't matter. We played a bit with the kids and then all had great washes in their fresh water pools! Being clean with fresh water is an utterly amazing feeling when you live on the sea. We ate a great feast on board the boat that night, then went to the beach for a bomb fire party. Some locals came and set up a crab fight for us. They tied two crabs together and to a stick. It was pretty interesting to watch the crabs fighting characteristics. One would play dead and refuse to fight, then came out swinging in the end and won. It was a little harsh to watch, but it was all part of the culture of the locals and what they do on this island for fun. They also shimmied up the tall palm trees to get coconuts down for us so we could add fresh coconut milk to our rum drinks! They took their machetes out and sliced them open like professionals! The next day we left for a little island called Nila. At this point Layaleeta was traveling with Felicity, Tequila II (a wonderful couple named Wayne and Mary from Bunderburg, Aus), and Wonderlust (Tashi and Syuri from Japan).
After a day and a half of travel we arrived at dawn to this small active volcanic island called Nila. This place was incredible and has been my favorite so far. Nila had 4 little villages on it, each comprising of about 10-15 people. As soon as we anchored they were inviting us on shore for a feast with their chief for dinner. I still don't know which one the chief was, he wore nothing special or anything. We brought some alcohol on shore with us and they fed us full of bananas and fish. As it turns out, 2 of my fellow crew members spent the next day with them and apparently all these people eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, is fish, rice, and bananas. In fact, Damo and Kate said they were force fed like 12 bananas through out the day. They didn't want to say no, and be rude, so they ate them. Neither of them has wanted a banana since! But anyway, back to the feast. We brought bongo's, a guitar, and a didgeridoo on shore with us. The community loved it! A girl there even knew how to play the guitar and she serenaded us all evening. She was so excited to play a guitar. We ate on the beach on a tarp in front of their huts. We laughed, we drank, we danced, and we had an absolute ball! The next day we relaxed and prepared for our next days journey to the island of Banda.
Banda was also an absolutely brilliant place. Much bigger than Nila, but smaller than a normal city. It is THE spice island that Columbus, Magellan, and the other explorers of there age went exploring for. We learned in school they were looking for spice islandS, but that is not true, there is only one, there has always only been the one, and it is tiny and not near any other islands, therefore incredibly difficult to find before the days of GPS. The people here were lovely, we were even able to dock right next to the pub, a favorite stopping point for our group. While we were there we rented motor bikes for a day and explored the
island. Mine came complete with a driver, our tour guide. We were able to ride them at top speed down the airport runway, as there were no planes coming in that week. Lachie, the skipper of Felicity, and Loz, were on one together and they kept falling over, it was hilarious! We ended the great day with a few beers and a lot of laughter reminiscing over our day. The next day Trent, Damo, Kate and I took a kayak out and went snorkeling. While we were out there, friends of ours from other boats came up in their dinghy. They were driving the dinghy at top speed with a line off the back. We each took turns on their surf board, wake boarding behind their boat. Loz and I stood up on first attempts, making the boys feel a little bit jealous. Another great day in the sun full of laughs. The snorkeling was brilliant as well. So many colors, so nice to see a reef that is flourishing and not being trashed by to many tourists! One of the boats (one of the richer, bigger, first class with paid professional crew boats) hosted a party that evening. We all attended, drank champagne all night long, ate lamb chops, and danced our butts off! It was a top evening! We partied until long after the sun came up. The next day we recovered and planned our next voyage. For this voyage I was switching boats to Felicity to learn more. This boat only had 2 people on it so they could use me more. It is much smaller and a bit crowded with 3 of us, but we make it work. Plus Lachie, the skipper, is a sailing instructor and I gained a lot to learn by being on board with him. More on this to come. For now I am having trouble uploading the rest of the photos and am running out of time on the internet. But I wanted to let you all know a little bit of the adventure I am having out here :) For more pics check out http://picasaweb.google.com/find.barlow/SailIndonesia2009. There will be more there in the future, just like the blog they are not completely up to date, but this gives you a beginning! The underwater snorkeling pics are great too! Keep an eye for those :)