Kupang to Alor

CuriousOyster
Steve & Trish Brown
Fri 5 Aug 2011 23:06

It is not unusual to have the company of dolphins on passages in the tropics but we were priveleged to have a large pod of Melon headed Whales pass very close to the boat en route. Sadly we could not get any photos in time but we did snap our old friends the dolphins.

The passage from Kupang to Kalabahi on the island of Alor gave us some mixed sailing conditions and unbelievably strong head currents as we entered the channel between the islands. We now know that these currents are at their worst 3 days after the new moon, exactly when we arrived. Although we should have judged our arrival perfectly these changing conditions gave us some of nthe most frustrating sailing to date. Even the very small islands have people living there, with schools, churches, etc. Everyone living very simply on subsistance farming and fishing.

 

The town of Kalibahi is at the head a large, 6 mile long bay and we passed some strange looking fishing plaforms en route to the anchorage.

The following morning we were woken by a young kids in dugout canoes, hailing the boat looking for handouts of pens, writing paper and anything else they could blag of us. They were a happy, smiling bunch of kids and one group got the better of another in the competition for freebies by turning their dugout over.

 

The town itself does not amount to much although there is a busy dock, lots of small shops and a ramshackle range of stalls selling fruit, veg and fish.

We have seen the use of bamboo and an odd assortment of wooden poles used as scafolding before but this assortment on a mosque probably takes the biscuit.

As the evening of our 2nd day approached we had the good fortune to see two large Whales swim through the anchorage, sadly, although they came to the surface often they did not show either their dorsel fins or tail flukes so we were unable to identify them.