Sea World Hotel, Maumere, Flores Island

www.kanaloa55.com
David & Valerie Dobson
Mon 13 Sep 2010 09:05

 

08:37.99S  122:18.53E

Sea World Hotel, Maumere, Flores Island

Motored in light winds once again past the island of Pulau Bessar towards Flores Mainland, watching the smoking volcanoes in the distance. 

DSC03221 smoking volcano.jpg

 

Captain’s log:

 

Monday 13th September Seaworld nr Maumere – Flores Island

 

We arrived about 1000 hrs following a short trip from the island of Bessar to be immediately greeted by a local in a canoe waving his folder with recommendations from other yachties, as one of them was Geronimo some good French friends of ours who did the trip last year, we decided to trust him.

By this time we needed 650 litres of diesel to top our tank up, we were down to our last 350l!  The first thing he did was to arrange 3 motorbikes to go to the local town on (self drive!) as Ollie can't ride a bike we arranged someone to drive him so it was Valerie and I on one, Ollie on another and our guide on the third, and of course no crash helmets for the passengers (you didn't read that Mary).  Our first stop in town was the ATM which worked!!! Followed by buying a SIM card and market shopping.

 

On our return I handed over nearly 4 million in local currency, (sounds a lot about £250) for the fuel which I was promised would be delivered that afternoon.  I did wonder if I would ever see the guy again or if he would just do a runner with the money!  We then tried out the internet at the local hotel - no luck very very slow. Had lunch and a beer.  By which time our man was back in his dugout canoe with 60 litres of fuel! I offered him more cans and to use our dinghy to speed up the process but he insisted to paddle backwards and forwards all afternoon with 60 litres at a time!  Evidently he had two teams of guys on motorbikes going back and forth to the garage to fill the cans.  By about 1900 and 11 trips later we again had full tanks.  I know we paid a bit over the top for the fuel, it was still very cheap by Australian or UK standards and everyone was happy.  It was a very painless experience for us all I had to do was to siphon each container into the tank.  It just goes to show that you can still trust fellow man, it would have been so easy for him to disappear with the money!

 

Position 08:37'.99s 12218'.53e

Day's Run 18.5 miles

 

DSC03211 sea world resort.jpg

A man in a dugout paddled out to us to indicate that the spot we were about to anchor in was correct, despite it still being about 20 metres deep at low water! 

DSC03151 Sea world anchorage, Flores.jpg

DSC03152 Maurem offers help.jpg

 He introduced himself as Morem, and offered us a sheet of paper on which two other yachts, one of whom we knew, called Geronimo, had recommended him as the person to help us to get fuel, shopping, laundry and other facilities.  Morem is the first person I have noticed whilst in Indonesia to have more the appearance of the natives of PNG I might add, plus the dugout was the same with an outrigger!


We were delighted of course, to be able to stumble upon the right man so quickly.  David wrote down on a piece of paper that we needed 650 Litres of fuel.  He said no problem, he could get that delivered to us by jerry can which he could lend us.  He asked me to write down a list of fruit and veg I needed too.    Ten minutes later, we had locked the boat up and dinghied ashore to follow him. 

DSC03154 David's moto.jpg

He organised three motor bikes for us to get into town with.   He flagged down totally unknown bikers (or so it seemed) as they were riding along the main road, and asked them to lend their motos to us for a short period at the rate of 25,000  Rupiahs (about two pounds GB each, or 3 dollars Australian) to go there and back.  Ollie jumped on the back of one with the driver, and David and I took another.  Morem sat on the back of another.

DSC03167 Ollie's moto ride.jpg

 Ollie disappeared before David could get ours started (leaving the owner on the side of the road to await our return).  Ollie got the fright of his life when the driver swerved right across an oncoming truck, who jammed his brakes on to avoid a collision.  One more life saved!

 

DSC03169 narrow road.jpg

We got into a very busy little area on the outskirts of town where the market was in full swing.  Native ladies clad in their hand woven cloth to identify which tribe they came from were all laying out their vegetables and fruit on stalls or on cloths on the pavement to sell.  The younger ones were in trendy T-shirts, so not sure that this tribal hallmark will last much longer as the older ones die out!  It reminded me of the way the natives dress in the highlands of Guatemala, in Central America.

 

DSC03155  Maumere market.jpg

 

DSC03162 having a chat.jpg

Getting enough cash out of the ATM was the first port of call to pay for the fuel, which was going to cost us nearly 4 million Rupiahs (about 260 GBP) for the 650 litres.  Then get a SIM card for David’s i-phone and top my one up and we were in business.

DSC03157 Natives in woven cloth.jpg

DSC03159 overloaded truck.jpg

 We got as much fruit and veg as was possible to carry whilst on a motorbike, and got back to the beach within the hour.  The owner of the bike was not in the least perturbed, patiently waiting for us on the road still!  Imagine that happening anywhere else, I cannot!

DSC03172 sea world anchorage.jpg

Back at the beach, David handed over the wades of notes making up the 4 million Rupiah for the fuel to Morem, and put all our trust in him that he would turn up with the goods by 2 pm.!

DSC03173 counting the money.jpg

 

DSC03190 beer at bar.jpg

We had lunch at the Sea World restaurant, just for a change, but were not in the least bit impressed with the menu, Nasi Goreng being the nearest Indonesian dish on offer.   The Bintang beer was 2.50 GBP, spirits 4 GBP and a bottle of wine 14 GBP, same price as most resorts in the developed tropics!

We didn’t try the cheaper mixes made with the RAKI, as we had some on board!

DSC03193 beer at the beach.jpg

 David tried to send our blog off by internet in the meantime, but could not get onto the correct website in order for us to be able to send anything.  So it will have to wait until Bali.  The Sea World resort seems to be more of a place where Germans have their house within the complex, and hence the menu was for German taste!

DSC03176 sea world hotel.jpg

Chatting with the local German man who owns his house at the resort

DSC03177 resident's verandah.jpg

This is his veranda

At 2 p.m., as promised Morem arrived with three 20 litre jerry cans of fuel to start filling our tank.  At that rate, it took 10 trips! 

DSC03209 diesel fill up.jpg

 

Meanwhile, Ollie and I sat on the beach enjoying the cool shade, whilst watching the local fishermen bring in their catch for a while, until David picked us up again to get supper and help with the refuelling.

DSC03205 big catch.jpg

DSC03201 milk fish.jpg

 

PICT0278 Refuelling in the dark.jpg

Morem was ferrying the gerry cans in his little dugout to and from the boat until 7 p.m., even in the rain showers!  He nearly did not deliver the last 6

 jerry cans, saying he had completed the delivery, but David was able to show him that we’d been counting it all on a piece of paper, to which thankfully he agreed!

 

 

DSC03214 Dawn.jpg

Beautiful dawn across to Pulau Bessar island from our anchorage

DSC03226 sunrise.jpg

Plus this sunrise is as good as it gets in Indonesian waters