Heading to South Africa
Peregrina's Journey
Peter and Margie Benziger
Sun 1 Sep 2013 15:47
Where in the World are Margie and
Peter? Heading to South Africa!!!
It’s been
quite awhile since we’ve posted an update on the progress of Peregrina’s
circumnavigation.
We’ve been
happily plying the waters and enjoying land travel here in SE Asia for the past
two years.
Starting
with Sail Indonesia in 2011, we made our way through the islands of Indonesia
including Komodo, where we marveled at the real life dragon descendants of the
dinosaurs.
And
Kalimantan, the Indonesian half of the island of Borneo, where we hung out with
the orang-utans.
And then,
there was Bali, with its’ heart-stopping
beauty and those beautiful eyes!!!
We journeyed
up the west coast of Malaysia through the, once, pirate-infested Malacca
Straits to Thailand; did lots of exploring from Bangkok to Chaing Mai, then
back down to the ultra-modern island/city/ state of Singapore and world-famous
Raffles Marina.
We moved on around the
corner and up the east coast of Malaysia to Johar Bahru on the border of
Thailand and back down again crossing the South China Sea- giving wide berth
where tensions are high in response to China’s aggressive territorial claims on
a number of islands in the region.
Over on the
Malaysian half of Borneo, we attended the fabulous Rainforest World Music
Festival in both 2012 and 2013 in “Kuching”, the city of Cats!
And we sailed up and around the top of Borneo
stopping in great ports of call at Miri, Kota Kinabalu, Kudat, Sandakan and the
filthy rich little Kingdom of Brunei - one of our favorites! Gotta love the Sultan and his solid gold Rolls Royce!
>From Kudat,
we headed northeast to the chain of islands known as Palawan in southern
Philippines and up as far as Busawanga and the resort town of Coron, where we enjoyed
spectacular diving inside and all around dozens of WWII Japanese wrecks. We flew to Manilla for more WWII history
visiting Correigidor, the site of MacArthur’s famous, “I Will Return” speech.”
Retracing
our earlier tracks back down to Malaysia, we met up with lots of old friends
for fond farewells. There were good
Aussie “Mates” heading back home and others from many countries who would
continue to enjoy the South East Asian delights for much longer but Peregrina’s
crew were beginning to feel the tug of the sea and knew it was time to Go
West!
After an
unexpected and extended visit to Singapore for repairs to Peregrina’s propeller
and some canvas and Bimini top work plus
emergency surgery on Peter’s hand after he almost cut off his fingertip
with a hacksaw, we were ready to go.
So, we left last
week and made our way to the Indonesian island of Belitung – just in time for
their annual Carnival parade!
Having many
friends here from our last visit in 2011 with the Sail Indonesia Rally, we were
quickly whisked up in the celebration of Belitung’s 68th Anniversary
and were invited to participate with the Belitung chapter of the Association of
Professional Tourism Companies of Indonesia.
Basically, we were the “Token Tourists!”
We marched at the head of the delegation holding a banner over the SEVEN HOT
KILOMETERS of the parade route! We were greeted with smiles
and applause all along the way and were asked to present a plaque to the Vice
Regent at the VIP stand. See the FRONT
PAGE of today’s Belitung Post newspaper! We're famous!!!
But, now
it’s time to go…so we wanted to let you know that our plans are – VERY LOOSE –
to start with!
It’s almost
comical for a sailor to talk about plans or, heaven forbid…a schedule!!! Something is ALWAYS going wrong on a boat and
that’s not even talking about the weather!
So, conditions
permitting…and ALWAYS with safety first, we’ll do our best to make our way from
Belitung 300 miles to the Sunda Straits
sailing between the islands of Sumatra and Java. Then, a short hop of 25 miles the Krakatau
Atoll, site of the volcanic explosion in 1883 that was
HEARD as far away as Perth, Australia and where tens of thousands were killed
by molten lava and a 30 meter high tsunami.
This seismic episode affected the world’s climate for years and the
volcano and its little daughter, Anak Krakatau, which formed in 1925, continue
to rumble and spew periodically. Can’t miss that!!!
From there, we’ll wait for a good weather window and consult with a weather forecasting service out of the USA called COMMANDER before heading due west on our longest passage, 2000 miles (!), to the island of Rodrigues, Rodrigues is part of the Republic of Mauritius. We’ll enjoy Rodrigues for awhile and then make our way to the main island of Mauritius 330 miles away where we will also take time to explore before moving on to beautiful La Reunion, a French “department”, similar to Martinique, just 135 miles from Mauritius Here we’ll hope to do some serious R & R before attempting what should be the most challenging leg of our entire journey, the 1350 miles from La Reunion and then on to Richards Bay, South Africa.
We’ll arrive
in South Africa just north of Durban, after almost 5400 miles at sea, sometime in November! Can’t wait to begin to explore the next
continent on our around-the-world adventure!
Enough for now, stay tuned for the next episode of “Where in
the World are Margie and Peter? The journey continues...Margie & Peter Benziger
Peregrina
http://blog.mailasail.com/peregrina