Gili Islands
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Thu 9 Dec 2010 13:09
|
Thursday 9th December 2010 2016 Local Time 1216
UTC
08:44.45S 115:12.80E
Though our visit to Komodo was very short Trish
managed to dispense medicine for two cases of toothache and one severe case of
an abcess on a tooth. We carry reasonable quantities of medical supplies and it
is good to be able to help villagers where we can with medical aid. We have
done it regularly and it is always appreciated.
Again reluctantly we were compelled to move on from
the beautiful bay in Komodo that we had all to ourselves and head for the Gili
Island where we hope to have a few easier days to try and get a few wee jobs
done and get some rest.
Still no wind, which though was the situation we
expected in Indonesia we did not expect almost all the way from Cairns. We
motored on along the north side of Sumbawa and across the North of Lombok hoping
for a daylight arrival at the Gilis. On passage during
one of the many torrential downpours I decided to have a deck shower in the
rain, but just my luck the rain eased up once I was completely soaped up! Photo
censored.
While along the North Sumbawa coast I caught a very
light coastal breeze and sailed. What heaven. The engine off and tanking along
at 3.9 knots steadily decreasing to 1.5. Nevertheless Trish, who was sleeping in
bed said she physically felt herself relax and "float" down to the mattress.
Alas it was all too short lived and it cost us our daylight arrival in the
Gilis.
It was difficult to find an anchorage there and
after probing our way around and almost (it turned out the next day) going
through an unlit pearl farm we decided to anchor in over 30m in the middle of
the fairly open bay and sleep till daylight.
Next day I took the RIB ashore and met a couple of
people. Simon from Blue Marlin Diving started tourism here over twenty
years before and after chatting for a while he offered me his big boat mooring
right in front of the dive shop in the party island Trawangan.
We decided to sign up for Advanced Open Water Diver
certification and put in 6 dives in the subsequent three days. That coupled with
"socialising" with the instructors and fellow students for the next few days
left us exhausted and not at all rested! It was worth it however and we had a
great time there with the team from Blue Marlin Diving. The highlight for Trsih
was a dive where I was leading the dive and she was taking the dive as a
"Photography Adventure Dive". We both advanced our skills considerably and
enjoyed doing so.
After our
fulll on Gili visit we headed off on Wednesday morning to Bali. we were arriving
blind again but we have become used to that.
After signalling the security guy and a local
fisherman to take our lines we had them aboard and after half an hour had gained
two new friends. They were both very helpful and we had the measure of the place
pretty quickly.
With a bit of coaxing we managed to get the fuel
boat to supply us 1500litres this morning and I am extremely concerned about the
quality of it. However it was all that was available and we needed it so lets
hope our filters and separators are up to the job.
The rest of the day we spent the day working on and
cleaning the boat. We were giving her a deep
clean and got a young guy, Asso, on board to help. The bilges were scrubbed
and cleaned and dried and we will now work our way up the companionway and do
the deck, stainless and hull tomorrow.
Correction - Asso and his mate will. We hired
one of the staff to take us round the island and the boys are excited about a
bumper payday of $25 each - about double the going rate I think but a bargain
for us too! Win - win.
We are heading to the hills away from the tourist
throngs of Souther Bali tomorrow.
Our plans are to leave for the 900 + mile
passage to Singapore on the 11th. We are not sure if we will go to Borneo
now or not, it is getting all a bit tight. It will depend on the
weather. |
