Saturday 12th  October 2013  Indian Ocean,  10.38.9S 105.32.7E  

Today's Blog by David (Time zone BST +.6.50; UTC +7.5)

Have just passed Christmas Island. Would have liked to stop but no time. By the time we have cleared in and out we will have lost a day or more  - and we are, as ever, sailing on a schedule!

We had had a favourable current with us, but we now seem to have lost it. Worse we are plugging about a knot against us.  At this rate, we will arrive at  Cocos Keeling during Monday night/Tuesday morning..

I hear tell that the pictures included in the Wednesday 2 October Blog : ‘A Touch of the Gillis’ did not make it to the Blog page. Well, I reproduce the blog below and re attach the photos. Hope it works.  If not, I can’t fix it until we get to Mauritius.

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Wednesday  2^nd October 2013 Gilli Aer, Lombok,   8 21.87S  116 05.1E  

Today's Blog by David (Time zone BST +7.00; UTC +8.0)

We sailed from Komodo Island along the north of Sumbawa. Bound for Gilli Aer, one of three islands off the north west tip of Lombok, we left towards sunset expecting to be at sea for two nights.  For the first time in some weeks, we had good wind and so we got off to a flying start. By the morning it was already clear that we needed to slow up a great deal or, better,  stop for a few hours.

We identified a couple of towns as candidates.  The favourite was Karanga, on Sumbawa but this turned out to be a very basic settlement and a boat yard.  We did try to anchor about half a mile from the village, far enough  to deter too many visitors (chancers)  but it was steep to. We would have had to anchor in 15-20 metres of water only three or four boat lengths from the shore. We prospected elsewhere in that bay but without success and so headed for Brenti, just round the corner.  It was by now early afternoon and a stiff sea breeze had emerged making the Brenti anchorage a bit of an ask, but we did find a find a little bay with adequate shelter.  We  were joined there by Sulana who kindly invited us to dinner and, later, by Babe.   Sometime after dark we set off again for Gilli Aer.

Gilli Ae  is a tourist destination.  A tropical parallel to Sark, in the Channel islands on which no vehicles are allowed – although it is about there that the similarity ends!   There was a single track round the island, which could be circumnavigated in a little over 2 hours,  passing by a succession of bars, restaurants (many of which could not provide food when asked), bars, dive shops, tourist agents, bars, massage parlours and …..did I mention… bars? ….  all organised along either side of the single ‘road’ running alongside the white sandy beach

There were paths off on the landward side to accommodation of various standards:  backpacker and up, (although I am not too sure how far up!). It is more a destination for 25 year old blonde Adonis suffers/divers than grumpy fifty/sixty somethings although the taxis were quite cute. 

From the Gillis we headed straight for Bali, playing Chicken with the local fishermen down the Selat Lombok (Lombok Strait). This proved to be quite exciting. 

Now, the more traditional Indonesian fishing boats comprise a single hull with two out riggers.  They are remarkable craft from which they pursue all manner of fishing methods. At its simplest:

But we also saw them setting drift nets up to 500 metres long, trolling and lifting pots etc.  At night,  they fish with bright lights and literally filled the horizon to seaward of our anchorage at Gillie Aer. They are also a means of transport and have both a small engine and a sail.

Under sail, they are quite daunting. They seem to be going very quickly, and they sail much further off the wind than they seem.  As we headed down the Lombok Strait  we were besieged by them, and had a happy couple of hours playing dodgems.

We arrived in Bali in the early afternoon, cleared into the port and repaired to the bar for dinner.