Gili Trawangan Departure

Digiboat's "Product Testing"
Simon Blundell
Sun 1 May 2011 23:45
08°21.47S 116°02.61E
Two months
now at Gili T, Indonesia, so time for a visa run for me and the boat. Where to?
Singapore - 1000nm. Kuching, Malaysia (Borneo) - 1000nm, Darwin - 1000nm. Darwin
seems to be the front runner then, a touch of home and some time in the 1st
World sounds appealing. Timor's a bit closer but not doing it for me with my
level of ignorance about the place. Researching Darwin though, unfortunately
made it less and less attractive for a quick visa run. Customs $330, Fisheries
could be a fortune depending on what they find after diving on the hull, Marina
about $250 /wk, and a one-off lock fee of $450 to get INTO the marina, and these
are the just the costs I could find by webbing. Price seems a bit over the top
for a short stop.
So probably
Raffles, Singapore (co-incidently my favourite marina in SE Asia). Hold on,
what's that little speck off Java? Oh, THAT's where Christmas Island is? And
only 630nm away, a few days sail and should mostly be SW trade
winds.
So Christmas
Island it is ....
After a
effortless Clearance at Medana Bay Marina in NW Lombok, (which is quite contrary
to every other official interaction I've "enjoyed" with the Indonesian system)
we departed Gili Trawangan on time for a short 50nm trip to Belongas Bay in
south Lombok.
On board was
the crew for our passage to Christmas Island - Steve (UK), Alfredo (Spain) and
my new permanent crew Suherman (Indo), plus we took along some strays - Norma
(my Mum) and Pat and Camilla who were checking (with Steve) out some land for
sale on the beach outside Belongas Bay.
No sailing
unfortunately, good winds, but on the nose the whole way, much to Norma's regret
as she'd just joined us hoping for her first sail in El Oro!
Arrived
Belongas Bay and dropped anchor, perfectly timed for sunset
G&T's.
SJB
2/2200LT