Another Overnighter and Plans for the Rest of Season Three - Gellum Island, Kalimantan Province, Indonesia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Wed 27 Oct 2010 02:00
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02:52.376S 110:08.231E
Anything would be a letdown after Kumai, so it's no surprise
that our next stop is hardly worth mentioning. Here are just a few words
about it and the overnight motorsail to get to it. Below that is a summary
of our plans for the rest of Season Three.
We left Kumai early in the morning on October 6, and floated
fast down river with the outgoing tide. On our way out, we passed other
rally boats on their way in (slogging up river against the current), and one
mid-size cargo ship hard aground and listing a good fifteen degrees to port at
the river mouth. Oops. Can't say we've never done that. We
waved to the marooned crew as we motored by with plenty of water beneath our
keel, and didn't feel bad about it knowing they only had another six hours or so
to wait before they would float free with the rising tide.
It took us about 24 hours to motor 150ish miles to Gellum
Island off the southwest corner of Borneo. Oh - wait a minute - we
actually sailed six of those hours because there was a brisk ten knots of
wind stirred up by a passing rain squall. Wow - it was our first
time sailing since....since....September 5th, when we sailed a few hours on
the way from Komodo Island to Sumbawa. Sheesh! A month of pure
motoring. Good thing diesel is relatively cheap ($0.65/liter) in
Indonesia.
We arrived at surprisingly deserted Gellum Island early the
next morning and did positively nothing (that I can remember) aside from rest up
for the next overnighter, which we embarked upon the following morning.
Gellum Island was not only deserted, but not much to look at either. The
camera stayed in the drawer.
Plans for the rest of Season 3:
It's October 26 and we are currently tied up in a very posh
marina in Singapore, enjoying the benefits of first world civilization for the
first time in three months (not the least of which is air
conditioning). On our way here, we stopped in five more
Indonesian anchorages - most of which were very nice spots, each with their own
story (blog entries coming soon).
At the moment, we are looking forward to the arrival of Bryan
and Michele Brown, who will be flying in from Buffalo on October
30th. They will stay with us for a little over two weeks as
we sail (motor) up the west coast of Malaysia. We plan to leave Singapore
for Malaysia on November 1. The trip from Singapore to Malaysia won't take
long since we can see the Malaysian coast less than a mile away from where
we are now.
Our days of long distance sailing/motoring are,
thankfully, over for a while. We will travel the 500 miles
up the Malaysian coast to Langkowi, which is an island near the
Malaysian border with Thailand, and we'll do it all in day trips. Day
trips because the distances are short, and because we've heard there are so
many fishing boats, nets and ship traffic in the Malacca Strait (the strait that
separates Malaysia's west coast from Indonesia's Sumatra Island), that it's too
hazardous to navigate at night. Fine by us. Coastal sailing at night
is no fun. Ok, it was fun in Vanuatu, where there were no ships or fishing
boats or thunder storms, but here it's no fun. We plan to arrive in the
Langkowi area in late November or early December.
Season Three will end in Langkowi where we will leave the boat
at a marina for three weeks while we fly home for Christmas and New
Year's. We'll return on January 12th to start Season Four. Our loose
plan for a short Season Four includes a sail up to Thailand and back to
Langkowi, then possibly a land trip to Vietnam and/or other neighboring
countries before hauling the boat and flying home for the summer of 2011.
The summer! It will be the first time we've been home in summer since
leaving four years ago in 2007. We are looking forward to seeing
green and being warm while home.
That's the plan anyway. As always, the standard sailing
caveat applies (all plans subject to change based on wind, weather, and whims of
the captain and crew).
Anne
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