08:44.00S 115:14.00E

 

With our new crew, Jan safely arrived in Darwin a couple of days before, we slipped out through the lock in Darwin at 08.00 hrs on 2nd September. Without a breath of wind, we motored out with the awning still up. The start was scheduled for 11.00 hrs and faced with no wind and a long wait, we decided to get going. We motored in oily calm for 2 days and were then able to fly our pretty pink sail for a couple of hours before, as Pietro put it, “Tim broke the wind”. Two days later, the wind filled in and we were off sailing in bright moonlight and calm seas. We even managed to fly our light spinnaker which doesn’t very often get an airing. The route was dotted with large objects; a tanker capsule complete with hatches along the top and a ladder on the end (perhaps someone drove off the end of a dock somewhere) as well as some which looked like large ship mooring balls which had broken free and were bobbing around the ocean. Having been warned to look out for refugee boats, we diverted over to one object thinking it might be a boat full of refugees. Thankfully, no people aboard but, as is often the case, large fish hiding underneath. Pietro landed a large dorado which was delicious.

 

We arrived in Benoa Harbour, Bali 6 days after setting out. The approach to the marina was chaotic – I have never seen so many speed boats in such a small area. We counted 12 para-senders in the air, all being towed by a different speed boat with only a driver on aboard, no lookout. Several more boats were towing giant flying mattresses with numerous bodies clinging to each and all in the most disgustingly filthy water. The noise was akin to giant swarms of bees and the smell of fuel was over-powering. We made our way through the floating plastic, flip-flops and general detritus into the marina where the helpful staff, hot-wired our electrics into their system. The marina club house looked after us extremely well – they never ran out of cold beer or smiles, no matter what time of day or night.

Our second night in port was celebrated with a trip to the strip of restaurants along the nearby beach where you chose your meal from the occupants of various tanks which were then caught and cooked according to your tastes. We dined on huge shrimp, assorted fish and squid whilst being serenaded by a local band wandering along the beach, complete with double base player who managed a passible imitation of Louis Armstrong’s Wonderful World. All their songs bore a close resemblance to the originals but whilst the music was close, the words, sung in English,  were something completely different.

 

One morning, I staggered ashore with a vast bag of dirty laundry to be told that it should be returned in 24 hours but maybe later, “it depends”. I wasn’t sure what it depended on until I saw the delivery guy from the laundrette, sporting a crash helmet, clearly planning to transport our humungous bag on his moped. I have no idea how he managed but the laundry did arrive back, well most of it. We passed several ‘laundrettes’ on the roadside with laundry spread out on metal frames, air-drying in the traffic fumes of the grid-locked roads. We hired a taxi to take us to the local supermarket – what a surprise to find Carrefour. They had everything! We stocked up with most of what we needed to get us to Mauritius thinking that supplies would be limited in both Christmas Island and Cocos Keeling, our next ports of call.

 

Tim and I escaped for two nights to Ubud staying in a hotel close to the monkey forest. In fact, so close, we were treated to a comic parade at 06.00 every morning as they chased each other across the wall outside our glass-fronted bedroom, trashing the garden as they cavorted around.  Our hotel was magical with our own 10m x 4m swimming pool. We were given the name of two local restaurants by a friend who used to live in Ubud; local knowledge always helps. We had two fantastic evenings – one shared with others from the ‘floating village’ and the other, a deux. On our way back to Ghost, we stopped off at a specialist coffee plantation where their ‘must have’ coffee has been previously passed through a civet cat. I wonder who was bored enough to think of trying out that delicacy?

We returned to the boat in time for the dinner and prize-giving. Having motored off into the calm before the start, we were not eligible. It was a sad evening for us as we said, “Good bye” to Pietro who has been with us since January. He is carrying on his travels by land, deciding that Indonesia would be a good place to start. We miss him hugely, we loved having him aboard and we look forward to meeting up with him somewhere, sometime.