Culture club

'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Mon 26 Aug 2013 01:11
I've had a great two days here. The welcoming ceremony perhaps wasn't as impressive as that in Larantuka but to be honest that would be hard to beat. We yotties were formed into two lines to hear an address by the local regent. There was some confusion. Were we supposed to do a conga? Would the regent run the gauntlet down between the two lines? In the event he made a short speech then we all sort of ambled into a seating area.

The rally stop was timed to coincide with a local cultural festival. Lots of singing and dancing by various groups and the MC did a good job of explaining in English what was going on. After a couple of hours we had a break for the gala dinner which was very well presented and delicious to boot. We were entertained during dinner by further groups of dancers. The children in particular were enchanting and the amount of effort that was put into it must have been considerable. Everything had obviously been well rehearsed and certainly I didn't spot anybody making a mistake. It's wonderful to see people staying in touch with their cultural roots and what is striking is the respect shown by the children to the elders. Yes Daughter, did you mutter something?

The second evening the festival continued and the standard remained high. Possibly there were more locals there and although the MC (Laurence) again did a sterling job of telling us what was going on, some of the subtleties of the dance movements escaped us, or escaped me at least. The locals were appreciative though and once again we were invited to dance with some of the performers. For me the only problem was the sound system was up at full blast and it really didn't need to be. After about two hours I was all danced-out and returned to the boat. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the two evenings and hopefully I'll enjoy more of the same in other places.

Calypso, as did some others,  left this morning for the next stop, Maurole. I borrowed Paul's 'wobble' pump and did a partial oil change in the transmission. This next leg is only 36nm but with absolutely no wind for a lot of the day I'll have to leave at first light or even just before to ensure I arrive at Maurole in daylight. The plan is to up anchor at 0530 tomorrow morning and hopefully be in the next anchorage before 1800. This anchorage has been fine so far. Calm most of the time, holding has been no problem and only a five(ish) minute row to the beach and a relatively dry landing. I just put in 20 litres of fuel that I brought in Larantuka and it was clean. I ran it through the Baja filter and it basically went straight through so basically it was clean or the filter is not filtering....sorry, after a while you get to suspect the worst!

So, a lazy day. A bit of gentle proof reading of the next book, maybe a swim around the boat and generally chilling out. Yes I know I still have to repair the gennaker in one small patch. I'll do it, OK?