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08:37.99S 122:18.53E
Sea World Hotel,
Maumere, Flores Island
Motored in light winds once
again past the island of Pulau Bessar towards Flores Mainland, watching the
smoking volcanoes in the distance.
Captain’s log:
Monday 13th September Seaworld nr
Maumere – Flores Island
We arrived about 1000 hrs following a
short trip from the island of Bessar to be immediately greeted by a local in
a canoe waving his folder with recommendations from other yachties, as one of
them was Geronimo some good French friends of ours who did the trip last
year, we decided to trust him.
By this time we needed 650 litres of
diesel to top our tank up, we were down to our last 350l! The first thing he
did was to arrange 3 motorbikes to go to the local town on (self drive!) as
Ollie can't ride a bike we arranged someone to drive him so it was Valerie
and I on one, Ollie on another and our guide on the third, and of course no
crash helmets for the passengers (you didn't read that Mary). Our first stop
in town was the ATM which worked!!! Followed by buying a SIM card and market
shopping.
On our return I handed over nearly 4
million in local currency, (sounds a lot about £250) for the fuel which I was
promised would be delivered that afternoon. I did wonder if I would ever see
the guy again or if he would just do a runner with the money! We then tried
out the internet at the local hotel - no luck very very slow. Had lunch and a
beer. By which time our man was back in his dugout canoe with 60 litres of
fuel! I offered him more cans and to use our dinghy to speed up the process
but he insisted to paddle backwards and forwards all afternoon with 60 litres
at a time! Evidently he had two teams of guys on motorbikes going back and
forth to the garage to fill the cans. By about 1900 and 11 trips later we
again had full tanks. I know we paid a bit over the top for the fuel, it was
still very cheap by Australian or UK standards and everyone was happy. It
was a very painless experience for us all I had to do was to siphon each
container into the tank. It just goes to show that you can still trust
fellow man, it would have been so easy for him to disappear with the money!
Position 08:37'.99s 12218'.53e
Day's Run 18.5 miles
A man in a dugout paddled
out to us to indicate that the spot we were about to anchor in was correct,
despite it still being about 20 metres deep at low water!
He introduced himself as
Morem, and offered us a sheet of paper on which two other yachts, one of whom
we knew, called Geronimo, had recommended him as the person to help us to get
fuel, shopping, laundry and other facilities. Morem is the first person I
have noticed whilst in Indonesia to have more the appearance of the natives
of PNG I might add, plus the dugout was the same with an outrigger!
We were delighted of course, to be able to stumble upon the right man so
quickly. David wrote down on a piece of paper that we needed 650 Litres of
fuel. He said no problem, he could get that delivered to us by jerry can
which he could lend us. He asked me to write down a list of fruit and veg I
needed too. Ten minutes later, we had locked the boat up and dinghied
ashore to follow him.
He organised three motor
bikes for us to get into town with. He flagged down totally unknown bikers
(or so it seemed) as they were riding along the main road, and asked them to
lend their motos to us for a short period at the rate of 25,000 Rupiahs
(about two pounds GB each, or 3 dollars Australian) to go there and back.
Ollie jumped on the back of one with the driver, and David and I took
another. Morem sat on the back of another.
Ollie disappeared before
David could get ours started (leaving the owner on the side of the road to
await our return). Ollie got the fright of his life when the driver swerved
right across an oncoming truck, who jammed his brakes on to avoid a
collision. One more life saved!
We got into a very busy
little area on the outskirts of town where the market was in full swing.
Native ladies clad in their hand woven cloth to identify which tribe they
came from were all laying out their vegetables and fruit on stalls or on
cloths on the pavement to sell. The younger ones were in trendy T-shirts, so
not sure that this tribal hallmark will last much longer as the older ones
die out! It reminded me of the way the natives dress in the highlands of
Guatemala, in Central America.
Getting enough cash out of the
ATM was the first port of call to pay for the fuel, which was going to cost
us nearly 4 million Rupiahs (about 260 GBP) for the 650 litres. Then get a
SIM card for David’s i-phone and top my one up and we were in business.
We got as much fruit and
veg as was possible to carry whilst on a motorbike, and got back to the beach
within the hour. The owner of the bike was not in the least perturbed,
patiently waiting for us on the road still! Imagine that happening anywhere
else, I cannot!
Back at the beach, David
handed over the wades of notes making up the 4 million Rupiah for the fuel to
Morem, and put all our trust in him that he would turn up with the goods by 2
pm.!
We had lunch at the Sea
World restaurant, just for a change, but were not in the least bit impressed
with the menu, Nasi Goreng being the nearest Indonesian dish on offer. The
Bintang beer was 2.50 GBP, spirits 4 GBP and a bottle of wine 14 GBP, same
price as most resorts in the developed tropics!
We didn’t try the
cheaper mixes made with the RAKI, as we had some on board!
David tried to send our
blog off by internet in the meantime, but could not get onto the correct
website in order for us to be able to send anything. So it will have to wait
until Bali. The Sea World resort seems to be more of a place where Germans
have their house within the complex, and hence the menu was for German taste!
Chatting with the local
German man who owns his house at the resort
This
is his veranda
At 2 p.m., as promised
Morem arrived with three 20 litre jerry cans of fuel to start filling our
tank. At that rate, it took 10 trips!
Meanwhile, Ollie and I sat
on the beach enjoying the cool shade, whilst watching the local fishermen
bring in their catch for a while, until David picked us up again to get
supper and help with the refuelling.
Morem was ferrying the
gerry cans in his little dugout to and from the boat until 7 p.m., even in
the rain showers! He nearly did not deliver the last 6
jerry cans, saying he had
completed the delivery, but David was able to show him that we’d been
counting it all on a piece of paper, to which thankfully he agreed!
Beautiful
dawn across to Pulau Bessar island from our anchorage
Plus
this sunrise is as good as it gets in Indonesian waters
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