The road to Bali

To All

After several days in the lovely anchorage at the north end of Komodo Is. where we enjoyed great snorkeling especially watching the turtles munching coral it was time to move on. Next stop Lombok.

Lombok has become a bit of an extension of Bali taking up the overflow of visitors. From Komodo we did an overnight 135 mile trip to the island of Madang arriving in the morning and then departing the next morning for two consecutive days of 40 miles trips to arrive at the anchorage of Medana Bay, our next rally stop. We entered Medana bay to find it very crowded. We managed to anchor in a depth of 80 feet but far to close to other yachts for our liking. We tend to be conservative in anchoring situations and decided that we would rather move approximately 3 miles away to the Gili Air island anchorage and skip the rally events than stay in what we thought was a risky spot.

Gili Air was quite nice, especially as we were able to get a mooring to secure to. The island is about the size of Balboa island and filled with small hotels, beach front restaurants, dive shops etc. There are no motor vehicles with transportation by walking, bicycle or small horse drawn carts. We spent several days just relaxing on the boat or one of the palapa bars. We did also manage to do the important job of getting our Indonesian visas extended. One bonus of the anchorage was our discovery of finding small dead fish that had been chased into our dinghy. These were either feed directly to the cats or used for bait to catch a number of bonito which I then cleaned for use as cat food later.

Bali! We arrived at the anchorage yesterday morning after a 16 hour trip that even included some wind in which we were able to sail. Wind seems to be a rarity here lately. Here again we were greeted by the "boat boys". First leading us thru the reef then with offers to supply fuel or other market items. The local boats here are a bit different, what looks like a log canoe with outriggers on both sides. They are either paddled or have a very unique motor. Picture a large gas powered weed wacker, then add another 6 feet to the tube with a propeller replacing the end string. Next the whole thing is mounted to the side of the canoe. Start up, rotate the prop down into the water and off you go.

Later today we will go ashore to see what adventure are in store for us here. Hopefully this all finds you enjoying the end of summer and the change of seasons to come. We wish you the best. J&K