Passage from Batam Island, Indonesia to Langkawi, Malaysia

Fuzzy picture of our chartplotter screen showing the south and northbound shipping lanes in the Straits of Malacca

Waterspout visible in centre of picture

Pangkor style fishing boats

The Straits of Malacca

Passage from Batam Island, Indonesia to Langkawi, Malaysia

February 17, 2016

After 6 days of traveling we finally had the chance to get off the boat yesterday. After spending extra time at Nongsa Point waiting for weather we decided to get some distance covered without stops. We may go back to some sites by land from here. We covered about 450 miles, with 2 overnight trips. The other 3 nights we pulled over to the side of the channel to anchor and get some sleep. Thankfully the weather was calm enough for that. We were grumbling to ourselves that we had to motor most of the way because of light winds. But now we know that we were lucky to get that. The last night the wind was between 15 and 20 knots on the nose. In the shallow water that gives short steep seas that really slow you down and are uncomfortable. The winds, which are always from the northeast this time of year, have been even stronger ever since we got here, so are glad to  have that passage behind us.

The first day was spent traveling west through the Singapore Straits. Between dodging boats and watching the passing skyline, it was an interesting trip. The only problem was a return  fuel line coming off in the engine compartment, which was spewing diesel around. Rob got it repaired but the engine needed to be off while he worked. Fortunately I could drift into a shallow area between the 2 lanes of boat traffic.

By nightfall we entered the infamous Straits of Malacca (or Melaka locally). There used to be issues with piracy but not considered bad on the Malaysian side now. Boats avoid the Sumatra side. Even though the commercial traffic is heavy, it is well organized with shipping lanes each way that are mandatory. The Japanese donated money to have all the buoys in place and maintained. We traveled just outside the northbound lanes. If you go any further towards shore there are many fishing nets, buoys, and boats that you can't see in the dark. It is also known for having a lot of lightning storms. Two nights we were in squalls with lightning. But the other nights you could see lightning around us in the distance. Also so a water spout which the area is noted for.

Each major port along the route had many freighters anchored outside waiting for their turn to load or unload. It was interesting to look them up on the AIS and find out where they were traveling to and their home port. Lots of worldwide destinations! Nearer Singapore there were many barges with tugs carrying sand. The sand is used to create reclaimed land in Singapore and Malaysia, but it comes from Indonesia. Essentially islands are moved out of Indonesia.

The first night anchored we were near Kuala Lumpur airport and could watch the steady stream of planes in and out. It is a city we would like to get back to. Once closer to shore we had to contend with the volumes of garbage in the water. I don't know if it comes from land or the boats. Someone was telling us how they keep beach resorts clean for tourists. They watched a bulldozer pick all the garbage up along with the top layer of sand and cart it away. Eventually they can buy more sand.

Sunday night, Valentine's day, we were anchored in a beautiful protected spot along Pangkor Island. On the opposite shore was an exclusive all island resort, Pangkor Laut. We could pretend to be staying there-the view was the same. There were a lot of the local fishing vessels working near us. We had seen the type many times along the way, about 50 ft long and brightly painted. A few motored around us. We're not sure if that was for good luck, or curiosity, or to tell us to move. We left for the last passage Mon am. In the evening we were traveling along the west coast of the island Penang. If we had known at the time that No Regrets was anchored there we would have done an overnight for a daytime arrival and stopover. There were at least a dozen locations along the island with fireworks at midnight. We don't know the occasion unless they are still for the Chinese New Year or a typical resort happening. The rest of the night was coping with rain, wind, and dodging fishing boats with no AIS.

Last Day in Indonesia

Nongsa Point Marina and Resort

Rally boats leaving in a gale!

Batam/Singapore ferry aground!

Dinner out with cruisers and marina manager

Seaweed and garbage washed in with high swell

Last Day in Indonesia

Feb.10 2016

I hate to say that we are still in the marina, but we are going tomorrow morning regardless. We feel much better prepared than if we had left quickly. We have done a lot of much needed work and talked to quite a few sailors about what to expect as we travel north. Last week as we went through checking all the systems, we found out that the autopilot was no longer working. Rob spent several days taking it all apart and talking to the service department in the US. Considering the time change some calls were done at 3 am. In the end there was a faulty wire that needed replacing. We bought a new remote control for it on ebay over Christmas and that works as well, fortunately.

By the time all that was done it was the weekend of Chinese New Year. And a bad weather system had blown down from Siberia- very unusual for here. Winds were well into the thirty some knot range for days and lots of rain. We have sailed in those conditions if need be but want to enjoy the trip up the Singapore and Malacca Straights. The exit from the marina is right into the wind and the surf. Didn't look very pleasant watching the  few boats that left. We will likely do a few overnights now to make up the time

We have been enjoying our time here and getting some work done as well as finishing a few books. While tidying I have found four things that I wanted to take home in Dec but couldn't find. You wouldn't think the boat was that big. It has been fun to see the marina and resort very busy compared to the first week and early Dec. There is a week's holiday for the Chinese New Year so many families are here on holiday. Also the marina is sponsoring a week long regatta heading south into Indonesia. We got a chance to meet some of them before they left. There have also been cruisers passing through whom we have visited with. It is really helpful for us as we are not familiar with Malaysia and Thailand except from what we have read.

There was entertainment and fireworks for the celebrations on Mon. Also each time we were at the mall provisioning there had been entertainment for the holidays. The Chinese New Year's Eve is a reunion dinner, where all families get together for traditional foods and visiting. (The women go to their husbands families.)

 The date of the holiday coincides with a new moon so the tides are always higher than usual. On top of the winds, the tides have been even more extreme. We were out to dinner Sunday at a seafood  restaurant that was perched out over the water. Near the end of the meal the waves were crashing into the structure and water was splashing up fairly high between the floor boards. Time to leave! Back at the marina parts of the breakwater gave way with the waves riding over it. Piles of seaweed and garbage have been coming over it onto the beach. We watched one of the buoys marking the entrance channel fall over. We also watched the ferry on the other side of the breakwater run aground. (Third time in three months!)

We just received an email from Bluewind this morning saying they have decided to ship their boat to the Med instead of crossing the Indian Ocean with the rally. We will miss them! That leaves us with 3 boats now. We hope to see the other two somewhere in Malaysia or Thailand in Feb or March. We meet at the north end of Sumatra, Indonesia, near the end of March. Then it is cruising down that coast to Pedang until a May 9 start across towards Africa. We have sent in our application for permission to stop in Chagos for two weeks enroute. It is a military base so permission needs to be given for a stop. The only other stops are at Reunion and Mauritius, both of which are close to Madagascar.

Traveling back to Maggie

Orchard Road Shopping Centre - with Monkeys!

Chinatown

Even the plants at the Garden Conservatory had a Monkey theme!

Spectacular setting for the Singapore Open - The Serapong course at the Sendosa Golf Club

Sunday Service at a Bhudist Temple

Singapore skyline

Traveling back to Maggie

February 2, 2016

We are now back on board Maggie in the marina at Nongsa Point, in Batam, Indonesia. It seems strange to be writing a blog when we haven't gone anywhere. But we have seen many interesting things on the way here and have started the necessary preparations. Right now it is raining and the wind has been fairly strong from the northeast. This is a different season from when we left in early Dec. At that time it was calm and hot. For the next few months we will be in the northeast monsoon season. We are happy to be getting some breeze into the boat as we adjust to the heat.

We left Toronto last Monday and flew via Brussels and Abu Dhabi. We can at least say that we have circumnavigated by plane as we flew home eastbound via Shanghai. We were lucky to land in Abu Dhabi at sunset on a clear day with a window seat. It was interesting to see all the sand dunes dotted with oil rigs across the Arabian peninsula. And then to see the city areas much more lit up than other cities. It was a 6 hour flight overnight to Singapore. We lost 13 hours over the 3 flights.

The plan had been to stay in Singapore for 2 days to pick up some more marine supplies and do some more sightseeing. But we noticed banners advertising the golf tournament, The Singapore Open, was starting Thursday with Jordan Spieth as one of the players. Too good an opportunity to miss!  It felt good to be in "cruising mode" and just change plans to stay 2 more days. It was good to have a few more days with air conditioning as we recovered from the jet lag.

The tournament must make its money on TV coverage as it only cost $15 to watch on Fri. (The beer was $12) And the crowds were very light except for a group following Spieth. They were not strict about how close you could be to the players so it was fun to be there. We got rained out for the rest of the day at 3 pm so they were playing catch up every day since. More rain Sunday has meant the finals won't be completed until Mon-haven't heard results yet. We enjoyed watching the coverage in the hotel but it in not on TV in Indonesia.

Next weekend, Feb 8, is Chinese New Year and the city is well into celebration mode. I have never seen so many versions of a monkey, as it will be the Year of the Monkey. Everything from carved wood, flowers and plants covering a frame, plastic inflatables, and kids toys-by the hundreds. On Sunday we revisited Chinatown just to see the decor. By the afternoon you could hardly walk with the crowds. In the morning there was a service in the Buddhist Temple that you were welcome to watch. The temple is also a museum with its many relics and outstanding architecture.

We treated ourselves to a day on the "hop on hop off" bus. The included audio tour gave some good background to the city and its highlights. You could walk most places downtown but it felt good to have a break. The population is mostly Chinese, Indian, and Malaysian, and they each have an ethnic area that is preserved. In colonial times they were not allowed into the city business center. It was interesting to hear how the government tries to keep a crowded city functioning. They invest a lot on public transit and make it very costly to operate a car. Only a set number of private vehicles can be driven and it costs $50,000 for the permit after you wait for a spot. The price of the cars is heavily taxed. Almost everyone lives in an apartment, $250,000 for public housing if you qualify, or starting about a million for a private one. The few private homes are many million each. I was surprised to see everyone waiting for a green light to cross a street. And no food or drink is taken on the trains and buses. When new projects are built they bring in all the sand and soil and use the reclaimed land. The city has physically grown by 25%. The island with the golf course, also has a complex like Disneyland and Universal Studios with hotels and beaches.

We stopped for an afternoon at "Gardens by the Bay", a huge garden park with 2 conservatories, one with a rain forest climate, and the other Mediterranean. Spectacular! The interspersed art and sculpture was worth seeing on its own. The entire project also includes a shopping mall and the Marina Bay Sands hotel built on the man made island for about $5 billion. The room rates start at $750, then $1500 and up per night.

We managed to get our 4 bags of luggage each weighing just under 50 lb all the way to Singapore without any extra charge. But they cost us $47 to go the last 20 miles on the ferry. They have a 20kg limit per bag. Now we are working trying to find a home for all those things. We hired a marina worker, Acok,  to watch the boat and he had washed it all for us and opened it up for a few hours before our arrival. Things look and smell ok. Usually when we return to the boat something has stopped working. So far the only issue has been the zippers on the dodger and bimini. Some are broken and most will not open or close. We should have taken them off. Some food was in ziplocs and in a Rubbermaid bin, but there are still weevils inside. We are eating out of cans as the closest grocery store is a 3/4 hr taxi drive away. That trip is scheduled for this afternoon. In the meantime we are at a resort and can take a break at the pool or in the air conditioned bar.

Next stop, Malaysia. We just need to do some planning on when to start, where to stop, and check out of the country. Hopefully, sometime this week.

Singapore Visit

Nongsa Point Marina and Resort

Chartplotter showing lots of boats between us and Singapore

Some of those many boats!

Lots of bargains!

Typical specialized product store front

Downtown mosque

One of the many modern looking buildings

Singapore Visit

Dec 1 to 3, 2015

We couldn't look out on the skyline of Singapore from the boat and not go over for a visit. It is not the best place to take your own boat. The marinas are very expensive, and the boat traffic busy. You are required to have AIS on your dinghy to use it in the harbour. The plan had been to take the morning ferry Mon and return Tues. But after leaving the marina at 8 and getting to the hotel at 12, we decided to add an extra day to the visit. We had some specific boat things to find and buy, but had time then to see a few of the sights. When we fly back we can do some more.

The fast ferry takes 35 min to cross the straight. Quite a few freighters passed close in front of or behind us. Last Sat the evening ferry hit something in the water and started to take on water. The passengers were all put in the life rafts with the life jackets and eventually picked up by other vessels. Lots of complaints in the papers about the quality of some of that equipment but everyone was safe. We had no such trauma and enjoyed the ride and sights. The subway and bus systems in Singapore are great and easy to figure out so we used them to get around. It is the first train system I've seen where the tracks are completely sealed off with walls and doors.

Downtown hotels can be very expensive but we found something online for $150 in Little India which is where the marina store was. The subway stop was right beside the hotel so it was easy to get around. But we also walked all the way downtown Wed taking in the atmosphere. The city is very clean, especially after Indonesia. There are many cultures living together but over 80% are Chinese. There is the old colonial architecture from the British days, as well as very modern buildings. The number of specialty stores was impressive-whole shops of screws and bolts, or pipes, or wire. There must be a lot of wholesale business. It is hard to imagine that all those hardware stores could be making money but the city as a whole is affluent. We found a marine store that will order parts and supplies for us ready to be picked up when we return. That will save us shopping from home and carrying them back on the plane.

It was more fun for me to see the shops full of textiles, or buttons, or gold bangles, or carpets. Mustafa Mall in Little India was 2 blocks square and just crammed with dept store items and food. Also in that area was Sim Lim Towerand Square which are all electronics stores. Rob managed to get some of the things on his shopping list there. We also picked up a suitcase to carry everything back to the boat and then to return some things to Toronto.

Wed evening we took the subway downtown and had a Singapore sling at the Raffles Hotel where it was invented. At $32 each it was definitely just a tourist thing to do, and a chance to see the famous hotel and enjoy some live music. From there we took the train out to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel on the harbour. There was an entire high end mall there elaborately deco

ish I hadn't forgotten the camera!of the business district buildings and waters Hotel where it was invented. inese.na store wasrated for Christmas. From the top floor you have a view of the business district buildings, ferris wheel and water. Wish I hadn't forgotten the camera!

Thurs am we took a brief visit to Chinatown. Except for the aggressive salesmen, it was worth seeing. The Buddhist temples, Hindi temples, and huge Christian churches seemed to be spread out over the city regardless of neighbourhood. Another time I would like to see the prime shopping area of Orchard St with its numerous malls, the Botanical Gardens, and some of the museums.

We booked our flights home leaving late on Mon, Dec 7 here. With the time change we will be home midday Tues the 8th. This flight has a stopover in Shanghai. (You can also fly the other way and stop in London.) We're hoping for a clear day and we can see that futuristic Chinese city from the air.

Passage to Nongsa Point Marina, Batam Island, Indonesia

First Starbucks Coffee in a long while!

Meeting with Jimmy Cornell

Passage to Nongsa Point Marina, Batam Island, Indonesia

Nov. 29 2015

Three days were scheduled for the passage from Belitung to Batam Island, about 350 nm. We were all expecting a long motoring trip with no wind. But what could be worse than that? All day Thurs we had 18 to 20 knots NW winds, right on the nose. The true sailors' solution is to tack to windward which we did for one morning, but you make very little forward progress. We covered less than 100 nm that day, even motor sailing most of the time. It was one of the worst days of sailing for everyone. We have been spoiled by a lot of downwind sailing. Pounding in to the seas isn't fun! We were getting water into the anchor locker from the opening for the secondary anchor. Eventually the anchor locker was full of water, which wasn't draining for some reason. Then the water was running into the boat via our mattress and front cabin. Working up there cleaning up was painful.

The proper solution would have been to find an anchorage and wait a day to continue. But Jimmy Cornell was flying from London for a Fri/Sat meeting with the fleet and we all wanted to be there. The Maggie crew were very happy to finally be tied up in a slip in the marina here. Our engine stopped 4 times on the passage. Changing fuel tanks, cleaning filters and bleeding the engine eventually worked but traumatic as we got into busier shipping traffic areas. Especially with a broken windlass which would make an emergency anchoring job harder. We need to get at some of these repairs before moving on. Batam Island is right across a channel from Singapore. This is one of the busiest shipping areas in the world. The AIS is showing lots of boat traffic out there.

This marina stop marks the end of our Indonesian cruise this year. For the next few months we are on our own to cruise. Everyone is making different plans. Two boats are leaving tomorrow for a marina in Malaysia, about 150nm away up the Malacca Straights. One is going to a Malaysian port near Singapore and then further into Malaysia. No Regrets is waiting for Bob and Barb to arrive Sat to cruise with Tim over Christmas and some of the new year. We are going to leave the boat here and fly home from Singapore. Bill leaves Sun so we will look for flights shortly after that.

Jimmy's visit was very intense for info presented and decisions to be made. Quite a few changes were made from original plans. The Red Sea route is worse than ever and private boats are not doing it because of war issues. Now with climate change the route across the Indian Ocean is becoming more difficult. The North section to Andaman and Sri Lanka needs to be done in the first 3 months of the new year with the NE monsoon. But late season cyclones in the South Indian Ocean (recently one in May), means not crossing the equator too soon. There are issues both in Maldives and Chagos about stopping with a private boat and not many other places to stop at all. In the end we have altered the route from Southeast Asia. We are going to meet on Palua Weh on the northern tip of Sumatra March 28. That is only a bit over 200nm from Phuket, Thailand.  From there we will cruise along Sumatra's west coast inside an archipelago of islands until we are south of the equator. After May 1 it should be safe to sail west towards Chagos or Mauritius/Reunion and on to South Africa. The route from there will be via St Helena, to  Brazil and then the Caribbean.

On Sat night Jimmy did a video presentation of his NW passage trip to us , the media, and others in the marina. It was wonderful to see the photos, but the temperatures wouldn't appeal to me to sail. The media from several local papers interviewed us as a group about our trip, our impressions about Indonesia, and thoughts on the climate.

Sun night Chapter Two had a farewell dinner on their boat. Pat may be going back to work and when they return they will probably ship the boat to the Med. Mon night we had Luc and No Regrets crew for another farewell and thank you to Luc. But Luc will probably return to travel through west Sumatra with us. Most of out time is being spent doing laundry, cleaning and repairing. In North America we typically replace broken items but here rebuilds are common. So Rob went off yesterday to a shop where they are going to rebuild the anchor windlass motor (rewind it). When we pick it up Fri we'll see how it works.

Tues we are heading to Singapore on a ferry, a 30 min ride. Mostly we want to see the city, but there are many marine shops we hope to visit. We have the name of an agent who can arrange the shipment of boat parts. We always have a list on the go.

Belitung Timur-The Regency of East Belitung

BPO Welcome poster in Manggar

Most interesting Andrea Hirata Literary Museum

Batik factory - applying hot wax to fabric

Tarsier - world's smallest monkey

Remains of an open pit tin mine - palm oil plantation in the distance

300 year old Buddhist Temple

Carol shaking sticks - getting fortune told

After the Dragon Dance

Fighting the BuBu - removing evil spirits!

Belitung Timur-The Regency of East Belitung

Nov. 25,  2015

Our last major stop in Indonesia has been on the island of Belitung. It has recently been divided into 2 regencies which is the governing body. I've read that this is a trend in Indonesia to add more layers of government so that more people have the opportunity to be the "big man" or civil servants. The government doesn't pay well but you get benefits that are not common in other jobs. Our stop was to the new east Belitung. The tourist department is working hard to increase tourism business. They certainly went out of their way to make our visit special. They had been working on the preparations for our welcoming and farewell evenings for a year.

The two day trip from Kumai was mostly under motor. At one point on the first day, the engine, and the watermaker, and the fridge stopped working. But the hard working captain with his magic wand has them all operating again. The river entrance into the anchorage is charted 0.6m at low tide and 2.6m at high, not something we would normally try on our own as our draft is 2.1 m. But a pilot boat came to lead us in and we put a track on our chart plotter for exiting. When crossing the sand bar you could see the water breaking at surface level just a few meters away on each side. We travelled through a thunderstorm just as we arrived in the am and anchored outside the river waiting for the guide. The anchor came up with no problems as usual but we were smelling something burning as we motored in. The engine looked fine. But when we went to drop the anchor and the windlass wouldn't work we realized that it was the problem. Likely the windlass  motor is literally " toast" and a new one will need to be ordered. It is lucky that we have no more anchoring to do as the next stop is in a marina where the work can be done. (We hope) It wasn't too hard to lift the anchor and chain in water only 13 ft deep. In the more common 40 feet it would have been a challenge.

We had 3 days anchored in the river which was well protected but windless. There was a large banner on shore welcoming the BPO. There was another welcoming banner used as a back drop for the stage show. The welcoming traditional dinner was followed by a cultural music and dance show at an outdoor park and stage along the beach, a great setting.  One of our guides, Stephanie, a high school student, had won a singing competition for the country. She sang a few songs with her band. A group of school age students sang, and another group did dancing. The costumes have been remarkable every time we have had a chance to watch dancers.

The town beside the harbour is Manggar, the city of 1001 coffee shops. Apparently many were built in former times for workers brought in to work the tin mines. But the residents recently got in a record book for having over 17,000 people all drinking a coffee at the same time, so the tradition continues. There is a monument with 2 coffee cups in the town square. Sunday's bus tour from there started with a visit to an old tin mining site. Mining for tin has been a huge industry here for a long time, predominately done by the Australian company Billiton. The particular site we visited was a climb to a vista point. Great views of the ocean and the palm oil plantations (owned by the Malaysians) and the "lake" in the bottom of the dug out pit. The water left in these finished pits is pretty to look at but not safe to swim in. Besides tin, the economy is supported by farming and fishing.

We next visited a Chinese Buddhist temple built in 1747 for the Chinese workers who came to work in the mines. There is still a Chinese population that worships there plus Chinese tourists. It is huge and on a beautiful property looking out over the island and ocean. There is a ritual that people come for to have their "fortunes" told. A number of us did the dropping of stones and shaking of sticks over incense to get to an answer to a private question you ask. You receive your fortune which is some Chinese proverb just for you-a lot like fortune cookies. The words were in Chinese, but translated into Indonesian, which our guides tried to translate into English. On the property we had a planned treat of watching the Chinese animal dance where 2 people are dressed together like a fanciful dragon. This was a very talented school age troupe of dancers and drummers. Kids would love it.

Lunch was at a restaurant along another beach, a public park, so much less garbage than other ones we have been at. Another group of girls did some dancing demonstrating the making of batik. On the beach, some young men showed a ritual fight against a "bu bu". They dress a fish trap of bamboo like a ghost, and wave smoke over it. All the bad spirits are thought to go into it, and then someone fights it trying to break the branches. If they are successful, the demons go away. In the evening we had dinner at a restaurant that was built to resemble a boat. It is on the site of a proposed marina. The docks and buildings have already been built around a small inland lake with a creek joining it to the sea. But they have been waiting for 5 years now to get permission to dredge the channel deep enough for boats to enter. It is a political decision as the land owners are not in agreement. The owner of the marina is running for office Dec 9, so you can guess the motivation.

On Mon we visited a local vocational high school where the students gave us a tour. The boys were working in an autobody shop on car and motor cycle engines. The girls do computers and tech. As everywhere they are very friendly and welcoming. We also visited a batik factory where we could make a small sample. There are metal carvings like a print stamp that are dipped in hot wax and pressed onto the fabric. The designs are unique to each island. The fabric is then dyed and the wax removed. This process is repeated for more intricate designs. The water was "off" the day we were there so we couldn't finish our own.

A highlight of that day for me was a visit to a "Literary Museum" opened in 2010. There was a lot of art, including the furnishings, and samples from many famous writers around the world. It was built by a local writer, Andrea Hirata  who grew up in the small town there, although he got his Phd in the UK.  His first book, "Rainbow Troops", published in 2005, has become a best seller and has been made into a movie. They were playing the Indonesian language version in our air conditioned bus. They could have sold a few copies in English if they had had stock left. Besides a brief stop to provision we spent a short time in the tourism office. It was more interesting than most with many photos and displays about various places on the island. There were 2 animals in cages in the lobby. One was a crocodile. The other was a tarsier monkey, the world's smallest. It is nocturnal so not often seen. It has huge, haunting eyes, and was awake for us.

The farewell dinner was followed by another show at the park along the beach, another wonderful selection of performers. We thought of leaving sooner to not be short of time on the next passage. But everyone had gone to a lot of trouble to entertain us and we certainly wouldn't have wanted to miss it. Three other boats from the Philippines rally had been planning on joining us and would have enjoyed the visit. But each, for different reasons, made mistakes that didn't make it work out. Three of our 5 boats stopped for awhile on the way out at an anchorage on the NW of the island, an area renowned for its beaches and clear water.

I'm writing this underway to Nongsa Point marina, the ending point for the Indonesian visit. It is about 350 nm and the forecast is for almost no wind the whole way. We are now on day 2 of motoring. Dodging fishing boats and freighters is the only work. The marina is across a channel from Singapore and the approach is a long passage between islands. We expect the boat traffic to continue to increase as we get closer.

Kumai to Belitung

Our Klotok arriving at 5:45am to pick us up

Breakfast was ready

 Other Klotoks on the river

A klotok traffic jam

Entering the national park

Mother orang-utan and young one

Both get fed

Gathering of Orang-utans

Macaques

Wild boars eating the scraps

Swallow "condominiums" in Kumai

Local fishing boat off Belitung

Following the pilot boat across the bar entering the river to anchor

Kumai, Kalimantim (Borneo)

Friday,  Nov 20,  2015

Second Day Underway Kumai to Belitung

We had returned to Lombok from Bali on Thurs. Fri mid day Bill returned on the ferry. We took a cab to a new mall about an hour and a half away. Although we needed to buy some provisions there, the trip was mostly to see a bit of the island. We went via the "monkey highway" into the rain forest and did see a number of monkeys along the road. We returned the coastal road where the driver pointed out sites and photo opts. ($40 for the trip). Back at the marina the owners had arranged performances by local musicians and dancers and a wonderful buffet. There were a few other sailors there as well from the anchorage. One of them, an Australian, gave us some good tips for the continuing travels up Malaysia and Thailand.

The volcano was still spewing ash so the boats were black again. We were  all happy to get moving again in the circumstances. Being anchored in a fresh water river in Kumai we finally have cleaned up most of it. By Fri evening we still had to unpack from Bali and get the boat ready. We were waiting for diesel and the laundry to arrive also. Two boats left that night as it was a long, slow trip to Kumai with the forecast wind. It took us three days to cover the 430 nautical miles.

There was an overnight tour to the national park to see the orang-utans arranged for Tues or an all day one Wed. As we had decided to sail one day, albeit slowly, to conserve fuel, that meant arriving later Tuesday so we missed the overnight trip. Five of us took the one day trip, the rest slept on the boat in the forest along side the river. We were picked up before 6 am and were back about 8, long enough for most of us.

These trips are considered the highlight of any trip to Borneo. We took a 2 story flat boat called a klotok, up the river for approximately 40 kms. On the upper level are chairs for viewing, and a table for meals, all of which were included and good. If you sleep aboard, mattresses are laid out side by side with sheets and pillows and mosquito netting hung. The advantage is hearing the forest sounds at night and being able to sleep in. It is a 40 km trip to the final stop at Camp Leaky, with an additional stop after the first 3 hours. The stops are at designated feeding stations so you will see some orang-utans for sure.

The National Park was founded by a Canadian and her Indonesian husband in 1971 and does a lot of rehabilitation work as well as conservation. There was  a center to do some reading and see exhibitions. The feeding stations are supplemental and will not be visited if food is available elsewhere. The guides call and they start to arrive. We were lucky to watch many, the "alpha" male and several females with babies and children. They carry the babies for the first 5 years and continue to teach them until they are 8 when they will have another. The site was also visited by proboscis monkeys and macaques. The surprise was the large number of wild boars. They were the ugliest animal I have ever seen.

The return trip was very pleasant as the sun went down and the heat abated. (The equator passes through Borneo.) The monkeys sleep in the trees along the river so we saw hundreds. There are crocodiles in the rive, and we saw just one. You can stay on a klotok for more days and probably see more of the abundant animal and bird life.

We were picked up and dropped off at our boats, the whole trip costing us $100 a piece.

The city of Kumai itself contained a lot of tall grey concrete multistory buildings. We initially thought that the Russians had been here building apartments! They turned out to be bird houses. Each multistory building had small slots in the sides and swallows nested inside. The bird's nests, which are made with saliva from the swallows, are shipped to China to make birds nest soup. Think of that the next time you see birds nest soup on the menu!

Our next stop is in Belitung, which belongs to Kalimantin and is 210 km away. Fortunately we could sail on the sea breeze yesterday, but today is back to the motor. The waterways are getting busier as we approach Singapore-always a few ships on the AIS. A local is meeting us 10am Sat to lead us across the river bar at high tide.  We had to cross a sand bar going to Kumai also but was charted as 7 ft at its lowest and was no problem. This one ranges from .6m to 2.6 m. We have the choice to anchor outside instead but on a lee shore, but there has never been much wind yet. We'll see when we get there.