We depart Lovina Beach after dinner at 10pm and sail/motor
overnight so we can arrive at Kangean in daylight. Our nighttime voyages are a minefield of
fishing boats, commercial ships, torrential rain, strong winds, thunder,
lightning, no wind – you name it – we get it!
 |
| Tug towing a coal-laden barge - tricky to see at night |
We decide to do 3 hour watches on our overnight trip. It is safer to navigate into anchorages in
daylight so we can see the reefs, fishing boats, fishing nets, bombies, and of
course the water depth. Our charts don’t
always match up with realty so we are cautious as it can be a bit tricky.
 |
| Motoring in a millpond |
 |
| First sight of Kangean |
 |
| Fishing boat at Kangean |
Our fishing is dismal.
We have rods and lures however we are better sailors than we are
fishermen. We buy export quality coral
trout from a local fish farm, green beans and pumpkin from the local village
and toast Heather’s actual 50
th birthday with a bottle of Moet
courtesy of Sam and Josh – thanks boys!
 |
| A hint for our non-fishing husbands! |
 |
| Fish Depot |
 |
| Weighing our fish |
 |
| Coral Trout - we think! |
 |
| 50th birthday dinner - awesome :-) |
We borrow motor bikes from the locals and are taken on a tour of the
local school, police station, lunch at a warung and coffee in an indescribable
hut.
 |
| Local coffee shop for my 50th birthday :-) |
 |
| Our barista |
The police station is the only
place on the island where we can see a map.
It is painted on their wall so we are able to explain where we are from
and where we are going – I think! We
must all sign a book at the police station – they love official stuff and
paperwork. There are no other white
people on the island and we are a novelty.
The villagers are very friendly and love to have their photo taken with
us. They take loads of photos of us
using their mobile phones and I suspect we are probably on many facebook pages.
 |
| Local school |
 |
| Local Police Station |
 |
| Bike Maintenance |
 |
| Putting air in tyres |
 |
| Warung owner and her daughters |
 |
| New use for satellite dish |
We are often visited at our yacht by local fishermen and
children. They sometimes want to sell us
things however usually they are curious and want to say hello. The kids swim out to us and are thrilled to
get gifts of soft drink or swimming goggles. We can sometimes organize diesel and petrol
for our gerry cans via our visitors. We
were also offered a live monkey in a cardboard box with a plastic bag around
the outside. We’re not sure if he was
trying to sell/show/give us the monkey – mmmm.
 |
| Local fuel station |
Provisioning is becoming more difficult. It is easy to buy some veges and fruit –
green beans, tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, bananas, pineapple, passionfruit. Fish can be bought on the pavement at the
local market for $2 for 6 small fish. We
haven’t seen any meat or chicken yet. The
village markets are very cheap and a fun experience. Just point at the produce and hold up 3
fingers to buy 3 cucumbers! We also buy
some cooked food – no idea what it is but it tastes good. Nothing is refrigerated and there are loads
of flies. Bread, when we can get it, is
white and very sweet. Ice is always a
mission. Luckily we can sometimes buy it
from a shop or local people give us ice from their freezer if they have a
freezer!
 |
This family gave us all the ice from their freezer - enough to fill our esky.
They wouldn't accept payment however we were able to give the kids some balloons. |
