Friday, August 30, 2019

Thar Be Dragons -- Komodo Dragons


After a nice few days restocking in Labuan Bajo we headed out to the Komodo National Park. This is the home of the famed Komodo Dragons. We anchored on Rinca Island (aka Rinca or Rincja) and got ourselves setup to go into the range station for a 07:00 tour. Early morning is best time to see the dragons actually moving around as well as to avoid the tourist herd. This is large male. about 80 kg (175 lbs). They'e actually monitor lizards on steroids, but the early European visitors thought they were dragons...


Now there's no way we would have gotten anywhere near as close to this beast without Ranger Rick standing by. The rangers gather their walking tour group and then grab one of these sticks. The sticks are used to convince the wayward dragons to stand back. We only had 4 people, us and our friends from Fairwinds, on our walk, which made it really nice.
The island has deer, water buffalo and pigs. So you might guess what the dragons eat. The komodos  look slow, but are fast enough to bite the deer and water buffalo. The saliva in their bite has deadly bacteria. A bitten deer will die in about a week, then to be consumed by the komodo.


The island also has these megapode birds. They scrape away with their big feet and make a large nest for their eggs. The female komodos then come along and take over the nest, dig it deeper and lay their eggs there for a 9 month gestation. The Komodo mommies also then dig holes for nests around the real one as diversions to predators.

Once they've had their morning breakfast they don't mind posing.

We took the trail to the top of the hills and got this nice view of the anchorage. The anchorage is pretty mellow in the morning. The afternoon is just a zoo of tour boats (more on his later)

This guy was blocking the trail on the way to the top of the hill. If you look close you can see some dings in his side where he was battling with another dragon.

This tree was about a half a foot off the trail. Our guide pointed out this aptly named green pit viper. At first no one saw it till we looked closely through the green leaves. And yes, it is deadly venomous. It is poised to strike any frogs or bugs walking down the tree trunk.

The dock greeter. Actually a long-tailed macaque monkey. These guys are all over the island and are pretty skittish. This comes in handy when a komodo lizard is trying to eat you or an Indonesian local is shooing you away.
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Cruisers Notes:
We anchored in Loh Buaya, Rinca at 8º 39.174' S  -  119º 42.816' E in 47ft.
This is too close to the crazy anchoring drills that happen in the afternoon. You really should be back in deeper water away from the tour boats.



The upper picture is where one of the tour boats anchored in front of our friends on Fair Winds. Fair Winds just got an expensive new paint job in Australia, so they try and stay out of the crowd. The second picture is the same boat after they dragged back in the afternoon wind. In response to Fair Winds getting out all their fenders and getting angry with the boat for not moving away, the chef on the boat brought up some cooked banana desserts to appease. It's an Indonesian thing.

Here's the toy anchor they used. The bend at the bottom is just a pipe bent, with no flukes on the end. No wonder it drags.

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Been out of Internet connectivity for a bit and just catching up on the world news.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Flores

We've spent the last week or so traveling across the top of Flores Island. One thing you learn pretty quickly when you enter a new cruising area is how reliable the cruising guides are and, if less than reliable, how to interpret the descriptions they give of places and anchorages. So far we've figured out that when the guides we're using say there is room for 4 boats anchored over sand with good holding, what they really mean is maybe two boats could fit on the light colored spot that is coral rubble, not sand with poor holding.

We've also seen how poor the people are here. They all have big grins and love to row out to the boat to try their few words of English. They they start asking for things. The kids want notebooks for school, and pens or pencils. The adults want all those things plus hats, shirts, fish hooks/line, whatever else they can think up. We enjoy giving the kids small stuff and some the adults are really interesting, but does get old getting inundated with visitor after visitor asking for something.

This guy came up and at least had something interesting to sell besides some small squid or a coconut. Chris bought this interesting carved bowl from him and pointed to his injured finger. He then asked for medicine for his clearly mangled finger. Chris is passing over in the plastic bag some antibiotic ointment and new bandages.


Lots of interesting local fish boats. These are squid boats.

We were passed close-by while offshore by a half dozen of these boats traveling together. I was pretty sure they were Indo-Viking invaders.


While traveling anywhere on the water here you have to deal with these unlit FADS, aka Fish Attraction Devices. Each area seems to have a different style. You might expect them to be in shallow water, but then you'd be wrong. These things are often anchored in thousands of feet of water. They're one reason we try to limit our night time passages.



The shelling has not been great so far. Our friend Judy on Fair Winds attributes this to he fact that if it moves they eat it. This is a nice cowrie shell that we found. Unfortunately it was still occupied by its original owner so after admiring it, Chris carefully placed it back on the reef.



The snorkeling hasn't been that good so far, but the water is clear and it sure feels good to get out of the afternoon heat. We will be heading off toward the Komodo National Park soon and expect to get in some top notch snorkeling. This lion fish, native in these waters, is showing off his angry look and protecting his turf.



Interestingly lit black sea urchin.


A starfish dressed so you wouldn't want to eat him.


We even got to do a little snorkeling around the mangrove edges. This is only possible here because they long ago ate all the Salties- saltwater crocodiles.


Scenic  underwater view.


A not so scenic view. One of the downsides of Indonesia-- being a relatively poor nation is the amount trash you see in the water. Plastics float by you on ever passage and here's a plastic cup underwater on the reef edge.


A healthy, large barrel sponge.




We are now int the big town on the NW end of Flores, Lubaun Bajo. Its a bit of a dusty, rough looking town, but the people are extremely friendly and you can get bread, groceries, functioning ATMs and we even saw a Starbucks with AC that stuck out like a sore thumb.

A couple of cruiser notes:
We anchored at 08*31.150S, 119*52.023E in front of what the guide books call the Eco Lodge. The Lodge seems to be closed right now with new owners. The hotel next to it, Sari Puri Beach Lodge, has taken over as the cruiser friendly spot. You can spot the dinghy landing area by looking for the green trees and flags on the shore. Watch the tides, as it is shallow in there. If the tide's going out we drop an anchor offshore a bit and wade in.

The hotel staff are very friendly. The upstairs restaurant has good food at very reasonable prices. You can use the hotel shuttle to go into town for  AUD$5 round tip. Make a reservation at the front desk. They will also help you with getting your jerry jugs filled with diesel at the near by 'solor' station. Have the shuttle take you and give the staff a small tip to lug your jerry jugs down to your dinghy. Fuel was about USD$2.50 a gallon and was clean.

Paul


Thursday, August 8, 2019

Across the Banda Sea


We left the Banda islands for a 3 day passage across the Banda Sea toward the Nussa Tengarra islands to the south. The first two days we had to beat into the winds. Apparent wind angle (AWA) of 60* with the true winds around 18-20ts. Anytime the wind is in front of the beam the sailing is ungentlemanly and the crew tends to get grumpy.  On the third day the winds just quit, leaving the sea absolutely glassy. We are now in Adunara Islands. This chain of islands is just one volcanic peak after another, some smoking.

There was not much traffic on the passage, but we did pass near by this massive LPG tanker heading to Australia.


The anchorage we are in is about 3/4 of a mile from a small village. The locals stop by to see if you want to buy any of their fish or give them something. This guy wanted a "toupe", aka hat, so I coughed up one of my Gold Coast City Marina caps from Australia.

We dropped anchor at 08:30 on a sunny calm day-- the first we've seen in quite awhile.  After a little rest we managed to get inspired to do a little snorkeling. Nothing too exciting, but warm clear water and some healthy corals and attendant reef fish.

Paul





Sunday, August 4, 2019

Banda Islands


We left Debut in the Kei Islands for a short sail over to the Tayunda islands. We expected to have some nice beaches and some decent snorkeling. That's the problem with expectations -- the lower they are the more often that get exceeded... it was not to be.
It was windy and the water was not very clear. We managed to anchor in 43ft of water on a small shelf off the beach and drop back to 65ft (05*35.222, 132*17.409). Kind of deep water compared to what we usually try to anchor in, but that seems to be standard for this part of Indo. We did make it to the small beach at high tide and Chris collected these Sand Rupiahs, otherwise known as Sand Dollars.
You can feel pretty rich when you walk around with a pocket full of Indonesian Rupiah. This 50,000 rupiah bill is easily converted into Australian dollars by just dropping the last four zeros. 5 Australian dollars is about US$3.50.


On the overnight moonless passage we were treated to a really strange phenomenon.  About a 11pm we entered into an area of the Banda Sea that was about 20,000 feet deep, sailing downwind at about 6 knots in small seas. The water around us suddenly developed the eeriest blue-green glow. The sky was dark but the sea seemed lit from within. After awhile, the waves seemed to disappear, we could hear them but not see them, and a blue-green fog appeared to be over the surface of water. We were floating in a sensory deprivation sea.  When I went below and pumped the head I didn't see any glow in the saltwater used in the head, which usually happens when you have typical bio-luminescence. Very strange, kind of creepy. It might push a single handing sailor over the top.

We arrived in the morning under overcast skies with a view of the Banda volcano, Gununga Banda Api. Last time it got serious with the world was in 1988, destroying a village on the far side. The Dutch and English traders and colonizers of the 17th century also saw it spitting from its crater as they were anchored below it. Many of the drawings we have seen from that time shows the volcano spitting.


 Here's another view where you can see the dark lava scree from the last eruption.


The town is nice with the typical small fresh veggies marketplace. There are lots of remnants from the Dutch colonial days: forts, cannons, hurt feelings. The Dutch were particularly brutal to the locals. They made the British seem almost civilized. The Dutch ended up controlling all the islands in the small archipelago of Banda except for one spec of an island with a terrible anchorage, Rhun, which the English managed to hold onto. The reason the Euros wanted Banda so badly was for the nutmeg: these are the famous Spice Islands of Dutch East Indies history and during the colonizing period, the nutmeg spice was worth more than gold by weight. Nutmeg was used to cover-up the taste of terrible British cooking and it was thought to be a medicine effective against the Black Plague. After a multi-year standoff between the Dutch and English the Dutch finally won out. From their strong bargaining position, the Dutch got England to cede all rights to Rhun island, in return the Brits would take New Holland off their hands. The Brits immediately renamed New Holland to New York and started planning the Empire State Building.  The building itself took a few more centuries to actually be built.   If you are interested in a good read covering the history of the Banda and the Spice Islands:



We took a local longboat over to Pulau Batuindang (nearby island) to do a 'spice tour'. This island is still very active in producing nutmeg and mace. The village is well kept with lots of colorful houses. The nutmeg business still provides a decent income.


The nutmeg trees grow among the shade of the tall almond trees. This women is preparing the almond harvest on her front porch.

Not everyone on the island is involved in nutmeg. There are some who are local fishermen. This hollowed out bamboo with a removal top is a bait holder for live fish.


I asked our guide what type of this wood this is that was being dried next to a house. The best answer I could get was teak, but not really teak. They use this wood for the window frames and doors of their houses as it is strong and insect resistant.


The local school kids were dressed up in their school colors on a Saturday to practice marching for the up-coming independence day festivities (August 17th). It certainly looked like they took their job seriously.


The island doesn't have a proper petrol (gasoline) station. The typical transport is a motor scooter that is good for up to 3 people or a quarter of a pickup truck load of goods. This gas station attendant is selling bottles of petrol for the scooters at about usd$0.75/liter in nicely recycled plastic bottles.

We hiked into the forest to see the nutmeg orchards. The trees grow in the shade of these massive wild almond trees and are surrounded by wild cinnamon trees and lemon grass.


This what the nutmeg fruit looks like when it is ripe. The red skin of the inner portion is the spice Mace. Inside the nut is the Nutmeg. The outside fruit is used to make jam and a crystallized candy.
Nutmeg still on the tree.
The 12 or 15 foot long bamboo nutmeg harvesting tool.

Scraping the outer bark to get to the soft, raw cinnamon, another commercial spice from here.



The workers often find relics from the Dutch era. There are many cannons and small artillery all around islands. These are some coins found in the fields. I bought the bottom one. It's dated 1790 and clearly has the VOC logo. The VOC stands for Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or in English The Dutch East India Company. It was founded in 1602 and had an effective monopoly on the spice trade for centuries. 





Tropical kids and plants.


It's not all hard work when you are being a tourist. Sometimes you get to relax on the second floor veranda. The Cilu Bintang Estate hotel is a wonderful historic hotel overlooking the volcano and one of the Dutch forts. It serves really good food. There's also good food at the Delfika Guest House, where we ate lunches on a few occasions. You can eat excellent food here for very little without having to resort to street carts.

Just in case our granddaughter is browsing the web, looks like Curious George was here.

Paul


First night we anchored between the two main islands at 04* 32.47, 129*5.03 in 38feet of water. Second night it was very windy with major current and a couple of boats dragged.

Moved anchorage in main harbor at 04*31.191, 129*53.529 in 58ft of water backing off to 127ft of water. Well protected from SE trades but deep.