Oct 2-4
Hi All,
The Kumai adventure continues…….
Anchoring: oh my lord, this has been a most difficult anchorage for many boats including us. The challenge is the boats turn 180* 4x per day due to the tide changes which means the anchor hopefully resets…..and the current can run up to 4 knots….very challenging, especially when you get people who just think it is ok to anchor close…..hey, we didn’t hit each other so what’s the problem…..well, you are making us very nervous….it’s ok, don’t worry….yep, you get the idea!! There have been many boats dragging and many near misses with other boats as well as these massive barges/ships. We have had to reanchor 4 times in the 8 days we have been here…yikes!!! The first 2 times were our fault as we did not leave enough room for the ship we anchored to close too on the turn…..I wrote about that in the last blog. Well…..the 3rd time we are not sure if we dragged or if the boat behind us did but we got to w/in 30 yards so we picked up our anchor and moved up 30 40 yards…..we were then 70-100 yards away from the boat and 60-120 yards away from the barge depending on the turn!!!! While we were away 2 more boats came in and anchored way too close to us and this morning on the turn we came within 20’…….they were both gone on tour so we just picked up and reanchored in the back again. And luck was with us…..the barge in the back left as we were anchoring and then the next 2 closest boats left….sweet as…..but we think some of the other boats that are too close to each other will see the extra room and come anchor by us so by tomorrow we might be having issues again…..yikes!!!
English School: oh what an impromtu cultural experience….one of our best yet. Wati, Borneo Holiday’s tour manager and the person we made all our river safari arrangements with, texted and invited us to visit her English school so the students could practice their English. Wati is 22 years old and a native Dayak. Her village did not sell land to the palm oil industry preferring to preserve their jungle. Somehow her parents earned enough money to send her to the university. She also attended this private English school which she graduated from 2 years ago so she could eventually run her own business in tourism…..her goal is to own some newly designed boats, complete with AC run by solar energy….all before she is 25….whoa. She has been working for Mr Harry now for several years while attending school and she loves to interact with English specking tourists to better her English.
Eric, the English teacher, and Wati picked us up on our boat and away we went. The English school is full time…..6 days per week, Sundays off but to meet us, all 20 students came to class that Sunday…..very impressive. Most of the students just graduated high school or are attending the university……the ages were 18-21. They split the group into 10 each and had Kathy and me switch groups after 30 minutes. Then the questions started…..they asked about family, our children and grandchildren……they loved the picture of Sadie eating BBQ ribs and of course baby Kennedy, religions, why we came to Indonesia, boating, my work which then led to lots of talk about ice cream and their favorite flavors,……they asked my favorite singers….ok….how about Beatles…yep, knew them, Van Morrison, who?, Eagles, who? Rolling Stones…..hmmm, maybe, Mick Jagger, hmmm, maybe, Beach Boys, who?, Frank Sinatra….who, who….ok, who do you like…..Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Selena Gomez….yep, you get the generational gap picture…..I told them to go ask their parents and they would know:))))) We were absolutely worn out after an hour but it was so stimulating!! Eric, then took us into his house and up on the landscaped roof where he had brought in food….many local dishes and fruits to sample. From there we went to the Sultan Palace in Pangkalan Bun, the town where the school is located. Wow…..the Prince and his family live next to the Palace…..they are getting ready for a big festival in about a week and we watched many of the local dance groups practice. Then the brother of the current Prince walked up, introduced himself and proceeded to talk to Kathy for about 10 minutes. As we were leaving the Prince comes in and again we were introduced, lots of pictures and some conversation, especially about politics. We gathered the Prince does not have any government authority but he does attend to “his” people and resolves any issues before getting the government involved!!
Political comment: It was curious when we reflected later that night that the students never asked about politics. But the adults certainly did……the Prince, his brother and Eric…..all asked about the elections…..he is a crazy man said the Prince about Trump…..bad for Indonesia and world…..I sure hope America elects Clinton…..and there you have it. I don’t usually make political comments on the blog as I know there are some Trump supporters out there……I would say however FWIW, that the Prince’s opinion is about 90% of what we have heard along the way in Indonesia and Australia!!!
Market: We needed some provisions so went in search of the market…..with the help of Gigi translate we found it and then had quite a good time with the various vendors…..no English…..but we managed to buy lot’s of fruits and veges!!! And, we got the phone topped up. At first they could not believe we wanted IR100,000 which is USD7.5……so the lady put on IR20,000 or USD1.50 thinking that is all we needed….we finally convinced her it was indeed the 100k and she eventually said ok…..we got a picture of the whole family as it took all of them to believe us:))))
The Rally has organized 2 very full days of activities but it starts at 6 or 6:30am and goes all day and quite frankly we are just a bit pooped to do all that group activity…..plus we did some of the activity with Wati. We are very much enjoying these private tours and moments. So, we have decided to leave the anchorage…..yeah……no more reanchoring……and head for Manggar on the west side of the island of Belitung. We will actually be ahead of the Rally so that will be a very different experience. Many boats did not come to Kumai so hopefully we will meet up with some of them along the way!!
We are leaving on Wed, Sept 5th for the 235nm overnight passage to Manggar. We hope to get in early afternoon on Thursday the 6th. We will stay 1-3 days depending on how it is and then head to TG Kelayang on the NW corner of Belitung…that is ~60nm and it has gigantic boulders like “The Baths” in Virgin Gorda BVI!!!!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO!!!
PS: More pictures on a gallery on the website: https://www.mysticmoonvoyages.com/kumai/