Indonesia Wrap-Up

Moored at Sabana Cove Marina
Sungai Santi River
State of Johor
Malaysia
1'24.7N/104'09.7E

Another wrap up entry. It feels like we just got here and I am not ready to leave! I have been thinking about this entry for a few days now and I just do not even know where to begin.

The past 3 months has been a cultural experience like none else. When I close my eyes and think of all the great things we have seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and experienced since being here, it is quite a feat for only 90 days.

Indonesia has so much to offer. I believe even if we stay for another set of days, weeks, or even months, we could experience another round of exciting days and nights of things we would not be able to experience anywhere else. By joining the rally 'Sail Indonesia' we were privy to many more cultural experiences than by doing it on our own. And to all the organizers... a big Thanks!

A country where we can travel from one island where some have never seen a white person before (Belitung) to an island with everything one could imagine (Bali). I imagine we will not see anything else like this in our travels. And for this we are truly grateful and appreciative of all the local Indonesians we have met and who let us into their lives. It has been an epic stop along this long, strange trip.

A few highlights for 'Team Sandpiper Indonesia' include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The sail to our first stop Kupang and the fact that we were able to actually sail the entire trip from Darwin, Australia.
• The city of Kupang, our first stop in Indonesia, and a great look at how lovely Indonesians are.
• The rally organized day trips up some crazy small dirt roads with police escorts and an ambulance in the back of the bus caravan.
• Our first and hopefully last 'open water' experience in Alor. Being left by our snorkel boat and seeing it drift farther away from us... not so cool. Swimming after the boat and seeing a black tip reef shark... cool.
• Hearing the phrase "Hello Mister" for the first time and seeing the children with their big beautiful smiles and so happy to see us. They brought many smiles to our faces too.
• Tom actually signing a child's hand with marker and with mom's insistence. A bit over the top, but humorous to say the least.
• Traveling with S/V Uterus through the Komodo and Rinca Islands.
• Spotting our first Komodo Dragon, monkey, and Water Buffalo while tiptoeing through the outback of Komodo Island.
• Relaxing and enjoying many cold Bintang's and outside movies at the Gili Islands.
• Next stop, Bali, where we relaxed by the Hard Rock Hotel pool. Enjoyed the beaches of Kuta. Stayed out way too late drinking way too much. Found some great restaurants. Enjoyed the local dance and music
• Made an inland trip to Ubud where I someday hope to return and spend several weeks more enjoying the laid back atmosphere and calming walks of many rice fields.
• Kumai, seeing the Orangutans in their natural surroundings and just an overall exhilarating two days.
• Finally, our last stop Belitung, where a lot of the locals have never seen a white person before. The only place we went that is not even in my trusty 'Lonely Planet'.
• And ordering and eating kilos of squid for dinner along with several beers, rice and vegetables for less than $5 a piece. We could not get enough.

This just about includes every stop we have made since being here. We have had so many excellent adventures it is hard to narrow it down.

Overall, the past three months have just flown by for Team Sandpiper enjoying every bit of Indonesia we could. We hope someday to come back and do more inland exploring of this area. Indonesia is a place both Tom and I highly recommend a visit to.

Looking forward to new experiences and adventures these next few months while visiting Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.

Love to all
Amy and Tom

Sungai Santi, Malaysia

Anchored in the Sungai Santi (Santi River)
State of Johor
Malaysia
1'23.4N/104'05.8E

A lot can happen in a day when it starts at midnight and you use the full 24 hours.

Team Sandpiper sprung into action at 12:01am, so that is when our day began. We pulled up anchor and said goodbye to Palau Kentar under an almost full moon with glassy waters. There was not a breath of wind. We motor sailed our way through a large group of islands for 50 miles and never caught the tidal current that we were hoping for till 2 hours after is was supposed to show up.

Our plan was to stop for the night at a small bay as our last stop in Indonesia. This was so we could leave at sunrise the next morning to cross the Singapore Strait in daylight. We picked this anchorage just by looking at our C-Map electronic charts and the bay looked like a nice stop as it was very protected and would be easy to leave in the dark just before sunrise. But as luck would have it, as soon as we dropped the hook we noticed that we were anchored right in front of a large navy base with a customs office. Since we had already cleared with customs out of Indonesia back at Belitung , we were not 'supposed' to stop anywhere else in Indonesia. We were hoping to avoid any more officials before we left. But just our luck, this is where we picked to anchor.

As soon as we got the hook dropped (3pm) a boat full of Indonesian immigration officials pulled up to us. They came out because they wanted to know why we had stopped there since we had already cleared out of Indonesia back in Belitung. I explained that we were not leaving the boat and only wanted to anchor there till 5am so we could safely cross the Singapore Strait in daylight. He said "Sorry. But you will have to leave right now." I thanked him for sending us off to cross the straits in the dark, pulled up the anchor, and took off at full throttle to get across the straits 15 miles away.

It turned out that things worked out OK as we had a following current and were now making 7 knots. Now we just had to get across the straits. Crossing the Singapore Strait is a lot like playing Frogger (a video game), with the same results if you move the wrong way. There were ships everywhere moving all directions. We passed a cruise ship. Then we had a container ship and two tankers , all side by side, bearing down on us. So we came down their side and slipped right behind them.

After that we just had a few more ships to dodge and then we were across, on the Malaysia side of the strait just at the sun was setting. There are hundreds of ships at anchor. Sandpiper wound her way through all these anchored ships with no problems and dropped anchor in 15 feet of water in the mouth of the Santi River.

We were not to sure exactly where the channel is since it is not well marked. Our C-Map electronic charts were dead on accurate and we would not have wanted to make this trip in the dark without them.

We are planning on staying here at anchor till sunrise tomorrow, then move 3 miles upriver to Sabana Cove Marina, our new home for the next 3 weeks. Singapore is right across the channel from us. We are planning on taking inland trips from here for some exploring. Also a must-do is to get over to Singapore for a Singapore Sling! We will have WiFi in the marina so keep checking our site for the next three weeks as we are hoping to get all our photos and videos updated. Also we will be on Skype. So look for us!

Tom and Amy

Pulau Kentar

Anchored at Pulau Kentar
Anchorage #87 in "101 Anchorages Within The Indonesian Archipelago" by Geoff Wilson

Sebangka Island
Lingga Islands Groups,
Riau Islands Province,
Sumatra,
Indonesia
0'03.6N/104'45.6E

Storms and ships. Ships and storms. Storms and ships. Ships and storms. What fun!!

Just after crossing the equator this morning Sandpiper dropped the hook at 11am amongst our friends on S/V Uterus (Norway) and S/V Sunburn (New Zealand). During the last 48 hour run we have passed through very intense squalls with high winds, and passed lots of shipping. Last night around midnight a long line of squalls showed up on radar 18 miles away. When they show us as a solid black target that far away from us means very heavy rain heading straight for us! After a quick conversation with friends on S/V Sunburn, who were just off our bow, we brought Sandpiper up to full power and barely missed being hit by a majority of the storms.

This morning at sunrise, just as we were crossing the equator, we were not so lucky. Another giant band of squalls showed up on radar. This time we were we not able to outrun them. We were hit by 35 knot winds and sideways rain. We lost site of S/V Sunburn and just motored slowly just off the wind until it dropped down. We were then able to make anchor here in this small protected bay at Palau Kentar.

We decided to drop anchor here because this is where S/V Sunburn is stopping. Other rally boats are stopped here too until they move on to Singapore. We have 90 miles to Sabana Cove Marina. We are leaving this anchorage tonight at midnight and we hope to drop the hook tomorrow afternoon. There we will wait until the following morning before we cross the Singapore Straits. If you check out Google Earth you might see the islands we have to pass through tomorrow. We are hoping to be at the channel entrance of the Selat Riue Straits tomorrow morning at 10:30am when the tidal currents are supposed to change in our favor. Then it is a 20 mile run through these islands to drop anchor early afternoon.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy

Note From Ron: Welcome back to the Northern Hemisphere! Woo Hoo!

23 Oct 2007 - 1700h

1700h Position
South China Sea
149nm from Belitung, Indonesia
173nm to Sabana Cove Marina, Malaysia
0'53.4S/105'53.3E

We checked our charts today and we are now in the South China Sea! The latitude line on our GPS is getting closer and closer to zero latitude as we approach the equator. I think I hear King Neptune calling out looking for any sailors that have not paid their dues.

We have not made very good time since leaving Belitung because we are escorting our NZ friends on S/V Sunburn. They have had transmission problems the whole time they have been in Indonesia. They have had to repair their transmission every time they have stopped in port. They have had to be towed in several times by other rally boats since there has been so little wind for sailing. In Belitung they think they finally got it fixed. But they are not certain until a real mechanic looks at it in Singapore.

They can not run their engine at full RPM's due to vibrations. So we are both making only 4 knots. For the last 24hrs we have kept them 2 miles off our bow in case they have any problems. A break down here would mean being stuck out here for a very long time since there is so little wind.

We are finally away from the thousands of Indonesian fisherman that we have passed before. But now we have large ships all over the place going in different directions. The Singapore Strait and the Straits of Malacca are some of the busiest shipping routes in the world. Many of the ships we are seeing are coming from this shipping "Super Highway". The closer we get to Singapore, the more ships we will be passing. And we will be crossing several shipping lanes with ships all over the place. We cannot wait!!

Our plan now is a bit fluid since our speed depends on S/V Sunburn's speed. But we are hoping to make Malaysia by Friday morning if all goes well. There is one possible stop along the way. We are just not sure where that is yet.

Tom and Amy

Belitung Island Wrap Up

Anchored at Belitung Island
Indonesia
2'33.1S/107'40.5E

We have been anchored here along the white powdered beaches of Belitung Island in Indonesia for the last week and we are now looking to our next leg of our voyage, sailing to Singapore and Malaysia.

Belitung has been a surprise since it has turned out to be one of our favorites places in Indonesia. We did not have very much information about this island before we arrived because there is very little information out there about Belitung. This is the first time that the Sail Indonesia Rally has stopped here. So there was no information from previous cruisers. And Belitung is the only place that we have been to that is not covered by the Lonely Planet travel books.

From talking to locals, this rally stop is the biggest thing to ever happen in Belitung. After a week here, from how many people have came up to us just to say "Hello", or to have a picture taken, we believe them. Going ashore every day is like a Hollywood red carpet entrance , complete with paparazzi! The area ashore where our dinghies are beached is roped off and locals are not allowed in that area. So hundreds of them stand along the ropes all saying "Hello mister. Hello mister" while snapping photos with their cameras and cell phones. Once ashore, as we walk into the crowds, everyone wants us to stop and have a photo taken with us. I am sure that Team Sandpiper will be the wallpaper on many Belitung cell phones for years to come.

I had to go to town the second day we were here to find Internet cafe and an ATM. I hopped on one of the free buses that are provided by the government for rally participants. The town of Tanjungpandan is about 15 miles from here and all along the way were large banners welcoming Sail Indonesia participants to Belitung, and a huge banner in the city center. Once downtown I headed to where I was told might be an Internet cafe. Along the way a man on a motorcycle with his whole family (5 people!) stopped and asked me where I was going. I told him I needed Internet cafe and he told me to keep on walking down the street. Well, I guess I walked a little too far. A few minutes later the same guy came down the street, minus his family that he had dropped off somewhere. He said I had passed the internet and to hop on the back of his motorcycle. Minutes later I was at the Internet cafe!

Very few Westerners ever make it to Belitung. So wherever we go, it is kind of a freak show as everyone wants to stop, say "Hello" to us, and shake our hands.

Every day we have been here there have been events scheduled ashore by Sail Indonesia and the Indonesian Government. This stop is also a holiday time for Indonesians. It is the end of Ramadan. So many people are here to watch the events ashore.

Just today being ashore was a bit entertaining. There are several Indonesian navy ships anchored outside the rally fleet. Today there was an expo by their navy swimmers. The swimmers were dropped 25 kilometers offshore early in the morning. By noon they had arrived at the beach where hundreds of Indonesians were there to cheer them ashore. At the same time this was happening there was supposed to be a demonstration by the Indonesian Armed Forces parachuting on to the beach. A huge squall hit the beach just as this was starting and there was lots of wind, lightning, and thunder. I thought "No way this is going to happen. It is going to be canceled." Then. just as the rain really started to dump, everyone was looking up at sky. There they were! Dropping down on us right in the middle of the storm. It was a bit crazy as all the parachuters got blown off course. They landed all over the place. One landed out in the water. Several landed far inland. One landed on the beach right in front of us, and another landed right in front of the stage where the announcer was. It was quite chaotic. But all the Indonesians went crazy with excitement, all yelling and screaming as as they surrounded the parachuters as they landed.

After that expo, the Governor of Belitung arrived along with the Indonesian Minister of Fisheries to hand out awards the navy swimmers that had made it to shore.

Whats not to like about Belitung? There are many small beach shacks selling really good seafood and cheap Bintangs. What is even better is that you can buy fireworks here and shoot them right off the beach while you are drink a cold Bintang!

The locals love fireworks. After sunset we can see them in every direction being fired off. When we walk to the beach holding a firework, all the kids come running and get all excited as we light them off.

Trying to buy diesel can be interesting. We found that the beach restaurant the we really like also sells diesel, beer, and whatever else you might need. We ordered 30 gallons from Rusty, the restaurant owner. He said that would be out with it in his boat in 30 minutes. So I headed out in the dinghy back to Sandpiper to meet him. Rusty arrived in his 40 foot wooden fishing boat with his whole family of 20 aboard! They were very interested in the Sandpiper and I took them all aboard. They were all over the boat and were amazed at all that we have below decks. The women kept shaking their heads. I am not so sure that they were all that impressed. But all the men crawled around the engine room checking out our motor.

One thing about being so close to the equator, as we mentioned on several entries before, are the crazy squalls that we get here. Since arriving in Belitung, we seem to get one squall just about every day right at noon. They are quite intense. with crazy lightning and wind. Yesterday we kept trying to get ashore to go snorkeling. But every time we left in the dingy, a squall would show up and chase us back to the boat. Rain would dump right behind the dinghy as we raced the squall back to Sandpiper just in time to get on the boat.

I am hoping that these daily storms are more land influenced. I hope that when we get out of here we will be able to avoid being caught in these at sea. Sandpiper has a couple of features that we are hope will keep us from being struck by lightning. We have a lightning dissipater. It looks like a small brush on the top of the mast. It is supposed to break up any static charges at the top of the mast and hopefully prevent a strike.

We also have a lightning rod made by StrikeShield mounted on the top of the mast. It has a grounding cable that is bolted to the bottom of the mast. We hang the other end of it in the water, which creates a path for the energy of a lightning strike to ground straight into the water. We have no idea if these products really work. But we think it is the best setup possible for the conditions here.

Team Sandpiper's current plans are to leave late this morning with 5 other boats for our next leg of 240 miles. We are hoping that we will make the next anchorage within 48 hours. We are the only boats left here since the rest of the rally fleet has already departed on their way to Singapore.

Several of the boats we are traveling with have had mechanical issues and are all traveling together in case their are any breakdowns along the way. So far Sandpiper is running strong. We have been in Indonesia for 3 months now with very limited facilities for repairs. So most of the boats are looking forward to arriving in Singapore/Malaysia to fix all the things that have broken along the way.

We will also be crossing the equator on our way northwest. The last time we crossed the equator was during our Pacific crossing from Mexico to the Marquesas in French Polynesia (18-April-2006).

Tom and Amy

Dancing Kids

Screaming School Kids at Limbata Island

Harpooners in Whaling Village, Lombata Island, Indonesia

Launching the boat...

Belitung Island

Anchored at Belitung Island
Java Sea
Indonesia
2'33.1S/107'40.5E

Sandpiper is anchored amongst the rally fleet once again!

We left Kumai, Borneo at 5am (sunrise). After transiting the Kumai River, we motor sailed 280 miles to where we are now, anchored off Belitung Island. This was a 2 day and night trip and we had to be time our arrival at Belitung to be 50 miles offshore at sunrise. This was because we had to thread our way through the reefs and islands on the north side of Belitung.

On the first night out there were many fishing boats all along our port side, about 1 every mile , for the whole evenings transit. These boats are squid fisherman. Their boats had very bright halogen lights hanging right over the water to attract the squid. These lights made them visible from a long distance away. They were all fishing at the same depth, and lucky for us, they were in deeper waters than us. This kept them off on the horizon all night as we passed hundreds of them. On Amy's day watch she saw a large wooden fishing vessel that looked like it had caught fire and been abandoned.

On the second night out we passed very close to fishermen with their nets out. Fortunately the float on the end of their nets showed up on our radar. So we were able to make a hard turn to port and avoid running over their net. Our friends on S/V Uterus ran one of these nets over a few days ago as the nets are not marked at night. They ended up sailing right over the net without it snagging their keel or rudder. However, it did bend their depth finder transducer. So it reads twice the depth now.

Out trip timed perfectly and we arrived at sunrise exactly 50 miles off shore. We were able to transit through the north side of Belitung with little drama, passing a few fishing boats along the way. We had to motor the whole way here since there was no wind at all, not even enough for a light breeze to cool the cockpit!

It is quite hot and humid since we are only 200 miles from the equator. There are lots of intense lightning storms, mostly at night. Sandpiper is not a big fan of lightning because one hit will most likely wipe our everything electrical on our boat. We have a lightning grounding rod on the top of the mast that has a grounding cable which we drop into the water when we are near storms. We hope that this protects us.

Our friends on SV Uterus were anchored at an island north of here next to a large Australian catamaran. The catamaran had lightning hit their mast and it destroyed all of the boat's electronics.

Speaking of SV Uterus! As we rounded Belitung, guess who should show up right behind us. We had not seen them since they left Bali and we had though that they were way ahead of us. As soon as we all got our anchors set we dinghied ashore for some cold Bintangs.

Belitung is a large island and we are anchored on the NW side in a small bay. There are a few islands in this bay with white sand beaches and palm trees. Ashore is more white sand beaches. This is the first time that Belitung has been a rally stop . It is quite a show for the locals here since I doubt that sailboats ever stop here, not to mention 40 boats all at once. As soon as we got ashore there was a group of about 100 Indonesians just standing on the beach taking pictures of us and watching everything that we did. Once again we are like rock stars with paparazzi following everywhere we go taking pictures of us.

We found a small outdoor beach restaurant that cooked us up a huge feast of fried squid and fish. Our table had 8 Large icy cold Bintangs, 4 big delicious plates of fried squid, 2 plates of whole grilled fish, a monster bowl of rice, and 2 bowls of sea spinach for $5 dollars each!!

Belitung is the final stop of Sail Indonesia 2007. We will be here for at least 5 days as are events scheduled ashore for the fleet. This is also where we check out of Indonesia. We are 320 miles from Singapore, our next destination.

We are going to be in Sebana Cove Marina for 3 weeks. It is in Malaysia and that will be the next country that we are checking into. The marina has WiFi, a swimming pool, a go cart track, roller blading track, and archery range. Sabana Cove Marina is right across the channel from the island of Singapore and should be a short bus ride across a long bridge that connects Singapore with Malaysia. Marinas in Singapore are quite expensive and the rate for a slip at Sabana Cove is only $8.00 a day... so Malaysia it is for us.

We will be there from the 27th of October till the 17th of November. If anybody wants to send us anything in the mail, our address in Malaysia is:

Tom & Amy Larson
S/V Sandpiper
PO Box 102
Bandar Penawar PO
81900
Kota Tinggi, Johor Darul Takzim
Malaysia

Tom and Amy

Tanjung Puting National Park

Anchored at Kumai
Anchorage #71 in "101 Anchorages Within The Indonesian Archipelago" by Geoff Wilson

Kumai River
Tanjung Puting National Park
Central Kalimantan
Borneo
Indonesia
2'44.7S/111'43.7E

Orangutan means "person of the forest" in the Malay language (orang meaning "person" and hutan meaning "forest"). They are the largest tree dwelling animals in the world, largely living on leaves, bark and flowers. They are the most intelligent beings to have evolved on land along with humans.

We just spent the last 36 hours on the southern end of Borneo participating in the most amazing experience that words can not even begin to describe. Our trip took us through Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan, Borneo, the world's third largest island. The park has complex flora and fauna affected by the fact it lies just a few degrees south of the equator. We experienced everything from dry land, swampy forest and mangroves.

The park is also home to 38 mammals and 9 primates. Some primate that we saw were the Orang-utan, the Proboscis Monkey, the Long Tail Macaque, the Gibbon, and the Leaf Monkey. Along with all of this we also spotted an eagle, a few small crocodiles, snakes, and all of our favorite, the leech. The park is an important conservation area as it preserves the endangered species of Orang-utan, known to live on only two islands, Sumatra, and here on Borneo, both in Indonesia.

Thursday morning at 8:00 am we were picked up on Sandpiper by a Klotok named 'Sprit of the Forest'. A Klotok is a brightly colored, 50 foot, traditional river boat. It was our accommodation and home for the next two days along with our friends Betty, David, Walter, Joyce, Andrew and Cheryl from other boats. It was our transportation when we explored miles of the Sekonyer River.

The Spirit of the Forest had a crew of five. There was our guide, Janie, who was in charge of the boat. Then there was the boat driver, the full time cook, and two boat boys who ran errands all the time. This boat was really cool and had 2 levels. We all sat up top since below was for stowage and the galley. On the stern of the boat was the toilet, that dumped straight into the river. The boat was powered by a very loud, one-cylinder, Chinese diesel engine that was started by a hand crank.

After everyone was on board and settled in we made a four hour trip up the muddy river to our first Orang-utan area, Camp Leakey. Camp Leakey was established in 1971 when Canadian researcher Dr. Birute Galdikas began taking in rescued Orang-utans. The Orang-utans in Borneo and Sumatra are the only great apes outside Africa, and the Doctor knows more about them than anyone. She spent years tracking the wild orang-utans and was the first to document that the birth interval was about once every 8 years, making them vulnerable to extinction.

These camps were established to study and reintroduce orphaned or rescued orang-utans into the wild. Under the supervision of researchers, juvenile orang-utans learn to live in the forest by spending less time away from the camps. However, they got accustomed to human contact and continue to return for afternoon feedings, which we were able to witness.

Before I get ahead of myself, along the way up the river to the camp is where we spotted several different species of monkeys and a few crocs too. Once we entered the camp, just after a short walk, we were greeted by a few friendly orang-utans named Chris and Sampson, whom both walked with us down to the feeding platform. Here at the platform we witnessed several orang-utans enjoying a large quantity of bananas.

Most of these orang-utans were easy going and used to being around people. But there was one female who came to the platform who was not pleasant. She actually got in a fight with a ranger not to long ago, which is not cool, especially since orang-utans are 8 times stronger than us. She kept walking all around the feeding area and we were advised to get out of her way. So when she was on one side, we would all quickly move to the other side while trying not to make her upset or get in her way.

It was just amazing to watch such a thing so close and in their natural jungle setting. I'll never be able to go to a zoo again!

After leaving Camp Leakey we headed downriver to the Rimba Eco Lodge where two of our group had booked a room for the night (since our boat could only sleep 6). They had a nice room with air conditioning and hot showers.

We all had dinner on the boat that night. It was quite a feast that our cook had been sweating over a hot stove over all afternoon to prepare.

The boat stayed tied up to the dock at Rimba Lodge. The boat's crew turned the whole upper deck into one large sleeping area with double mattresses covered with a large mosquito net where we slept peacefully on the river, deep in the jungle.

At sunrise the next morning the crew stowed all the sleeping gear and prepared a tasty breakfast for us before we departed on our next adventure. Our Indonesian crew is Muslim, and since it is Ramadan were fasting between sunrise and sunset. So it was kind of weird as we were feasting on all kinds of great meals while the crew could not eat until after sunset.

They were all super friendly. Our guide Janie had been running boats up this river for the last 6 years and was very knowledgeable about any questions we had. She was able to tell us the names and sexes of all the orang-utans that we saw.

On our second day we visited two more platforms and watched two more feedings. At the morning feeding we saw a big male orang-utan. You can tell how old the males are by their faces. The older they get, the more they develop flatter cheeks and a pouch underneath their chin. We were so close to this big guy. I could stare into his eyes for hours. We also saw a few moms with their baby's tightly clinging to their sides.

Our last feeding platform was very much deep in the jungle. Leeches attached themselves to several of our friends ,and the malaria carrying mosquitoes were out in full force. I've never used so much insect repellent in two days. This platform is were wild orang-utans feed, which was a bit more nerve racking. As soon as you hear the branches moving around you, you look up and see this incredible ape swinging through the air with such grace. It is so surreal.

The reason for these feeding platforms is due to habitat loss, which equals loss of food for these great apes. Large scale mining, logging, and palm oil production pose considerable threat to the rainforests and all that live therein. Without these feeding platforms, the orang-utans of Borneo will be critically endangered.

Our trip home, back down the river, was complete with a fire fly and lighting extravaganza. With an arrival in town at 9:00pm we were greeted with fireworks and Mosque blaring the celebration to the end of Ramadan.

This trip has been a once in a lifetime experience that we will never forget. Just looking at the photos and short video clips we took I just asked Tom if we could go back again tomorrow. If you would like to help save these great apes or learn more about the trip we took you can do so at www.orangutan.org.

Tomorrow, Saturday, we leave for a 300 mile trip to Belitung, our last stop in Indonesia before heading off to Malaysia.

Love to all,
Amy

Kalimantan, Borneo

Anchored at the Kumai River Mouth
Anchorage #70 in "101 Anchorages Within The Indonesian Archipelago" by Geoff Wilson

Central Kalimantan
Borneo
Indonesia
2'54.2S/111'42.2E

Amy and I want to give a HUGE shout out to our friend Senior Chief Boatswains Mate Chris Allaire who is retiring from the U.S. Coast Guard today after 20 years of service. Way to go Chris. We cannot wait to see you out here!! Check out SV Christa's website as Cap'n Chris starts his cruising adventures on SV Christa down the East Coast of the U.S. on his way to the Caribbean and beyond. It's linked on this page on the lower right.

Team Sandpiper is currently anchored right inside the mouth of the Kumai River on the southern end of Borneo inside a small bay. We left Pulau Baweanour at 5am (sunrise) for our overnight 180nm trip to where we are anchored now. We would have left earlier, but we needed daylight since the first 20 miles of this trip passed through many fishing boats and fish floats which we had to dodge. This trip was much less stressful than our previous overnighter since there were far less fishing boats out. The only boats we saw were a group of fishing boats with bright halogen lights all over them, and a tug with a barge.

We were able to sail for a few hours, but lost the wind and ended up motoring for the majority of the time. We did not want to arrive here after sunset because the C-Map electronic charts are a bit off here and cannot be relied on for precise navigation.

We are currently at 2 degrees south latitude. This means that we are now back in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, better known as The Doldrums. The last time we passed through this latitude was when we crossed the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to the Marquesas. Being in this latitude means that there are no trade winds and very unstable weather. There is lots of lightning, thunder and insane rain storms. This is the first rain we have been in since being on the east coast of Australia. Sandpiper is enjoying having her decks kept clean.

Because there are no trade winds, Sandpiper has to motor most of the time since we have to keep on moving and the winds are quite light most of the time. That is unless we are getting hit by a squall when everything goes crazy.

After dropping the hook right off the beach in this small bay and congratulating ourselves with a cocktail we were pummeled by a huge squall with insane lighting flashing overhead and booming thunder. Right after that we were hit by a deluge of rain and wind. The wind blew us up towards the beach leaving only 5 feet of water under Sandpiper. Since it was so dark and raining hard, we did not want to pull up the anchor and move. So we took in 25 feet of chain and that was enough to pull us over to 9 feet of water where we felt safe for the night.

We are planning on staying here at anchor until noon when the flood tide starts. Then we will make our way 10 miles up the Kumai River. We are planning on staying here for possibly a week because we are going to leave Sandpiper at anchor and take a river boat up the river on an overnight trip to visit the Orangutans who live in the jungle in this part of Borneo.

Our cell phone decided to ride out our last squall in the cockpit and ended up going swimming. So this means that we no longer have a phone.

Tom and Amy

Note From Ron: Here is a good article from the S/V Moonshadow, a cruiser who stopped here in 2005 and took a boat up the river to the Orangutan reserve.

Pulau Bawean

Anchored at Pulau Bawean
Anchorage #69 in "101 Anchorages Within The Indonesian Archipelago" by Geoff Wilson

East Java
Java Sea
Indonesia
5'43.7S/112'40.0E

It seems that we forgot to mention while we were in the Bali Marina that Team Sandpiper celebrated our second year of sailing west. We left San Francisco on 28-Sep-2005. Thanks to all our readers and followers who have followed us on this site. Keep on checking on us as we still have many adventures ahead! If your new to the site then go back to the beginning and check out our first entry.

We arrived late this morning after a crazy overnight 100 mile sail where we encountered just about every type of object on the water that there is. Matt and Julie, thanks for making sure that Sandpiper has radar!!. We left our last anchorage at 10am because we wanted to make sure that we were 10 miles offshore of Pulau Bawean by sunrise the next day. We had been warned of floating fish traps located far offshore. As we left yesterday, many local fishing boats came by to wave at us. After that we went through a 40 mile stretch of long line fishing gear that is permanently anchored to the bottom of the sea. Long bamboo rafts mark each end of the long line. All along this 40 mile stretch we passed fishing gear and boats all over the place. It seems that anyone that lives near the water in Indonesia is a fisherman, and there are thousands of them everywhere.

Around sunset we cleared this area of fishing gear to cross a shipping lane. A tug and barge came quite close to us and forced us to turn left 90 degrees because was towing a large barge with no lights!

Around midnight we passed the a Camar Oil Field offshore drilling platform. We could see it from over 20 miles away because it has a huge fireball over it where they burn off their excess gases. We came within 2 miles of this facility.

After that we had a very close encounter with an Indonesian fishing boat who decided that he wanted to cross our bow no matter what we did. We had to make another 90 degree turn to avoid hitting him since he passed close enough that I could light him up with a flashlight.

The problem with the fishing boats here is that they do not have standard running lights. They attach what ever light they can find that will that will operate on their boats. As result, you get what we saw last night. A boat with many different colored lights, and even LED lights that flash and change colors. This makes it impossible to figure out what direction that they are going. Without radar we would probably run into some of the boats the decided that they do not need any lights at all.

We were told by some of the other boats we have been traveling with that the Indonesian fishermen cross as close to your bow as possible because they want to throw off their bad fishing luck onto your boat. I guess that they think we must just be another fishing boat since there are not other sailing boats in this area. And this would explain why every time we see a boat they head straight for our bow. It is really unnerving at night when they do this!

We made into anchorage at Pulau Bawean this morning along with our friends on SV Sunburn (NZ) who had been within a couple of miles of us all night. We found our friends on SV Sundance (US) have beaten us here from Bali.

This island is mountainous and about 6 miles across. There is a small village along the shore here. It is very Muslim. Along the shoreline there is a large mosque with a mirrored roof and a large tower where they play their calls-to-prayer 24 hours a day. Its easily heard from where we are anchored.

Tomorrow's plans are to get up at 4am for a very early start for our next jump north of 180 miles. We are hoping to arrive late afternoon the following day at Kumai River in Borneo to head upriver to visit our distant relatives, the Orangutans, who live in the jungle there.

More when we get there,
Tom and Amy

Sergang, Madura Island

Sergang
Madura Island
East Java
Indonesia
6'52.0S/113'51.8E

Greetings from the small village of Sergang! Team Sandpiper got out of the anchorage at Raas Island at 7am this morning along with friends on SV Sunburn (NZ) and another boat, SV Meridian (AU), for a 40 mile motor sail to where we are anchored now, right off the beach in 13ft of water. This is just a stop for the night because we did not want to transit this area at night due to all the unlit objects in the water in this area.

We are bit exposed here as there is no protection from the swells. I think that the anchorages that have been too deep for us to drop anchor in Indoneisa are now in the past. Now we are in the Java Sea, which is quite shallow. I think we might be the only sailboats to ever anchor off of this village.

This part of Indonesia is quite nice. The houses along the shoreline are very nice and have real roofs. As we approached where we wanted to anchor, dozens of small local fishing boats passed us on their way out to sea, waving hello to us as they went out for their night of fishing. The local boat traffic here really likes to get close and cross right across our bow. They are not trying be rude. They do this so they can be close enough to say hello and give us a wave as they pass us.

Team Sandpiper's current plans are to leave here tomorrow at 10am along with the other boats with us for a 100 mile overnight trip to the island of Bawean where we plan to anchor for the night. Then we plan continue on for another 170 miles to Kumai on the southern end of Borneo so we can travel upriver and visit Orangutans.

We want to be able to sail during daylight hours so we can see all the junk in the water here. We don't want to get tangle up with it. There are unlit fishing boats, bamboo fish rafts, ships, barges. Also, along our track line, there is a huge oil rig that we are hoping to avoid.

Tom and Amy

Palau Raas

Anchored at Palau Raas
Indonesia
7'07.1S/114'30.2E

Greetings from Palau Raas!

Team Sandpiper left early yesterday morning from the Bali Marina and rounded the northeast coast of Bali. This was done after many discussions over cold Bintang's on which side of Bali was the best way to get to the north side. The problem is that the currents constantly flow in a southerly direction on both sides of Bali Island. We decided to go up the NE coast because this was the route that a majority of boats have taken in the past. Even though the northwest route was shorter, we would have had to sail in the middle of the night through an area with fishing boats and fishing gear all over the place.

We countered the southerly current by sailing as close to shore as possible and catching a northerly counter-current along the beach. This required us to be as close to the shore as possible, so close that we passed many surfers waiting to catch a wave right off Sandpipers port side as we passed. Eventually the farther north we got, the faster we went, making over 8 knots by the end of the day. It was really weird though because we could see the current ripping the other way right off our starboard side.

Along the beaches we saw outrigger sailing canoes that the local fishermen had pulled up on the sand. There were thousands of these boats all along the shore. As we motored north, hugging the shore, locals yelled to us "Hello!". At sunset there were thousands of outrigger fishing boats all over the place trying to make their catch before dark. I have photos of these boats on our photo album from when we were sailing into Bali. They are everywhere. We had boats on all sides of Sandpiper as we passed through. Several of them chased us to try to sell us their catch.

As mentioned before, all along the coast lines in Indonesia there are bamboo rafts anchored off shore to attract fish. When they drag their lure by, they might catch a fat fish. The only real problem is that these rafts are all over the place and are not lit at night. We ran the radar all night on the 1 mile range dodging these rafts whenever they popped up. I dodged over 10 of these on my watch alone, and these were all within one mile!

We dropped anchor at noon next to our Kiwi friends on S/V Sunburn. Their son Fin was having his 8th birthday and we were all aboard for the big party.

Tomorrow's plans is to get an early start for a 40 mile run to the next anchorage before nightfall. And we hope to dodge all the fishing gear in the water.

Team Sandpiper Update 2 Oct 2007

Still Moored Bali Marina
Anchorage #64 in "101 Anchorages Within The Indonesian Archipelago" by Geoff Wilson

Bali Island
Indonesia
8'44.4S/115'12.8E

Bali, Week 2 and Week 3

Believe it or not we are still in fabulous Bali! I'm not even sure what we have been doing with our time but I know the days are not long enough for us to enjoy all Bali has to offer. We could easily spend a few more weeks or even months here but it is time for us to press on.

We will unleash our lines and rat guards from the Bali Marina dock sometime early tomorrow (Wednesday Oct 3) morning. The marina has been really nice in that we've been able to fill up on water, wash the boat, plug into power, do a few odd jobs and just feel secure about leaving the boat.

Since our last entry we have been doing a little of this and a little of that. We finally took our boogie boards to Kuta beach and once we arrived early morning we were both in awe of the size of the waves. Around the full moon the waves can get big (double overhead), way too big for us novice boarders. After an hour of watching the surfers it seemed the size of the waves had decreased so we gave it a go and had a blast. I still prefer the smaller waves that I can ride for distance rather than the big guys, hopefully we will be able to use the boards later in our journey.

After a fantastic day of shopping and message we went out with our friends on S/V Uterus for a great dinner and many drinks. We hit a few of the crazy Kuta dance clubs, The Bounty and Paddy’s, two of the well known grimy tourist hang outs. I even made it into a cage and was able to brush up on my cage dancing skills. Mom, you would be so proud (photos coming soon)!

A little about the massage I had. It was at Jari Menari, which means 'dancing fingers'. It is known as one of the best places to get a message in Bali because its masseurs train staff from other spas. They have an all male team as they say men are more consistent with the pressure. Their style is Balinese, which is more long strokes, rocking, and stretching. After 75 minutes I was feeling great! Jari Menari gets two thumbs up from me.

We have also been adding to our DVD collection, finding great deals as "Buy 30, Get 14 free". They are a $1 each. What a deal.

This past week we finally made it up to the town of Ubud. Ubud is the center of 'cultural tourism' in Bali. There are numerous temples, ancient sites, and lots of interesting craft centers. Our main objective was to walk the rice fields and check out the art.

The road leading up to Ubud is broken into a few towns all specializing in different mediums; batik, wood carving, stone carving, painting, and silver/gold jewelry. Walking around Ubud you can see a little of all of these. Ubud is a real hippy/dippy town, a popular place for yoga retreats, and meditation. It is a very tranquil place.

The second morning of our stay I wanted to find a gentlemen that gave walking tours through the rice fields. We never found him, but we did meet Wayan. Wayan approached us and asked us "You want to come up here and see a great view of the rice fields?" Two hours and several miles later we walked through rice fields, down into the jungle and back out again, over bamboo bridges, and through temples.

We ended up in a small, true traditional Bali neighborhood. No tourists or restaurants out here. Traditionally the Balinese family all live together on one compound. There are usually 4 house structures, a kitchen, a communal living area, and family temple. The most impressive feature to me are the front gates of these compounds with their intricately carved gates.

Another Balinese custom is to name the children, boys and girls, using only four names. The first born is named Wayanv (pronounced 'Why-Ann), second is name Madev ('Mah-Day), third is named Nyoman, and finally the fourth is named Ketut. If they have a fifth child then they start the names all over again.

Ubud was a place we really enjoyed and again wish we had more time to spend. Maybe next time.

Our time here in Bali is up. We have less than one month left on our visa and still have a few hundred nautical miles to cover. Tomorrow we say our final goodbye. We have had a most enlightening cultural experience staying here. Thanks to Bali my dreams are now filled with images of calming rice fields and the sounds of chanting from nearby temples.

Terima Kasih (thank you) Bali

Tom Note; We have been busy while here in Bali getting photos posted whenever we could find internet here. Check out our new photos. They are caught up to Bali. Even better, we have been getting some of our many short video clips posted on YouTube at http://youtube.com/results?search_query=12170213&search=Search.

Bali - Week 1

Moored at Bali Marina
Anchorage #64 in "101 Anchorages Within The Indonesian Archipelago" by Geoff Wilson

Bali Island
Lesser Sunda Islands
Indonesia
8'44.4S/115'12.8E

Greetings from fabulous Bali! We've been having the time of our lives since being here in southern Bali. Upon arrival I was pleasantly surprised that Bali is a lot nicer and cleaner than I had imagined. Apparently, after the Bali bombings, security has really been pumped up and the island physically cleaned up. In our first week here we have accomplished little more than walking and eating our way through a few of the surrounding towns.

Our original plan was to spend our time at the small Bali Marina in Benoa Harbor. But due to it's maximum occupancy we grabbed a mooring in front of the Royal Bali Yacht Club on Pulau Serangan (Turtle Island). While circling the anchorage looking for an empty mooring, a few locals directed us their friend's mooring. For $40,000R a day, it was ours.

Being the only boat in the anchorage, the locals were very attentive to all our wants and needs. I found the best laundry service I've had in the past two years Not only was it washed with fabric softener, but it was dried and ironed as well. I was continually dropping off bags of laundry and no matter the size of the load, it always came to $32,000R (a little over USD$3). What a deal.

As soon as we came to shore we had the locals helping with our trash, filling our water jugs, taking our laundry, selling us rides to nearby towns, and tours of the island. And of course , they pushed their tourist trinkets. It was obnoxious to put it nicely.

We did, however, befriend our neighbors and took advantage of their fantastic woodworking craftsmanship. We have had a dry rot problem with our port cockpit bench for as long as I've been around. But we didn't want to spend the thousands of dollars it would have taken to get fixed in The States. So we got an estimate from our neighbors here. In one week we had a perfect, shiny, new bench. You never really know what you might end up, with especially when there is a language barrier. But we are really pleased with the results. So pleased that we hired them to wax the haul of the boat for $2 an hour.

Since we had these guys on board for a week we figured it would be a great opportunity to get off the boat and enjoy a hotel. With the help of my dad and a few of his friends, we spent four nights at the Hard Rock Hotel, Kuta, Bali. Originally we were only staying for two nights. But the big bed, air conditioning, TV, room service, bath tub, pool, and spa were really hard to give up. So we extend. We weren't in the room 5 minutes before I was in the shower. It was such a great treat. It even felt like a real vacation.

We have basically been getting rides into the nearby towns of Kuta and Sanur, walking the alleys, and checking out shops and restaurants. Bali has some really great eats and cheap shopping. They have everything from cheap souvenirs, pirated DVD's for $1, fancy Balinese lace, wood carvings, and small boutique stores.

Earlier in the week we went to the Pura Luhur Uluwatu temple with our friends from S/V Uterus. This temple is perched on the top of a sheer cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean and pays homage to the sea. Before entering the temple you are given a yellow sash which you must wear around your waist to show respect. The temple landscape is not only lovely with its fantastic views, but filled with monkeys too. If your not careful with your belongings, then the monkey's will take them.

Every evening at 6 o'clock the locals perform a fire dance called the Kecak, one of the most popular dances in Bali. We plan to visit a few other temples on the island, the rice paddies, and the small mountain town of Ubud.

Just this morning were we able to get into the marina. While here we will charge the batteries, fill up on water, wash the boat and dingy, and finish posting photos. I would like to spend at least one more week here in southern Bali and do a few more tourist attractions.

Stay tuned for another update on Bali with week two.......

Cheers
Amy and Tom

New Photos being posted!!

Greetings from Bali!!

Sandpiper is safely moored in front of the Royal Bali Yacht Club safe from all the earthquakes and tidal waves in the rest of Indonesia. We are going to be here for 2 weeks so keep checking out our photo link as we are working hard to get the tons of photo's we have taken since we have arrived in Indoneisa. Internet is scarce in Indoneisia and we will by busy trying to get everything updated while we are here, so keep on checking!!
Tom and Amy

Nusa Lembongan, Bali

On mooring ball at Nusa Lembongan
Anchorage #63 in "101 Anchorages Within The Indonesian Archipelago" by Geoff Wilson

Nusa Lembongan
Bali
Indonesia
8'40.7S/115'26.3E

Greetings from Nusa Lembongan!

Team Sandpiper woke at the crack of dawn and left Lombok Island just as all the Indonesian fisherman were returning from a night's fishing in their small wooden outrigger canoes. These fisherman go out at night to hand line fish in the straight between Bali and Lombok islands. Then they return in the mornings. We had just raised our sails up and were flying along. Then every where we looked there were small sails coming right at us at a very high speed.

These little outrigger boats are quite cool. They have a small wooden hull in the middle where the fisherman sits in the back to steer. Then there are two bamboo poles on each side for outriggers which keep these small boats from flipping over when sailing. They all had a small sails attached to 2 bamboo poles. and each boat had a differently colored sail so they can identify each other where they are out on the water. These small outriggers sail very fast, and there was a strong wind pumping today. So for some time we had these little outriggers flying by us going the opposite direction, with all the fisherman waving at us as they flew by.

Sandpiper, believe it or not, finally had a following current and a beam reach today! It pushed us along at over 9 knots for the whole trip. I can get used to sailing at 9 knots since we made it to where we are presently moored in half the time we had expected. We managed to arriving at noon.

Lembongan Island is not what we expected. Our guide book makes this sound like a small remote bay where surfers come to hang out. Upon arrival we had to pass by two large barges with water slides that are anchored out in the bay. They have large powered catamaran's bring out loads of tourists from Bali. Then for the afternoon their passengers get to slide down the water slides into the ocean, kayak, jet ski, or just snorkel around.

We had to maneuver around speed boats dragging tourists around on inflatable bananas. There were glass bottom boat rides cruising around.

We were able to find an empty mooring buoy right next to our friends on SV Uterus. So we are hooked up! If you have been a 'Team Sandpiper' follower then you know how we like to use mooring buoys. It is really nice here to be on a buoy. Otherwise, we would have to drop our anchor in 15 feet of water right into a live reef.

After getting Sandpiper secured, SV Stormslaven arrived to moor right next to us. They are another boat from Norway that we had not seen since Kupang. They are a lot of fun to hang out with. Tonight, Team Sandpiper will be hanging out with the Norwegian Fleet of 2.

This part of Indonesia is a stark contrast to the Indonesia that we have been experienced previously. We are now in the land of tourists and only 12 miles from Bali. Tomorrow's plans are to sail the 12 miles to Bali where we hope to find a slip at the Bali Marina. If no slip is available, then we will find a secure spot to anchor and wait until one opens up.

We are planning on being there for the next 2 weeks or more, and Amy has many great things planned for us. Keep checking us as during the next 2 weeks we are hoping to have time to get all our photos updated since we have not had internet access since Australia. We also have some really great video files. We are going to post and some really great audio files for our podcast that should be posted soon.

Tom and Amy

Teluk Kombal

Anchored at Teluk Kombal
Anchorage #58 in "101 Anchorages Within The Indonesian Archipelago" by Geoff Wilson

Lombok Island
West Nusa Tenggara
Indonesia
8'24.3S/116'04.3E

As I write this there are 2 mosques off the beach where Sandpiper is anchored. It is after dark and they both have their call to prayer speakers blaring.

We woke up early, left Gili Air, came here and found a mooring buoy right off the beach in this small bay in NW Lombok Island. We had been told by our friends on SV Shiraz that this was a good place to get fuel because the fuel prices here are cheap compared to Bali. We went ashore as soon as we moored and found Mohammad, who arranged everything for us.

Benjamin and myself arranged to get a ride into town to find an ATM to pay for fuel. Nothing is ever what is seems here. I thought it would be a 5 minute ride to the bank. Instead, it was a one hour drive over the mountains. Along the way we saw hundreds of monkeys everywhere. We stopped to check them out and they were everywhere that we looked. I think they liked watching the cars driving by and they just sit along side the road.

Along the river saw where people were gathering up stones from the river bed to be sold by the side of the road for gravel, or to mix with concrete. If you ever think you have a rotten job, think again. All along the road side were men and woman of all ages breaking rocks with hammers to make gravel.

We ended up in a large city. I am not sure of the city's name as our driver did not speak any English and could not understand when we were asking about the name of the city. We did find a big bank where were we were able to get cash out of the ATMs, I took out Rp400,000,000 Rupiah, which equals about USD$400.00. The thing is that the largest note you can get in Indonesia is a 50,000. So my pockets were stuffed with my millions of local currency.

Our driver also took us to a large grocery store that had everything that we had not been able to find since arriving in Indonesia. We even found some cheese!

As third world as it is here with cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and horses dragging carts everywhere, right next to our grocery store was a MacDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Being a Muslim country, I do not think the Big Macs are a hot item here. Instead, the MacDonalds had fried chicken with soup and rice.

After getting everything that we needed in the city we drove back over the mountains, stopped to feed to monkeys some McDonalds french fries (not sure if this is part of their regular diet), and finally got back to Sandpiper some 4 hours after we. And we left thinking we were going on a 5 minute drive!

The rest of the day consisted of Amy scrubbing Sandpiper down, and ferrying jugs of diesel back and forth from the beach. Sandpiper took on 400 liters of Diesel (called "Solar" here). Now we are the fullest on fuel that we have ever been due to a miscalculation on my part of not knowing exactly how much 400 liters of fuel was going to be.

Another really weird thing that happened to us out here several mornings ago. We checked our cell phone and saw we missed a call, at 1am, from an Indonesian phone number. Amy texted the number back asking "Who are you?. It turns out that it was our Indonesian quarantine officer Jusly that had checked us into Indonesia in Kupang. He wanted to know when his picture was going to posted on our web site. He had found our phone number on Sandpipers site. This must have taken some reading since there have been quite a number of entries since then.

We are hoping to catch up on our photos as soon as we get to Bali since internet access is pretty much nonexistent in most of Indonesia. We have quite a few photos to post since we have been taking tons of photos while we have been here.

We are planning on leaving at sunrise for a small island right off of the coast of Bali. We will stay there for the night so we can make an early entry to the marina at Bali the next day.

Tom and Amy

Notes from Ron: Actually there is a Rp100,000 note in circulation, which is the largest. Perhaps they just don't stock the ATM's with these.

Gili Air

Anchored at Gili Air
Anchorage #59 in "101 Anchorages Within The Indonesian Archipelago" by Geoff Wilson

Lombok Island
West Nusa Tenggara
Indonesia
8'21.9S/116'04.8E

Team Sandpiper has been anchored off the small island of Gili Air for the last 4 days. We left Gili Lawang at 7am hoping to catch a following tide. No such luck. So we motored around the north end of Lombok Island and caught a following tide on the west side of Lombok Island.

We arrived in Gili Air at 3pm and found a free mooring buoy which we quickly tied off to. We are big fans of mooring buoys as we can leave the boat right away to go ashore and not worry about Sandpiper dragging anchor when there is a wind or tide change. The downside to this is you really have no idea what the mooring looks like below the water. You just hope that everything is good down there.

Gili Air gets our vote as one of our most favorite stops in Indonesia so far. That is why we have spent the last four days here along with our friends from SV Uterus. Gili Air is one of 3 small islands 1/2 mile off the northwest coast of Lombok Island. All 3 islands are little different. Gili Air is about 2 miles across and has small beach bungalows and beach bars that cater to western tourists. The beach bungalows are mostly set up for back packers. There is no air conditioning and the rooms are quite cheap. Also, there are no motor vehicles on any of the 3 islands. If you want to get around, then there are small horses that drag small carts (called cidomos) around to take you to where you need to go.

The beach bars all have little shacks with comfy pillows that you can hang out in while they keep bringing ice cold, super cheap, Bintangs.

This time of year is near the off season for tourists. So we really have the island to ourselves at night because most the visitors come over from Lombok Island in small boats and are all gone by sunset.

We had a great dinner with our friends from SV Uterus at a small restaurant along the shoreline. We had plate full of giant prawns that they grilled up for us, along with many cold Bintangs to wash all this down. It cost only for USD$30.00 for all 4 of us.

Another favorite thing we found is that some of the restaurants here have bamboo enclosures with large pillows on the beach where you can watch DVD movies while you have your lunch. We liked this so much we did this for two days in a row!

We also took a tour of the island on one of the cidomos (horse drawn carts). That was alot of fun. The horses are quite small. And I think we gave our horse a good work out.

Today Amy and I woke early and took a small, wooden, ferry boat over to Gili Trawangan. On the way the ferry stopped at Gili Meno, which is the middle of these 3 islands. Gili Meno is the second largest of the three island. It too has beach bungalows and small restaurants, but it does not have power, so everything is very basic.

Gili Trawangan is the largest of the three islands, and it is the main island where tourists come to play. There are many small hotels and restaurants. Some of the hotels are quite nice with pools, air conditioning, and satellite TV. Gili Trawangan is known for its party atmosphere and there are many bars to choose from. We had our first western food since arriving in Indonesia having a giant breakfast. Amy had a Bloody Mary and I had a great Irish Coffee. After breakfast we walked around looking at all the white tourists drinking Margaritas on the beach. This was followed up with burgers and frys for lunch.

These islands are known as the place to come and party. There are no police and you can pretty much get anything you need here. Everywhere we went there were signs for "magic mushroom" omelets. Anything you wanted to smoke is here as well. The weird part about these 3 islands is that all the Indonesians that live here claim to be Muslim. But they certainly don't seem to be following any of its preachings. It is definitely a huge contrast to the Indonesia we have experienced so far. But it is tons of fun!

I would very much recommend to anyone that was looking to go somewhere for a vacation to check out the Gili Islands. It is only a ferry ride over from Bali. If you are done hanging out here, then you can go back and spend the rest of your time in Bali. Indonesia is very inexpensive and you would really have to go out of your way to spend a lot of money.

Team Sandpiper's current plans are to motor 1 mile over to Lombok Island in the morning and see about loading up on diesel. This is supposed to be a cheap place to get fuel. Then we are going to leave the following morning to work our way west towards a marina in Bali, 50 miles away, where we are planning on spending several weeks.

Tom and Amy