Selayar to Komodo

 

Entretainment a the Mayer's welcoming dinner

Colourful coral 

First look at a Komodo Dragon

Komodo Dragons smell with their tongue!

Dinner once a month!

Selayar to Komodo

Nov.2 2015

Oct 31 to Nov.1 we spent sailing from Selayar to Komodo Island. The boys on Tahawus were disappointed to miss Halloween as they had been planning on visiting each of us in costume and getting candy. That will be postponed to another time. It was a disappointing sail as the wind died down to almost nothing but on the nose. By the time we reached Komodo it was the wrong tidal direction for travelling the pass between Flores and Komodo. The current against us varied between 3 and 6 knots. For 15 miles it was a slow trip, but everyone was anchored before dark on Sun.

I need to backtrack for awhile now as I have not written about the last two days in Selayar. We did another bus tour on Thurs. We drove up into the rainforest and visited an historic village up there. It was amazing to see the way the houses are built on stilts resting without support on the rocks. But they are over a 100 years old. Some of the inhabitants are also that old as they are known for longevity. We had lunch by a turtle hatchery on the beach. It is run by volunteers to protect the turtles that nest on the beach there. We stopped at a small museum and also at a few sites that have relics from the past, a cannon from the Chinese traders of the 17th century, a huge Chinese bell, and an old huge anchor.

Thurs night we had a welcome ceremony from the mayor of the town. It was combined with the anniversary of the Art Society. Art was referring to the encouragement of the local traditions of music, costumes and dancing. Before the performances we were served a traditional dinner in one of the homes. After many speeches and some video of the area, there were groups of dancers and musicians. The costuming was very elaborate, and, to me, oriental in design. The highlight was a group of boys doing drums in a very contemporary style, lots of body movement incorporated.

On Friday we took a boat trip to a nearby island to do diving or snorkelling. That was a relaxing full day's trip. During these last few days Bill was not feeling too well and he had Tim, who is a Dr and on No Regrets, check him out. His pulse was irregular so they went over to the hospital for an echocardiogram. That cost him an hour's time and $6! They diagnosed atrial fibrillation. The problem for him and the rally is that there are no medical facilities on Komodo so it would be taking a risk to come here. In the end he spent 2 nights in a hotel in town and then flew to Bali where there is better medical facilities. He will stay there until we get to Lombok next week and he will have a better idea about what the problem is. There are ferries between Lombok and Bali. We plan on making that trip for a few days as a "vacation" from the boat and to see Bali, of course.

Coming back to today, Monday, on Komodo. The thing to do here, of course, is to see the Komodo dragons, which are very large lizards. Being cold blooded they are not active in the heat of the day. We went onshore for a 7 to 9 am hike with a park ranger. The entire island is a national park. We saw about a dozen of them. Full grown they are about 3 meters in length. They kill by staying camouflaged until they have a chance to bite their prey. There have such strong bacteria in their mouths that they just wait for the victim to die. Their normal food source are the deer that live here. One deer will last them a month, but they can eat the whole thing. Occasionally they kill a person so you need to be careful and stay with a guide who carries a pronged stick. They don't suggest that you sit on the beach in the evenings. So far, we have just seen wild boar on the beach where we are anchored. There are also many types of poisonous snakes but they are not often seen unless you hike in the grasses inland.

We are here until Thurs with nothing specifically planned . There are many anchorages with good diving to visit. Today we are doing much needed boat chores. On this past trip, when we went to start the motor nothing happened. Fortunately it was in the middle of nowhere so had time to work on the problem. Rob isolated it to no power getting to the starter motor despite good batteries. We contacted Norm, on Tahawus, who knows a lot about boat electronics. Basically, Rob hotwired it to start which we did several times on the trip. Norm came over for a few hours today and tracked down the problem which will be fixed for next time. After his visit, Rui, from Blue Wind, has been on the boat all afternoon helping Rob repair the remote autopilot. He had some spare parts and also the expertise, but no luck yet.

On Oct 28 there was a hijacking of a sailing yacht in the passage between Lombok and Bali, our next destination. The German couple and boat are still missing, but they had time to send a cell phone message. We have been discussing whether we should travel without lights and AIS or just stay together. With all the boat traffic I think the bigger danger would be getting hit accidentally if no one could see you. Since we travel the slowest I would feel bad about the others having to slow down. So far, the forecast is likely to be light winds again. We will probably just relax for a few days. It is nice to be in a bay with clear water and no commercial traffic or garbage.