Sunday, July 31, 2011
July 29-30 - Shopping in Kupang
It's mighty easy to want to avoid visiting places like westernized-style supermarkets and malls in countries where they are not the norm, but they are part of how the country is changing. Not so westernized that there was a McDonalds, mind you, but there was a KFC!
The highlight of the mall stop was...well, us! The very tall foreigners. I hadn't totally absorbed it before, but Timorese people are pretty small. A flock of Muslim teenagers giggled their way up to us and asked if they could snap a picture with their cell phone. Later, three girls selling cosmetics latched onto Don for same.
The other end of the shopping spectrum is the city market, a rabbit warren of stalls and sheds bringing the country foodstuffs to city dwellers. Here we were besieged by ladies clamoring for our attention and young boys trying to sell us plastic bags for our purchases. Without Ayub, we were reduced to point-and-flounder and hold our a fist full of rupiah for them to pick from, until we were rescued by Mrs. Tali, a nice lady on her day off from cooking at a hotel, who took over our communications.
In exchange, Tom invited her (and Nabil) to join us for lunch. He chose a "Pedang" restaurant where you sit at a table and the waiter delivers a colander full of steamed rice a dozen small precooked dishes from which you pick what you want to eat. The food was interesting and good (if not hot!), and I suspect our two Timorese guests, who stuck mostly to rice, raised some mental eyebrows at how much Americans can (and can afford) to eat!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
July 28, 2011 -- Island Tour with Ayub
Thursday was island tour day, (although, since Timor is a very large island, an "island tour" here is nowhere near an "island" tour, but rather a tour of the area around Kupang city) but everybody seemed to have different plans. It's an odd thing about Sail Indonesia's planning: no one is exactly sure what the plan actually is! Several things seemed to be in the works: There was a bus tour organized by "the girls" ( with no indication who "the girls" are! ), there was a tour that our friend Robin of Endangered Species was recruiting for,, which we thought was that same bus tour but turned out was not, and then there was our inclination to go small with our own "facilitator" Ayub....which, of course he was eager for us to do!
In the end, that is what we opted for, and we think we made a very good choice. The four of us (five with Ayub) were able to enjoy the comfort of a six-passenger air-conditioned taxi along with Ayub's undivided attention. (Can't totally say the same for our driver. His attention was divided between the road, his cell phone, and a video playing on a screen in the dash!) We did, however, pick up the itinerary for the bus tour, and used it as a reference for things we didn't want to miss out on.
To start we headed east out of the city. Just the experience of driving along is, as we have already mentioned, an e-ticket adventure, plus there is a kaleidoscope of images to process as you whirr along. We tried all day to capture pictures out the car windows of motorbikes with families of four or loads of cements bags or lumber; the tree-limb scaffolding used in construction, not to mention interesting houses and intriguing businesses.
Out in the countryside, the houses fell away to rice fields, dotted here and there by heavy-horned cattle. On the flat coastal plain, these were not as atmospheric as the terraced rice fields we will see in Bali, but still it is exciting to see something first hand you have only previously seen in National Geographic!
Abruptly there was a strand of small roadside stands selling sacks of salt that the locals harvest and sell for cooking and salting fish. We had to stop and buy a bag.
Our objective, however, was the premises of a virtuoso sasando musician. From the nearby island a Roti, the sasando is a unique Indonesian instrument. It is hard to describe: At the center is a wooden cylinder, studded with frets over which steel strings are fitted and tuned. An ancient sasando on display had about six strings, but more modern ones have up to 48. A special palm leaf is wrapped halfway around the cylinder to form a sounding board of sorts. It has the neat feature of pleating closed and then un-pleating to open, like Chinese fan. It is sort of a cross between a guitar and a harp!
Reigning over the shop (they also make dozens of small-scale sasandos for souvenirs), was an elderly gentlemen who, seeing us coming in, disappeared out back only to reappear in full performance regalia of ikat sarong, and ikat scarf over his shirt, plus the most outlandish hat you can imagine. It is sort of like a straw sombrero with a slender spiky crown that thrusts up and back. Don and Tom both tried one on, but mercifully didn't buy one to bring home. Bette Lee and I were sufficiently stunned not to think to ask what the history of it was.
This gentleman played the ancient sasando (said to be from the 16th century) for us producing a very pleasant, if slight tinny Asian style tune. His charisma was magic. He was followed by a younger man (son? student?) who then played a concert of modern pop tunes on an amplified 48-string version.
Interestingly, we were not the sole audience. Also in the shop was a platoon of about eight or ten policemen. They listened and snuck pictures of us with their cell phones. We took pictures of them back, and they were thrilled! Later, they set to playing a gamelan in the other corner. A gamelan is a set of roundish gongs played percussively with sticks. The elderly gentleman and I danced together, which earned me an ikat scarf. It was a fun time, especially as we got out without either a sasando or a hat, although we did buy the CD!
Back in the city, we next went to an ikat factory. Ikat is the handsome cotton weaving the area is famous for. Every island hereabouts has its traditional styles. Bette Lee, who has been to Bali twice before, is a bit of a connoisseur. This was a good thing, because Ayub's English might not have otherwise covered it!
In the back of the house was a huge area with four or five looms to demonstrate the process. Traditionally the cotton is grown and spun by the women of the house. The strands are then wrapped with dye-resistant bands in a mathematically precise calculation so that the strands themselves can be pattern-dyed to contribute to the final design. Traditionally, of course, the dyes used were natural ones derived from plants. Nowadays, chemical dyes are often substituted. Then the loom is strung with the patterned threads, and the weaver proceeds to run the shuttles of prescribed colors back and forth to produce the final piece. Sometimes, the finished ikat is further decorated with gold paint, as several girl were working on off to the side. A modest-sized hand-done ikat is produced, we were told, in about two-weeks. Nowadays, machine-produced ikats are endemic.
Ikat can be worn as a sarong or shawl or be cut and sewn into skirts, shirts or jackets. Bette Lee has several skirts made of ikat, perfect for dressy Indonesian occasions. She found a piece of very fine, very colorful ikat she fell in love with. With a tighter budget I thought that something I could wrap or wear as a shawl might be more flexible and more affordable. Some clumsy inter-language bartering later, and Tom and Don successfully negotiated our purchases.
The next stop, after a quick pass through the market for some bananas, was at the end of a long drive out into the country to see a very nice waterfall. The river drops several tiers cutting through the forested ravine. It was very pretty, and one can only wonder at what it must look like in rainy season when, as Ayub says, there is "plenty water."
However, the best part of the trip out there was seeing how people lived outside the city. Houses are mostly concrete block -- some painted, some not -- with very pretty wooden windows and doors and lots of flowers. Some had elbow room, others were crammed in tight. Roads are narrow but paved, although in several places they were interrupted by alternating lines of piled rock or brush. We kind of assumed these were meant to slow speeding motorbikes, but later learned it was a sort of grass-roots protest against planned government road expansion! The roads are barely two-lane, so we guess the issue must be that the existing houses are already so close to the road that expansion would wipe them out.
Even out in the country, there are plenty of people, walking or buzz-buzz-buzzing around on their motorbikes. Seemingly at all times of the day there were uniformed schoolchildren coming and going. Ayub said many must walk up to five kilometers to and from school. We saw many such groups, and at least they seemed to be having a good time with each other. Only in the deep dry woods on the last kilometers to the waterfall was there stretches of road with no activity!
We were only out of the city less than an hour, but coming back into the traffic was like facing an onslaught of noise and chaos! Yikes! But never once did we see any evidence of an accident, (which is more than I'd be able to say for Florida!)
On the way back to the boat we stopped for a late lunch at a well-reviewed seafood restaurant on the beach. We had a lovely meal of soup, steamed fish, a bit of curry and a huge colander of steamed rice. The restaurant was surprisingly spacious and open and right on the water, another hiatus of calm.
Comparing notes with other cruisers on the beach confined our opinion that we'd made a good choice in our tour. By taxi with our own guide, we saw more, in more comfort with more information than the other larger groups, and in the end for just a little less than the $25 ahead for the bus! Plus, we had the one- on-one connection with Ayub. The only thing we missed from the bus tour that sounded interesting was an orphanage for some 90+ children (many who lost their parents to recent floods!) run on a shoestring by a single couple! We subsequently bundled up some school materials we'd brought and a monetary donation to contribute to the cause.
In the end, that is what we opted for, and we think we made a very good choice. The four of us (five with Ayub) were able to enjoy the comfort of a six-passenger air-conditioned taxi along with Ayub's undivided attention. (Can't totally say the same for our driver. His attention was divided between the road, his cell phone, and a video playing on a screen in the dash!) We did, however, pick up the itinerary for the bus tour, and used it as a reference for things we didn't want to miss out on.
To start we headed east out of the city. Just the experience of driving along is, as we have already mentioned, an e-ticket adventure, plus there is a kaleidoscope of images to process as you whirr along. We tried all day to capture pictures out the car windows of motorbikes with families of four or loads of cements bags or lumber; the tree-limb scaffolding used in construction, not to mention interesting houses and intriguing businesses.
Out in the countryside, the houses fell away to rice fields, dotted here and there by heavy-horned cattle. On the flat coastal plain, these were not as atmospheric as the terraced rice fields we will see in Bali, but still it is exciting to see something first hand you have only previously seen in National Geographic!
Abruptly there was a strand of small roadside stands selling sacks of salt that the locals harvest and sell for cooking and salting fish. We had to stop and buy a bag.
Our objective, however, was the premises of a virtuoso sasando musician. From the nearby island a Roti, the sasando is a unique Indonesian instrument. It is hard to describe: At the center is a wooden cylinder, studded with frets over which steel strings are fitted and tuned. An ancient sasando on display had about six strings, but more modern ones have up to 48. A special palm leaf is wrapped halfway around the cylinder to form a sounding board of sorts. It has the neat feature of pleating closed and then un-pleating to open, like Chinese fan. It is sort of a cross between a guitar and a harp!
Reigning over the shop (they also make dozens of small-scale sasandos for souvenirs), was an elderly gentlemen who, seeing us coming in, disappeared out back only to reappear in full performance regalia of ikat sarong, and ikat scarf over his shirt, plus the most outlandish hat you can imagine. It is sort of like a straw sombrero with a slender spiky crown that thrusts up and back. Don and Tom both tried one on, but mercifully didn't buy one to bring home. Bette Lee and I were sufficiently stunned not to think to ask what the history of it was.
This gentleman played the ancient sasando (said to be from the 16th century) for us producing a very pleasant, if slight tinny Asian style tune. His charisma was magic. He was followed by a younger man (son? student?) who then played a concert of modern pop tunes on an amplified 48-string version.
Interestingly, we were not the sole audience. Also in the shop was a platoon of about eight or ten policemen. They listened and snuck pictures of us with their cell phones. We took pictures of them back, and they were thrilled! Later, they set to playing a gamelan in the other corner. A gamelan is a set of roundish gongs played percussively with sticks. The elderly gentleman and I danced together, which earned me an ikat scarf. It was a fun time, especially as we got out without either a sasando or a hat, although we did buy the CD!
Back in the city, we next went to an ikat factory. Ikat is the handsome cotton weaving the area is famous for. Every island hereabouts has its traditional styles. Bette Lee, who has been to Bali twice before, is a bit of a connoisseur. This was a good thing, because Ayub's English might not have otherwise covered it!
In the back of the house was a huge area with four or five looms to demonstrate the process. Traditionally the cotton is grown and spun by the women of the house. The strands are then wrapped with dye-resistant bands in a mathematically precise calculation so that the strands themselves can be pattern-dyed to contribute to the final design. Traditionally, of course, the dyes used were natural ones derived from plants. Nowadays, chemical dyes are often substituted. Then the loom is strung with the patterned threads, and the weaver proceeds to run the shuttles of prescribed colors back and forth to produce the final piece. Sometimes, the finished ikat is further decorated with gold paint, as several girl were working on off to the side. A modest-sized hand-done ikat is produced, we were told, in about two-weeks. Nowadays, machine-produced ikats are endemic.
Ikat can be worn as a sarong or shawl or be cut and sewn into skirts, shirts or jackets. Bette Lee has several skirts made of ikat, perfect for dressy Indonesian occasions. She found a piece of very fine, very colorful ikat she fell in love with. With a tighter budget I thought that something I could wrap or wear as a shawl might be more flexible and more affordable. Some clumsy inter-language bartering later, and Tom and Don successfully negotiated our purchases.
The next stop, after a quick pass through the market for some bananas, was at the end of a long drive out into the country to see a very nice waterfall. The river drops several tiers cutting through the forested ravine. It was very pretty, and one can only wonder at what it must look like in rainy season when, as Ayub says, there is "plenty water."
However, the best part of the trip out there was seeing how people lived outside the city. Houses are mostly concrete block -- some painted, some not -- with very pretty wooden windows and doors and lots of flowers. Some had elbow room, others were crammed in tight. Roads are narrow but paved, although in several places they were interrupted by alternating lines of piled rock or brush. We kind of assumed these were meant to slow speeding motorbikes, but later learned it was a sort of grass-roots protest against planned government road expansion! The roads are barely two-lane, so we guess the issue must be that the existing houses are already so close to the road that expansion would wipe them out.
Even out in the country, there are plenty of people, walking or buzz-buzz-buzzing around on their motorbikes. Seemingly at all times of the day there were uniformed schoolchildren coming and going. Ayub said many must walk up to five kilometers to and from school. We saw many such groups, and at least they seemed to be having a good time with each other. Only in the deep dry woods on the last kilometers to the waterfall was there stretches of road with no activity!
We were only out of the city less than an hour, but coming back into the traffic was like facing an onslaught of noise and chaos! Yikes! But never once did we see any evidence of an accident, (which is more than I'd be able to say for Florida!)
On the way back to the boat we stopped for a late lunch at a well-reviewed seafood restaurant on the beach. We had a lovely meal of soup, steamed fish, a bit of curry and a huge colander of steamed rice. The restaurant was surprisingly spacious and open and right on the water, another hiatus of calm.
Comparing notes with other cruisers on the beach confined our opinion that we'd made a good choice in our tour. By taxi with our own guide, we saw more, in more comfort with more information than the other larger groups, and in the end for just a little less than the $25 ahead for the bus! Plus, we had the one- on-one connection with Ayub. The only thing we missed from the bus tour that sounded interesting was an orphanage for some 90+ children (many who lost their parents to recent floods!) run on a shoestring by a single couple! We subsequently bundled up some school materials we'd brought and a monetary donation to contribute to the cause.
Friday, July 29, 2011
July 27, 2011 - Communications and Cash
The local phone company had several reps at the Pantai Laut beachside restaurant to facilitate getting the cruisers hooked with cheap cell phones, local sim cards for any unlocked cell phones, and even USB data modems for their computers. Sounds organized, huh?
But it somehow wasn't. The line was long and fed from two sides resulting in misunderstandings and ruffled feathers amongst the waiting, the cruisers anxious that they wouldn't get what they needed. And, even once you got the item you were waiting for, language issues slowed things further, since directions were in Indonesian. As much information was being shared among cruisers as was being gleaned from the company reps.
Eyeing the boxes on the table and consulting with the more technically savvy cruisers in line around me, I concluded before I even got to the table that they wouldn't have what I needed for my IPAD. (An IPad will not work off a data stick connected to its USB, and my IPAD, being a Verizon CDMA version and not an ATT SIM version cannot take an internal SIM card. (ATT SIM versions were not available in to me before our trip because of the backlog caused by Japan's troubles. Even then, there are questions about whether it would have worked here. Several fellow cruisers have them, so I'm sure to collect an answer over the next few days.))
Tom and Bette Lee had the perfect thing in Australia, a cellular hotspot which could service up to five devices via WiFi. However, it was a locked device and couldn't be used here. Our best bet was to find a computer store and buy a local version. .
Just about every cruising crew that landed on the beach was adopted by a local person to be their local facilitator/guide. This is important because Bahasa Indonesia, the national language (but actually a second language for most after their local tribal tongue) bears no resemblance to any of the international languages (English, French and Spanish) that have served us all for so many countries. There are lots of little Lonely Planet / Berlitz phrase books in evidence, but it's a long stretch from "Selamat pagi" (Good morning!) to "I need to local a computer store to get a cellular modem for my IPAD." In past years the facilitators have been students from the university seeking to practice their English.
Our guy, Ayub, however, was not a student, and in fact I did not notice anyone around who fit that description. But I think we lucked out. Somewhere in his thirties and the father of two teenagers, Ayub billed himself as a local guide who'd taught himself English from books. His enthusiasm and attentiveness was tireless, and if either of us didn't quite get the message the first effort, a couple more tries usually did the trick.
Ayub arranged a car and whisked us off on our first ride through the city. It is like entering a buzzing, humming bee-hive! The streets of Kupang are lined with storefronts jammed together whose entire front walls open up for business, the sidewalks are jammed with people, and the streets themselves are jammed with vehicles, predominantly motorbikes. The biggest motorbike Don noted might have been 200cc, but the standard was closer to 90cc scooters. Each was laden with 1-4 persons (!!) and or a huge load of stuff! They drive anywhere from 2-4 bikes abreast, weaving in and out in the same unmarked lane of traffic, and it was not unusual to have one or two on either side of the taxi at any given moment. It was damned terrifying
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Checked in at last!
Well! We Waited all day, and finally the first official visited the boat at about 4:30ish. The visit was quick and painless and was mostly focused on his enjoying a tot of....$@&@! Had to taste it to be sur it wasn't some dangerous liquid explosive, I guess. However, it was now too late to do any other official stuff...BUT...we were allowed to go ashore.
So, we did. A small army of young men waited on the beach to pick up the dinghy (the very heavy dinghy!) and carry it up the beach. For a small fee (35,ooo rupiah...about $3.50)' they will do this as often as we wish each day. Ashore at Teddy's bar (also called Pantai Laut) we enjoyed a light meal of prawns and Bintang beer and the society of friends while politely fending off the first barrage of vendors attempting to sell carvings and ikat weaving. Pantai Laut has free wifi! We'll be back tomorrow.
We slept long and hard only interrupted by the call to prayer at 4am-ish, which was surprising not too unpleasant, despite lasting maybe a half hour. After coffee, we dinghied ashore first thing to be first in line with rest of the officials, and all went quite smoothly. We are now officially IN Indonesia.
So, we did. A small army of young men waited on the beach to pick up the dinghy (the very heavy dinghy!) and carry it up the beach. For a small fee (35,ooo rupiah...about $3.50)' they will do this as often as we wish each day. Ashore at Teddy's bar (also called Pantai Laut) we enjoyed a light meal of prawns and Bintang beer and the society of friends while politely fending off the first barrage of vendors attempting to sell carvings and ikat weaving. Pantai Laut has free wifi! We'll be back tomorrow.
We slept long and hard only interrupted by the call to prayer at 4am-ish, which was surprising not too unpleasant, despite lasting maybe a half hour. After coffee, we dinghied ashore first thing to be first in line with rest of the officials, and all went quite smoothly. We are now officially IN Indonesia.
Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad
July 26, 2011 -- Arrival in Kupang
July 26, 2011 -- Arrival in Kupang
Quantum Leap was already into the pass when I came up for my 6am watch. It was still dark, with Orion overhead, and a quarter moon rising in the east. The fishing traffic we'd so worried about never materialized, but all the eight or so rally boats that had seemed so spread out around us at sea began funneling together through the pass, packing the AIS display was with "dangerous targets", even though we had reduced the danger zone to barely a mile!
Dawn came up rosy and revealed islands to either side and ahead as we made the right turn up into the straight leading to Kupang. The wind freshened in the pass, then died, then kicked into high gear as we approached the open roadstead off the small city of Kupang. This would be a good place to have a wind generator. It is also a good place to have a catamaran. A little hobby-horsing, but no roll.
At 11:00 am -- no, wait, at 9:30am local time -- there are about eighteen rally boats anchored or anchoring with their red-over-white Indonesian flags and yellow quarantine flags flying. Our anchor went down at about 9am local time, and to see where we are on Google Earth, zoom in to S 10*09'39.4'; E 123*34'114.6". You will see the city of Kupang, on the island of Timor, in the region called Nusa Tengarra. We are just a little west of the main landing beach, anchored in about 25 feet of water. We spaced ourselves as politely as possible, knowing fully well that by the end of the day there will likely be at least one or two boats squeezed into the gaps we left.
We are all showered, shaved, coiffed etc, in our matching Sail Indonesia shirts, and we ladies are wearing s...s...skirts! Indonesia is a conservative country, and officialdom in particular appreciates gestures of respect.
.....
It is now several hours later by Indonesia rubber time, and things are starting to wilt. We gave up and put together lunch, figuring that for sure would bring the officials in, but, no, even that strategy didn't do it. Clearly they are not taking boats in the order of arrival. Evidently, the boat with the biggest yellow Q-flag wins, and we aren't they!
During lunch, with Bruce Springsteen crooning about America on the stereo, our first Muslim call to prayer came over the loudspeakers. No, those aren't all cell towers! Timor actually is predominantly Christian...but not completely. Actually the call was more melodic than I expected. It should not be too hard to get accustomed.
Meanwhile, everybody has given up and gone down for a nap, except for Don is on "officials watch." Given that he has nodded off over his book, I'm not sure the system will work as planned! It was a short sleeping night last night!
Quantum Leap was already into the pass when I came up for my 6am watch. It was still dark, with Orion overhead, and a quarter moon rising in the east. The fishing traffic we'd so worried about never materialized, but all the eight or so rally boats that had seemed so spread out around us at sea began funneling together through the pass, packing the AIS display was with "dangerous targets", even though we had reduced the danger zone to barely a mile!
Dawn came up rosy and revealed islands to either side and ahead as we made the right turn up into the straight leading to Kupang. The wind freshened in the pass, then died, then kicked into high gear as we approached the open roadstead off the small city of Kupang. This would be a good place to have a wind generator. It is also a good place to have a catamaran. A little hobby-horsing, but no roll.
At 11:00 am -- no, wait, at 9:30am local time -- there are about eighteen rally boats anchored or anchoring with their red-over-white Indonesian flags and yellow quarantine flags flying. Our anchor went down at about 9am local time, and to see where we are on Google Earth, zoom in to S 10*09'39.4'; E 123*34'114.6". You will see the city of Kupang, on the island of Timor, in the region called Nusa Tengarra. We are just a little west of the main landing beach, anchored in about 25 feet of water. We spaced ourselves as politely as possible, knowing fully well that by the end of the day there will likely be at least one or two boats squeezed into the gaps we left.
We are all showered, shaved, coiffed etc, in our matching Sail Indonesia shirts, and we ladies are wearing s...s...skirts! Indonesia is a conservative country, and officialdom in particular appreciates gestures of respect.
.....
It is now several hours later by Indonesia rubber time, and things are starting to wilt. We gave up and put together lunch, figuring that for sure would bring the officials in, but, no, even that strategy didn't do it. Clearly they are not taking boats in the order of arrival. Evidently, the boat with the biggest yellow Q-flag wins, and we aren't they!
During lunch, with Bruce Springsteen crooning about America on the stereo, our first Muslim call to prayer came over the loudspeakers. No, those aren't all cell towers! Timor actually is predominantly Christian...but not completely. Actually the call was more melodic than I expected. It should not be too hard to get accustomed.
Meanwhile, everybody has given up and gone down for a nap, except for Don is on "officials watch." Given that he has nodded off over his book, I'm not sure the system will work as planned! It was a short sleeping night last night!
Monday, July 25, 2011
On Passage to Kupang Part Two
The wind improved today, and by mid morning we were actually able to shut the engine down and sail. I think Captain Tom does not want us to get bored, because he doesn't hesitate to try different sail combinations: pole out to the right, pole out to the left, main up, main down, wing and wing, etc. All this deck exercise is having exactly the consequence he is aiming for, that is to say we are learning the ways of the boat, which lines are which, what sequence stuff has to happen. Have I mentioned that Quantum Leap has electric winches?
However, these catamaran guys have high expectations; where on T2 we would have calculated our passage on an average speed of 4.5-5 kts, they calculate on 6.5-7kts! Many cruisers, if they fall below their threshold speed, won't hesitate to fire up that iron genny, and catamaran sailors (most of the boats around us are cats) are no exception. Speeds that Don and I find practically breakneck are too pokey for them, and by evening the engine was back on. I'm sure it doesn't help/hurt that we know there is this huge fleet of boats behind us! One of the big advantages of being out front is the limited number of vessels we have to worry about not running over!
The whole catamaran motion question has been interesting. It is amazing how much stuff just sits out. For example, a water bottle left on the head counter in the morning will still be sitting there in the evening. Ditto the French press coffee pot, a jar of honey, the Easy Yo Yogurt maker, etc.
This is not to say there isn't motion. It is a jostle from right to left that leaves me wobbling like a drunkard. And, when you have an aircraft carrier landing platform for a front deck, it makes it pretty hard to practice the "one hand for you, one hand for the boat rule!" Tom had some spare fresh water in a tank he wanted to clean out, so we used it to sluice off and scrub away the Northern Australian dust. The bucket barely sloshed, but my mop and I could barely keep upright. I notice that Bette Lee moves around a lot more confidently than I do, so it may be that I just have to develop better catamaran sea legs.
The sleeping, however, has been terrific. No bracing against the walls, no high or low sides. I find I can drop off into a deep snooze with hardly a hesitation. The temperatures have been really nice. Not too hot during the day, and cool overnight (but get warmer as we move away from the continent.
Tonight I had galley duty, and, since we had eaten the rest of Bette Lee's Roo stew for lunch, I worked with the remainder of yesterday's fish to concoct of pescado veracruz over whole wheat pasta. Judging by the clean plates, I think I measured up. It is very civilized that we all take a break, just before sunset, to sit down and have a nice meal at the table together.
It's been surprising how little boat traffic -- other than other rally boats -- that we have seen, this being a major shipping corridor. Last night we approached and passed an off-shore oil platform that cast a bright, light lume into the sky from more than 25 miles away. As we neared, it broke into three separate lumes for three platforms, and just as I went below we were close enough to see the flames from the gas burning, plus several large crude oil carriers, approaching the platform to load, popped up on the AIS list.
July 23-26, 2011 -- On Passage to Kupang
We were not the first ones off the mark. A handful of boats left immediately after checkout with customs on Friday; others had been quietly departing throughout the morning. Our anchor up at 10:15ish set us on the way at the beginning of the outgoing tide and at least a few miles in front of the wall of white sails.
Unfortunately the wind in Fannie Bay did not carry far out to sea, and pretty soon we were all motoring, the sails up largely for show. The light air continued pretty much all day, the trades more or less blocked by Bathurst Island, a big mass of land north of Darwin. Although it would have been grand to be whizzing along under sail alone, it was pretty impressive to these two monohullers how fast (7.5 kts) this big catamaran moves through the water on only one of its two engines at relatively low RPM!
The highlight of the afternoon was catching two fish at the same time: a small wahoo and a good-sized Spanish mackerel. Both good eating fish! The downside was that the two fish hit at the same time and wound up the two lines into a massive snarl! While Don filleted out the two fish on the starboard swim platform, the rest of us worked at separating the interwoven lines.
Bette Lee, of course, had earlier been busy in the galley concocting a roo stew. (Yes, I said, "roo." Roo is sold in all sorts of cuts in all the major supermarkets. No, it does not taste like chicken. It tastes like a really yummy, lean beef. We had already had roo burgers, roo fillets, and pasta with roo bolognese sauce!) Personally I think this is a necessary element to catching fish...having a tasty meal prepared or in the works. At least, it has always worked that way for me! Bette Lee's stew, with potatoes, onions, carrots, turnips, tomato and other secret seasonings smelled sooo good, it was hard to think about saving it for another day. In the end, we had cajun fish with rice and a little of the veggie part of the stew over it like a sauce. YUM!
By evening we were traveling in a pack of about six or eight boats, reasonably spaced out, most of whom we know. Interesting to me is that the majority of the boats around us not only have AIS, but have broadcasting AIS. (AIS is an automatic radio identification system that is interfaced with your GPS. Intended primarily for big ship traffic control, until recently cruising boats just had receivers that would plot the position of commercial vessels relative to your own course. These newer fancier units broadcast your own boat name, position, course and speed, which means that you don't just locate AIS-equipped boats around you, but you (and they) know who is who! Of course, there is still the odd old-fashioned boat without AIS that you have to keep track of with binoculars and radar.
Friday, July 22, 2011
We're Underway!
Photos, Photos...wherefore art thou????
I have taken a ton of photos with which to illustrate this blog, but I am not having any success getting them uploaded. I did the one photo of Richard and Jane's house from the Quantum Leap shipboard computer, but no luck from my IPad. I am a little self conscious because each upload uses alot of Tom & Bette Lee's upload/download allowance on their cellular modem, and I am struggling to get the image size reduced. (Photos are not my forte!) We have conflicting reports on whether this modem may still work in Indonesia. If it does, we don't want to waste the data bits; if it doesn't, well, we WILL have wasted unused data bits!
Anyway, we are all packed up and RTG. We are thinking to get a head start on the official rally start. Who needs to be in the crowd!? We will be underway tomorrow, probably for three days.
Anyway, we are all packed up and RTG. We are thinking to get a head start on the official rally start. Who needs to be in the crowd!? We will be underway tomorrow, probably for three days.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
July 13-22, 2010 -- Prep for Sail Indonesia Rally
Departure for the Sail Indonesia Rally boats is 11:00 am, Saturday, July 23rd. The days leading up to that are filled with boat projects, provisioning, and learning as much about what to expect in Indonesia as possible.
Don has been deeply involved with Tom in boat projects, particularly the Spectra water maker. Bette Lee is a tireless workhorse, quietly executing her To Do List with little fuss and muss. I have mostly been providing galley support, and trying to learn some Indonesian. I've not gotten far: "Selamat pagi, Bupak Tom." > "Good morning, respected Mister Tom." Substitute an official's name for Tom, and we are in like flint.
Tuesday we attended the official orientation meeting for Sail Indonesia. It was the most tedious, difficult to process function I think any of us have been to in a long time. Perhaps it is deliberately arranged that way to prepare us all for the inefficiencies of Indonesia.
The chief organizer, whose baby the rally is, was a soft spoken Aussie, who announced he would speak slowly for the non-English speakers, and then proceeded to mumble through his whole presentation, such that fellow Aussies couldn't understand him! He was not helped by the myriad cell phones rings sounding throughout the auditorium, the child babbling at the end of our row, and the awesomely rude group behind us who chatted pretty much through the whole thing despite irritated body language from those in front of them.
However, the gist of his whole presentation was not to expect too much, that nothing will happen when it is supposed to, and that a little bribery is di rigeur, and nothing will happen the same way twice. "Different field, different grasshopper," is the motto. We are hopeful that he keying his commentary to the Aussie newbies who haven't previously experienced third-world reality!
The Aussie organizer was followed by official reps from Aussie customs, Indonesia customs, immigration, and representatives of various islands that want to lure the yachties and their dollars to their villages. Each of these last gentlemen had a fancy power points clearly produced to be presented at whatever tourist event they could get themselves invited to. In fact we heard later, whether true or not, that the chance to show the powerpoint gets them a free flight. The best presentation of the whole long afternoon was the last one promoting the Sail Malaysia Rally (and the various associated sponsoring marinas) because the presenter spoke clearly, with both volume and humor. Afterwards there were more than a few jokes about skipping Indonesia and going straight to Malaysia.
Understand that Sail Indonesia is and always has been a totally volunteer, Internet based event. Its primary reason for existence is to be a facilitator for all the entry permits required, something it does very well, and some Aussies use it year after year for this purpose alone. Secondarily they attempt to coordinate a sensible itinerary around and with various festivals as well as organize local presentations, events and guides to enhance cruisers' experience of Indonesia. If it all doesn't always work out exactly as hoped for...well, that's life!
*****
It has not been all work and no play. Sunday evening we walked the coastal path past the museum, the high school and the botanical gardens to Mindihl Park for its twice weekly market. This was a huge conglomeration of crafts sellers, clothing and Aussie artifact stalls, and food vendors. There was no pretense of being a farmer's market, probably because, much like Florida, the climate and soil is not ideal for garden farming. But there were probably a half-dozen fresh fruit and smoothie booths, many Chinese and Thai foodsellers packing a three course dinner into a medium plastic container, and, Tom's favorite, the Aussie Camp Tucker booth where you could get corn on the cob on a stick, dripping in garlic butter! On the walk back, in the dark after a beautiful sunset, we found huge cane toads lurking by the museum walkway lights waiting for hapless bugs to fly by.
We also went for a sailing tour of the Darwin's nooks and crannies by boat the morning we went to take on fuel. Because of the large tides, several of Darwin's marinas are inside locked basins. They are a good deal for Darwin residents, as they can lock up and down as many times as they want for a monthly dockage fee. For visitors like rally sailors, it is not such a good deal, because they have to pay that same fee to go in and out just once. On the other hand, they have had the convenience of docks (and dockside restaurants) and haven't had the struggle with beaching the dinghy on the tidal beach. Don and I have quite enjoyed be afloat in the anchorage this week, but we are all of us about done with the whole beaching the dinghy deal....especially after several trips with provisions!
Our big excursion was a day trip to the Adelaide River to see Darwin's famous jumping crocs. We drove for an hour out into the bush -- much of which, along the way, is given over to mango orchards. We boarded a nice glass-enclosed excursion boat for an hour or two on the river with a well narrated summary of croc habits while a crew member dangled pig parts from a sort of fishing pole from the upper deck. By such means they coaxed four or five different crocodiles to come after the bait, using their powerful tails to lunge upward for it, as they would in nature to take common food like birds or bats. From behind the glass, it is something to see up close. These are not guys any of us want to see up close sniffing around our dinghies (or ankles) in Fannie Bay!
Tomorrow, we check out and turn the car in. It's a big holiday here, wouldn't you know!
Hopefully all the last little bits will get done. Already we are practicing Indonesian patience when the expensive rally shirts we all ordered didn't show as scheduled this afternoon. Mañana...no wait, that's another hemisphere. Different field, different grasshopper.
Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
July 13, 2010 - Welcome to Quantum Leap
Our flight from Brisbane to Darwin was about four hours, like flying from Tampa to Chicago. Or more accurately from Chicago to Tampa, because we were definitely flying from cool weather to warm. The flight quickly left behind the coastal strip of urban development that characterizes Australia's East Coast and became the desolate rusty landscape one thinks of when you think "outback." Then abruptly, we were out over the Gulf of Carpinteria, looking down on the Wessel islands that our friends Tom and Bette had stopped over at just weeks before.
We did not get a very good look at Darwin from the air, however, because the sky was filled with a rusty haze, product of the regular burning the locals do to clear out the bush. We were surprised upon landing that it did not result in a smoggy seeming sky.
Tom and Bette Lee were at the airport to meet us with a rental car, a welcome sight for our four large bags, one of which was full of parts for their boat. We zipped immediately to Customs to add us to the crew list and thence to the Indonesian consulate to get our Indonesian visas in the works. After that, we could slow down and take a breath to catch up and raise a toast to Bette Lee's birthday.
Darwin is a decent-sized city wrapping around a peninsula on the north coast of the continent. Downtown is low and mid-rise buildings with a decent amount of parkland running along the waterfront bluffs. The city is landscaped with tropical trees, palms and flowers and draws lots of backpacker tourists during the "Dry", the "winter" season we are in the midst of. It is also the end of Northern Territory's extended winter holidays, so the streets are full of vacationing families and travelers. Still it proved impossible to get a late lunch. Darwin's restaurants are open 12-2pm and 5:30-10:00 pm! We settled for a beer and a shared pizza,to fortify us for the real adventure of the day: getting us and all the bags out to the boat.
Quantum Leap is anchored in Fannie Bay off the Darwin Sailing Club, along with about 80 other boats! Darwin experiences a tidal range of about twenty feet. From the bluff on which the club is situated, a long paved ramp runs down to the beach. When the tide is high, the water comes about halfway up the ramp. When it is low, there is up to two hundred feet of sand and mud to reach the water's edge,which even then stays quite shallow for quite a ways further! It was, of course, low tide.
The club has quite a neat way of helping yachts cope with their dinghies and the tide. They have "trailers" -- essentially triangular push carts -- onto which you float your dinghy to then drag it up the ramp above the tide range. To launch, you reload your dinghy onto one of the carts and roll it back down to the water's edge...wherever that may be. Ingenious as the system is, with today's large rigid dinghies, it's still quite the chore.
And just to make it all more fun, Fannie Bay is susceptible to a small but nasty chop. A loaded dinghy -- as it is is with four people let alone baggage -- is forced to proceed very slowly so as not to arrive drenched by spray. And because of the tide and the general shallowness of the bay, Quantum Leap is anchored well offshore. On top of that, there is the nagging fact that this is crocodile country. Although it doesn't seem likely that crocs would be out swimming along the beaches of a fairly open bay, it is not impossible. Reportedly, whenever a croc is seen in the bay, they go after it, trap it, and "relocate" it somewhere less threatening to "small children learning how to sail!"
But it was all worth the struggle. Quantum Leap is a lovely boat. We have always thought so. She is quite simply, the only catamaran that has ever motivated either of us to say, "Oooh, I could live on that one!"
It's a combination of sensible and pleasing layout plus tasteful decor. A St. Francis 50, built for the Walkers in South Africa in 2001, she is beautifully appointed. The wide bridge deck is about two-thirds salon, with a comfortable leather settee wrapping around an irregularly shaped cherry table, accented by African-motif pillows. The U-shaped galley accounts for the other third with handsome Corian countertops and cherry cabinetry, and the floor features a striking inlaid compass rose of unpronounceable African woods. Bette Lee has the salon accented beautifully with baskets and carvings collected throughout their travels.
The boat has four sleeping cabins, but like most liveaboard cruisers, one at least has been given over to storage. I particularly like the cabin layout, with the queen-sized berths mounted head-in from the ama, making getting in and out of bed very easy. There is an amazing amount of storage available, enough that all the stuff we brought didn't look like so much! And the ventilation, from the escape hatch in the bath-tub shower through to the overhead hatch above the bed, is great.
After unloading, unpacking and celebrating with a sundowner, we went back ashore for dinner at the Club. You may remember from our Aussie Blog two years ago, that Aussies dearly love their social clubs. The Darwin Sailing Club is no exception. The long patio and lawn between the club and the beach bluff was filled with tables, and by and large the tables were filled with happy folks eating and drinking, only a small percentage of which were rally yachts. What makes this particularly impressive to us cheapskate Yanks, is that the meals here aren't cheap!
BUT, it sure is a nice atmosphere, and mighty fine for these two captains to be back in the cruising milieu. We have quickly reconnected with two or three boats we used to know well, several more who were part of our "class" crossing the Pacific in 2004, and a whole bunch of new friends. Life is good back afloat!
.
We did not get a very good look at Darwin from the air, however, because the sky was filled with a rusty haze, product of the regular burning the locals do to clear out the bush. We were surprised upon landing that it did not result in a smoggy seeming sky.
Tom and Bette Lee were at the airport to meet us with a rental car, a welcome sight for our four large bags, one of which was full of parts for their boat. We zipped immediately to Customs to add us to the crew list and thence to the Indonesian consulate to get our Indonesian visas in the works. After that, we could slow down and take a breath to catch up and raise a toast to Bette Lee's birthday.
Darwin is a decent-sized city wrapping around a peninsula on the north coast of the continent. Downtown is low and mid-rise buildings with a decent amount of parkland running along the waterfront bluffs. The city is landscaped with tropical trees, palms and flowers and draws lots of backpacker tourists during the "Dry", the "winter" season we are in the midst of. It is also the end of Northern Territory's extended winter holidays, so the streets are full of vacationing families and travelers. Still it proved impossible to get a late lunch. Darwin's restaurants are open 12-2pm and 5:30-10:00 pm! We settled for a beer and a shared pizza,to fortify us for the real adventure of the day: getting us and all the bags out to the boat.
Quantum Leap is anchored in Fannie Bay off the Darwin Sailing Club, along with about 80 other boats! Darwin experiences a tidal range of about twenty feet. From the bluff on which the club is situated, a long paved ramp runs down to the beach. When the tide is high, the water comes about halfway up the ramp. When it is low, there is up to two hundred feet of sand and mud to reach the water's edge,which even then stays quite shallow for quite a ways further! It was, of course, low tide.
The club has quite a neat way of helping yachts cope with their dinghies and the tide. They have "trailers" -- essentially triangular push carts -- onto which you float your dinghy to then drag it up the ramp above the tide range. To launch, you reload your dinghy onto one of the carts and roll it back down to the water's edge...wherever that may be. Ingenious as the system is, with today's large rigid dinghies, it's still quite the chore.
And just to make it all more fun, Fannie Bay is susceptible to a small but nasty chop. A loaded dinghy -- as it is is with four people let alone baggage -- is forced to proceed very slowly so as not to arrive drenched by spray. And because of the tide and the general shallowness of the bay, Quantum Leap is anchored well offshore. On top of that, there is the nagging fact that this is crocodile country. Although it doesn't seem likely that crocs would be out swimming along the beaches of a fairly open bay, it is not impossible. Reportedly, whenever a croc is seen in the bay, they go after it, trap it, and "relocate" it somewhere less threatening to "small children learning how to sail!"
But it was all worth the struggle. Quantum Leap is a lovely boat. We have always thought so. She is quite simply, the only catamaran that has ever motivated either of us to say, "Oooh, I could live on that one!"
It's a combination of sensible and pleasing layout plus tasteful decor. A St. Francis 50, built for the Walkers in South Africa in 2001, she is beautifully appointed. The wide bridge deck is about two-thirds salon, with a comfortable leather settee wrapping around an irregularly shaped cherry table, accented by African-motif pillows. The U-shaped galley accounts for the other third with handsome Corian countertops and cherry cabinetry, and the floor features a striking inlaid compass rose of unpronounceable African woods. Bette Lee has the salon accented beautifully with baskets and carvings collected throughout their travels.
The boat has four sleeping cabins, but like most liveaboard cruisers, one at least has been given over to storage. I particularly like the cabin layout, with the queen-sized berths mounted head-in from the ama, making getting in and out of bed very easy. There is an amazing amount of storage available, enough that all the stuff we brought didn't look like so much! And the ventilation, from the escape hatch in the bath-tub shower through to the overhead hatch above the bed, is great.
After unloading, unpacking and celebrating with a sundowner, we went back ashore for dinner at the Club. You may remember from our Aussie Blog two years ago, that Aussies dearly love their social clubs. The Darwin Sailing Club is no exception. The long patio and lawn between the club and the beach bluff was filled with tables, and by and large the tables were filled with happy folks eating and drinking, only a small percentage of which were rally yachts. What makes this particularly impressive to us cheapskate Yanks, is that the meals here aren't cheap!
BUT, it sure is a nice atmosphere, and mighty fine for these two captains to be back in the cruising milieu. We have quickly reconnected with two or three boats we used to know well, several more who were part of our "class" crossing the Pacific in 2004, and a whole bunch of new friends. Life is good back afloat!
.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Back on Austalia's Sunshine Coast ... In Winter
Blog
July 8-13 -- Visiting Australia's Sunshine Coast...in Winter
The two captains landed in Brisbane, Australia before dawn on July 8th, 2011 after a 14 1/2 hour flight from Dallas that was shortened (thankfully) by lighter than normal headwinds. Unfortunately, we ended up seated in the centermost two seats of a row of four in the center of the 747's economy section. This meant we were packed in like sardines without the freedom to get up when we wanted or access overhead lockers when we wanted. Plus, Quantas doles out all sorts of goodies like pillow, blanket, sleep mask kit, bottled water, snack packages, headphones, etc. after you are seated, and all that has to get squeezed in somewhere, or else, it disappears into the nether regions beneath your legs, not to be found, in some cases, until after you land! It is amusing that, given that you can barely budge, there is a big promotion of exercising throughout the flight. Fortunately, we had nice seat mates, and we simply got up every time they did.
The morning of our arrival in Brisbane was gorgeous. Bright and clear and...damn chilly. We picked up our rental car -- a Skoda made by a former Soviet country! --, distributed ourselves to the correct sides of the vehicle, and picked our way gingerly out into the left lane traffic. After that it was a snap to whiz along northbound on the Bruce Highway with the rising sun, listening to the radio and following our directions to Tricky and Jane's (formerly of sv Lionheart) new house in Buderim.
Buderim is a charming town built on top of the first big hill that sticks up from the flat land that extends between it and Brisbane, only interrupted by the well worn jags of the famous Glass House Mountains -- "mountains" are little more than well eroded volcanic plugs. Buderim is where many of our friends who landed in Mooloolaba have ended up buying homes. It is suburban bordering on country. Out behind Tricky and Jane's house (which actually is very reminiscent of our own in atmosphere) is a tract of thick "bush" -- a jungle of various gum trees and lots of intriguing birds, as well as Tricky and Jane's organic hydroponic gardening efforts and their flock of chickens. BUT the lot next door is being built upon (the owner with a rental dozer worked at grading his various levels from dawn until dusk every day we were there!) and across the street is a development of open hillside that seeks to attract 16 homes!
We arrived as Tricky -- nowadays known more professionally as Richard -- was heading off to work. Don went with him, while Jane and I pushed three-month old Millie (Amelia) about a mile and a half up the hill by way of forest trail and gorgeous neighborhoods to the village center for lunch and a coffee.
Whether there would ever be a Millie was by no means certain when we first met T&J in Savu Savu fresh out of New Zealand on their first voyage. About the same age as our daughter and son-in-law, they had both led adventurous lives, mixing professional careers in various countries with high-energy hobbies like mountain biking, sailing and kite boarding. Cruising was an exciting new world and also included opportunities to party hearty, but Jane and I both remember serious conversations about biological clocks and the ramifications of both having and not having kids. I would not have put money in those days that these two would be where they are now.
Which is partners in what has shaped up to be a very successful multihull brokerage based in Mooloolaba. Already in the works when we left two years ago, Multihull Solutions is now doing big business! Big enough that Tricky and his partners have decided they need a rep in the US that they can ask to check out boats for sale there.
There is a big appeal for Aussies, whose dollar is (painfully) strong right now, to fly to America and pick up a boat at relatively bargain prices, and many Aussies do just that. However, as you might guess there are multiple pitfalls in the process that lie in wait for neophytes. So, Tricky and his partners hope to offer a facilitating service. Guess who has been persuaded to be that US rep. At least one, (if not both) of the two captains. As presented, it's a fairly easy job; just followup likely leads that Richard and his partner locate, with a personal visit to determine if the boat is as presented before the client flies across the Pacific. And then, when he/she does, be a friendly face (than can speak a little Aussie) to meet and greet and guide them around.
Don and I are hardly catamaran experts -- our upcoming cruise on Quantum Leap being our virtual debut. But experienced cruiser eyes and a healthy dose of skepticism is actually what is called for. So Richard's plan led to Don's and my spending some time crawling around some of the several catamarans they have for sale on their docks. I'm not sure what it means that after having done so, we were still pretty skeptical that all the money these boats cost would be be worth it...to us. But the Aussies have some $$$$ to spend these days, what with the booming mining economy, and they sure do seem to have a taste for cats.
In between catamarans and visiting with Richard and Jane, Don and I spent our time trying to track down other friends. Our broker who sold Tackless II in Scarborough was in Germany for her daughter's wedding, Jim and Paula of Avior were (like many Aussie sailors at this time of year) enjoying the delights of cruising the Whitsundays, and our Harley friends Graeme and Di left the morning of our arrival on a motorcycle trip.
However our good friends Peter and Sandy of sv Otama Song, not only were able to join us at Tricky and Jane's for a proper Aussie Barbecue, but we managed to find our way out to their latest real estate acquisition, a rural fixer-upper in the lovely countryside west of Buderim. We also were able to catch up with Rod and Sue of Idlewise, who took us on a most memorable 4WD beach trip two years ago. Idlewise is a big motoryacht parked across the dock from T2's old slip, and Rod and Sue have a family business not altogether unlike ours. After a few hours comparing notes about businesses and kids. Sue exclaimed that we seem to be living parallel lives
In between all this visiting, we spent our time trying to keep/get warm. We knew before coming, of course, that it was winter in south Queensland, and we brought a few jeans and long sleeves, but we didn't fully realize that Queenslanders don't have insulation or central heat. Tricky and Jane did give us a portable radiator, which, I'm embarrassed to admit we left on in our bedroom the whole time we were there. Only baby Amelia had it as good, and she didn't whine as much as we did when forced to emerge. The first few days we lived in all our warm clothes layered on top of one another, including our foul weather jackets...even at the dinner table! But I must confess things warmed up quite a bit after the weekend, and we even took some sun on the Mooloolaba beach...after sipping flat white coffees on the Esplanade.
Our time passed quickly and before we knew it we were back in the Skoda on the Bruce Highway, southbound this time, back to the Brisbane airport to catch our flight to Darwin....where, we were excited about getting back on the water, seeing more old friends...and, yes...warmer temps!
July 8-13 -- Visiting Australia's Sunshine Coast...in Winter
The two captains landed in Brisbane, Australia before dawn on July 8th, 2011 after a 14 1/2 hour flight from Dallas that was shortened (thankfully) by lighter than normal headwinds. Unfortunately, we ended up seated in the centermost two seats of a row of four in the center of the 747's economy section. This meant we were packed in like sardines without the freedom to get up when we wanted or access overhead lockers when we wanted. Plus, Quantas doles out all sorts of goodies like pillow, blanket, sleep mask kit, bottled water, snack packages, headphones, etc. after you are seated, and all that has to get squeezed in somewhere, or else, it disappears into the nether regions beneath your legs, not to be found, in some cases, until after you land! It is amusing that, given that you can barely budge, there is a big promotion of exercising throughout the flight. Fortunately, we had nice seat mates, and we simply got up every time they did.
The morning of our arrival in Brisbane was gorgeous. Bright and clear and...damn chilly. We picked up our rental car -- a Skoda made by a former Soviet country! --, distributed ourselves to the correct sides of the vehicle, and picked our way gingerly out into the left lane traffic. After that it was a snap to whiz along northbound on the Bruce Highway with the rising sun, listening to the radio and following our directions to Tricky and Jane's (formerly of sv Lionheart) new house in Buderim.
Buderim is a charming town built on top of the first big hill that sticks up from the flat land that extends between it and Brisbane, only interrupted by the well worn jags of the famous Glass House Mountains -- "mountains" are little more than well eroded volcanic plugs. Buderim is where many of our friends who landed in Mooloolaba have ended up buying homes. It is suburban bordering on country. Out behind Tricky and Jane's house (which actually is very reminiscent of our own in atmosphere) is a tract of thick "bush" -- a jungle of various gum trees and lots of intriguing birds, as well as Tricky and Jane's organic hydroponic gardening efforts and their flock of chickens. BUT the lot next door is being built upon (the owner with a rental dozer worked at grading his various levels from dawn until dusk every day we were there!) and across the street is a development of open hillside that seeks to attract 16 homes!
We arrived as Tricky -- nowadays known more professionally as Richard -- was heading off to work. Don went with him, while Jane and I pushed three-month old Millie (Amelia) about a mile and a half up the hill by way of forest trail and gorgeous neighborhoods to the village center for lunch and a coffee.
Whether there would ever be a Millie was by no means certain when we first met T&J in Savu Savu fresh out of New Zealand on their first voyage. About the same age as our daughter and son-in-law, they had both led adventurous lives, mixing professional careers in various countries with high-energy hobbies like mountain biking, sailing and kite boarding. Cruising was an exciting new world and also included opportunities to party hearty, but Jane and I both remember serious conversations about biological clocks and the ramifications of both having and not having kids. I would not have put money in those days that these two would be where they are now.
Which is partners in what has shaped up to be a very successful multihull brokerage based in Mooloolaba. Already in the works when we left two years ago, Multihull Solutions is now doing big business! Big enough that Tricky and his partners have decided they need a rep in the US that they can ask to check out boats for sale there.
There is a big appeal for Aussies, whose dollar is (painfully) strong right now, to fly to America and pick up a boat at relatively bargain prices, and many Aussies do just that. However, as you might guess there are multiple pitfalls in the process that lie in wait for neophytes. So, Tricky and his partners hope to offer a facilitating service. Guess who has been persuaded to be that US rep. At least one, (if not both) of the two captains. As presented, it's a fairly easy job; just followup likely leads that Richard and his partner locate, with a personal visit to determine if the boat is as presented before the client flies across the Pacific. And then, when he/she does, be a friendly face (than can speak a little Aussie) to meet and greet and guide them around.
Don and I are hardly catamaran experts -- our upcoming cruise on Quantum Leap being our virtual debut. But experienced cruiser eyes and a healthy dose of skepticism is actually what is called for. So Richard's plan led to Don's and my spending some time crawling around some of the several catamarans they have for sale on their docks. I'm not sure what it means that after having done so, we were still pretty skeptical that all the money these boats cost would be be worth it...to us. But the Aussies have some $$$$ to spend these days, what with the booming mining economy, and they sure do seem to have a taste for cats.
In between catamarans and visiting with Richard and Jane, Don and I spent our time trying to track down other friends. Our broker who sold Tackless II in Scarborough was in Germany for her daughter's wedding, Jim and Paula of Avior were (like many Aussie sailors at this time of year) enjoying the delights of cruising the Whitsundays, and our Harley friends Graeme and Di left the morning of our arrival on a motorcycle trip.
However our good friends Peter and Sandy of sv Otama Song, not only were able to join us at Tricky and Jane's for a proper Aussie Barbecue, but we managed to find our way out to their latest real estate acquisition, a rural fixer-upper in the lovely countryside west of Buderim. We also were able to catch up with Rod and Sue of Idlewise, who took us on a most memorable 4WD beach trip two years ago. Idlewise is a big motoryacht parked across the dock from T2's old slip, and Rod and Sue have a family business not altogether unlike ours. After a few hours comparing notes about businesses and kids. Sue exclaimed that we seem to be living parallel lives
In between all this visiting, we spent our time trying to keep/get warm. We knew before coming, of course, that it was winter in south Queensland, and we brought a few jeans and long sleeves, but we didn't fully realize that Queenslanders don't have insulation or central heat. Tricky and Jane did give us a portable radiator, which, I'm embarrassed to admit we left on in our bedroom the whole time we were there. Only baby Amelia had it as good, and she didn't whine as much as we did when forced to emerge. The first few days we lived in all our warm clothes layered on top of one another, including our foul weather jackets...even at the dinner table! But I must confess things warmed up quite a bit after the weekend, and we even took some sun on the Mooloolaba beach...after sipping flat white coffees on the Esplanade.
Our time passed quickly and before we knew it we were back in the Skoda on the Bruce Highway, southbound this time, back to the Brisbane airport to catch our flight to Darwin....where, we were excited about getting back on the water, seeing more old friends...and, yes...warmer temps!
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