To Sea Aboard Ivory Street

We departed Bali this morning for a lively day trip across to an anchorage in the lee of Java aboard our new ride, the 57' luxury catamaran Ivory Street.

It turned into quite an evening last night, not our usual pre passage scenario.  We went ashore mid-afternoon to the local sports bar for the NZ-France Match in World Cup Rugby (our hosts -- Greg, Chrissie and 12-year-old Michael -- are Kiwi!) which was well attended by much of the fleet.  

In the course of the sporting revelry we made the acquaintance of the family on Silver Lining, a 104' custom sailing yacht that had just come in.  Built in Thailand and only recently recently launched, the boat was designed and built by its owner, a Canadian restauranteur based in Hong Kong.  Chris, Vicki, and their two kids joined us for dinner that ran late, and then invited us aboard for a nightcap.  Despite our planned early morning departure, none of us wanted to pass up the invite!  

Wow!  What a boat!  5 crew (one of whom is the kids' tutor). Handsome modern interior with all the trimmings,  furniture and accents also designed by the owner, including a teak bathtub!  We had the soup to nuts tour and the kids played Xbox on wthe giant screen.  We didn't get home til 12:30...

...Which made the early departure especially painful.  Lovina, quiet for one day after the farewell ceremonies for the rally, was all a hubbub at daybreak with music and loudspeakers for a bicycle race!  And the dolphin- watching outriggers were motoring past our portholes as we tried to squeeze our eyes shut.  Ivory Street Has large ports so I envisioned the tourists peaking in at our tangled sheets!

It was not the perkiest crew that wrestled Ivory Street's anchor aboard (did I mention the windlass is broken!?) and it took us a while to grasp some of the quirks of the state of the art Ratheon nav system (oops part of the auto- pilot control isn't working!). We were not even ten miles offshore -- barely time to get down a cup or. Two of live-restoring coffee -- when wind abruptly came up.  Up go the sails.  Uh oh, there's a chafed area in the main halyard to worry about; we'll put in one reef.  and so it went.

Please don't get the wrong picture. This is a gorgeous boat.  She sails like a dream.  And counters one of our frustrations with Quantum Leal about being engaged with the environment (At the helm seat you are in full air...and sun, and it is easy and nice to sit out on the cabin top with a bean bag chair.). But a) she's a boat and things do go wrong with boats, and b) she's a boat with some fancy systems, and stuff goes more wrong fancy systems sometimes (as per the list detailed by Chris on Silver Lining!). And c) Greg pretty much singlehands this vessel.  He's a very capable guy, but there's only so much one person can fit in.  The chief reason we were invited aboard was to help spell Greg at the helm on long passages.  Of course, no soon did he go below to rest than the wind came up to flirt with his limit as we rocketed across the top of the bouncy Bali Strait.  This boat goes literally 2x the speed Tackless did!

Glad this first day is not an overnight passage.  And glad the conditions settled down after we cleared the strait.  We wended our way into a protected spot in a mere two meters of water off a village (with lots of cell towers for Internet!), plopped down that anchor, and enjoyed a sundowner as the sun set blazing red in the haze over Java.  And then the five or so mosques started their competing calls.  Ah, well.

Gwen Hamlin 

Cafe Getaway

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