On Monday,
October 20, 2014 we weighed anchor for Karimun Jawa: 324 nm NW. We had some old sailing friends with us: Gary, his wife Paiwan and their seven year
old daughter Jasmine. The winds were
light so we motored out. Since it was
early morning, all the tour boats were motoring out to see the dolphins. We were not lucky in seeing them but I felt
that somewhere enroute to Karimun Jawa we would come across some.
After
motoring about 5 hrs, we picked up a SE’ly breeze and set the main and
jib. We held onto this wind for the
entire trip to Karimun Jawa but had to try different sail configurations to
make the most use out of it: main &
Jib; wing ‘n’ wing (main on lee side with a poled out jib); poled out jib
alone. The winds did not exceed 15 kts
but continued to be steady.
There was
nothing remarkable about the voyage. The
seas were running about 6’ and confused for a good part of it but came down
during the latter half so that it was pleasant.
We did come across a school of dolphin and Jasmine was ecstatic.
On October
23, 2014 at 0830 hrs, we dropped anchor off Karimun Jawa in 62’ water depth
with 200’ chain out: Anchor Position:
05-52.566’ S x 110-25.657’ E. Shortly
after dropping anchor, a boat carrying officials from the Ministry of Tourism
came out and invited us to join them in the central square of the town. A Gala Dinner was planned for that evening
alongwith free Reflexology (foot massage), hair cuts, see doctor and receive
medicine.
The town is
remarkably clean and the people very friendly.
Given the fact that there were only two sailing vessels that showed up
for this event, I was surprised that they decided to carry out the reception
and activities. Karimun Jawa is one of
27 islands in the group of which only 5 are inhabited. The water and coral are pristine. Diving and snorkeling are the main
activities. The town is poised to take
on a big tourist boom but it hasn’t happened yet. There is a ferry to the mainland of Java that
takes about 2 hrs. Most of the tourists
are Indonesian with a smattering of Europeans.
They have some exclusive resorts on the island and our friends stayed at
one of them. There is only electricity during
the evening.
Since we
were only two boats –Escape and Solstice- with a total of seven people, we had
more officials and tourist guides than guests.
We took a leisurely stroll around the fisherman’s district and were warmly
received by the families living there.
Being American here is a plus since they love Obama.
The Gala Dinner
was not quite as elaborate as others but everything leading up to it was about
the same: traditional dancing, singing, speeches,
dinner, more dancing with guests participating.
All this goes on until 2200 hrs. A
few of the officials requested to see our boat the following day so we made
arrangements to pick them up at 1000 hrs.
It’s always interesting to see their reactions when they come aboard and
see that we have a refrigerator, gas stove and all the navigation equipment. It’s almost incomprehensible to them that we
could sail all the way from America to Indonesia with only two people.
We decided
to set sail on Saturday October 25 for Belitung: 300 nm to the NW. The wind was still holding out of the SE.
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