Sailing Indonesia – Pulau Leti to Maumere

We finally left Darwin for Indonesia on Thursday, the 13th of November. The trip was uneventful and enjoyable. We thought we would have to motor-sail the entire way; however, we did get quite a few hours of sailing.

Once we left Darwin, we didn’t see another ship or boat until about 25 miles from our destination, Pulau Leti. We arrived at Leti at 2330 and anchored in the dark. It was a little disconcerting heading to shore to find water shallow enough to anchor. The depth went from 1300 feet to 20 feet in seconds.

We jumped off the boat for a snorkel in the crystal clear water in the morning. After breakfast, we got underway and headed to Pulau Kisar.

We sailed throughout the night to Wetar, where we anchored in front of a village at 0800 that morning. We dropped the anchor, and immediately the village people paddled out in their canoes for a visit.

They all clamoured aboard Thorfinn, and we sat and had an animated conversation with a lot of miming and very broken Indonesian from us and very few words of English from them.

They invited us ashore and showed us around their village. We visited the minister, a young guy from Ambon. He then took us to look at the school.

Back at the minister’s house, a guy climbed a coconut tree to get us a coconut to drink. It only took him a minute or two.

We moved on to Pulau Alor and anchored for the night. The next day was Dwayne’s birthday. He enjoyed one of the best sunrises he had seen yet (his words), and he saw a manta ray jump out of the water several times – all before 0700. Then I made him a “booby banana cake” to wish him a happy birthday.

Later in the morning, we spent an hour with some whales (blue whales I think). We got a few pictures, and one of the whales waved goodbye to us with its tail before disappearing. We were travelling very close to shore in 500 feet of water. The land close by was mountainous and absolutely gorgeous.

We sailed down to the western end of Alor and anchored at Tk Kebola. It took us a long time to find anywhere to drop the anchor as the water is so deep up to the shoreline.

That night we sat on the cabin top in the cool night air listening to the Muslim prayers and then had the first really good sleep in a week. The nights are much cooler here in Indo than in Darwin (at this time of year). We were underway the following day by 0700, and we sailed to a little flat, dry island called Pulau Lapan. We went for a snorkel and saw a lionfish; it was beautiful.

Leaving early the following morning, we sailed to Kawala and pulled up at a pier in the village of Baluaring. By the time we had secured our ropes, we had a crowd of visitors.

We learnt the Indonesian word for diesel (solar), and before long, Dwayne had the jerry cans in the back of a ute and was off to get fuel. He came back with the diesel, his long-awaited Bintang (beer) and the whereabouts of a Warung (eatery).

At the warung we ordered ayam gorgeng (fried chicken). It was delicious. It came with noodles, some vegetables, rice and curry sauce.

After lunch, on the walk back to the boat, we bought some fruit, veg and a small loaf of bread from the produce stalls they had in the street. It cost us Rp5000 (50c) for three mangos, Rp5000 for a large bunch of bananas (about 12), eggs were 10c each (most ended up being off), pawpaw for 20c, and the bread was 50c. There were some things for sale we didn’t recognise, and Dwayne managed to ask for a sample from one of the ladies. He ended up chewing what beetle nut. He looked like he was swallowing nails and started to spit it out. The old ladies and I had a good laugh at him.

We went back to the boat to relax and ended up with many kids visiting us. We practised our Bahasa Indonesian and managed to have a good talk and a laugh with them. After a couple of hours, I told them I wanted to sleep, and they left the boat. However, they sat on the pier saying mister, missus. Dwayne said he’d go for a walk with them so I could rest, and off he went. Five minutes later, the kids were back saying missus, missus, and when I ducked my head out to see what was happening, I saw Dwayne sitting off in the distance, friendless. Apparently, they all wanted me lol.

The kids spent the next couple of hours showing us around their village. We saw their school and one of the mosques (the village religion is predominately Islam) as we made our way around the winding streets of the village.

Later we watched people playing volleyball and badminton and then went back to the warung and had nasi goreng for dinner. The following morning we sailed on towards Maumere.We anchored near Watu Peni and jumped in for a snorkel. Although there were no large fish, there were many colourful fish, and I saw several sea anemones with their clownfish.

We also stopped for a snorkel at the Island of Adunara, and cleaned the barnacles off the hull.

The next day, we reached the island of Flores and anchored at Tk Hading. Once again, it was beautiful clear water, and we jumped in to cool off. We soon arrived in Maumere, where we cleared in with customs. We arrived on Sunday and, because the offices were closed, we just had a wander around the town. We watched some guys racing their scooters down the dry river bed and then had sate kambing (goat sates).

On Monday we went to customs, immigration, and then quarantine. Later we motored along to a resort and anchored out the front to get fuel. In Maumere, you can go to a service station and put fuel in a vehicle. But, you cannot fill jerry cans without a permit, hence the trip to Sea World Club Resort where a local filled our jerry cans with 200 litres of diesel.

We hired a scooter today to go back to immigration for our clearance to leave. We spent a few hours riding around sightseeing and then stopped at a tiny warung for lunch.

We begin the next leg of our journey tomorrow as we set sail to the Komodo Islands. We will stop four or five nights along the way. It sounds like we will find some more awesome spots to snorkel and visit. Kye and Kailey are meeting us at Labuan Bajo, and they will sail through to Bali with us. We are on target to reach Bali on the 14th for the arrival of the other boys and look forward to spending Christmas with them, perhaps on the Gilli Islands. Sampai Bertamu Lagi… until we meet again.

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