Coromandel Quest

The anchorage at Karimun Jawa lies between the main island and one of the smaller islets which dot the area.  There are fringing reefs on either side, but these are easy to spot with a pair of Polaroid sunglasses, so the shallow bits can be avoided.  It was pleasant to be able to tie up to a wharf rather than plough through sand, and we found everyone ready to welcome us and check our documents.  A large village green type area had gaily coloured flags, little booths selling a variety of items, including coconuts and things like mei goreng, and the only restaurant we found on the island, and there was the impression of an English garden fête about it.  We took a short stroll around the village, finding it prosperous-looking, with smiling locals, although not quite so effusive as those in Flores.  At the end of the walk,  a cold Bintang beckoned and then we were joined by Finn and Reydun of Hilde for a good natter.

2 October 2010 Karimun Jawa  Andy rushed around this morning getting the diesel tank filled - we'd used over 15 gallons coming from Bali - which was just as well as the wind piped up to 25 knots in the afternoon, together with some rain, so few people went ashore until the evening.  I was thankful that the weather had improved because it was the night of the Gala Dinner and other festivities.  Yet again we were entertained by several groups of children, in a variety of costumes, all of which were delightful.  One group carried cutouts of horses, complete with manes and tails, which they flourished this way and that.  There was also a very strange "play" in which two men with masks and long, false hair, seemed to put a spell on a girl, who fell into a trance and had to be subdued before being carried away by a young man.  I would have like to know the story behind this.

We were then introduced to the Regent of Central Java, who presented us with selandangs - long woven sashes - with Sail Indonesia 2010, Karimun Jawa" dyed in ikat, plus stainless steel bracelets with the same saying and lovely little motifs engraved at the ends - very pretty.

3 October 2010  Andy had arranged for us to visit a shark farm this morning, but after torrential rain and a 40-knot gust, we decided to stay on board.  The anchor was holding well, but visibility was down to about two cables and the whole surface of the sea was smoking.

4 October 2010  Our planned visit to the shark farm went ahead, with Steve and Di accompanying us.  It was just on the other side of the channel from where the village was, and there we found two pools had been created by building coral walls to separate the pools from the sea.  Obet pointed out the different types of shark - black sharks, white-tipped sharks - then Andy put on mask and flippers and went swimming with them.  He also handled a small turtle which, he said, was able to pull away from him very strongly.  Later Obet showed us where turtle eggs were protected in cages so that they could be assisted into the sea later, and we also saw a caged raptor, though I'm unsure of the type.  

We then visited the local school and tried to get the pupils to practice their English on us.  It reminded me of trying to get pupils to speak when I taught French years ago - like pulling teeth!  Then in the evening we had a delightful barbecue with the rest of the fleet.

5 October 2010  Andy hired a small motorbike to take us around the island, which is more extensive than we thought.  There are several villages on the island, but most of the people live along the roadside in houses which range from bamboo huts with palm thatch to very large and elegant double-storey houses.  Everywhere we went we were greeted with shouts, waving hands and smiles.  Most of the island is covered with dense vegetation, thickly wooded with vines, lianas and other creepers, so that only the shoreline seems to be populated.  Most of the people here are Muslim, so we saw a number of mosques on our journey.  We got mislaid several times, going down sandy tracks hoping to reach a beach, but smiling locals pointed us back towards the road, and we arrived back in the main village almost by accident.

All in all, a most pleasurable stop-over and it is a pity that the weather didn't allow us to explore a little further. 

The Anchorage at Karimun Jawa

With our Local Guide

Local Children

Andy with the Small Turtle

Andy with the Sharks

Andy showing our route from England

9-15 October 2010  Tanjung Klayang, Belitung  This morning we were faced with the extraordinary sight of huge granite boulders forming a semicircle around the west side of the anchorage.  The first thing we did was to move closer inshore, anchoring just in front of Independent Freedom, before going ashore to see what was happening at this last anchorage.

We were first greeted by Mr and Miss Belitung 2010, dressed in traditional gold costumes and looking splendidly cool, two lovely young people who spoke excellent English and who spearheaded Belitung's ambition to give Bali a run for its money in terms of attracting tourists.  On a short walk we saw that the whole of the beachfront was being prepared for the festivities, with a stage, booths for traders, and several places serving food.  I really like the Bintang banner: Bintang, meaning "star", is one of the local fizzy beers, and this banner had a map of Indonesia made up of Bintang cans.  Selamat Datang di Bintang means "Welcome from Bintang".  As in Karimun Jawa, formalities were kept to a minimum, with only our boat name and our own being required, more as a record of who had arrived than anything else.  We were both given lovely coolie hats made of banana leaves and gaily painted - just the thing to keep the Sun off on a hot day.

Later five of us we taken by car to the local town of Tanjung Padang, where we visited a small supermarket and the local market, which had an excellent array of fruit, vegetables, fish and chicken.  The town was as ramshackle as Kupang, but we were greeted everywhere with smiles and requests for photographs - yet again, I felt like royalty!  We had lunch in a local restaurant, with me settling for mie goreng and Andy for calamari, although we also tried everyone else's food, as you do.

Whilst Andy went ashore in the evening, I stayed on Coromandel and tried to tidy up, putting things away that had been collecting since Bali.

11 October 2010 Today we had an outing to East Belitung, a different regency.  It was splendid being on an air-conditioned bus.  Travelling to the other side of the island gave a much better impression of the landscape than seen from seaward.  For a start, Belitung is much flatter than the other islands we've visited, with few hills.  However we notice that many areas had been open-cast mined - for tin we later learned - by the Dutch when they were in power.  I'd been trying to work out the geology of the island, given the granite along the coast, and had come to the conclusion that it must be like a warm-climate version of Coire na'Ghrundda on Skye - an eroded volcano.

On one of the stops we visited a museum and watch a match between two men wielding short sticks with a flexible bit on the end.  The object was to strike the opponent, but it was obviously a painful process as one of the combatants had several nasty weals on his skin at the end of the match.

We had lunch with the Regent and his staff.  He spoke excellent English and, as we later found, had a lovely voice, singing "The Green, Green Grass of Home" with Tom of Rasa Manis.  We ate this meal sitting on the floor around a flattish dish which contained several bowls of different types of food - and we ate with our fingers in the traditional way.  It was delicious!

On the way back we stopped at a Chinese temple, resplendent in red, with many little shrines inside in front of which incense sticks were burning, making the air fragrant.  the temple was built on a series of terraces on the site of a large granite outcrop, with a multitude of stairways up to it and commanding a superb view of the surrounding countryside.

12 October 2010  Another tour, but this time just a short trip during which we went to the Museum, from where some of us rode antique bicycles to the beach, saw a performance of martial arts by some children and had a chance to fly some glorious kites!  My favourite was the octopus, which must have been 40 feet long, but there were also dragons, birds, an aeroplane and one which had a streamer which read "Belitung Island".  Here Andy was snapped by a photographer of the Pos Belitung, dancing with one of the young ladies, and I don't think anyone was more surprised than he was to be handed a copy of the paper next day with his photo on the front page.

From there we went to a place where spring water was channelled into three swimming pools.  These were situated in woodland, so provided us with a chance to get out of the Sun.  We were entertained by a group of young men who had Chinese Lion costumes, rather like pantomime horses, but which performed the most intriguing feats, like climbing onto stands, leaning into the pool to lap the water, and doing something which ought not to be done in public!

Anchorage at Tanjung Klayang

Bintang's Ingenious Banner

Chinese Lion

Beachfront at Tanjung Klayang

Dancer with Hobby Horse

Another View of the Anchorage

Although we flew the spinnaker for most of the day, the wind dropped by about 1700 so we motored all night, waking up next morning to a flat, glassy sea with barely a ripple in sight.  As we motored through the Dempu Strait towards Selat Durian, it was like going over a pewter plate, with low-lying islands appearing from time to time.  Having passed between Pulu Durian Besar and Pulau Sugibawah, we anchored just off Tanjung Sialang for the night.

On 19 October we set off on the final leg, which would involve crossing the traffic lanes of the Singapore Strait.  This, we thought, would be the biggest challenge of the day.  Ha!  The Strait was a doddle compared with the maze of fishing nets we had to cross to get to it, and we wasted over an hour and at least 5 miles trying to travel the last half mile to the traffic separation lane.  Frustrating wasn't the word to use: as fast as we'd negotiated one net, we ran into another.  The last straw came when, halfway across the lane we had to make two right-angled turns to avoid another.  Thank goodness there was little traffic.

A Few of the Ships at Anchor

A Rather Fuzzy Radar Picture: the blobs are the ships at anchor