Bull racing at a nearby sports field. Fortunately, the bulls do not race round madly in the hot sun. They parade at walk and trot showing off their paces and elaborately decorated yokes. Dressage for bulls, I suppose!
Gili Air was lovely. All the moorings were taken and we were lucky to squeeze into a small space and anchor on the edge of a reef. Once again, think white sand, azure sea, palm trees, swimming, diving, snorkelling. It's not a dream although sometimes we still have to pinch ourselves to make sure. It was 44 miles to Bali Marina, which is on the south of Bali at the end of Selat Lombok, a strait where the current runs south for 24 hours. We met hundreds of local fishing boats racing back to their ports after a night's fishing, their colourful sails bobbing up and down in the swell. Having escaped them, we then had a shipping lane to cross and had to take avoiding action to miss the fourth big ship we encountered. When we arrived at the marina with yacht Elaine from Finland, there were no berths available. We moored fore and aft opposite the marina off an island that covered at high water.You can just see Sal Darago behind the huge crane carrying barge. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the motor yacht, Jeremy, which was tied up near the marina entrance. We had hoped to buy a dinghy but none were available unless we ordered one and waited for 5 weeks or flew to Jakata and brought one back on the plane. We did get our British gas bottles filled for the first time since Tonga (Nov 2010) and Jeremy replaced the seals on the heat exchanger to stop it leaking. He had taken the heat exchanger off to clean it in Lombok as the engine was overheating and part of it had broken. He has made a temporary repair and, like the dinghy, we hope it will last to Malaysia. We took a taxi to the local Carrefour supermarket and bought previously almost unobtainable goods like UHT milk, cooked meat, bacon and Crunchy Nut Cornflakes.
The trip north against the curent was a challenge. We took local advice and hugged the coast eventually finding a counter current. A 45ft yacht, Bihou, overtook us and went further offshore. They slowed down with the current against them and we caught them up and overtook them. Bihou arrived in the anchorage at Amblat ahead of us but we were pleased with our passage. The next day 8 yachts motor sailed 45 miles to Lovina Bay, North Bali. We anchored behind Ellida and went ashore for the Sail Indonesia Welcome with speeches, snack boxes, Balinese dancing and traditional gamelan orchestra.
We arrived at Bima at 1730 on Sunday 4th. September. A local boat came out offering services so we bought 100 litres of drinking water for R100,000 (delivered the following morning). At six o'clock Monday the harbour was alive with boats and people. It was like a scene out of Emile Zola where men go for work - hands to be hired. As you can see the boats were full. We went ashore with Graham and Liz. Unfortunately we were picked up by the harbour master. This one did not want money, but he did wish to give us clearance papers. As Graham did not have Ellida's papers, we were told to return at 1600hrs.
Strolling into town in 90 degrees Fahrenheit, we came to a huge "covered" market. Nearly all the stalls sold clothes, but, of course, we were the star attraction. Very few tourists stop here despite it being a travellers' interchange. Eventually we found an equally huge fruit and veg market (the tarpaulins here were only five feet high and even Kathy had to stoop. All of us were soaked by now, so it was with some relief we found a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet and had a delicious lunch. We all jumped aboard this pony and trap for a quick trot back to the harbour. The waves were high and we got a soaking going to the boats and returning for the harbour master. It did not matter anyway as he wasn't there so we left the following morning at 0600. "Different field, different grasshopper," as they say. PS we have had no rain for 97 days.
Our next stop as we sailed west along the north coast of Sumbawa, was at the bustling town of Bima. 
We left Labuan Bajo twice. The first time Ellida's engine stopped and we towed them to a nearby island where we had a snorkel. Their engine working again, we returned to LB until the following morning when we set off for Komodo. We had about four nights on the north of Komodo where the snorkelling was excellent. We drifted and swam with the dinghies sometimes covering over a mile (no wetsuits required now!) and the sights were as good as any we have seen so far in the world. There were no big fish such as reef sharks or Emperor Fish so Fakarava Pass still has the edge. It was lovely to be in clear waters away from the rubbish which is so often present near habitation in Indonesia. The photo here is of the poisonous LION FISH.
