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.
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.
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