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American Spirit II - Day 250; Elephant Safari & American Spirit II Receives 2 Prizes During the Rally Dinner; Friday, September 12, 2014



Up at 7:00 AM; and breakfast in the marina restaurant at 8:00 AM.



We departed the marina in a beautiful van sent from the Safari Park for us. Leather seats, air conditioning, 3 rows of seats. Rally nice. About 30 minutes into our 1 1/2 hour trip Russ from Nexus called and said that Suzana from Rally Control needed Jeanine's passport to process her for transfer from American Spirit II to Nexus. Jeanine was joining Nexus because with Jeremy on board we were 'overloaded' for the next two month's voyage and Jeanine had to leave. Nexus was short crew, as two other crew had just left and they were now at two instead of four. Once we got back to the marina I found out that Rally Control needed Joel, mine and Jeremy's passports, also. Once we'd given her the passports we headed back to the Safari park again.



The Safari park was started a number of years ago and the original 10 elephants were from Sumatra. These elephants were abused and the park in Bali was meant to save then and treat them like kings and queens. The park succeeded. When we got to the Safari park all the elephants we saw were in great shape. There were 31 elephants in all, 7 male and 24 female; with 4 juveniles or babies.



Our safari started at 12:00 PM and lasted for 45 minutes as we walked thru the jungle. Joel and Jeremy were on one elephant; David and Jeanine on another; and I was by myself. My elephant handler sat on the elephant's head while I sat on a bench on top of the elephant. The elephant I was on was 40 years old and a female. He (the handler) had come from Sumatra 10 years ago and the only elephant he handled was the one he was riding on. The elephants make 5 tours per day, but sometimes up to 7 if they get really busy, which is rare. Our tour concluded in the water, where a group picture was taken. Then we had lunch, included in the price of the tour ($80.00). That price also included our 3 hour round trip transportation to and from the camp. Not bad. Lunch was buffet and good. At 1:45 PM 3 elephants put on a talent show for us which included dunking a basketball into a hoop; doing a math problem; kicking a shocker ball; and painting a picture. Plus some typical circus types stunts. We then toured the nursery, where two babies were playing with their mothers.



We departed at 2:30 PM and arrived back at the marina around 4:30 PM.



The Rally party was at 6:30 PM, and after drinks we had a buffet dinner. Prizes were given out, and American Spirit II took 2nd place in Division B; and was closest in picking our boat's ETA in Bali. We were within 52 minutes of our ETA that I picked a week ago. So after sailing 990 miles over 7 days we were within 52 minutes of our ETA. Sweet Pearl was 2nd with being within 59 minutes of their ETA,so we beat them by 7 minutes and won the 'prize,' a wooded wind chime. For the 2nd place finish we received a hand carved small wooden box. At our two joined dinner tables were the crews from Celebrate, Folie a Deux, Merlyn of Poole, and American Spirit II. Other boats receiving prizes were Merlyn of Poole, Festina Lente, Civetta II and others I'd forgotten.



I'd picked up a chest cold today so I didn't stay up too late.



David showered, packed and got a taxi at 10:00 PM for his 1:30 AM flight to Korea and then Chicago. He was bringing home two suitcases of parts, some for return and 3 for warranty repair, and our Code O sail. By getting rid of the sail we increased our storage space to store the new auto pilot and some other items in the under the V-Berth storage area.



Brian Fox


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