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Firefly - En route to Lingga in the haze



Its Sunday 25th October and at 0630 Firefly left the anchorage at Belitung after a stoppage of over a week. We have fallen a little out of sync with the Sail 2 Indonesia Rally, missing 2 stops in Borneo to avoid the smoke pollution. We did attend both the 'Welcome Ceremony' and the interesting 'Bali Mask Dance' yesterday but had already done a couple of island tours so decided to leave a few days ahead of the pack so that we cover the 200+ miles to Penuba on Lingga at a slower pace.

Our attempt to avoid the terrible air pollution present in this part of SE Asia did not work out as Belitung has been smokey and hazy most of the time too. The first two days we had blue skies but since then there has been a combination of general haze from forest fires in Borneo or Sumatra combined with smoke from local fires in Belitung. There was a forest fire on the island which was apparently accidental and did get put out - but even so there are still small fires in lots of places where locals are burning rubbish or even heating tar so they can re caulk their fishing boats.

Despite this we have enjoyed our time in Belitung, its very picturesque with white sand beaches, small islands and granite boulders. The coral reefs are quite good for snorkeling and the locals are amazingly hospitable. Our second island tour was with a local called Chandra and we shared with the US crews off Evergreen and Slipaway. Chandra's usual job, when he is not helping with the rally is as an English teacher which meant he could give us a good commentary about life on Belitung. There were 3 highlights on the tour...

The first stop was at the school Chandra teaches at - called School number 3 it specialises in tourism and caters for students in the 14 to 17 year old range. They we so pleased about our impromtu visit - the whole school stopped as we visited several different classrooms. The better English speakers told us about their studies and were encouraged to ask us questions about our sailing trips and life in the UK and America in general. One of the students, Angy, clearly very bright and outgoing then arranged it so that she could take the spare seat in the car and joined us for the rest of the day! Next we had a western style lunch in the best hotel in the main town - air conditioning and on the menu 'Islington fish and chips' - bliss. Heading out in to the countryside, the third highlight was a visit to the Tarsias Sanctuary. The nocturnal Tarsias is the world's smallest primate and is only found on Belitung and Borneo. They are very small and despite looking hard we could only find one in the fenced off wooded area - very small, big eyes, with head mobility like an owl and suckers on its feet like a gecko - very cute and very endangered!

As well as air pollution another negative issue is that the organisation of this rally is certainly not up to 'World Cruising' standards. We have been both somewhat confused and probably made the wrong decision regarding visa renewal and where we will finally clear out of Indonesia. Having started later than everyone else our original visas where valid almost to the end of the rally. Our final stop will be Tanyang Pinang although we may have to leave before the festivities because our visas expire. Apparently its a dirty commercial port and there really is no other reason the for us to go there other than to check out. What we were not told until it was too late is that we could have cleared out during our time in Belitung - this is what over half of the participants have actually done and apparently they can still go to Tanyung Pinang if they want!

However, there is no real rush to head north as the smog worsens towards Malaysia. We listen to 2 SSB Radio nets each morning, one for each of the Indonesian Rallies. The other rally is ahead of us and NZ boat 'Red Herring' described the conditions further north. They were approaching Port Dickson, one third of the way up the west coast of Malaysia and reported that the air is thick with pollution and the visibility very limited. We did manage to cheer them up by relaying the result of the Rugby World Cup semi final held last night, NZ just beat South Africa which made them happy. Once the overdue monsoon rains arrive the fires will go out and the atmosphere will eventually clear - in the meantime its hot and humid.

Firefly's destination for today is an island called Gelasa about 40 miles west of Belitung. We heard reports via SSB that the anchorage is safe and the reefs here are in good condition. We don't have it covered in our pilot book but the approach looks fine and there is very little wind forecast. Currently the wind is less than 10 knots and we are creeping along on a dead run with the sails wing on wing. There is a favorable current and Firefly is managing about 4 knots speed over ground. We normally switch the engine when it gets this light but we are expecting to be motoring a lot over the next few weeks so are being more patient than usual.

On leaving Gelasa we will head west again to anchor for a night at Ketawi on Pulua Banka before heading up the east coast and stopping at an anchorage on the northern tip. Both of the those legs will be in the 40 mile region and easy to complete in a day. The hop from Banka to Lingga is almost 90 miles and will require an early start unless we can find a suitable island to allow us to break that passage. The next rally festivities in Penuba start on the 29th of October.

Paul and Susie
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