Saturday, 11th September 2010
As Skipper had a late night on Voyageur last night, there was no mad rush to get going early today. Neil took off with Oisin and the other younger people to the Island of Lombok by ferry. The island is about 10 miles away to the east.
Susanne called and we received more paperwork to fill in, but that only took a few minutes. Aileen did a clothes wash and then vanished into Sanur to have a pedigree and get the hair done. Meanwhile, Skipper and Terry changed the filters in on the water making unit, and cleaned up the bilges under the engine and generator. These are the kind of things one keeps putting off until tomorrow. Now they are finished, another thing off the list.
News for us:- Terry casually mentions in passing that Ireland won the " Commodore's Cup " this year for the first time ever. God! that's great news, Ireland have been trying hard for a long time to get hold of this trophy, and now they have done the business. And also, the team were all R.C.Y.C. boats.......................
* "Antix" sailed by Anthony O Leary
* "Mariners Cove" sailed by Dave Dwyer
* "Roxy" sailed by Andrew Creighton
Well done lads!
Later, Skipper and Terry got a taxi to Lakuta. Its the main tourist area of Bali and full of shops and has a big shopping mall. Its Aileen's birthday next Tuesday, so we had to do some shopping in advance, as we will be at sea next Tuesday on our way to the Cocos Islands, a distance of 1110 nmiles.
We are still impressed with the modest prices of everything around here, and enjoyed the hour or so we spent there. Meanwhile, its Ramadam Day in Indonesia, so for some reason, Bali is crowded, particularly Lakuta and by the time we finished the traffic had come to a virtual stand still. This looks bad for us getting back to the marina. However, the police to the rescue. They stopped all the traffic, got hold of a taxi for us and off we went down back streets and laneways and made a great quick return to the marina, otherwise it could have taken 3 hours or so. We had a quick shower, turned on the a/c, met Aileen who looked like "Cindy Doll" after having the hair done, and walked up to the Yacht club for the prize giving dinner in respect of the leg from Darwin to Bali.
THE DINNER. It all started with some wonderful dancing by these beautiful Bali girls and accompanied by their traditional music. This was followed by free drinks, and a buffet dinner, great oriental type food, and all very enjoyable.
We had Jochem, Jutta and their daughter Eileen from Chessie sitting at the table with us. They are German and great gas. Eileen is attending college in Perth, so is spending some quality time with the parents before returning to college.
Rally control varied the prizes, and basically did a great job including a gift for Stephen on Skylark who is leaving the fleet and returning with his boat to Malaysia, where he lives. Mind you, Stephen collected a prize for the leg as well. Then, this Stephen, collected first prize in our class for the leg and we were happy with this. Ariane got the line honours prize, even though they left Darwin a day early, and it was a great and popular prize.
We had a great and late night.
That's all for now.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)