I woke early to the smokey humid smells of SE Asia that I
have always liked and we headed off to our final destination Gili Gede. It was
a 31-mile passage and as we rounded the Island and headed south, we had quite a
strong wind right on the nose for most of the way.
There was lots of shipping, many large ferries and small
fishing boats crisscrossing the Lombok passage, but this time the tide was kind
to us and we traveled at a reasonable speed arriving at Gili Gede just after
lunch.
We had pre-booked the marina and they should have been
expecting us as we were already two days overdue, but there was no activity. I
managed to raise someone on the radio and organised to park on the end of the
jetty until tomorrow and once secured, go into the office to register.
Unfortunately, the manager was away and there was no record
of our booking and deposit, but after a while we got things sorted out then had
a quick look around at the facilities.
We were planning on leaving tomorrow to head over to Bali
for the night to spend time with Putu’s family and then flying back to
Australia early Thursday morning, so we had a lot of things to prepare, get the
boat ready for departure and then pack our bags, booking flights and airport
transfers, so we were both very busy for the rest of the afternoon.
It was extremely hot inside the boat and we needed the fan
going flat out the whole time. By sunset we had both had enough and so we had a
shower and headed off to the restaurant for a few drinks and a feed.
At the bar we met the manager (owner) and chatted to him for
hours. He has done a terrific job building the marina and surrounding facilities
and he has grand plans for the future, so I hope his business prospers so he
can complete the landscaping and expand the facility.
I was impressed by how close he is working with the local community,
but there would be no way a business like this could operate and survive without
the support and protection of the locals.
We had a good feed and I was very impressed with the marina and
satisfied with our choice to leave the boat here and I felt content falling asleep
easy.
Track Sirocco’s
progress
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