Friday 7th February 2020 – Serangan Harbour - Bali

Today was Putu’s birthday.

 

Our hotel in Sanur

After a nice morning swim, we headed off to the beach at Sanur for lunch at Putu’s favourite warung.

Beach front Sanur 

The weather was still very unsettled, but thankfully the rain held off all day.

For dinner, we met with lots of Putu’s family and cousins to celebrate her birthday at a restaurant, and during dinner the sky opened up and it bucketed down.

The rain didn’t damper the night and latter we went out clubbing till early in the morning.

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Thursday 6th February January 2020 – Serangan Harbour - Bali

Benoa Harbour is old and decerped, filthy and rat infested and should have been knocked down years ago, yet they still command around $90/d for a piece of rotten jagged floating concrete.

I couldn’t get out of this putrid rip-off cess pit fast enough, but I wasn’t sure Serangan was going to be much better, but I wanted to get on a mooring to prevent a rat getting on-board.

We left Benoa Harbour dodging all the parasailers trying not to get anyone hung up on our mast and motored the five miles around to Serangan harboar which is a busy small fast ferry terminal and small boat mooring area.

Let's go parasailing in the busiest harbour in Bali

Putu made a few calls and organised a mooring for around $20/d while I navigated my way into another new unknown area.

Luckily there was a man in a small boat waiting for us who directed us to the correct mooring and it didn’t take long to get connected. The mooring had lots of growth and looked pretty dodgy and there was no way I was going to dive down in the putrid water to check on it, so I gunned the boat a few times to see if it would drag or snap and it held up, so we decided to stay.

After securing the boat, we motored over to the small boat jetty where we locked the dinghy to the jetty, then headed off to the hotel in Sanur Putu had booked.

Gunung Agung & Gunung Batur - Bali

The hotel was nice and had a beautiful pool, but the best thing was the air conditioning. It was so hot this time of year and we were both struggling in the heat and Putu was still unwell.

I spent a couple of hours in the pool while Putu rested and then we got a call to say the alternator was fixed and the guy will drop it off at the dinghy jetty.

I raced down to the dinghy jetty and the guy was waiting for me with my alternator. I took it out to Sirocco and spent the next two hours hanging upside down dripping with sweat installing it. Nothing is easy on a boat and in this stifling heat even the simplest task has you sweat soaked in minutes.

After cleaning up and putting my bed back together I started up the engine and to my horror the alternator was still not working. So, pull my bed back out, open the engine compartment, hang upside down for another hour and then take it back to the workshop.

Later, after recovering in the hotel pool we decided to head out for some dinner. We ended up gravitating to the loudest music which was a bad bad mistake.

The restaurant we picked ended up being Italian with lots of old drunk people wanting to sing and dance. The food was pretty ordinary also and I couldn’t get out of there quick enough.

Back to the nice cool hotel room for some beers and Foxtel.

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Wednesday 5th February 2020 – Benoa Harbour - Bali

I got up early to test the starboard alternator before it got too hot and then decided to remove it and take it to a repair shop for testing and repair.

Dave took me in his hire car to the repair shop that repaired his alternator several days ago and after they set it up in their test jig, they confirmed it was definitely faulty, so I left it with them to repair.

Hmmm, maybe there was a lightning strike at the Del Ray Marina?

While I was away, Putu went and borrowed her uncle’s car and then we took both cars to the shopping centre to stock up on food and beer. Fonster was heading off tomorrow, heading for Komodo National Park and we were going to get out of this filthy cess pit and move around to Serangan to pick up a mooring.

Late in the afternoon, Fonsters new crew arrived (Jim & wife and Greg) and we spent the rest of the day on Fonster catching up and socializing till late in the evening.

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Tuesday 4th February 2020 – Teluk Narat to Benoa Harbour

We departed Narat around 07:00 today under full canvas as there was a bit of wind around, heading for Bali 57 miles away.

Our Neighbour at our Narat anchorage

It was great to be sailing for a change after all the motoring we have been doing in Indonesia. I was unsure of what currents to expect as I have read a lot of conflicting information about which way the currents flow and at what time of year.

So my plan was to head for the closest part of Bali, which was around the north eastern corner and if we have a very strong opposing current, I can turn to Amed for the night, but if progress is good I will hug the coast where we can pull up at Padang Bay or continue on to Benoa Harbour.

Conditions we perfect, sailing on a nice 15 knot close reach. The ocean was glassed out with a 1.5m swell rolling through and all I had to do was watch for and avoid all the big tankers, ferries and fishing boats suddenly appearing from all directions.

There appeared to be very little current affecting us as we cruised along doing around six to seven knots, so I changed course and while sitting a few miles off the coast of Bali, we headed towards Benoa harbour at the far south end of the Island.

There was quite a bit of rubbish and organic flotsam in the water and I had to be wary of colliding with a large solid log. It was nice to be sailing this coast of Bali that I have driven a million times as it gave me a totally different perspective of the Island.

 Gunung Agung - Bali

Note the water spout forming

I also discovered several potentially really good dive locations along the way such as Pulau Gilibiaha, Pulau Gilitipekong and the immediate surroundings.

The wind lasted most of the day and only died out during the last hour or so of the passage when I had to start the engine. Looking on my new battery monitor I noticed there was no charge coming from the starboard alternator.

I started the port engine and there was charge coming from the port alternator. I was sure I tested this back at Gili Gede, but now I wasn’t sure if I did or not? Had the starboard alternator just suddenly stopped working, did I have a wiring fault or has this alternator not been working for years and I just didn’t know?

It would have to wait till we get to shore where I can take some measurements to confirm if the alternator is faulty or not.

The Bounty on its way back to Benoa harbour from Nusa Lembongan  

We were heading to Benoa harbour which is the commercial harbour of Bali and the plan was to tie up somewhere close to Fonster for a few days and get a cheap hotel room as Putu had been feeling sick for the last couple of days.

The problem was I had no idea where to go as my Navionics charts were very basic within the harbour, as were my CM93 charts. I had seen a brand-new unfinished marina on the internet that I assumed we were heading for, but this was not shown on Google Earth imagery.

Luckily as I got closer, I could see Fonster on my AIS so it was just a simple matter of carefully approaching his location.

As I approached the harbour entrance I was surprised when the VTS harbour master called up asking for our intentions, previous port and next port of call.

All was sweet and we managed to find Fonster and our crappy berth behind them. The wind was blowing into the jiggered, decerped, rat infested, polluted, concrete floating pontoon and I was so glad Dave and his crew were waiting for us with his large fenders to prevent us from damaging the boat.

It didn’t take long to get secured and then it was time for a beer or two.

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Monday 3rd February 2020 – Gili Trawangan to Teluk Narat

After a nice big breakfast, we took Iyan to the fast ferry on Trawangan as he was heading back to Bali then onward to Australia.

When we docked the dinghy at the usual place a guy said we have to move our boat. We asked if we could pay some money and stay for another couple of nights, but he was adamant that we had to leave NOW without explanation.

I’m not sure if the owner of the mooring just required his mooring back or the local mafia was pissed because we had our own boat and weren’t paying for snorkelling trips and the like?

Whatever the reason, we were being kicked out and had to be gone as soon as we come back from dropping off Iyan.

Saying farewell to Iyan on Gili Trawangan

We said our farewells to Iyan and headed back to the dinghy and then back out to Sirocco. Someone was waiting near us in a small boat, waiting for us to leave so he could claim the mooring. I wasn’t going to be bullied into leaving immediately and so I took my time to get the boat prepared while Putu called her relatives to look into options for mooring the boat in the region.

Her cousin said he can organise a cheap mooring not far away at Teluk Narat and so we decided to head over there for the night.

I dropped the mooring around lunch time and immediately the man hovering around in the small boat attached his boat, and we motored off towards Teluk Narat around five miles away.

After negotiating a large pearl farm, we entered the small sheltered bay of Teluk Narat and there was a small boat waiting for us to direct us onto the correct mooring. After we were securely tied up, we locked up Sirocco and headed into shore to take a look around and to buy dinner.

This area of Lombok is notorious for theft and other crimes, so we were very weary. We chatted to a few people on the jetty to get a feel for the vibe of the area and we paid a local guy a few rupes to keep an eye on the dinghy while we were away.

It seemed safe enough and these people were still suffering so much from the large earth quake that a few rupes in the pocket meant so much to them.

We hired two motor bike riders and went into town to get something to eat and to buy some food. It was a good fifteen-minute ride to the nearest shops and there was earth quake damage everywhere you looked.

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Buying street food at Teluk Kombal

We had dinner in a small warung and bought some extra food to take back to the boat. The place was very noisy and the air polluted from all the traffic going past and I couldn’t wait to get back to the boat for some peace and quiet.

It's interesting how random the damage from the earth quake can be. This house survived while all the houses around it were totally destroyed. The trick is to either make your house super strong (expensive) or out of flexible materials like bamboo and palm fronds, any thing else will not survive. 

We called our riders and they were here in no time and took us back to the jetty now in darkness.

Our dinghy was right where we left it and the guy was looking after it well. We headed off into the darkness for a quiet night on Sirocco.

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Sunday 2nd February 2020 – Gili Trawangan

After yesterday’s strenuous activities, we decided to have a rest day and spend all day hanging out at the Skinny Dip Beach Club. Around 11am we headed into shore and waved down the first frothy horse that came along.

The Skinny Dip Beach Club is on the west coast of Gili Trawangan and quite a long way from the main drag and it took a while to get there as the road is quite rough on this side of the Island and there was much flooding from all the rain in the past few days.

The Beach Club was quite nice, mostly made from bamboo, but best of all the pool was cool and refreshing. Even the toilets were air-conditioned.

We hung out all day, snacking, drinking and reading and every now and then, rolling into the pool to cool off. The food was good and the place was quiet and very relaxing. This side of the Island is very quiet, yet it has some good beaches and surf breaks, perfect if you want to escape the crowds for a while.

Late in the afternoon, we flagged down another frothy horse and headed back to the main drag for dinner, then back out to Sirocco.

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Saturday 1st February 2020 – Gili Trawangan

The morning looked a bit dodgy once again, but as it was Iyan’s second last day with us, I decided to make the most of the day and head over to both Gili Meno and Gili Air in the dinghy to take a look as none of us had been over there before.

The weather looked reasonable, although hot as hell so we got ready and headed over to Gili Meno and parked the dinghy on a beach on the eastern side and started to walk around the Island. There was massive damage caused by the recent earth quake and some of the large resorts were totally destroyed and completely abandoned.

It was really sad to see. There were even ATM’s tipped over that had been ransacked and expensive furniture scattered out in the open abandoned to the elements and swimming pools full of green water. As this Island doesn’t get a fraction of the tourists that Trawangan does, there is no cash flow to repair or rebuild most of these damaged buildings.

By the time we got half way around the Island we were all knackered, so we waved down a frothy horse and negotiated a price to take us the rest of the way. It turned out to be a good decision.

In the center of the Island was a large lake that was once very beautiful, but now is a dirty polluted decease festering mess.

One thing that was very noticeable on this Island was the server erosion taking place around the shore line due to global warming.

Bad erosion on Gili Memo

There were tall trees, shop fronts and foot paths all collapsing into the water. On Trawangan, they must be constantly repairing the erosion damage as it happens so you don’t notice it, but here with the few tourists and limited funds it’s slowly eating their Island away and there is nothing they can do about it.

We had some lunch at a small resort near the dinghy before heading off once again to Gili Air. As soon as we arrived at Gili Air the skies opened up and it poured down so we took refuge in a small bar. It wasn’t long till the rain stopped and off we headed again walking around the Island in a clockwise direction.

This Island had some very nice resorts and home stays, lots of shops and bars, but was very quiet and low key compared to Trawangan. We managed to walk right around this Island and it started to rain again just as we were getting close to the dinghy and we got saturated.

The sky started to darken and I was concerned we might lose visibility on the journey back to Gili Trawangan five miles away, so I decided we should leave immediately and try to outrun the weather.

It was a good decision, at first we had driving rain stinging our faces, but by the time we made it back to Sirocco we were in bright sunshine with black storm clouds rolling in behind us.

After nice hot showers, we dined in as the weather raged outside and I was glad we changed moorings as I might get a full night’s sleep tonight.

Chilling out at night

Gili Trawangan

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