History of Bali

(This posting didn't make it to the blog for some unknown reason, so I am posting it again. Should have posted when we were in Bali last month.)

It is certain that the island of Bali was inhabited in very early prehistoric times. Fossilized humanoid remains from western neighboring island Java date to as early as 250,000 years ago. The earliest human artifacts found on Bali are stone tools and earthenware vessels estimated to be 3000 years old. Some bones have been found that are estimated at 4000 years but have not yet been carbon dated. Artifacts indicate that the Bronze Age began on Bali before 300 B.C.

Indian traders brought Hinduism to the Indonesian archipelago and it was embraced on Bali by the 7th century. Balinese practice an unusual form of Hinduism that allows the eating of beef; Bali is the only place in the world where this form of Hinduism is practiced. Most of Indonesia is staunchly Muslim but Bali is the exception. Balinese are fearful of having the island government overtaken by practicing Muslims and this continues to be in issue at every election. Those on Bali who do practice Islam do not insist on women wearing veils or covering themselves head-to-toe. They observe a more relaxed version of Islam that allows each woman to decide for herself the degree of modesty she wishes to observe with her clothing. We have seen dozens of women wearing the head-coverings but no one wearing the complete head-to-toe coverings. The next island eastward is Lombok, where the vast majority of the population is Muslim. Lombok also has its own special form of Islam that allows the eating of pork. They are not concerned with dietary restrictions that were imposed before refrigeration.
They believe that all things made by Allah are good; therefore, pork is good.

The population of the island of Bali is approximately 3.3 million. Population of neighboring Lombok is approximately 3.1 million. Indonesia is an extremely heavily populated country consisting of hundreds of islands, probably thousands of islands if one counts the tiny ones. Total population is comparable to that of the United States, somewhere between 270,000,000 and 310,000,000. It isn’t like they take a true census on a regular basis so exact figures are not possible. In Bali there is now a population control program promoting having only 2 children rather than the customary 7 to 9 children. Indonesia spreads east-to-northwest for about 3600 miles, and north-to-south for about 1000 miles at its widest point. The island of Bali is sort of in the middle on the southern edge of the Indonesian archipelago. Bali appears quite prosperous but there are many areas of extreme poverty throughout Indonesia. Bill was kidding around with a taxi driver and commented that every family in Bali must own 4 motor-scooters. The taxi driver laughed and said: “No, that would be a very, very poor family. Every family on Bali owns at least 6 motor-scooters.” He might be right because these little scooters are everywhere and skirt amongst the cars and trucks in traffic with impunity. They don’t obey normal traffic laws but somehow manage to get where they are going without accidents. One-way streets don’t seem to mean a thing. The traffic signals and signs appear to be merely suggestions that one follows if one chooses. I would not want to drive a vehicle in a city here.

The earliest written records on Bali are inscriptions on a stone pillar near the village of Sanur which date to the 9th century A.D. By that time Bali was much as it is seen today outside the cities. Rice was grown on terraced hillsides with the help of a complex irrigation system. And the rich cultural and artistic traditions of Bali were already strongly in place – stone carvings, wood carvings, intricate working of gold and silver, paintings, special fabric weavings and the very distinctive Balinese forms of music and dancing. The Balinese are very proud of their continued artistic abilities.

The first Europeans to arrive in Bali were Dutch seamen in 1597. They fell in love with the island and when the captain prepared to set sail to depart, several of his crew refused to leave. At that time Bali was so prosperous and the artistic beauty so unique that it was hard not to fall in love with the island. The king had 200 wives and a chariot pulled by 2 white buffaloes. He also had a retinue of 50 dwarfs whose bodies had been bent to resemble the handle of a kris (traditional dagger). Poor little guys!! Very quickly, by the early 1600s, the Dutch had established trade treaties with the Javanese princes and controlled much of the incredibly profitable spice trade. But they were interested in profit, not culture, and so the Dutch barely gave Bali a second glance. By 1710 the Dutch were finally beginning to move in on Bali, using the old strategy of divide and conquer to overthrow the Balinese princes. In 1846 the Dutch used Balinese salvage claims over shipwrecks as a pretext to land military forces in northern Bali. Their cause was aided by various Balinese princes who had gained ruling interests in Lombok. In 1894 the Dutch, the Balinese and the people of Lombok collided in battles that set the course of history. These battles resulted in enormous losses of men and arms for the Dutch. It finally culminated in street-to-street fighting against Balinese and the Balinese crown prince was killed. The Balinese retreated to Cakranegara, which was eventually attacked by an overwhelming force of Dutch. Rather than surrender, the Balinese men, women and children opted for the suicidal puputan (a fight to the death). They burned their homes and set out for suicidal war. They didn’t last long.

The north of Bali had long been under Dutch control and the successful conquest of Lombok meant that the rest of Bali would soon fall to the Dutch. As during the past 200 years, it was the ransacking of wrecked ships that brought the differences to a head and gave the Dutch a reason to move in and take over all of Bali. In 1904 a Chinese ship was wrecked off the village of Sanur on Bali and the Dutch demanded that the rajah (prince) pay 3000 silver dollars because of this Chinese shipwreck. The Balinese rajah refused to pay the Dutch for the Chinese shipwreck, and in 1906 Dutch warships appeared at Sanur. The Dutch landed and marched to the outskirts of Denpasar (the current capital of Bali). They mounted a naval bombardment on Denpasar and then began their final assault. The 3 rajah realized that defeat was inevitable; but, like their counterparts on Lombok had done in 1710, they opted for the suicidal puputan (fight to the death). First the princes burned their palaces. Then, dressed in their finest jewelry and waving ceremonial gold kris daggers, the rajah led the royalty and priests out to their deaths facing the Dutch. The Dutch implored the Balinese to surrender rather than make their hopeless last stand, but the Balinese nobility marched forward into the Dutch guns. Nearly 4000 Balinese died. They would rather die than be subjects to another government. The Dutch now had control of all Bali.

In 1942 during WWII the Japanese invaded Bali at Sanur. The Balinese could offer no resistance. When the Japanese left in August 1945 Bali was suffering extreme poverty. But the occupation had fostered several paramilitary, nationalist and anti-colonial organizations that were ready to fight the returning Dutch. After almost 350 years the Balinese had had enough of Dutch rule. Just days after the Japanese surrender, in August 1945 the Indonesian leader proclaimed the nation’s independence. But it took 4 years to convince the Dutch that they were not going to get their colony back.

The next invasion of Bali was by tourists! And they continue today in even stronger numbers. Beginning in 1920 the Dutch government realized that Bali’s unique culture could be marketed internationally to the growing tourism industry. They devised rigid 3-day itineraries that featured canned cultural shows at a government-run tourist hotel in Denpasar. Then some western artists discovered Bali and the tourism increased slightly. In 1936 an American unmarried couple (Robert Koke and Louise Garret) arrived in Bali after having worked in Hollywood. Horrified at the stuffy strictures imposed by the Dutch tourism authorities, the couple built a couple of bungalows out of palm leaves and other local materials on a deserted beach at Kuta. A few guests dribbled in. The couple introduced the local boys to surfing. Word spread and the bungalows soon were booked solid. Guests came for a few days and ended up staying for weeks. The Dutch had at first totally dismissed Koke’s Kuta Beach Hotel as “dirty native huts” but they soon realized that the increasing numbers of tourists were good for everyone. WWII wiped out tourism, of course. But once people began traveling again after the war Bali’s appeal made its popularity a foregone conclusion. Bali was destined to be a tourist haven.

There was a coup in 1965 involving the communist party, which was eventually outlawed. But this coup crystallized existing differences between traditionalists and radicals. After the failed coup, religious traditionalists on Bali led a witch-hunt for the “godless communists.” Eventually the military stepped in to control the anti-communist purge; but no-one on Bali was untouched by the killings, estimated at between 50,000 and 100,000 out of a population of about 2,000,000 at that time. After the failed coup, General Mohamed Soeharto established himself as president of Indonesia and took control of the government. He copied the West in foreign policy and goals of balancing budgets and controlling inflation and attracting foreign investment. But being military, he banned political parties. Regular elections maintained the appearance of a national democracy, but until 1999 the Golkar party established by Gen. Soeharto won every election.

In 1999 Indonesia’s parliament elected a new president. The majority of the votes were cast for a woman named Megawati Sukarnoputri. She was enormously popular because of her family connections on Bali and partly because her party was essentially secular. The mostly Hindu Balinese were at that time and still are very concerned about any growth in Muslim fundamentalism. However, Soeharto’s Golkar party was still in force. In a surprising development, Abdurrahman Wahid, the head of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, emerged as president. So much for fair and transparent elections. Outraged supporters of Megawati took to the streets of Java and Bali. There was a tense stand-off and then a surprising compromise. Wahid took the office of president and Megawati assumed the office of vice-president (even though she had received the most votes and really should have served as president). Wahid was an uncharismatic leader who made minor progress on issues like the economy and was less-than-successful in tackling the ethnic, religious and regional conflicts that have plagued Indonesia. In July 2001, after a tense stand-off, parliament finally gave the presidency to Megawati.

The October 2002 Bali bombings in Kuta by terrorists were a tragedy that severely affected the tourism industry. The bombings fueled the ever-present suspicions of the Hindu Balinese that the predominately Muslim Indonesians (especially Javanese) are trying to muscle in on the profitable Bali scene. This shattered the myth of isolation enjoyed by many Balinese locals. Fortunately, the elections of 2004 were remarkably peaceful. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (popularly known as SBY) beat incumbent Megawati by garnering 60% of the vote. He is a former general and government minister and is known as an intellectual and an economist. SBY managed to garner strong support even on Bali, a former Megawati stronghold, by his promises of strong and enlightened leadership. We wish him luck in his endeavors. Rampant corruption, uncertain legal processes, widespread ecological destruction, poverty and a sputtering economy are his most urgent concerns.

History of Bali

It is certain that the island of Bali was inhabited in very early prehistoric times. Fossilized humanoid remains from western neighboring island Java date to as early as 250,000 years ago. The earliest human artifacts found on Bali are stone tools and earthenware vessels estimated to be 3000 years old. Some bones have been found that are estimated at 4000 years but have not yet been carbon dated. Artifacts indicate that the Bronze Age began on Bali before 300 B.C.

Indian traders brought Hinduism to the Indonesian archipelago and it was embraced on Bali by the 7th century. Balinese practice an unusual form of Hinduism that allows the eating of beef; Bali is the only place in the world where this form of Hinduism is practiced. Most of Indonesia is staunchly Muslim but Bali is the exception. Balinese are fearful of having the island government overtaken by practicing Muslims and this continues to be in issue at every election. Those on Bali who do practice Islam do not insist on women wearing veils or covering themselves head-to-toe. They observe a more relaxed version of Islam that allows each woman to decide for herself the degree of modesty she wishes to observe with her clothing. We have seen dozens of women wearing the head-coverings but no one wearing the complete head-to-toe coverings. The next island eastward is Lombok, where the vast majority of the population is Muslim. Lombok also has its own special form of Islam that allows the eating of pork. They are not concerned with dietary restrictions that were imposed before refrigeration.
They believe that all things made by Allah are good; therefore, pork is good.

The population of the island of Bali is approximately 3.3 million. Population of neighboring Lombok is approximately 3.1 million. Indonesia is an extremely heavily populated country consisting of hundreds of islands, probably thousands of islands if one counts the tiny ones. Total population is comparable to that of the United States, somewhere between 270,000,000 and 310,000,000. It isn’t like they take a true census on a regular basis so exact figures are not possible. In Bali there is now a population control program promoting having only 2 children rather than the customary 7 to 9 children. Indonesia spreads east-to-northwest for about 3600 miles, and north-to-south for about 1000 miles at its widest point. The island of Bali is sort of in the middle on the southern edge of the Indonesian archipelago. Bali appears quite prosperous but there are many areas of extreme poverty throughout Indonesia. Bill was kidding around with a taxi driver and commented that every family in Bali must own 4 motor-scooters. The taxi driver laughed and said: “No, that would be a very, very poor family. Every family on Bali owns at least 6 motor-scooters.” He might be right because these little scooters are everywhere and skirt amongst the cars and trucks in traffic with impunity. They don’t obey normal traffic laws but somehow manage to get where they are going without accidents. One-way streets don’t seem to mean a thing. The traffic signals and signs appear to be merely suggestions that one follows if one chooses. I would not want to drive a vehicle in a city here.

The earliest written records on Bali are inscriptions on a stone pillar near the village of Sanur which date to the 9th century A.D. By that time Bali was much as it is seen today outside the cities. Rice was grown on terraced hillsides with the help of a complex irrigation system. And the rich cultural and artistic traditions of Bali were already strongly in place – stone carvings, wood carvings, intricate working of gold and silver, paintings, special fabric weavings and the very distinctive Balinese forms of music and dancing. The Balinese are very proud of their continued artistic abilities.

The first Europeans to arrive in Bali were Dutch seamen in 1597. They fell in love with the island and when the captain prepared to set sail to depart, several of his crew refused to leave. At that time Bali was so prosperous and the artistic beauty so unique that it was hard not to fall in love with the island. The king had 200 wives and a chariot pulled by 2 white buffaloes. He also had a retinue of 50 dwarfs whose bodies had been bent to resemble the handle of a kris (traditional dagger). Poor little guys!! Very quickly, by the early 1600s, the Dutch had established trade treaties with the Javanese princes and controlled much of the incredibly profitable spice trade. But they were interested in profit, not culture, and so the Dutch barely gave Bali a second glance. By 1710 the Dutch were finally beginning to move in on Bali, using the old strategy of divide and conquer to overthrow the Balinese princes. In 1846 the Dutch used Balinese salvage claims over shipwrecks as a pretext to land military forces in northern Bali. Their cause was aided by various Balinese princes who had gained ruling interests in Lombok. In 1894 the Dutch, the Balinese and the people of Lombok collided in battles that set the course of history. These battles resulted in enormous losses of men and arms for the Dutch. It finally culminated in street-to-street fighting against Balinese and the Balinese crown prince was killed. The Balinese retreated to Cakranegara, which was eventually attacked by an overwhelming force of Dutch. Rather than surrender, the Balinese men, women and children opted for the suicidal puputan (a fight to the death). They burned their homes and set out for suicidal war. They didn’t last long.

The north of Bali had long been under Dutch control and the successful conquest of Lombok meant that the rest of Bali would soon fall to the Dutch. As during the past 200 years, it was the ransacking of wrecked ships that brought the differences to a head and gave the Dutch a reason to move in and take over all of Bali. In 1904 a Chinese ship was wrecked off the village of Sanur on Bali and the Dutch demanded that the rajah (prince) pay 3000 silver dollars because of this Chinese shipwreck. The Balinese rajah refused to pay the Dutch for the Chinese shipwreck, and in 1906 Dutch warships appeared at Sanur. The Dutch landed and marched to the outskirts of Denpasar (the current capital of Bali). They mounted a naval bombardment on Denpasar and then began their final assault. The 3 rajah realized that defeat was inevitable; but, like their counterparts on Lombok had done in 1710, they opted for the suicidal puputan (fight to the death). First the princes burned their palaces. Then, dressed in their finest jewelry and waving ceremonial gold kris daggers, the rajah led the royalty and priests out to their deaths facing the Dutch. The Dutch implored the Balinese to surrender rather than make their hopeless last stand, but the Balinese nobility marched forward into the Dutch guns. Nearly 4000 Balinese died. They would rather die than be subjects to another government. The Dutch now had control of all Bali.

In 1942 during WWII the Japanese invaded Bali at Sanur. The Balinese could offer no resistance. When the Japanese left in August 1945 Bali was suffering extreme poverty. But the occupation had fostered several paramilitary, nationalist and anti-colonial organizations that were ready to fight the returning Dutch. After almost 350 years the Balinese had had enough of Dutch rule. Just days after the Japanese surrender, in August 1945 the Indonesian leader proclaimed the nation’s independence. But it took 4 years to convince the Dutch that they were not going to get their colony back.

The next invasion of Bali was by tourists! And they continue today in even stronger numbers. Beginning in 1920 the Dutch government realized that Bali’s unique culture could be marketed internationally to the growing tourism industry. They devised rigid 3-day itineraries that featured canned cultural shows at a government-run tourist hotel in Denpasar. Then some western artists discovered Bali and the tourism increased slightly. In 1936 an American unmarried couple (Robert Koke and Louise Garret) arrived in Bali after having worked in Hollywood. Horrified at the stuffy strictures imposed by the Dutch tourism authorities, the couple built a couple of bungalows out of palm leaves and other local materials on a deserted beach at Kuta. A few guests dribbled in. The couple introduced the local boys to surfing. Word spread and the bungalows soon were booked solid. Guests came for a few days and ended up staying for weeks. The Dutch had at first totally dismissed Koke’s Kuta Beach Hotel as “dirty native huts” but they soon realized that the increasing numbers of tourists were good for everyone. WWII wiped out tourism, of course. But once people began traveling again after the war Bali’s appeal made its popularity a foregone conclusion. Bali was destined to be a tourist haven.

There was a coup in 1965 involving the communist party, which was eventually outlawed. But this coup crystallized existing differences between traditionalists and radicals. After the failed coup, religious traditionalists on Bali led a witch-hunt for the “godless communists.” Eventually the military stepped in to control the anti-communist purge; but no-one on Bali was untouched by the killings, estimated at between 50,000 and 100,000 out of a population of about 2,000,000 at that time. After the failed coup, General Mohamed Soeharto established himself as president of Indonesia and took control of the government. He copied the West in foreign policy and goals of balancing budgets and controlling inflation and attracting foreign investment. But being military, he banned political parties. Regular elections maintained the appearance of a national democracy, but until 1999 the Golkar party established by Gen. Soeharto won every election.

In 1999 Indonesia’s parliament elected a new president. The majority of the votes were cast for a woman named Megawati Sukarnoputri. She was enormously popular because of her family connections on Bali and partly because her party was essentially secular. The mostly Hindu Balinese were at that time and still are very concerned about any growth in Muslim fundamentalism. However, Soeharto’s Golkar party was still in force. In a surprising development, Abdurrahman Wahid, the head of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, emerged as president. So much for fair and transparent elections. Outraged supporters of Megawati took to the streets of Java and Bali. There was a tense stand-off and then a surprising compromise. Wahid took the office of president and Megawati assumed the office of vice-president (even though she had received the most votes and really should have served as president). Wahid was an uncharismatic leader who made minor progress on issues like the economy and was less-than-successful in tackling the ethnic, religious and regional conflicts that have plagued Indonesia. In July 2001, after a tense stand-off, parliament finally gave the presidency to Megawati.

The October 2002 Bali bombings in Kuta by terrorists were a tragedy that severely affected the tourism industry. The bombings fueled the ever-present suspicions of the Hindu Balinese that the predominately Muslim Indonesians (especially Javanese) are trying to muscle in on the profitable Bali scene. This shattered the myth of isolation enjoyed by many Balinese locals. Fortunately, the elections of 2004 were remarkably peaceful. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (popularly known as SBY) beat incumbent Megawati by garnering 60% of the vote. He is a former general and government minister and is known as an intellectual and an economist. SBY managed to garner strong support even on Bali, a former Megawati stronghold, by his promises of strong and enlightened leadership. We wish him luck in his endeavors. Rampant corruption, uncertain legal processes, widespread ecological destruction, poverty and a sputtering economy are his most urgent concerns.

Ashmore Reef to Bali

We slipped the mooring line and back-tracked out of Ashmore Reef between 0630 and 0700 on Wednesday, 23 September 2009. As has been true since leaving Darwin, the GRIB files were wrong on the weather forecast. Winds were supposed to be 5 knots from the north. Instead we were getting 15 knots from the WSW, which put us sailing close-hauled hard on the wind as our initial course was 276 degrees. That was too tight to sail; and since we had already motored so much between Darwin and Ashmore Reef, we opted to modify course to the sailing point and headed off to 315 degrees. This was still tightly close-hauled and it was a rollicking ride for 2 days as the winds very slowly backed southerly. The first 24-hours we sailed 145.2 miles and made 149 miles on the second day. Then the wind backed farther SW and we were able to point more directly toward Bali; third day we sailed 155.9 miles and the final partial day was 58.8 miles. So, total trip from Ashmore Reef to the mooring field in Bali was 508.9 NM. We arrived at 1600 on Saturday, 26 September, and are now on a mooring at latitude 08.42.123S longitude 115.14.64E

The stretch of water between the islands of Bali and Lombok is called the Lombok Strait. Like many of the straits and passes in Indonesia, the currents there are notorious. Currents run 1 knot to 7 knots year-round -- south-setting during the SE monsoon and north-setting during the NW monsoon. This strikes me as very strange as the current runs opposite the winds during both monsoon seasons. But that is the way it works. The currents do not switch direction with the tides as happens in many of the other Indonesian straits and passes; the current directions in Lombok Strait are determined strictly by the monsoon season. The strength of the currents is determined by the tides and the transit of the moon. The sailing guides get into details of upper-transit of the moon and lower-transit of the moon in combination with the tidal times and it goes way over my head. In order to predict anything about the strength of the currents in Lombok Strait requires a Nautical Almanac, which we do not carry aboard S/V BeBe because we don't use sextants like ancient mariners.

With all that explanation, suffice it to say that we had a heck of a time getting up and across Lombok Strait to arrive at Bali. Our course was diagonally from SE to NW across Lombok Strait. No way we could do it! We have a 100-hp engine and at highest sensible rpms and full sails under almost 15 knot winds we could only make 2.25 knots SOG against the current. The boat speed through the water was over 9 knots, but our speed-over-ground was only 2.25 knots. The speedometer looked like we were going fast but we weren't making any headway toward our destination. This was on a descending tide. We decided to turn more westerly and raised the SOG to 5.5 knots.

As the tide fell, the currents changed ever so slightly and we pointed northward 5 degrees at a time. Eventually we made it under the lee of little Nusapenida island and were able to point more toward our destination. As the tide reach slack stage we headed directly on our desired course. By the time we reached the initial waypoint for entering the anchorage area, the tide was on the flood and the current started back up quickly. Current was again up to 3 knots against us by the time we reached the waypoint to turn towards the anchorage. It was tricky and discouraging and took a lot longer than anticipated, but we made it! If we had it to do over again, we would point up much earlier in the trip and get close beneath Lombok island. Then head almost straight west across Lombok Strait rather than trying to go diagonally across. Crossing the current must be easier than going head-into it.

BTW, we burned a whopping total of 400 liters of diesel getting from Darwin to Bali. For you landlubbers, that is about 9 1/2 miles to the gallon. Absolutely ridiculous for a sailboat. But better to waste diesel than to sit out there and drift around when there is no wind, as during the first 4 days out of Darwin.

Between Ashmore Reef and Bali we experienced the strangest thing. For almost 2 whole days and nights our AIS was picking up ships at exceptional distances. The AIS works on a VHF frequency, so the normal range is about 30 miles because VHF does not normally bounce off of the ionosphere. However, we were picking up dozens of ships about 500 miles away!! They mostly were around Port Hedland on the northwestern tip of Australia. The charts indicate that there is a magnetic anomaly throughout that part of Australia and the Indian Ocean, but we don't see how that could amplify the VHF signals to such distances. The farthest ship we saw was 768 miles away from us in the Indian Ocean. And we could read all the mobile properties (details) of that ship. It was amazing. And occasionally we even heard snippets of VHF conversations between the various ships and the port control at Port Hedland. This was 500 to 600 miles south of us and they sounded like they were right next door. Amazing. And it kept us on our toes because every time an AIS target would appear we would have to check to make sure it was one of those far away and not one nearby. Interesting couple of night watches.

As we approached the waypoint to turn towards the anchorage I saw some kind of weird thing in the water ahead of us. There was a large swell (after all we were in the Indian Ocean) and this thing would get lost in the swells. But I could see it when it happened to top a swell ahead of us and it was getting closer. At first I thought it might be a large root system from a tree. Certainly would not want to run into something like that! But as it got closer it began to look for all the world like a huge alien water spider. It looked like large legs curving up and then down around a body -- just like a spider. As it crossed in front of us and then came past on our starboard side it became clearly visible. It was one of the odd boats that are used around Bali. The "spider legs" were painted bright pink and blue. We saw several of these as we made our way into the anchorage. Will try to get photos at some point.

Rather than go into the commercial Benoa Harbor to the decrepit and filthy Bali Marina, we are in an anchorage about 2 kilometers north of Benoa Harbor. Our C-map charts show us to have sailed through solid reefs and that we are well up on land. But obviously that is not correct. Never saw less than 7.8 meters of depth as we entered this mooring field. The owner of the moorings sent a guy out to the channel markers to guide us in and to our mooring. We had been in contact with TC Marine by email prior to our arrival and they were expecting us. Supposedly we can clear into Indonesia while moored out here and will not be required to go to the docks at Bali Marina to clear in. The official offices are closed for the weekend so we will do the paperwork dance on Monday morning.

Sunday morning a man named Monday came by and offered the services of his work crew. On Tuesday he will send out a work crew to wash and wax our boat, including waxing the masts. The paint on the masts is getting chalky and need to be waxed. Bill could do this, but why should he when laborers costs only about $15 per day per man. Hire the locals and give them a job. The work crew will even bring their own fresh water to clean our boat. So we don't waste our water. Couldn't ask for a better deal. Monday also will deliver 400 liters of diesel to us on Tuesday -- for only 70 cents per liter. Someone else we know bought diesel from Monday a few weeks ago and said it was clean fuel. That is about $2.70 USD per gallon for clean diesel delivered to our boat. Can't ask for a better deal than that!!!

Ya think we might be in Asia?!? Take a look at these typical large Indonesian panesi ships. These are built in Kalimantan (formerly known as Borneo) and the hull is sailed down to Bali for fitting out. They are working on several of these here in Serangan harbor right now.

Ashmore Reef---sea snake capital of the world

Sailing from Darwin to Bali via Ashmore Reef requires motoring!

Others had warned us to plan on motoring all the way from Darwin to Ashmore Reef, and then probably being able to sail most of the way from the reef to Bali. Hope they were right about the second part of that advice; they were certainly right about the first part. We departed Darwin at 1100 Wednesday morning and arrived at Ashmore Reef at 1100 Sunday morning -- having motored 91% of the 503 mile trip.

Before leaving Darwin we had attempted to obtain the coordinates of a reported oil rig leak. No one seemed to have precise coordinates for either the blown well or of the resulting oil slick. The best we could find were news media reports of the general location of the oil slick. Every day since leaving Darwin the Australian Coast Watch Customs plane has flown over and talked with us, and each day we have asked about this blown oil well and slick; but they had no information on it. Our planned course was more than 30 miles clear of the news media reported location of the oil slick. Imagine our surprise just after sunrise yesterday morning to find that we were within 8 miles of a leaking gas well! And our course would have taken us within 2 miles downwind and down-current of this dangerous leaking well! As the sun rose we could see a vapor cloud emitting from what looked like an oil rig off in the distance. Our AIS receiver indicated 2 ships hovering near the leaking rig. Bill hailed one of the ships and learned that this was indeed the blown well. It was a gas well and did have some oil disbursement into the sea that was not yet contained. There supposedly was an exclusion zone and we were well within that exclusion zone. Would have been nice if someone had told us that little fact!

The control ship requested that we turn immediately away from the leaking gas well and remain outside a 20 mile radius of it. Kind of hard to do when we were already only 8 miles from it. We turned south and remained at least 8 miles from the well. Once we were upwind and up-current from the well, we again turned back west and continued on our way. Basically we made 3/4 of a circle around this leaking gas well. Never saw any evidence of an oil slick.

(UPDATE added 6 Nov 2009:

That gas well continued to leak and finally caught fire. Glad it waited until we were well past before the fire started. Thank goodness no one was injured during the resulting explosion and fire. Oil and gas both continue to leak. This has been going on since July and is leaking approximately only 400 barrels of oil per day into the sea. Where is Red Adair when you need him? I think Australia needs to contact Texas and get the experts out here and put out this fire and contain the leaks.)

Ashmore Reef is owned by Australia and is a "natural nature reserve" (per their brochure, although that sounds redundant to me). Visitors are allowed only in the lagoon on the northwest side of the reef, just east of tiny West Island. Access to all other areas is forbidden. There is a Customs boat assigned to duty here. Man, I bet those guys get bored because they are 500 miles from anywhere. Later we saw just how bored they must be when 6 of them went around in a tender to take the GPS locations of the moorings. Six people to do a simple task that really required only one person. I guess doing anything is better than staying on the same little Customs boat all the time. There are dugong, sea turtles, sea snakes, all kinds of marine life, and thousands of birds around this reef. I was looking forward to swimming for the first time in well over a year -- that is, until I read the brochure about Ashmore Reef that we obtained from Customs in Darwin.

There are 17 different species of sea snakes native to Ashmore Reef. There are more sea snakes here than any other place on earth. Well, okay. Guess I won't be swimming after all. Shortly after we were tied to our mooring I saw 2 sea snakes beside our boat. These were white with black bands, just like the one that swam by our boat in Tonga. Hopefully we will see other varieties during our stay here. We plan to stay here for a few days before sailing the last 500 miles to Bali. Hopefully some wind will materialize at some point to enable actual sailing instead of listening to the rumble of the engine for another 4 days.

When we arrived this morning there was a large Australian Customs supply ship delivering supplies to the 2 smaller Customs ships stationed here: the Ashmore Guardian and the Corio Bay. There was also an Australian warship off-loading supplies. Several tenders were zooming about between the 4 ships as we made our way into the mooring field. The Corio Bay provided us with entry instructions via VHF radio and even sent a guy out to help us thread our hawser through the eye of the mooring. How very nice of them!

BTW, Bill wants a guide for Australian phonics. We still cannot understand how they arrive at some of these pronunciations. Corio Bay is a good example. Australians pronounce it as if it rhymes with pariah, or Mariah (as in the singer Mariah Carey). We would never have gotten that one.

The Ashmore Guardian ship went out one day and seized this Indonesian boat. Apparently they were on their way to Australia for illegal entry. Or maybe they had drugs. We don't know. But they seized the little boat and brought it back to Ashmore Reef to await the next arrival of the ship to transfer the illegal immigrants back to Indonesia. Sound familiar? Just like home, isn't it?

Ashmore Reef marks a big point in our circumnavigation -- we are now exactly half-way around the world from our starting point! That is a big deal to us. And we don't even have a bottle of bubbly aboard to celebrate properly. I'm thinking gin and pomegranate juice on the rocks will be an acceptable substitute on this very hot day.

And, speaking of our circumnavigation, we have decided on a major change of plans. Instead of following the South African route, we have decided to go up the Red Sea and sail the Mediterranean. Bill decided that there are many more interesting things to see in the Med than on the South African route, and the total miles back to the Caribbean are about the same following either route. So, yeah, we are going to brave the Somali pirates and hope for the best. Since we are flying home for Christmas holidays this year, that means we will not be able to transit the Red Sea during the proper weather time during early 2010. So we will be spending almost a year in the Malaysia/Thailand/Andaman Islands areas and doing some land travel in SE Asia. Then through the Red Sea in first quarter of 2011.

So, friends and family, start making your vacation plans now if you want to visit us somewhere in the Mediterranean during the summer of 2011. Heck, maybe one or both of the age-appropriate grandkids will be able to spend the summer with us seeing a few of the countries of the Med.

Leaving Australia

Customs is scheduled to meet us at the Cullen Bay Marina fuel dock at 0930 this morning and finish clearing us out of Australia. Our NMEA multiplexers from the states arrived Monday afternoon and all our electronics are now good-to-go. Departing yachties are supposed to go to the Customs office shortly after arrival in Darwin so a file can be opened and all your paperwork coordinated. We did that the day after we arrived in Darwin. Customs gives you a form that allows purchasing duty-free fuels anytime from the date Customs opens the file on your boat up until the date of your departure. Since we use diesel daily to power the generator to charge the batteries and provide electricity on the boat, we obviously did not want to fill up too early in our stay here. Want to leave Australia with full tanks because it is about 1000 miles to Bali and normally the winds are too light to do much sailing. Best to be prepared to motor the entire 1000 miles and then be pleasantly surprised if conditions do turn out good for sailing. We returned to Customs yesterday morning and confirmed that we would be departing today.

Also received a small GST refund (sales tax) at Customs yesterday. There are a lot of restrictions for obtaining the GST refund. Basic rules are that the GST must exceed $30, does not include GST paid for any labor, the purchase must have taken place withing the prior 30 day period from your departure, and the food or boat parts must be on an invoice totaling greater than $300. We have spent about $1900 AUS on food during the past month but those purchases were on many invoices, so no refund on any of that GST. But we did have one invoice for the GPS repair and various boat items that met the requirements, so we received a whopping $30.54 refund. Better than nothing, I suppose. And this is the first time we have ever received a break on local sales taxes. No other country has offered this program. Good on ya, Australia.

There is a leaking oil well somewhere between Darwin and Bali. We have the coordinates and hope to avoid that mess. Someone else sailed through the oil slick and said it was quite a mess to clean off the hull. We asked Customs for the current coordinates of the oil slick since it is moving with the tidala currents and winds. Hopefully they will have the latest info when we clear out in about an hour.

Off to Bali!!! So very ready for a new culture and looking forward to the entire Asian experience.