Shilshole Blog

Just a FYI the Fall swapmeet is scheduled for Sat. Sept. 9.

I’m sure the best deals will be done by O-dark:thirty as usual. 

See ya there!

thom

Rhiannon has been moored to the wharf at the Indonesian Navy base, rafted up three boats out, for over two weeks now. Makassar is quite a city. 1.3 million, mostly Muslim and mostly very friendly people. The beer is cheap and the food is cheap and very good. Of course the place smells to high heaven and the Muslim call to prayer sounds out from hundreds of mosques at all hours of the day and night and the traffic is intensely entertaining, and I’m having a grand time. The women are beautiful. Many wear head scarves that cover their hair and neck, along with tight jeans and short tops. The head scarf in no way makes them appear less attractive. I’ve made a number of friends among the rally and festival staff here and the women seem in every way to be equal to the men. The Navy base is a trip. There are about 250 families on the base so its full of children. At first they would come and stare at us but we’ve all become used to each other now and its “salamat bagi” here and “salamat bagi” there! They don’t try to come on the boats and even leave when you tell them to. We took a five day tour of Southern Sulawesi, Sea Drive, Askari and myself, and saw Toraja. Toraja is a mountainous area that was settled by people from Cambodia centuries ago. They’re famous for their elaborate funeral ceremonies and odd shaped houses. They are mostly christian so there were lots of pigs in Toraja. I expect that we’ll be sailing to Kalimantan (Borneo) in a few days, after we get our visas extended. It’ll be about a five hundred mile sail probably in light wind.

Are there any members of the Sail Transport Network in our community? Please contact me.

Sail Transport Network intends to resurrect renewable-energy travel and freight. STN was begun in 2000 in the Puget Sound where there are hundreds of harbor-towns and inlets in protected waters. We present this opportunity to network with sailors who are cognizant of the role sailboats will once again play in transport in coastal areas as gas, propane and diesel prices continue to climb according to the law of supply and demand.

I’m anchored off Tana Bearu, a small village on the left leg of Sulawesi, Indonesia.  It was a challenging two day sail from Maumere on Flores island to here.  It was surprising that we had any wind at all but we had winds up to 30 knots and in two days they blew from every point of the compass at one time or another.  That’s the fun of sailing in an island chain, the wind is always local, except when its not.  We hear that there are high wind warnings from here to the southern Australian coast!

Besides having too little or too much wind, the other thing that makes sailing here so interesting are the many fishing boats, unlit fish nets and unlit fish traps that one has to spot and avoid.  Heck, many of the fish traps and anchored in over three thousand feet of water, and that’s not far from shore!  These are volcanic islands, many with active volcanoes, and they rise steeply from the ocean bottom.

So far, I’ve been to Timor, Flores and now Sulawesi Islands in Indonesia.  Timor is mostly Christian while here on Sulawesi, most people are Muslim.  The Muslim call to prayer, which is sung out from the mosques several times each day is becoming quite a familiar sound.  Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, afterall.  Yet I’ve found the people here in Tana Bearu to be especially friendly and welcoming.  This is the major wooden boat ship building port in Indonesia.  The boats are built on the shore using chain saws and some other power tools but mostly by hand.  A lot of teak is used and the boats are beautiful.  Of course, since this is a Muslim town, we had to take a bus 15 klicks to a resort down the coast to get beer!
We’ll be leaving here in a couple days to sail up to Makassar, the largest town on Sulawesi.

Anybody know where the pirate on the breakwater came from?

 Rocky

Nick sent me the following email:

We're taking off this fall for some cruising.

I was hoping you could add a link on the blog for S/V Baloo in the "Friends" list.
Our blog is at www.balooboat.blogspot.com

Thanks!

Nick and Cindi (Formerly of E-Dock, now on K for a couple more weeks!)

I gladly oblige, so if you are curious about Cindi and Nick’s latest adventures, just look for the “Baloo” link in the right column, under Shilshole Friends. They have lots of great photos, and it looks like they are literally cruising to their wedding… I noticed an elevated degree of activity on Baloo in recent months, and if you go to their projects page, you’ll see why.

Hey everyone!

This is Meaghan this time!!! We are on the west coast of Vancouver Island now. We have had no internet and only a rare pay phone.

I thought it could be another six months before Brian wrote an update, which could make it a(nother) short novel to read, so I wrote these two.

We hope this finds you happy and healthy.

Meaghan

Continue Reading »