Well for our first overnighter in Indonesia, this was a reasonably smooth event. Wracked by nerves of possible unlit fishing boats, nets, and whatever else that you hear about, we pulled up anchor from Gilli Lawa to travel 140 nautical miles to Pulau Medang. We had company which put my mind at ease A LOT, Blue Sky was with us, along with Gwendolyn, Good Hope and Seafires Gem – all kid boats so that was great.
We managed to get through the pass that has a volcano island off it and horrendous currents before sunset and before any seriously adverse currents appeared (can be up to 4knts against you)– talk about great timing! The sun set and darkness fell, and boy did it fall. The new moon wasn’t due up until about 2.30am and was so new it was not much help at all! We had all previously decided to be about 5 miles off shore and couldn’t have been in a better position. All the smaller ships took an inside route probably about 3-4 miles off shore and the BIG ships took an outer route – probably about 6-7 miles off shore. Perfect, and we didn’t think anyone would have nets out that far off shore not to mention that deep…about 2000 metres! All was going fine except for one crazy ship that was zig zaging all over the place, that was ok BUT his lights were not the usual you would expect, this meant it looked like he was reversing straight down on top of us (he was actually steaming forward straight down towards us!) After turning about 90degrees and heading straight out towards borneo we finally safely passed him! The beauty about going in convoy was that we could all warn each other of anything that came up – it was a great comfort, and is the only way to go along this coast – 4 pairs of eyes at any one time are a lot better than 1 pair!
We finally arrived at Pulau Medang at about 11am– a wide bay, fringed with sandy golden beach and palm trees – ahh magic! The plan was to stay overnight then leave the following evening and head to the famous “gilli islands”. Plans are meant to be changed..aren’t they????!! The first day was wonderful, snorkelling, swimming – the kids spent the majority of the day in the water. The morning JUST before we arrived Brendan announced that he wasn’t feeling “too well” upon further prodding that actually meant he thought he was about to pass out! Great, here we are negotiating around reefs and the skipper thinks he might pass out. Well we managed to get in ok and he rested a bit. The wind picked up that night and we were all rocking and rolling in about 20knts of wind at anchor. The next day wasn’t any better wind wise nor skippers health wise. We were due to leave the anchorage at around 4pm and overnight to Gilli Air. Seafires Gem left at about 2.30, and we were sitting on board talking about leaving when Brendan said that he thought he needed another nights rest as he was feeling worse. So we pulled the pin and decided to stay, threw some antibiotics down his throat and stayed anchored. Blue Sky stayed with us, but Good Hope left and two hours later so did Gwendolyn. Then Seafires Gem called up – they were turning back – it was awful out there. Gwendolyn headed off to keep Good hope company as they were doing ok. Then 2 hours later, Gwendolyn called up – they were turning back too – by this stage I was eternally grateful Brendan was sick – otherwise we would have been in the same revolting weather! Something to note here – Gwendolyn is a BIG, HEAVY (30ton) 53foot STEEL ketch – it was so rough with swell coming from 3 different directions that their bow was getting buried AND they were getting saturated in their cockpit (50 feet away from the bow!!). Whew – thank god we had not left with Brendan feeling the way he was. Blue Sky and I stayed up and made sure the two boats got back safely then I crawled into our rocky rolly bed.
We woke up the next morning to more strong winds and Brendan still feeling sick so decided to stay another day. Brad and Gwen off Gwendolyn along with their children Tatiana and Dare picked us up and took us into the beach. Some local children were playing soccer and when we were coming in by dinghy they all ran out through the water to welcome us.
It was a awesome sight. We had a wonderful time with them, they had their teacher who spoke a little English and we were struggling with our Indonesian. They didn’t ask for anything, they just wanted to talk with us. I got some wonderful photos, then when we decided to go for a swim they all went back to their village. We understand that it may a muslim village which is possibly why they left before we started to swim. We then headed back to the boats and stopped off over the reef and did some wonderful snorkelling, cool fish and great coral. The wind of course had turned and now we were exposed to a huge swell that became a surf break when it hit the reef! Never mind – we were not moving! When we were in Wodong a local Indonesian had told us when there was a big high in the great Australian bight (south Australia) it meant 3 days of strong strong winds in Indonesia – hard to believe – but he was spot on. Jim from Blue sky pulled up the weather charts and sure enough there was a big high over south Australia. So we decided to give local knowledge the upper hand and wait it out! Exactly 3 days after the winds started, the winds dropped and we had a wonderful calm night at anchor.Yesterday we decided to go and visit the village, and give the school some exercise books, pencils etc. What a fantastic day it turned out to be. We were told the village was 5km away – well the start of the village wasn’t – it was about 500metres away…but the school was at the other end of the village and of the island!! We started to walk and it was amazing, everyone wanted their photo taken, the village was immaculate, everyone was so friendly and so generous to us.
We were invited into 2 houses where refreshments were provided, we were given shells, the biggest smiles ever and not once did anyone ask us for anything. It was quite simply amazing. The village houses were a different style to what we had seen further east, and there was a very definite difference in appearance of the people too. We were offered a lift in the one 
and only truck on the island – the experience of a lifetime, it felt like it was going to tip over, the rear tray was rusted out and then it conked out completely. So we all tried to push start it which worked…for a moment! Never mind we needed the exercise anyway.Its these experiences that will hopefully stick in our minds forever. This is the 2nd village we have been too privately, as in totally separate from the “rally tours”. The first was Gedong where it was the poorest place I have ever been too, I just wanted to be able to adopt the whole village! Whilst this 2nd village was also poor, they were definitely better off than the people of Gedong. We asked the school teacher if they had many visitors. He asked us to sign the visitors book – there was only one other signature in there and that was Indonesian. So guessing from the reaction of these wonderful people we were possibly the first ever “tourists” to the school, and maybe even the village – who knows?
We all decided to leave the next morning at daylight (Brendan was much better), so did a day trip to a little islet to tuck behind overnight. Nightmare of a place to get into as very narrow channel surrounded by reef – about 10 metres wide max! Left the next morning at daylight again, and followed our EXACT track out and we were on our way to the famous Gilli Islands. Actually they were shocking anchorages so anchored in a gorgeous bay at the top of Lombok, where we managed to stay for over a week! Found a hidden private resort which was absolutely magical and they welcomed us with open arms, so we made use of the pool, the sunloungers and the bar on a regular basis! (For more photos click here and here)
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