Kupang

Kupang... how does one even begin to describe the incredible welcome we received here. Yes, there is the usual rubbish everywhere that you encounter in a developing country, this is the result of not being educated about pollution and recycling, and to be honest it wasnt as bad as I thought it would be and even more importantly the people more than make up for it. I dont think I have ever come across such a gentle, honest, friendly culture. We were treated like royalty.

Having the children with us probably opened up a lot more doors for us as everyone wanted to talk to them and touch them. By day 2 Finn was over having his cheek pinched a hundred times however he dealt with it really well, and smiled and waved! One day we walked past a local school and the school children were so excited to see us and gathered around smiling and laughing and we encountered the first of many millions of "hello mister"!!! (this was to all four of us - gender didnt come into it). We spent the evenings at Teddy's Bar with the other cruisers and the kids had a great time playing with the local children.

We farewelled Rob on day 3 in Kupang, it was sad to see him go as the time together went far too quickly. We spent the days meandering around the town and doing boat jobs. A lot of the rally boats left and went up to Alor, we, along with Blue Sky decided to head in the other direction down to Roti, which is apparently a beautiful Island with great surf...being the great surfing family that we are that really wasnt the attraction...we just wanted to get away from all the madness of 130 odd boats and chill out for a bit! So we left and made it to Bibi - a bay at the top of Roti Island. We negotiated in through the reef, and dropped our anchor, but I wasnt happy as we had managed to drop it over a bommie (coral head) and it hadnt set properly. So we pulled it up and then next minute had to drop it again, as we had lost all power and were drifting rapidly to a reef. Thankfully this time the anchor set and we were secure.

Time for Brendan to check out what happened to lose power, so the kids and I went to Blue Sky and Jim came over to help Brendan, along with Shane from Enzwell. Emma and I went to take the kids into the beach, however the tide was low and the swell was picking up so turned around and went back to Blue Sky, shortly after we saw the surf breaking right along where we would have been, we would have been stuck on the beach for a few hours before the tide turned!!! It turns out not being able to swim was the least of our problems.... Brendan and Jim discovered the cause for our loss of power ... it was NOT a good prognosis... our gear box housing had completely sheared away from the gears. This of course meant very little to me, all I knew was that we basically had no engine, and needed to get back to Kupang to see what plan B would be.

Its times like these that you realise how lucky you really are. Lucky to be cruising with another boat, INCREDIBLY lucky to have such wonderful people as Jim, Emma, Phoebe and Drake as your friends, who refuse to leave you stranded and then turn around and TOW you back to Kupang. Towing is not an easy task, the strain on the boat towing can be huge however Blue Sky did a fantastic job...little did any of us know that it wouldnt be the last time we were saved by them. So less than 24 hours after we had said our good byes to Kupang ... we were back! Found a mechanic, had the part repaired, parted with lots of cash, installed the repaired housing, tested it...and miracles of miracles...it worked! So we, along with Blue Sky said our farewells to Kupang once again (and along with Riv de Leune) left and sailed overnight to Lewoleba Island enroute to the next rally stop at Lembata.

For the photos mayoral dinner and amazing local dancing click here.