13/08/13

Tuesday 13th August

Our Word Of The Day is…maaf.

This means…sorry…

And very sorry we are to have arrived in the main little town of Sabu/Sevu this afternoon. The thing is with this Sail Indonesia rally – we are all provided with copious notes and possible programs, but basically once we have checked into the country, we are free to go wherever we want for the next three months, with only one compulsory stop to renew visas in Bali.

There are lots of islands, lots of opportunities. We saw that there were three days of festivities here, and planned to arrive for Day #3. ie tomorrow. 

It was a lovely sail from Nemberala. We left at 5.30am and everything was just perfect – a gentle breeze, the sea running with us – always a good thing -a bit of cloud to protect us from the sun. All lovely. 

When we came in to the harbour we could see there was one other Rally boat anchored. ONE!! And it was leaving… They had seen us coming in and stayed to tell us what a wonderful time they had had, how totally charming and hospitable the people had been. There had been a lavish welcoming ceremony, and a tour to a traditional village, then a feast and concert with ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE… all for just the Swedish boat, Marieke III, and for part of the time, for Don and Tanya on Pedoja.

Oh deary me TOO sad…

Pete and I went into the beautiful beach in the dinghy and wandered around being as good as possible to the local economy by buying bananas here, tomatoes there.

A very nice English-speaking man drew us into his little café where Pete had a bowl of bakso (meatballs in noodle soup) for about $1. He told us that this is the first time the Rally has come to Sabu and they had all been dressed in traditional costume standing on the hill looking out for the boats…which did not come…

Oh maaf maaf!!!

We were going to idle away a day here, seeing what was on offer in the way of celebration, but I have got twitchy and do not want the same thing to happen in Sumba, our next island…It will take us two days to get there so…another early morning and up and away!!

We have heard that some people were killed when there was a bit of a volcanic eruption, not sure which island. Very sad but the people in Nemberala were very philosophical about it and said that the people who choose to live on the slopes of a volcano contend with possibility this all of their lives. 

(And no my beautiful modem does not work here either…So no photos on my blog, and no gmail for me…At least I can email Katy on the satellite connection so we are not totally lost in the Indonesian archipelago.)