4th August - Kupang to Rote - anchored in Ba'a

Sunday 4^th August

We have left Kupang, with its lovely children and shy mothers.

Our send-off was riotous and long.  Last night’s gala dinner was great fun, if just a bit confused/confusing at times.  There were many tables of Indonesian dignitaries, who got the best tables.  The rest of us crowded around not-quite-enough tables and had a lovely time, eating, chatting, laughing.

There were lots of dancing girls, dancing boys, musicians.  And…LOTS of speeches, mostly in Indonesian…

The evening concluded with a strange but very enjoyable sort of Indonesian line-dance.  Pete danced with the wife of the Minster for Something Or Another, beautifully dressed in traditional costume with a glistening golden crown.  I danced next to a resplendent Indonesian man wearing a necklace of enormous shells.  John danced quite happily in the line, looking slightly bemused.  The line danced morphed into a conga line, between the tables, across the grass.  Sad to say at least half of the rally sailors had left well before the dancing… I was next to my French friend Jeanne.  “Well we might as well amuse ourselves,” she said, tersely, dancing nimbly between some chairs.  “Have you noticed nearly everyone has left?  Les yachties!  That is what they are like, you will see!  In bed by nine, the lot of them.”

We weren’t in bed by nine…it was quite late by the time we got back to 2XS.  We had to dodge our paparazzi back on the waterfront – I have got quite used to being a celebrity… I think there were cameras trained on us every minute, at the dinner.  And I imagine that there will be photos of Pete and Mrs Minister splashed all over the Indonesian press.

This morning there was a farewell on the waterfront.  Pete and I nipped in to shore, in the dinghy, leaving our poor John prostrate on his bunk…he is sick again…

There were beautiful dancing girls, a minister or two, Herman The Mayor, speeches, the lot!  And yet more paparazzi…

Kupang last lost most of its P, all of its N and the G has vanished since we have been there...

We hardly saw John today, but he found a replacement John, a surfer from Perth, John Cornelius, who had missed the ferry to Roti and who was very pleased to get a ride.  (The two Johns had met at the yacht club the day before and had bonded, as engineers do.)  We dropped him off in the precariously laden dingy at about five o’clock, in time for him to get a ride to the other side of the island.  (And yes I did something tricky and unexpected with my camera...have now rectified the problem but quite liked my strange effect...)

It wasn’t an easy trip.  Going through the channel between the islands we had a very big swell and winds around 30 knots.  Very rolly…it must have been ghastly for John M, and even John C looked a bit green at times.

(A local boat, so pretty...)

It is very strange being here in Roti – no bands on the waterfront, no banners, no hugely smiling people treating us like celebrities…

Maybe we will get a rest!!

There are four yachts here from the rally; several others turned back in the passage; they didn’t like the wind…