31) Central Indonesia: Sumbawa Island to Lombok Island. 7 to 15 September 2015.

What we had found since leaving Alor Island in the east was days of motoring, as this time of year the winds are predominantly from the S to SE and the northern coastal route to the west we had been taking, was quite sheltered and calm so far.

Sumbawa Island is a large island which has a long wind exposed north coast which helped give a bit of breeze and we were at least able to sail sometimes or at the very least motor-sail.

The sad thing about Sumbawa Island is the extreme poverty. It was the poorest island we had been to so far and it was gut-wrenching to see it. Generally Indonesia is a very poor nation, with the exception of places that see a lot of tourism (notably Lombok and Bali) or have enough commercial activity (Java) to sustain most of the population. The rally participants that I know of went out of their way to buy things from places that did not see much cash flow. Spreading the love as it was known. For example buying fuel if available, vegetables or souvenirs from smaller villages or towns. Obviously supermarket items were only ever available in more commercial or larger towns.

Items were very cheap when compared to what we pay for things in the west. For one Australian Dollar you received about 10,000 Indonesian Rupiah. So going to the market you would roughly get 500 g of tomatoes for about 5000 Rupiah (50 cents). Several eggplants or cucumbers were 5000 Rupiah or a luxury like pineapple, 15,000 rupiah ($1.50). So we made a point of buying vegetables a lot and from smaller towns, plus the availability of refrigerated meat was limited to supermarkets. Non-refrigerated fish and sometimes chicken were available at wet markets which some of the fleet resorted to or others became vegetarians. Lucky for us with our huge freezer, two fridges and large storage areas we still had 3 to 4 months’ worth of meat, cheese, butter, chocolate and alcohol, as we had heeded the warning ‘you really need to stock up’.

Children playing with their replica boats.

One of the places we really enjoyed seeing on Sumbawa Island was Wera. Here there is a thriving enterprise of boat building. We were able to anchor just offshore and dinghy right to the beach where all the boats are made, passing the young boys in the surf playing with their hand made replica boats. 

Boat building - Wera style.

Then we walked amongst the monsters being built on the beach. They are all hand made from wood with little or no machinery. Electricity and electric tools were extremely limited. 

 

We didn’t understand much of the process as no one could speak English. We were able to understand that one of the boats had taken about two years to get it to the stage we saw, which looked about half finished. For the amount of effort and the look of the town I don’t think they were being paid much for producing the boats.

Scaffholding?

The four of us wondered about the seemingly missed opportunity. We would have been happy to pay $1-3/head for someone to show us through the boat building site and explain the process. Also we hunted everywhere for the small replica boats the children played with, but none were available to buy. 

Lucky for the town, we had wandered through the backstreets and bought vegetables and some beautiful hand-made cloth for dresses the ladies were making. We paid the tourist price which we would have paid in any shop on the island but this way they got the whole lot instead of the percentage a middle-man would have given them.

Post eruption - Satonda Island.

It was an uncomfortable night spent on the coast as the winds being from the east all day had built up a sizeable swell that really rocked the boats hard all night. Most of the boats were planning to go see the lake on nearby Satonda Island, however all but one left early morning to get away from the swell. We on the other hand persevered and motored an hour over to the island and National Park. 

The volcano last erupted in 1815 leaving the blown out centre empty, which over time had filled with rainwater. The eruption was so fierce that the entire World had no summer to look forward to that year.

Anchored out front. Snorkelling just off the beach.

There were two vacant buoys but we anchored deep and away from the coral, in the sand between them. The island provided protection from the easterly swell so it would have been the better choice of anchorage overnight. It was very early still and no one was around so we walked up the short path to the huge caldera lake. 

It was fresh water and being of low elevation it was not too hot nor too cold. It was just right – as Goldilocks would have ordered it. Most importantly we had the entire lake to ourselves. Two hours later we returned to the wharf and bought some bananas from the little shop that had just opened.

Caldera lake all to ourselves.

We were starting to motor away when the National Park officer arrived. We advised that we had arrived two hours ago so he only charged us 20,000 Rupiah ($2) each for swimming/snorkelling. It would have been another $20 if we had anchored overnight. Yes, some small compensation for the poor night’s sleep I suppose.

Then it was just a short motor-sail to Moyo Island where we met up with the crews from Blue Sky, ENT, Kalili, New Views, Millennium and Ocelot. We spent a couple of days here off the beautiful but expensive $1100/night Amanwana Resort. We swam and snorkelled in the same water and had the same lovely views as the guests did but for free. The snorkelling just off the boat near the beach was great, and out near the point was good but the best was right off the resort beach and pier. The fish and the coral variety were astounding and the hotel went to great lengths to look after it. At night we either met on other boats or had a bonfire sundowner on the beach.

Time to head west again but it would mean a long haul to Lombok and staying at an uncomfortable anchorage on the NE tip of Lombok Island overnight. So Peter and I scoured the charts for an alternative. We found some islands off the NW of Sumbawa Island and picked the closest to Lombok Island. We told ENT, Ocelot and New Views of our plan and they decided to join us. 

Not long after leaving Moyo Island the others all decided to keep going and do an overnight sail to get to Medana Bay, Lombok. We stuck to our decision and motor-sailed to the north side of Seringit Island, but all the anchorages were rock strewn and had mangroves. There were no gently shoaling beaches as expected or needed. 

Yes definitely too shallow.

We decided to back track and go behind Seringit Island and anchor between it and Sumbawa Island, sticking to the eastern entrance with deep water to do so. The western break between the islands looked too shallow, as confirmed later at low tide when it dried out.  

We were pleasantly surprised and rewarded with gently shoaling beaches and the place to ourselves. Being opposite a major town we also had the internet. The next day we received a radio call from Kalili and Millennium wanting to know if it was a good anchorage. Several hours later they also showed up and we had more days of swimming, snorkelling and sundowners. 

We couldn’t stay a minute longer as the timing of our visa renewal at Medana Bay was set in concrete by the date of entry into Indonesia, so we motor-sailed over to Lombok Island staying overnight at the NE anchorage and then the next day finally onto Medana Bay, Lombok.