Thursday 12 March – a long motor into the wind to Lombok

We got going early as we had 60 miles to get to the Medana Marina on Lombok, this is where we will be hauling the boat out on the 21st March. We are still getting a heating alarm on the one engine, the last thing to do is change the one filter that Grant and Judith brought over. The idea is that Rowan will try changing it tomorrow and if there is a problem he can call on the mechanic at the marina.

It was a very bouncy hot motor, poor Judith was not feeling great in it. We had thought we would get in just after 3pm but the wind picked up, hitting 30knots a couple of times which with the current slowed us down to about 3.5 knots boat speed. It took us much longer than expected. We finally tied onto the mooring ball just before 6pm and landed up behind Samudra.

I felt we needed a nice meal off the boat and somewhere a bit more special than the marina cafe. We have booked into a hotel on the 22nd when the boat is hauled out. We fly out on the 25th. We decided to go and eat there as it came highly recommended by friends of ours. It was a 15 minute taxi drive away. The first taxi Rowan called couldn’t do it until after his Ramadan fast was broken sometime after 7pm, Rowan told him we would try elsewhere. He found another taxi who could take us straight away, he was from Bali, therefor he is a Hindu and not fasting. Fascinatingly Bali is 90% Hindu while the whole of Indonesia is 90% Muslim. The resort was down a very lush green road and in lovely grounds. Sadly it was dark when we arrived but the bits we saw looked great. It is such low season they only have 8 of their 32 rooms occupied. The main dining room was closed and dinner was in a huge old temple building with loads of old traditional bits of sculpture and furniture. The staff were so friendly and welcoming, we were the only people initially but it did start filling up after a while. We had a delicious meal washed down with some delicious cocktails and a bottle of rose wine. We all felt pretty stuffed by the time we staggered to the taxi. It was a bit confusing as there were two taxis waiting to pick us up, the Muslim driver had apparently gone to pick us up after 7pm and was here to take us back. It costs so little we paid both of them, Grant and Judith went with the Muslim taxi, keeping everyone happy. It was a good way to end a long hot boring day of motoring.