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September 30th 2011

Published: October 5th 2011

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Oceanic Nomad

Phinisee Boats

A common local boat type, they are built by hand in these small coastal villages by these boat builders that don't use any plans to build them, just memories of the last one they built. They basically dig a big hole near the beach, build the boat, and then get all the villagers to help them pull it into the ocean when it's complete..............at least, that's what I heard. They look cool--don't know how seaworthy they are though.

Leaving Singapore was great to see during the day, being overtaken by supertankers whilst trying to dodge the Indonesian fishermen that were fishing in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, in their 10' long dugout wooden canoes.

Our trip from Singapore wasn't the smoothest trip I've ever had, but it wasn't the worst either. The 4 day trip consisted of 15-25kt winds right on the nose and 3-5' seas--this little boat was moving around a little bit, and two of the girls were puking for 3 days. I actually enjoy those conditions though because I sleep really well in the rocking seas, and usually have some pretty wild dreams from my brain juice sloshing around.

Our arrival in Benoa, Bali was right at sunrise. Once we hit the dock, we were boarded by a long line of Indonesian officials i.e. customs, immigration, environmental protection, border patrol, coast guard, national park patrol, etc. etc. There are more official government offices than even in the states, and they all wanted a piece of the pie.

After a couple days of working, we had our first night out and went down to Kuta Beach. It's a big area

Draggin Anchor

Who needs a truck?

full of cheap-ass backpackers /surfers, and their respective watering holes. It was actually a pretty good time down there. It's what I imagine Australia is like-- as that was the most highly represented nation in attendance, full of board shorts, singlets, flip flops, and 'g'day mate'. The club that we went to was in the same area as the one that was bombed by terrorists in 2002 and 2005. For me, I kept thinking about bombs exploding until I had had enough Bintings to start focusing on other things....

The night continued until about 5am, and when we arrived back at the boat, we discovered that one of the pipes under the sink had burst, and the crew mess and storage bilges were filled with water. This led into us going straight from club mode into emergency management mode.....which also led to us not getting to sleep until around 11am.

After a couple hours sleep, we mustered up the courage to brave the day in Bali. Went out to Padang Padang beach for some sun, then caught a fire dancing show at the temple in Uluwatu. It was a successful salvage/recovery mission of the first day off, after