A breather, and a lesson in navigation, on Pulau Menjangan

We got tired of waiting in Lovina for our visas to be ready. After nearly two weeks in one anchorage, it was time for a break. The prospect of an old friend from home visiting Bali lifted our concern about being ready to run the moment our visa extensions were completed- we'll stick around at least through the weekend to see Rick and Lori- so there wasn't a need to be right there in Lovina waiting on Immigration's call...at least for a few days. And we hadn't had any good snorkeling since Komodo.



This little island of the northwest corner of Bali-- Menjangan- was recommended by diving friends from home, the Peacoes. We assumed we wouldn't be able to get there, because, you know, we'd be just getting our visas extended and hightailing it to the amazing jungles of Kalimantan- the Indonesian side of Borneo. Turns out, not so much. With the visa extensions dragging out for no reason anyone in Immigration Officialdom can explain to us, we made the brilliant decision that we should relax and stick for Rick and Lori anyway, and headed out to Menjangan. And you know what? It was lovely, complete with dramatic views of volcanoes in east Java from the anchorage.



What a beautiful escape- hardly anyone was there! A bunch of dive boats would show up in the middle of the day, but that was it. Four park rangers are resident on the island, and a handful of Hindu priests at the temples, but that's it- no actual population. No hotels. No hawkers. No restaurant shills. Heavenly!

The little island was ringed with moorings we could tie the dinghy to, without fears of damaging the fragile life below. Creative use of beach trash kept the lines afloat.



We communed with many pretty fish. The echinoderms were some of the prettiest, and definitely the most diverse, that we'd seen since Raja Amapt.



The worms crawling around this... sponge?...were fantastic. I kept thinking how Dan would have gotten a really great macro shot of them. I couldn't hang steadily at a close enough range (stinging coral overhang!), and I couldn't decide if what I should really get was a wide angle (it was sitting inside the most beautiful plate coral!). So I have this, which is neither macro nor wide, but still... pretty. :-)



The kids' favorite was a cuttlefish that played a game of hide-and-go-seek with them, going through a remarkable range of colors and textures before squirting away into deeper water.



While the girls follwed along, Niall took a whole series of photos with it scooting around and morphing before their eyes. I love watching the kids play around together in the water, excited to share what they find with each other. It reminds me- yes, this is why we are here, this is why we do this crazy thing.



We swam through some really beautiful coral gardens, but the kids' favorite was just the sandy bottom area off the jetty. There were resident spadefish and needlefish that just seemed to want to watch you.



This crazy little fish threw itself (well, not literally) at Niall's mask. It stuck there like glue for ages, never getting more than a couple of inches away. He insisted on a photo.



It was all cute, until the fish got a couple of feet away from Niall, whereupon it was nailed by a needlefish. Bit it right in half, right in front of Niall. He was moderately traumatized. Sing with me now:...the circle of life...

Oh, and there was the odd poseur Lionfish. They think they're so cool.




Jamie and I had fun hanging out on the jetty in the evening, talking to the rangers (bahasa only). Two guys were from Java, and two from Bali. They regaled us with stories of other animals in this national park that we  didn't get to see, since our heads were stuck underwater so much. There are several species of deer- a few had been swimming across the channel the night before we arrived. They told us where to go to see the famed Bali Starlings, thought to be near extinct in the wild- their colorful plumage making them a target for the markets.

The most memorable experience was our second, and last, night anchored off the island. A fisherman stopped off on the beach to do some simple repairs to his gear. Later, he was curiously circling Totem, so we waved him over and invited him on board. It turned into one of our more interesting evening cockpit conversations. Mohammed Salim was there on holiday- not fishing for subsistence, but fishing for fun. He lives on the Java side (we can see Java: it's only about 5 miles away), and makes a living by shipping cows from there to the islands in eastern Nusa Tengara: Sumbawa and Sumba, mostly, but sometimes up to Sulawesi. He loved telling us his boat was bigger, but what really impressed us was his navigation. Now, this part of Indonesia is not rocket science to navigate- but it is still impressive to speak with a man who navigates entirely with the stars and his eyeballs. No stars? No problem. He reads the patterns in the waves. Honestly, it's amazing to me that this still exists, although we have been fortunate to see it over and over in this past year. I wonder how much longer that kind of knowledge will survive? This learning- this 'ilmu', to use the Indonesian word he invoked over and over- is special, but I'm afraid it's dying. 

We talked about fish stocks. In our years now of sailing in the Pacific and more recently dipping into Southeast Asia, we feel that we see more and more evidence of horrific overfishing. There are occasionally well managed areas, and they stand out. Outside the no-take zone in Raja Ampat, everywhere in Indonesia is plain evidence that the water are grossly overfished. What did he think? He had a practical answer, at first. Yes, there might be too many fisherman. But then: his response changed, and he said that God would provide, when fishermen needed fish. Jamie and I talked about it later: how can you argue with this? How can you educate and change people to understand that, the beauty of faith aside, at some point the fish will be gone, and no faith will put them back.

Mohammed stayed with us for hours. When the current switched- which he knew partly from our boat's movement, but predicted for us based on the altitude of the moon's rise- he went back to the outrigger tied behind Totem, and took off to fish for squid.

When we were up in the morning, he was gone. I wish we'd been able to see him once more, and tell him what an impression he made on us.

Managing Seasickness on Totem

One of my first dates with Jamie was an offshore race in New England. It started in the evening off Long Island Sound, did a big triangle into the Atlantic overnight, up into Narragansett Bay and then finished off the coast of Connecticut in the morning. Throwing up when things got lumpy off the back side of Block Island in the middle of the night did not seem like an auspicious start of my new relationship with the cute captain. Possibly it helped that I remembered to lean overboard on the leeward side and behind everyone when I hurled, no one had “share” ?

Quick recovery from a queasy morning: California coast, fall 2008

Despite my lackluster performance on that memorable race (we won the race! I won the captain!), we’re lucky that seasickness is a rare occurrence on Totem today. Sure, we get seasick, but not that often, and experience has helped us manage it better. Still, this is a serious issue and was in my top 10 pre-cruising worries. Jamie and I had a pretty good idea about ourselves, but what about the kids? If one of them was really prone, that could be a cruise killer. Although we logged thousands of miles in our home waters before we left to go cruising, this was the Salish Sea, which has a very different feel compared to ocean swells. It didn't prove anything to me that we were all comfortable aboard there.

Here’s what we've learned about how to avoid getting seasick, and what to do when it happens.

Triggers for seasickness

Bouncy sea state. More typically, it’s a rocky sea state can throw off me or the kids. In my case, I'm certain it is compounded by stress. If I'm worried about the conditions and our security, I am that much more likely to get nauseous.

No horizon. The first time the kids were sick was a pancake-flat day as we left Monterey, California. We were motoring in the fog: although there wasn’t a breath of wind, the boat was just slicing straight through still water, and we were all hanging out in the cockpit with a gentle apparent breeze. … we had two little pukers on board in the first hour. Thankfully, they recovered quickly- probably aided by the fog burning off and a horizon coming into view.

Passages. It can take time to settle into passages with ocean swells. Depending on conditions, it may be only a day, but sometimes it takes several days. On our Pacific crossing, which in 2010 was a La Nina year of “reinforced trades” (e.g., lots of wind!), swells were typically from at least two directions. This made harder to adjust. By contrast, having swells from only a single direction as we approached PNG from Australia was easier to manage- although they were considerably bigger, we felt better.

What we do

How we treat seasickness depends on the scenario. If we’re starting a multi-day passage, and know we’ll be rolling around a little, I pre-medicate. Although I prefer to avoid meds when possible, I've long since learned that with seasickness, it’s better to take something early than to try and tough it out. We learned in the medical training that we took (and re-took) before we moved aboard that it takes a while for the drugs to get into your system. If you wait until you're just starting to feel queasy before you medicate, it might be too late to stave seasickness off. If I've pre-medicated, and conditions are reasonable, I generally have my sea legs after the first day out and don’t need to take any more.

Different treatments work for different people. It might be worth trying a few meds to find out what alleviates your symptoms with a minimum of side effects before you stock up a medical kit. Meclozine (aka Bonine or Ativert) is our drug of choice for seasickness, but we have a host of others just in case… although I sincerely hope the suppositories are never medically required. They are a last ditch option, since they can deliver the drugs if someone is too seasick to keep down oral medication (no, I’d really prefer not to attempt an IV delivery if conditions are rough!).

Although I do think pre-dosing has an important place in managing seasickness, I’d rather not deal with the side effects if I don’t have to. There are a number of other things we do to keep seasickness at bay. Seasickness can occur later on a passage with a change in conditions, so these are things we’ll often do throughout.

• Snacks. Avoid having an empty stomach. I like having dry cracker or not-too-sweet cookie (gingersnaps are my favorite) to crunch on. 
• Fluids. We work very hard at staying hydrated, both because it helps keep nausea at bay as well as hedges against the risk of dehydration if one of us does get sick. 
• Keep rested. Taking care of ourselves is really important. If you don’t give your body what it needs- food, water, rest, whatever- you’ll be more prone. Besides, sleep deprivation can lead to bad decisions.
• Aromatherapy. When I feel icky, a clean citrus smell can help. A few drops of an essential oil (my favorite is grapefruit; lemon and orange remind me of the cleansers I made) on a diffuser or even just a bit of tissue can make a difference.
• Ginger, ginger, ginger.  I try the pills: they might work, or they might just make me think they work, and that’s enough. The kids love to nibble on candied ginger, and I love ginger tea, especially on chilly night watches.
• Vitamin C. Pushing vitamin C is also supposed to help: I added vitamin C to our drinking water during the Pacific passage.

Seasickness and the kids 

The first thing that usually happens when the kids feel off is that they tuck themselves into a bunk and fall asleep. This is a normal and very convenient way of dealing with seasickness, especially for someone who doesn’t have to be responsible for the boat! We try to get them into a place where they will have more comfort from the motion of the boat (main cabin settee, or our aft master cabin) and let them rest.

If conditions aren’t expected to change for a while, or we’re at the beginning of a passage and this is a transition period of adjustment, they also take Meclozine. It’s available as a dissolving, chewable tablet which really helped when they were small- no swallowing, and easy to cut in half to get the right dose.

Getting a sense for when to pre-medicate helps, too. If we know it’s going to be bouncy, the children may have prophylactic doses. They have only been uncomfortable enough to need meds a handful of times in five years, although somewhat ironically, in an article on the Women and Cruising forum (www.womenandcruising.com/sailing-family-totem.htm), two of the three of them called out being seasick as one of the things they liked the least about cruising. Being sick is not fun!

It’s mental, too

Seasickness , in my opinion, can be as much mental as it is physical. I don’t mean to demean the very real physical symptoms by saying “it’s all in your head” (although technically…). When I’m scared, worried, or otherwise stressed, I’m far more likely to feel nauseous.

My two most vivid memories of being seasick as a cruiser were both times of high stress when we had steep, close waves- once up around Isla Tiburon in the Sea of Cortez, once on the way to Tahiti from Moorea. At Isla Tiburon, we had to deal with a side roll that threw our home into a bit of chaos. In Tahiti, our impeller had self-destructed and our engine was overheating in another choppy sea state that we had to plow through. Super stressful. In both cases, my recovery was pretty much instantaneous as soon as we were out of the uncomfortable conditions (e.g., safety fears abated)- which happened like flipping a switch, when we entered the reef in Tahiti and when we were able to put the waves on our quarter at Tiburon.

It helps to get your mind occupied. If I can make myself busy- and get my mind off feeling icky- I almost always feel better. Sitting in the cockpit, taking the wheel and hand-steer instead of letting the autopilot do the work, talking or playing games- whatever distracts can help.

Experience helps

Seasickness is one of those things where you learn after a while what you can/can’t do, what your triggers are, and what your body needs. We started by medicating more frequently, and have backed off as we are better able to evaluate what we need. While I’d normally approach from the other direction (medication last!), in this case it’s reversed because being safe isn’t just miserable, it’s not safe.

Be prepared, then try not to worry about it too much. Unless you turn out to be in an unlucky and very small minority that really and truly struggles with motion sickness (and if you are, you probably know it already), it’s one of those things like provisioning, boatschooling, and potty training babies that feels daunting at times, but all seems to work out in the end.

Beautiful Bali

I'm afraid I may have been complaining about Bali too much. The traffic in the south end of the island, the development in/around Ubud, the beach hawkers. Wow, not fair...because really, Bali is magical. Why?

Well, it's incredibly beautiful. The archtypical terraced rice paddies are breathtaking. My pictures all fall very, very short of how lovely the landscape really is.

People are friendly and engaging. Honestly, the Balinese may just be the most fun loving people we've met anywhere. You get a little bit of that in the photo of my host father, Ketut. It's also in the face of this chicken vendor, who insisted on a posed shot after photobombing my earlier attempt at getting a picture of his wares.

There is a mystic blend of religion in everyday life. Common daily rituals are imbued with ceremony. There are shrines and temples in every direction you look, and in all sizes. Every home, business, and group of rice paddies has a shrine placed at the 'kaja' corner (the one that's closest to the big volcano, Guning Agung). Every village has three temples, because different kinds of rituals and offerings are dedicated at different kinds of temples.

Kaja-placed shrine at one of our favorite warungs

Sacred places, like this banyan tree, often have a formal shrine

Some of these are given a surprisingly large footprint. At least 20% of the community rice-drying pavilion- where grains are dried before hulling- is dedicated to a temple. This decision was probably not made by an MBA, but the Balinese wouldn't have it any other way. The homestay where we stayed for our two night sin Ubud dedicated a similar (and typical) proportion of space in their family compound, space you might easily say could be used for another room to host tourists instead. Never going to happen.

Morning devotion inside the family temple at Artini I in Ubud

Of course, you don't need a temple or a shrine to make an offering. Offerings, too, are everywhere. In front of shops, at traffic intersections, on the wind shields of cars, on the desks of offices. There are many types and materials, but they range from the very basic (a square of banana leaf with a smidge of cooked rice) to the more involved (a dish folded from palm fronds with flower petals, a coin, an incense stick- maybe even a little Ritz cracker) to the fantastically elaborate.

Walk around early in the morning, and you'll see women (because it is almost always women) in selendangs (sashes) walking around with trays of offerings to place at key locations: at entrances, in the kaja corner, at intersections (junctures where good and evil may meet), at a place where they'll be working. 

Simpler offerings on the ground are for demons. You will step on them. It's OK, just don't try to.

More elaborate offerings higher up for gods. I love how the offering at the bakery counter at an upscale Ubud grocery includes a wee cup of coffee

In the temple, offerings must be carried on heads- the most sacred part of your body

They go to work, too. The guy I buy pork from at the Lovina market has one in his stall...yes, that's the kaja corner

See the front of our water taxi to Totem? Yep. Offerings.

Art and culture are woven into the fabric everyday life. Each full moon, the Barong is performed at a temple near our Serangan mooring. 

Full moon Barong at the Pura Dalem

meeting Serangan neighbors at the Barong performance

just outside the temple, snacks and conversation

Because it's purnama- the full moon, an auspicious time- another temple (about 100 yards from the temple where we watched the Barong...they really are everywhere) also has a ceremony going on. Dancing again! Somehow we didn't feel the need to pay to see one of these just-for-tourists dances in Ubud after having the chance to attend these performances.

I can't remember the name for this one...all dancers here were pre-pubescent girls

Friendly. Beautiful. Culture blending into art blending into the patterns of everyday life. What's not to love?

Going to Bali? If you have time, the best (best!) primer on Balinese culture is a two-book set by Fred Eiseman. This was the backbone of much cultural education in the college semester program I attended here in (gulp) 1991. If that's not an option available to you, the website for Murni's (hotel, restaurant in Ubud) has a really good set of articles that cover the basics...and then some.

Excuse me while I get busy

The feedback to last week’s post about topics was beyond my expectation. Besides illuminating really clear interest in particular areas, there were a bunch of new ideas, and some interesting questions on subjects I had in mind. Thank you!

First up is seasickness, which by far had the most requests for more detail. Boatschooling, power management, and dealing with customs/clearance into countries were next…I’ll get to those in the next couple of weeks, and work through the remainder based upon interest.

Meanwhile, a few other ideas (or twists) that hadn’t been on my radar that are also going into the mix:

• Favorite destinations, and those we wouldn’t care to revisit
• Favorite snorkeling / diving spots
• Food poisoning and eating “local style”
• More on food: vegetarian cruising, everyday cruising meals, exotic foods and refrigeration
• What sails we have on Totem, and sail handling aboard
• Photography: cameras used, tips and tricks
• What to do with all that stuff in the holding tank
• Avoiding pirates

On that note… a view from tonight’s anchorage between Bali and Menjangan Island, looking out at some big volcano on Java.

Well, what do you want to know about?

So, we're still kicking around Lovina. I'd really like to get moving on to Kalimantan / Borneo, but honestly? It's fine. Not just because of the easy access to yummy little restaurants (goat sate, delicious, trust me!). Not just because we have caught up on so many little projects around here. After a bunch of months, I finally having the blog in sync with our life. The gaps between internet access, and my desire not to skip some of stories between access points (I can update via radio, but no internet = no photos), meant it got spread it out for a while there.

There are a few more Balinese vignettes to share, but meanwhile, I've got a bunch of non-location-specific posts that are partly done. So I thought I'd ask... what do YOU want to know about cruising on Totem?

Here's what's rolling around in my head, or half-written. Maybe one of these will grab, maybe you've got something else you want to hear about. Let me know in the comments, by email, or our Facebook page...whatever's easy.

• Sunscreen / sun protection
• Essential oils on board- cleaners, lotions, and more
• Dealing with seasickness
• Power management: wind, solar, batteries, and use
• Passage meals
• Wearing...what? Cruising friendly clothes on Totem
• Favorite DIYs: from acidophilus cultured milk (yogurt!) to kombucha
• Not tourists, not expats, not locals...how do we fit in? (thank you Gary!)
• What's in Totem's medical kit (thank you Naomi!)
• What we use for navigation
• Onboard communications
• Getting and using water
• Beating the heat in the tropics
• Dealing with the bugs
• Trading
• Getting exercise aboard (aka: I love Boat Pose!)
• Trashed (well, dealing with garbage)
• Green boating
• Staying safe
• Boatschooling
• Kid-specific questions
• Clearing into countries, with and without an agent (thank you Cidnie!)
• ? you tell me!

...and with that, I leave this image from yesterday's Not Really Fun squall. Totem's freeboard is about 5', so you have an idea of the kind of hobbyhorsing that was going on.

Lovina: juggling hawkers while we play the waiting game

Gili Air to Lovina was a pleasant day trip.

Just point the boat towards Gunung Agung, and go!

We were cheated by the wind and had to motor, again, although since seasonal breezes are now generally from behind us we had really hoped to sail. But we needed to get there to renew our visas one more time and couldn't be late for the Immigration Office, so off we went.

putt putt putt putt

Immigration in Singaraja, about five miles up the road from Lovina, tells us it will take about a week to process the extensions. It's been a week. Actually, it's longer, because once they are ready it still takes at least a couple of days and two more office visits for us to pay them (we're not permitted to pay at submission time), collect visas, and provide them with photocopies of our updated passports with the new stamp. This is Indonesian bureaucracy, people. It is painful and slow.

I have amassed a collection of photos of the kids sitting around in immigration offices

Immigration is more confused with our application than usual. There is a lot of discussion happening as our officer reviews the case with his boss. They want to speak with our sponsor (to get a social visa- which can be extended more than once, unlike the visa on arrival- you need to have a local sponsor). Great. Well, fortunately she is in Bali. Ruth speaks to them on the phone. Not enough: they want to meet her! It seems unbelievable, but once again, she proves herself to be a really terrific agent, and devotes the entire following day to a trip up to Immigration. She and a friend joined us later for dinner on Totem.

Ruth visiting on Totem in Lovina

Cruisers- if you'll be coming here, we highly recommend her services for boat permitting (the infamous CAIT) and visa support! Ruth can be reached at info@islemarine.com; details at www.islemarine.com.

It could be worse. I mean, we're in BALI. Mostly, we're are using the time to get the boat clean, catch up on projects, catch up on learning, and do a little touristing around. Touristing, because this is a tourist town on a tourist island. When in Rome, right?

So, we hit some tourist spots. One great way to slough off the impatience with immigration bureaucracy? Hit the hot springs!

Tourists, but Balinese as well, all taking the water

We don't have our swimming suits. For the kids- no problem, they can wear their tank tops and underwear. Adults,  not so much. I buy a cheap sarong and swim in that instead.

Siobhan sticks her head under the water spouts

Immigration delays? What immigration delays?

Other aspects of local tourism are less pleasant. When we land the dinghy on shore, hawkers descend to sell us everything from fruit and massages to bracelets or laundry services. Attempts to explain that we're not the usual vacationers day-tripping from Kuta are only mildly successful. It becomes really tiresome to explain to the same person for the umpteenth time in a week that no, you're not interested in buying their carvings / tshirts / bracelets / whatever.

Being sold to is still part of each dinghy landing and walk up to the main road. I can't stand being rude and just walking away from someone who is talking to me, but when it's the only option- you have to ask, who is really being rude?

We make friends with Maria, who purveys her fruit and services from the east end of the beach, and realizes that a soft sell works better with us. She delivers a lecture in Balinese to a few of the other sellers, after which they back off... mostly. Time seems to help us more than anything, as our faces slowly become familiar.

I'm sure whole families eke out a living on the few dollars that are made from beach vending, so it's high stakes and they have more to lose. Less fun for us, but how big a deal is that, really? It's the price to pay for traveling through tourist country again.

Lazy days on Gili Air

The three "Gili" islands off the NE corner of Lombok are a big change from the traffic and noise of south Bali: there are no motorized vehicles, only pony carts and bicycles to get around. We were really ready for the slower pace after having to sit in hot traffic to get anywhere on Bali... that wasn't really fun.

A single sandy track rings the Gili Air, which you can bounce around to the jingle of your pony's bells in about half an hour.

Open air bars and restaurants, with little more than the sandy beach for a floor, line about half of the circumference; guest houses look out over pretty blue water to Lombok.

The rest is just pretty, unspoiled beachfront... and some very hard working local folks. Everything- food, water, building supplies...everything- has to be brought in by boat from Lombok or Bali.

Of the three "Gilis", Gili Air one is the quietest- which just means there are a handful of families on vacation, and independent travelers outnumber the twentysomething backpacking set; the younger crowd seems to congregate at "Gili T" for the all night full moon parties. We're ready for bed at Cruiser's Midnight (9pm) so this suits us well. An added bonus, Gili Air has inexpensive moorings to help us keep the boat gear off the coral, and our friend Brian from the M/V Furthur to visit with.

We spent a lovely few days and could have lingered if it weren't for the visa extension schedule pushing us on again. First, though, there is a big job to do cleaning a crazy layer of barnacles off the bottom of Totem. One month in the fertile and fetid waters of Serangan gave it the thickest growth we have ever seen... that's saying quite a lot! Jamie took the worst off the prop and rudder back in Serangan, but we know we had a big job waiting.

Thank goodness for Dive Master Brian, who loaned a tank to speed the job along. Jamie got about 2/3 of the bottom clean on that tank, and spread the rest over a couple of afternoons. It was BAD! All those little critters don't like being disturbed, either. I helped Jamie with vinegar/alcohol ear drops when he got out and watched a couple of little critters CLIMB OUT HIS EARS. Yes, it's as gross as it sounds, and gives you the serious heebie jeebies to see much less to feel them yourself.

It was fun to play tourist for a while. We swam a little, paid for the tourist stuff we don't usually do (pony cart tour! yoga studio sessions! drinks with umbrellas! gelato!), enjoyed a couple of non-local style meals, and spent a few evenings out, listening to live music... good times.

Totem moored at Gili Air; Bali's Gunung Agung in the distance