Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 5:54 AM
Subject: Estrela in Phuket, Thailand

 

George,

 

Sorry about the long gap in communication.  We are nearly someplace where we will be able settle in for some real catching up.  We are booked into a marina in Phuket from mid-December through New Year’s.  We think it’ll have on-board broadband wireless . . . yay!  For the last week we’ve had a ball sailing in a big regatta, the Phuket King’s Cup regatta.  Kyle and I crewed for friends on their boat Calypso JJ.  We met them in Darwin and their three kids have become fast friends with Eliza and Abigail, as we’ve traveled through Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and now Thailand, together.  Amazingly, Calypso JJ finished 1-1-1-5-2 in the five races and took first place overall, in her class – the “Ocean Rovers.”  

 

To view a couple pictures showing Eliza and Abigail taken during the regatta, check out these web pages on the official Kings Cup Regatta website:

 

http://www.kingscup.com/Gallery.cfm?CurrentPage=5&UID=&keyword=&showphoto=y&cid=  and click on the pic of Calypso JJ

 

http://www.kingscup.com/Gallery.cfm?CurrentPage=14&UID=&keyword=&showphoto=y&cid= and click on the pic labeled, “DSC 2451”

 

 

Love, Doug, Kyle and the girls

 

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 9:09 AM

Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Sunday, October 15, 2006; South China Sea

 

1700 local time Sunday, October 15, 2006 (0900 GMT); Lat/Lon 02 deg 44.6' S, 109 deg 14.4' E; Location: 60NM west of the SW point of Borneo/Kalimantan, Indonesia; Wind: SE 14-18 kts; Sea: gentle roll; Sky: few clouds with smoky haze off to the east; Air temp: 91 deg F; Water temp: 85 deg F; Depth: 117'; Sailing wing and wing with full genny poled to port and full main out to starboard, port tack; Speed: 5kts.

 

 

Doug's birthday was wonderful.  A family on another yacht whose parents own an eco-lodge in Kalimantan, on the edge of the Tanjung Puting National Park and orangutan preserve, gave us a room at the lodge for the night -- a very generous gift.  So with the girls sleeping over with their boatbuddies in the kids' room at the lodge, Doug and I spent the night in total luxury -- this after our three days and two nights on an African Queen type river boat plying the Sekonyer River in search of orangutans, gibbons, long-tailed macaques, proboscis monkeys, paper butterflies and hornbills. 

 

Now we're in the South China Sea, sailing NW, trying to outrun the incredible cloud of smoke spreading out from Borneo.  We thought we were clear of it and then it billowed up to within a third of a mile.  So we altered course 90 degrees and sailed a little south of west for a dozen miles, and then returned to our NW'ly course. 

 

The smoke's caused by many intentionally set fires -- slash and burn land clearing by small farmers and also massive clearing of rainforest by developers converting it to palm oil tree plantations.  And some of these fires blaze out of control.  Another cruiser reports hearing that the smoke has gotten so bad and has spread so wide that it's become international news.  We also heard that Singapore, directly downwind from Borneo, is lodging protests against Indonesia in some international forum.  According to one rumor, the Indonesian government is worried the fires and smoke are approaching the severity of 1997 or 1998, when 20,000 orangutans perished in southern Borneo.  Some of the burning is illegal; plenty is legal.  I've read about the destruction of the rainforests like everyone else.  Experiencing it first hand has been devastating.  And the direct human impact . . . unbelievable to observe.  On the Kumai River we lived for days breathing thick smoke for most of each day.  Estrela got covered in ash and our cabin interior still reeks of smoke.  If anyone has read any news about the Borneo/Kalimantan fires and smoke please send it on to us.  We're too close to it to have any real perspective and don't have access to reliable big-picture information here.  The New York Times probably knows more than we possibly could about what's going on in Borneo right now. 

 

Lucky for us, though, once we were well up the Sekonyer River, a tributary of the Kumai which runs through the big national park where many orangutans live, the smoke was minimal to nonexistent -- a quirk of the weather pattern during our visit to the park.  Wait'll we send George pics of the orangutans and our three days and two nights on a river boat!  We were with the same outfit that was filmed taking Julia Roberts into the orangutan park as part of a documentary series where Hollywood stars were taken into the wilds to see endangered species.  Is anyone familiar with this series?  We would love to see the episode sometime.

 

We're en route to Singapore.  We have about 500 miles to go.  We're going to sail most of the way in one hop -- about a three night sail -- and then stop for a couple days to enjoy some snorkeling and swimming (and clean the sea life off Estrela's bottom) at Cebia, Lingga and Kentar Islands in the last clear water we'll enjoy until we get to Thailand.  After this break we'll continue on to Raffles Marina in Singapore, where we plan to spend 10 days to two weeks before heading up the Malacca Strait for Malaysia and Thailand.

 

---Kyle

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 10:28 AM

Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Sunday, October 8, 2006 about to arrive in Kumai, Kalimantan, Indonesia . . . Borneo!

 

1130 local time Sunday, October 8, 2006 (0330 GMT); Lat/Lon 03 deg 16.8' S, 111 deg 38.7' E; Location: Teluk Kumai (Kumai Bay), Kalimantan, Indonesia; Wind: ESE 12-15 kts; Sea: gentle roll; Sky: few clouds but thickening smoky haze; Air temp: 90 deg F; Water temp: 85 deg F; Depth: 43'; Motorsailing: All sails full and engine running at 1200 RPM to maintian 6kts over the ground against an outgoing tidal current.

 

It's been a while since we've sent George a proper log entry to post on the sailingestrela website.  We apologize to any friends and family who've worried for our safety or even just been irritated by our silence.  We have no good excuse other than Indonesia itself.  Since we arrived in Kupang the end of July Indonesia has enveloped us.  Much of the varied culture we've encountered has felt incredibly foreign, leaving us exhilarated and exhausted.  This is not a cruising ground that sees anywhere near the numbers of western cruising yachts as the other countries we've visited in the last three years.  The cruising guide books are sketchy and charts relatively poor, both paper and electronic. Most of the information we have used to travel through the archipelago has been passed along by other sailors.  Our most lasting impression of Indonesia is of warm, welcoming and generous people, most of whom are materially very poor.  We have felt no animosity whatsoever aimed at our American flag, in Islamic, Christian or Hindu villages and islands.  And we have felt very safe.  The worst we've experienced has been a stolen dinghy anchor, probably taken by kids, when we stupidly left the dinghy alone on a beach all day while we were exploring on land.  We have a kaleidoscope of stories, recollections and impressions to share via the website, including hundreds of photos.  It'll be hard to bring the website up to date until we find some downtime, which we're unlikely to get until we reach Thailand and slow down, sometime in December.

 

But right this minute . . . we are making our final approach to Borneo.  We are heading for the Kumai River, which we will motor up to the village of Kumai.  We are still 23 nautical miles from the river mouth, which is 12 NM from Kumai village.  There we plan to leave Estrela at anchor and charter a small river boat for a three day and two night adventure up a tributary and deep into the lowland forest in search of wildlife.  The highlight should be orangutans but we should also encounter many other creatures and natural wonders.  Stay tuned for a full report.  This river adventure trip happens to coincide with my 50th birthday October 11.  I think I can get into the idea of passing this milestone in a Borneo jungle.

 

-- Doug

 

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 5:38 PM

Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Saturday July 22, 2006 en route to Indonesia

 

2330 local time (Australia Central Standard) Saturday, July 22, 2006 (1400 GMT); Lat/Lon 12 deg 10.7' S, 130 deg 01.1' E; Location: 50 NM WNW of Darwin, NT, Australia and 420 NM ESE of Kupang, West Timor, Indonesia; Wind: SSE 3-5 kts; Sea: flat; Sky: clear and full of stars; Air temp: 77 deg F; Water temp: 76 deg F; Course/speed: 280 deg T at 4.8 kts; Sail/engine combination: full main and staysail with engine at 1200 RPM; Tack/apparent wind angle: beam reach on port tack; Current: fighting a tidal current of about a knot or so.

 

We are beginning to work our way up through the stragglers and die-hard sailors at the back of the pack of today's starters in the Darwin to Kupang, Indonesia sailboat rally.  You can learn more about the rally on its website (http://www.sailindonesia.net ) and even track Estrela's position, which will be posted twice daily.  The rally started nearly 100 boats strong at 11 AM.  Estrela got going about 2:30 PM.  An hour before the start we had discovered a serious problem with our 3hp Yamaha dinghy engine.  Rather than arrive in Indonesia with a broken engine I set it up on the boom gallows in Estrela's cockpit and tore it apart to try to get it running properly again.  Frustratingly, it had just come back from the Yamaha service shop.  I figured out this morning that at least one of the important repairs that I had requested, and had been billed for, was simply never performed.  The embarrassed service manager quickly understood what had happened and offered to ship me several spare parts in Indonesia, as soon as we send him an address.  Anyway, by the time I got the engine running again and then emptied the fuel lines and mounted the engine aft and tied the dinghy down on the foredeck, and Eliza and Kyle hauled up the anchor, we were more than 3 1/2 hours late leaving Darwin.  But no worries, mate . . . what's the rush?  We'll get to Kupang.

 

Our stay in this city was a bit of a whirlwind of final provisioning, digesting mail and stowing boat parts and other goodies and doing some ambitious sightseeing.  Nine boxes had been shipped to us c/o the Tipperary Waters Marina, which boats can only enter via a lock because of the extreme tidal range in Darwin harbor.  Estrela passed through the lock into the marina, after having all our through-hull fittings checked by divers and treated overnight with a detergent biocide.  These measures are intended to prevent a relative of the zebra mussel from invading the marina upstream of the lock.  Marina manager and lockmaster Peter Dermoudy was a real saint to us.  He stored our mail in his tiny office, some for weeks before we showed up.  The highlight of our Darwin stay was our long day trip with another kidboat family, Vagabond Heart, to Kakadu National Park, 250 km away.  This World Heritage Site is on any short list of the most spectacular places to visit in Australia.  Our early afternoon boat trip with a naturalist guide across billabongs and a marshy river at "Yellow Waters" brought us close to spectacular wildlife, including 12 crocodiles, nesting white chested sea eagles, whistling kites, whistling ducks, nesting jabiru cranes, great egrets, darters and many other beautiful animals and plants. Late in the day, when the lower angle light was really bringing out the red colors in the rocks, we parked and walked in to two enormous rocky outcrops with extensive aboriginal rock paintings, some of it many, many thousand of years old.  Viewing intricate and beautifully preserved 1,000 to 5,000 year old rock paintings, whose artists' descendants still live nearby on the same land, was a very emotional experience for Kyle and me.

 

-- Doug

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 6:44 PM

Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Tuesday, July 25, 2006 en route to Indonesia

 

0400 local time (Australia Central Standard) Tuesday, July 25, 2006 (1830 GMT); Lat/Lon 11 deg 14.5' S, 126 deg 31.9' E; Location: 178 NM ESE of Kupang, West Timor, Indonesia; Wind: ESE 7-10 kts; Sea: regular swell; Sky: clear and full of stars; Air temp: 78 deg F; Water temp: 79.5 deg F; Course/speed: 285 deg T at 3.0 kts; Sail combination: full main and genoa--wing and wing; Tack/apparent wind angle: dead downwind on starboard tack; Current: ?

 

Slogging along in light air.  Passing brightly lit oil rigs.  Trying to stay patient--about speed or should I say lack of speed, sails slatting, and sluggish motion. Maybe this is just an opportunity to make the transition from 1st world intensity to 3rd world "rubber time".  Rally boats' navigation lights in all directions remind me that I'm part of a big group.  With two check-in HF radio schedules and lots of chat on the VHF, it feels like a party out here.  Some of the speedy boats will arrive tomorrow--catamarans, trimarans and fancy big monohulls.  Estrela is the second smallest boat in the fleet.  And even though these light conditions are not her favorite, she's keeping up pretty well.  So we'll arrive when we get there!

 

My favorite memory of Darwin is the moment I found my painting.  The girls and I had a mission in Darwin:  to buy artwork for Abigail with the birthday money she had received from both sets of grandparents and to buy a painting by an Aboriginal artist for the family (okay, really for me!) We discovered the shop, Indigenous Creations, right in the center of town.  It is a small shop bursting with didgeridoos, sculptures, nick nacks, and tables stacked with piles of painted canvases of various sizes and prices--from $10,000 to $25.  It reminded me of an Oriental carpet store, where one must flip through the pile of stacked carpets.  Though we were on a tight schedule, I had alloted 2-3 hours.  There are some things that can not be rushed! 

 

First we concentrated on Abigail's purchase.  With quiet determination and sincerity, she painstakingly perused each item on each shelf.  Was this something that captured her fancy now, as an 8 year old?  Was this something that she would cherish for years to come and be a reminder of this trip?  Abigail embraced this balancing act gracefully.  This was also a maths class.  This is the amount she has to spend.  These are the items that have been chosen.  After much thoughtful culling, she finally chose a small paperweight in the shape of a baby crocodile (that's the 8 year old piece) and two 12"x6" Aboriginal dot paintings, "Women Gathering Water" and "Women Gathering Bush Medicine" (that's the cherish for years to come piece). These beautiful paintings were done by a young woman who uses her art to tell her grandmother's stories.  This we learned from the artist biography that came with the artwork--a sheet of paper with her photo and personal information. 

 

My turn. I had just finished reading two books on Aboriginal art and I had had the good fortune seeing authentic Aboriginal rock art in Carnarvon Gorge in Queensland and Kakadu National Park in Northern Territory.  Even so, I barely have an understanding of this deeply rich and enigmatic culture.  But I do know that art can knock you out.  So as the girls and I flipped through the stacks of canvases, I was waiting to get flattened.  And boy did I.  At the bottom of the last stack, hundreds of canvases later, there it was: my painting.  I quickly took it up the the shopkeeper. He had an impish knowing grin on his face.  This, he said, was an interesting story.  Not only is painting called, "Secret Women's Ceremony", but the artist herself is mysterious.  The painting depicts women sitting in camp around the fire, painting themselves for a special women's ceremony.  How they paint themselves and what type of ceremony are only for the initiated women to know.  Then he looked in his artist file, and produced a single photo--the artist holding her finished painting.  No bio, no name, no story.  The shopkeeper then called the agent in Alice Springs, where the painting came from and was told that this particular artist came in with the painting and has never done another piece nor has ever been seen again.  Mysterious.  "I'll take it!".     

 

---Kyle

 

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 6:02 PM

Subject: Estrela Log Entry -- Thursday July 27, 2006 Kupang, West Timor, Indonesia

 

1820 local time (central Indonesian time) Thursday, July 27, 2006 (1020 GMT); Lat/Lon 10 deg 09.7' S, 123 deg 34.1' E; Location: Kupang harbor, West Timor, Indonesia; Wind: ENE 10 kts; Sea: challenging roll; Sky: cloudless; Air temp: 77 deg F; Water temp: 80 deg F; Anchored: In 54' depth with 215' chain and a 35 lb Bruce anchor.

 

We made it!!  Safe and sound at anchor in Kupang Harbor.  The wind picked up dramatically around 10 AM and we lucked into having favorable tidal currents for most of the day.  So instead of heaving to for another night at sea and an early morning landfall tomorrow we were able to push on through and anchor right at dusk.  The final approach into and through Selat Roti (Roti Strait), a couple hours sail shy of Kupang, brought us several hours of wind 25 to 35 kts.  We enjoyed some fantastic sailing during this passage.  The highlight was flying the spinnaker for one entire day, with barely a tweak to adjust it.

 

As we made our final approach to the yacht anchorage in Kupang Harbor an inflatable outboard dinghy loaded with kids and a dad came roaring out to greet us -- our buddies from the kidboat Vagabond Heart.  They invited us for dinner and even returned to taxi us over.  We ate freshly caught Spanish Mackerel fish curry, and shared a bottle of champagne for toasts.  What a great passage.   

 

Tomorrow we start slowing down, and await a visit from Customs, Immigration and Quarantine to clear us into Indonesia.  We're happy to be here.

 

-- Doug

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 7:00 PM

Subject: Re: Lat long

 

We're in Kompal Bay, Lombok:  08 deg. 24.2'S/ 116 deg. 04.6'E.  All is well.  Staying a few days to tour and re-provision before going to Bali.

 

--- Kyle

Copyright © 2003-2009 Doug and Kyle Hopkins. All rights reserved.