September 23th - Pod of dolphins

Spotted pod of dolphins on starboard side. They were jumping and playing with us around the bow for about 20 minutes. It was wonderful to watch them so free in the wild this way.
Marc took below video. Edited by Andy. Music added by Andy.

September 19th, 2013 - Goodbye Sibolga

Hooray! Finally this am, we are leaving Sibolga, towards the island of Rodriguez, Madagascar.
We will not have any signal for internet while at sea so just to post this ahead.

September 17th, 2013 - Selebrity

Taxi for celebs  ? I thought this is quite amusing and give you a smile.

Luckily, the one I'm in was not this sardine packed in.
The road to Parabat was long and tiring over very bad mountain roads. Almost every men here smokes. I got quite  a doze of it sitting 6 hours in the noisy not too good conditions van.

Pretty good view for a $10 per night guesthouse.

September 16th, 2013 - DanauToba, the largest lake in South East Asia

Hiked up to get a good view of Lake Toba, unknown to me, I  was pleasantly surprised to come to the paragliding take off spot.
There was a young woman  from Medan doing tandem paragliding.

Beautiful view of Toba

September 15th, 2013 - Simosir, Island of Golden flowers.

I am really enjoying my little solo outings. Tried not to feel too guilty leaving the guys do all the work at boat and stuck in Sibolga.


Ferry to Tuk Tuk, on the island of Simosir, fare USD $1, about 20 minutes ride.

Symbol of the Lake Toba Festival 2013

 Attractive touristy accommodations on Tuk Tuk, Simosir island

September 14th, 2013 - Parabat, Northern Sumatra

While captain Roger flew off to Singapore to buy impeller, a much needed replacement part for boat, I  began my solo adventure to see Danau Toba.
After a long bumpy 7 hours van ride, I arrived at Parabat, the gateway to Lake Toba.
The ride was tiring but well worth it to get some much welcome fresh, cooler mountain air.
It was a bit scrary walking late evening in sprinked rain
but I easily found a guesthouse, had dinner and went found a fast internet cafe for only $0.30 per hour.

View of Parabat from guesthouse

September 13th, 2013 - Sunset in Sibolga

it may be fishy smelly at times, when the wind blows it your way.. but Sibolga has its beauty.

September 12th, 2013 - Dragon boat in Sibolga

we named these dragon boats, they are quite colorful and alien looking fishing boats.

September 11th, 2013 - Stocking up provisions.

We filled up the dingy with lots of provisions: big bag of rice, jars of jam, peanut butters, cooking oil, crackers, dry spaghetti  noodles, coconut milk, potatoes, tomatoes,
 toilet papers etc etc  and of course some Bintang beers.

Day 23 September 10th - Fishing boat in Sibolga

We went shopping for some fishing gear.I enjoyed conversed mandarin with the salesgirl. We all had lunch in town of Sibolga at one of Roger's friend Iyang's restaurant with delicious Indonesian food.
Then we went for sweet good kopi ie Coffee . with bits of jellies in it.. it tasted like the seaweed bubble tea type except these are in tiny noodles form.

Day 22 September 9th - Bamboo lights

These are the light structures made with bamboo all around the fishing harbor of Sibolga. There are probably 50 or more ..they provides lighting at night .very bright!

Day 21 Sept 8th - Sibolga, Indonesia

Everyone was up and about at 5am. I heard the anchor chain being pulled up loudly and stowed away at forepeak.
At exactly 5:30am we started the engine and took off towards Sibolga. Right after dawn, the bow points towards a full rainbow as if we were heading to it.

  We had the main sail and genoa up after few hours but no enough wind so engine were on the whole way. I learned a little how to trim a sail by looking at the tell tails signs.
Andy spotted a turtle about 3 or 4 feet big. We caught a baby tuna it was so small I wish we let it go. Rene cleaned it and made sashimi with it. I got a little nausea first few hours while at sea but soon feeling much better. We arrived at Sibolga bout 9:30pm..There were lots of lights structures made with bamboos sticks...Sibolga is a fishing port..and quite sticky and smelly as there are fish processing plants.

Day 19 September 6th - Mast maintenance

Marc climbed up to the top of the mast to do some maintenance. He has a harness. Everyone did their role to make sure he is safe. Later Roger named him the Spider man.

Day 15 September 2nd - Happily collect water

It had been raining on and off. Mostly sprinkling. At times just very good downpour.
A picture of happy captain Roger collecting water. Later we realized

 it is not too clean from the deck so we collect water using the old fashion way: buckets!