Getting ready for the final 1200 miles to Malaysia

The social life at Medana has accelerated. On Friday night we had a "Blues Night" with one of the leading bands of Lombok and it was great music. Lot's of dancing was had by all in the sand outside the restaurant and with the boats moored just a few metres away it made a spectacular sight.
More boats have arrived and the anchorage is getting full. Most moorings are taken and anyone coming in now will have to anchor in fairly deep water - the bane of cruising in this part of the world.
On Saturday there was horse racing organised in a rough paddock just adjacent to the marina. It attracted a large local crowd, as well as all the visiting yachties. There were food stalls and the usual knicknacks for sale. Pearls and mother of pearl are a significant item around here but the pearls are of inferior quality to those produced in the Pacific - particularly the famed Tahitian black pearls. They have black pearls here too, but most tend to be imperfect - i.e. not completely round. But, unlike the Pacific pearls they are relatively inexpensive so from that point of view they are quite acceptable. Jim was tempted to buy a polished mother of pearl shell which would have been appropriate on "Tiare Taporo III". The original Tiare would have carried thousands of tons of MOP shell in her day trading around the Society, Tuamotu and Marquesas Islands for Etablissements Donald Tahiti.
The horses were interesting, being not much more than ponies. The riders were of necessity light weight and appeared in the main to be young teenagers. We were told that the horses were descended from horses brought to Indonesia by the Dutch from South Africa several hundred years ago. The horse racing was billed as "The Lombok Cup" and a good time was had by all.
Then later on Saturday we and the crews of 4 other boats went back to the Medana Resort for a swim in their pool and dinner afterwards. Played volleyball in the pool and then some engaged in a noisy game of Dominoes while we played Petanque - Marie, who was an expert from a French boat coached us but of course she was the top scorer!
It's really been a social time because yesterday afternoon there was a welcoming ceremony at the marina. Local dignitaries were there and there was lots of Lombok dancing and some charades (plays) performed. Bailey, the 20 year old daughter of "Galatea" was asked to respond with a speech on behalf of all the boats and she did a superb job. She spoke in Bahasa Indonesia also which went down a treat with the locals. We then had dinner but unfortunately Jim must have eaten something suspect and spent the night back on board vomiting and feeling fairly miserable.
Fortunately, it was shortlived and, as this is being written in the Sailfish Cafe, the symptoms are abating. Just feeling like having been run over by a bus!!
We are having a quiet day today and in another change of plan will leave here on Wednesday for Lovina Beach on Bali. Only 70 miles and that's all we feel we can cope with for now. We were very sad to say goodbye to Bailey, Julie and Neil from "Galatea". Bailey and Julie are flying back to the US from Bali and Neil then comes back here where he will have a new crew for the journey onwards. Hopefully we will come across them in the future.
The marina population has exploded in the last few days with many boats of all nationalities having arrived. Jim has been practising his French again which is fun.
Hope all is good with everyone at home - some emails would be nice from time to time!!
Lots of love from us............
Jim and Jean
s.v. Tiare Taporo III
Medana Bay
Lombok
Indonesia.

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