Karimunjawa

We had successfully made our 2nd attempt to escape beautiful Bali and were just about ready to anchor at Karimunjawa (Indondsia) on January 8th, when a young man named Hussein approached Sea Turtle as we scouted the area and directed us to a free-standing wood pier across from the long and large 1-year old concrete main pier that was too high for Sea Turtle's bumpers. He was a very take-charge kind of man but also very obliging as he became our guide.

The wooden pier was ramshackle with boards lying atop but no longer nailed down and with big gaps between many of the boards. The supporting structure seemed sturdy and safe enough. (As instructed by Hussein, we tied alongside but Jordan later Med-moored/tied us stern-to at S05°52.709' E110°25.805')

Flimsy surface but solid piles

We went to town with Hussein and were shocked at the non-stop profuse layers of garbage right behind the shore homes and throughout the town. How could they stand to live next to smelly garbage? Hussein's care-less-attitudinal-response was that it would all 1 day be covered with soil. It was such a pity that the locals abused the otherwise pristine archipelagos. This beautiful group of 27 islands is a National Marine Park.

Nice backyard??

Our goal during our brief sojourn was to take on fuel and check the marine weather forecast, but everywhere we asked, we were told "No internet." Fortunately, Hussein's friend (wearing a cool sea turtle T-shirt!) offered his computer for a fee as he could receive Wi-Fi with his plug-in USB stick that connects to the cell phone system. This is what we had used in other places such as New Zealand and Vanuatu for internet.

Next we had to refill our tanks with diesel (called solar here). We have done so much motoring and will probably continue to do so before reaching Malaysia. Hussein put Jordan in touch with a woman that he could purchase the required fuel from. She sold it out of big plastic jugs of suspect cleanliness.

We visited with a vacationing couple from Jakarta (Indonesia) at a restaurant and then walked over towards the sounds of loud music and singing from a visiting pop music band. The area was filled with parked motor-scooters, stalls selling cheap toys and trinkets, and locals sitting on the road from 1 edge to the other in front of the stage.

The stage was full of bright flashing lights and the Asian singers wore very short miniskirts and very high stilettos. Sadly, the singing was pretty atrocious so we did not stay long, much to Hussein's disappointment. We made our way over to an internet shop that is only open at night as that is when the electricity was turned on. The man at the shop took pity on us and kindly gave us the password and let us check weather and email.

We then returned to Sea Turtle for a quiet night's sleep.