Bali

We finally made a much anticipated arrival in Bali. We approached from the north and spent a long time watching the island unfold in front of us. Obviously, it’s of volcanic origin and was green and beautiful, much like Hawaii. 

We cruised along the north coast and then headed south. We were going to the official port of entry, Benoa, at the far southern tip. Along the way we could see remnants of the old Dutch colonial infrastructure with solid-looking stone retaining walls that helped to protect the shoreline which is wide open to the sea. There were also many expensive-looking resorts and homes sprinkled along the coastline.

As usual, the trip down wasn’t uneventful. We weren’t at the end of our boat problems yet. On this leg of the passage, we just happened to notice that the battery monitor was showing zero. A quick investigation revealed that our 24v volt alternator on the new engine wasn’t charging the house batteries as the belt had shredded.

This surely shouldn’t have shredded after only 250 hours of use? A new bracket for the old Bosch alternator had been manufactured in Langkawi. Whether it was a slightly imprecise build that caused chafing of the belt, just a cheap belt, or, both, it didn't matter as we didn’t have another. But, no problem, just start our Panda generator and turn on the battery charger. We did that and were feeling smug until we tried it a second time only to get an overheat exhaust fault on the generator. Its impeller (which provides cooling water) had disintegrated. We had a spare, but, it’s a difficult job to do at sea and we needed charged batteries. Our third and last option was to run the portable Honda generator. It worked and gave us enough charge to get into port. 

Although Bali was much anticipated we ended up with only four days to spend there before our visa ran out. It went like this:

Day 1 – fix boat. First, we had to source alternator belts. With the help of Mande’s Yacht Service, we were able to find one right away. The same cheap brand that disintegrated, but, also some better quality ones that could be made to fit. It was a bit of a struggle, but, we got one on. Next, was the impeller replacement on the generator.

Day 2 – fuel and provision boat. We paid extra and had Mande’s Yacht Service deliver fuel to the boat by jerry can, what a luxury after our recent refuelling difficulties. We also found a Carrefour (French supermarket) in the town of Kuta. They had lovely bread, real French pastries and many other items that you wouldn’t expect to see. What a treat.

Day 3 – a half-day taxi tour followed by the start of the checkout process with visits to the Immigration and Quarantine offices for official stamps. We had actually planned to check out of immigration the next day, but, thirty minutes before the office closed we found out the next day was a public holiday and the office would be closed tomorrow. This necessitated a full-blown sprint by taxi to the next town arriving five minutes before the office closed. If we’d missed it, we would have had to pay a large visa overstay fine. We were disappointed to be asked for a ‘tip’ at the quarantine office as Indonesia is trying really hard to stamp out corruption of this type.

Day 4 – checkout that required visits to two more offices, Customs, followed by the Harbourmaster. Extra fuel filters that we ordered arrived at the last minute and we were able to leave by 1600.

It was a whirlwind visit and somewhat disappointing. I’m sure Bali has wonderful things there somewhere, but, we didn’t have enough time to see them. All we saw was a rather disappointing ‘beach scene’ with expats drinking beer in the bars and very aggressive street salespeople, endless strips of shops and traffic, traffic and more traffic. Our half-day taxi tour at least got us out to the countryside and there were  some very beautiful highlights. 

Bali is primarily Hindu, not Muslim like the rest of Indonesia. Religious symbols were very evident from the offering plates, consisting of incense, flowers and food that were seen everywhere, to backyard shrines/temples. Each house has a rear courtyard with an altar and beautifully painted/gilded decorations.

Our tour guide took us to a holy spring and a Bali traditional village, both very interesting.