August 26, 2008 - Gili Air, Lombok, Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

A few days before Suzy, Sten's mom, was to arrive, we started trying to figure out how to get her from Gili T, where her ferry would land, to Gili Air, where we were anchored. There isn't a good anchorage in Gili T, so bringing Mata'irea over wouldn't work. Mornings here are calm, but once the afternoon winds pick up, the waters around these islands get very choppy. So we were hesitant about bringing her back in our dingy, a 10 foot RIB. We didn't want to get her and all of her luggage (filled with goodies for us) soaked. There is a local boat that hops between the islands on a regular schedule, but we thought that making Suzy hang out on Gili T for four hours after several long flights and a bouncy ferry ride would be cruel and unusual. So we went to the dock at Gili Air to see about chartering one of the local boats.

Bahari, who runs the island hopping service in solid looking wooden boats, with outboards for speed and outriggers for stability, was very enthusiastic about renting us a boat. He took us down the beach to show us his "other boat." It was a short and narrow wooden sailing outrigger. It was immediately apparent that our dinghy was more seaworthy than the outrigger. Bahari enthusiastically suggested that we could put our outboard on the outrigger. I turned to Sten and gave him the "ixnay on the engine exchangnay" expression. So in the end we headed over to Gili T in our dinghy.

While Sten waited for the ferry to come in, I found an internet cafe and uploaded our pictures from Savu and Komodo National Park [scroll down to see them]. The ferry was late arriving. Then it came in, but Suzy wasn't on it. Sten, who was getting a bit concerned, asked the crew if they knew where she was. They assured him that there was a second ferry coming soon. When it arrived, Sten was relieved to see that Suzy was aboard. We loaded up the dinghy and headed back to Gili Air. We went slowly and only got a little wet. After having Christmas in August, complete with York Peppermint Patties, the Sunday New York Times (Heaven!) and a new magnet for the watermaker, we headed ashore to one of our favorite restaurants on the beach, Gili Air Santay, for a late lunch.