Launching Turtlebones 2026

It’s been a while, but we’re back on board.  Bill takes to it immediately, he’s right in his element on Turtlebones.  It takes me a little longer to really feel at home, but I’m getting there.

Quite a long journey to get this far – to get back to Marina Del Ray on Gili Gede, Lombok, Indonesia – 40 hours door-to-door, to be precise.  Oh yes, you guessed it, these two septuagenarians were truly spent on arrival – and it has taken all of the last three days to feel normal again.

Thankfully uneventful though.  Two long flights on Qatar Air, to Doha (Qatar) and then on to Jakarta (capitol of Indonesia) – plus a short 2-hour puddle jumper over to Lombok.  Easier and more comfortable than I’d dreaded. 

In Jakarta, we were greeted by torrential rain, thunder and impressive lightening – flash and fork sharing the sky at the same time.  It rained so hard, the airport was leaking! 

Puddles formed in various parts of the airport – especially where older sections connected (not so well) to the new.  Made for almost-invisible slick conditions as passengers hurried along wet marble floors, while a small army of airport workers fought back with squeegees and mops.  I, for one, took quite a tumble – performing splits like a teenager, ouch! – while we rushed to catch our connecting flight to Lombok – which, anyway, was delayed several hours to wait out the storm. 

Heavy rain greeted us again in Lombok, where it was Bill’s turn to tumble – more dramatically than me – onto his back on a concrete ramp, carrying two heavy bags to the boat that transported us from the “mainland” to the marina on Gili Gede.  Even the rough concrete ramp was slick enough to defeat balanced Bill. And a sharp bit of the ramp made a tidy slice over his left wrist. As you might imagine, he was quite a bloody mess, but it looked so much worse than it was. Bill is completely healed and totally fine.  We both are.  Still, I was grateful no one was there at the Marina to greet us, limping me and bleeding Bill, upon our return to the ‘bones.

Weather here is hot and humid – very very humid.  And rainy.  Why, you might ask, would we return to the tropics in the midst of rainy season?  It’s a very good question, and I’m confident the answer will reveal itself in the coming weeks.  

By now, we’ve pretty much settled back in.  Cleaned up, fuelled up, watered up.  Groceries loaded in.  Dinghy set up. Small repairs addressed.  Engines and sails all checked.  Still noodling one generator issue. And waiting for laundry to be returned – drying time is so unpredictable in this wet weather. Otherwise, we’re ready to leave the dock tomorrow afternoon. 

In the meantime, we’ve enjoyed exploring the few food options in the immediate area. The marina itself offers a nice selection of Indonesian dishes and western basics. A new favourite bistro is the Tanjungan Bukit Lodge, just minutes away by footpath, offering fusion French-Sumatran cuisine, punctuated by rendang the classic Sumatran dry curry sauce. There are no guests at the Lodge this time of year, but they keep the good food flowing.  

When we leave the dock tomorrow, we won’t venture too far at first, just around the corner to a nearby anchorage. There, we’ll finish testing all systems. And then we’ll continue to watch for weather windows to make our way up and over Bali and beyond.