While flying between the United States and Indonesia we had few good flight options. We were leaving Starry Horizons at Medana Bay Marina on the island of Lombok, a short flight away from Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali’s international airport. We finally settled on the cheapest two-layover option we could find, opting not to take a…
We arrived in Coffs Harbour on December 4th, 2017 and left Thursday Island on July 21, 2018. That’s over 7 months cruising Australia, the longest Starry Horizons has been in any one country in one go. We traveled 2,300 nm on the east coast and spent 6 weeks traveling inside Australia by car and plane….
Indonesia seems to be hitting the cruisers rather hard. While many have come down with occasional cases of “Bali belly”, others have had more serious issues. I woke up one morning in Pasarwajo with some troubling symptoms – not debilitating, but concerning. The first thing we did was WebMD the symptoms, and I was feeling…
One of the highlights of our entire time in Indonesia was coming to Komodo National Park to see the wildlife. This park is much more prestine than other places we’ve been and we enjoyed it so much. About Flores and Komodo National Park Located west of Flores Island and east of Sumbawa Island, the Komodo…
The Wonderful Sail 2 Indonesia Rally stopped in Pasarwajo, a small village on the island of Buton. This would be one of our big stops thanks to the Festival Pesona Indonesia Budaya Tua Buton, but the festival was not just one day! Two days before the grand party, our local tourism official, Rusdi, and his…
The highlight of our rally so far has been attending the Festival Pesona Indonesia Budaya Tua Buton (Buton’s Festival of Traditional Culture) in Pasarwajo in the Buton Regency. Pesona Indonesia, the Indonesian tourism board, holds the Pesona Indonesia festivals around the country every year to promote the traditional culture and tourism. Lucky for us, the…
After spending 5 nights in Banda exploring the Spice Islands and diving we took off for a 375 nm sail to Hoga Island, a small island in the Wakatobi National Park in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Wakatobi is a portmanteau (a new word for me!) of the four main islands in the group: Wangi-wangi, Kaledupa, Tomia, and Binongko. Hoga is…
When you can do (almost) anything you want every day, what do you spend your time doing? For me, the answer is reading. From a young age, my mom read us books like Little House on the Praire, A Wrinkle in Time, Redwall, and Narnia. But reading as an adult is hard; before cruising, my favorite…