lembongan indonesia

Lembongan Island

Sept 18

We had a vigorous upwind sail, 20 knots of wind but favorable current, to Lembongan Island, a small island just southeast of Bali Our boat speed over the ground was 10.5 knots making for a quick trip. We picked up a mooring in the bay as all the day trippers from Bali were leaving their parasails, banana tubes, glass bottom boats and other activities behind.

Annie and I went for a snorkel and there was great coral and lots of fish in the anchorage but the visibility, probably due to the tides, was very poor.

Butterfly Bay

We headed to shore and made our way to one of the many resort restaurants that lined the popular tourist getaway form Bali. The bar overlooked the beautiful stretch of beach, lined with the outrigger type fishing boats that always remind me of spiders.

Sea Weed Crops

We took the dinghy around the point where there was a quaint village situated around a massive seaweed farm. Sea weed is a valuable export and is used for medicines and cosmetics.

The cultivation of the seaweed is strenuous work, evidenced by all the women and children working knee deep in salt water all day in the fields.


Eucheuma Spinosum is the type of seaweed cultivated.	We continued our walk around the array of fancy resorts lining the beach, their pools overlooking the workers scratching a living from the seaweed.			Chang-Gord models his gift from Annie

A detour away from the waterfront revealed an enchanting town with predominantly Hindu influence illustrated by the numerous ornate temples, attached to every house, and offerings covering the walkways. The roofs of the houses were more decorative than we had seen, the streets clean and the people very friendly

Left: Ascension at anchor

Million dollar Cock

As Annie and I walked the cobblestone streets, we came across a group of locals with "Bob," their prize fighting cock. They informed us that Bob cost 1,000,000 rupiah! We were invited to attend the cock fight which was taking place on the other side of the island. Cock fighting with spurs is illegal in most parts of Bali. The cocks are kept solely in tiny bamboo cages for 7 years before they fight.

Along the beach, kids played tug of war, the universal game I guess. Annie joined in and the girls team scored an easy win!

We found a little bar and visited with the locals as the sun set over the fishing boats.