I often forget about the process necessary to bring food to my mouth. Tonight that process is in my face.

I have ordered grilled chicken from the blackboard menu at Nusantara, a tiny, thatched roof Indonesian eatery on the water at Gili Gede. Casual restaurants like this are common everywhere in Indonesia but two things make Nusantara stand apart.

It begins with the restaurant’s proprietor. Fitriah Rahmadany is a 25-year old who has just embarked on her first entrepreneurial enterprise. She was born here. She is bright, happy, and optimistic. “Some days we don’t have any customers,” she says with a smile. “But we are always ready for them.”

 

Fitraih is always ready because the ingredients for items on her menu are walking around in the restaurant. There is no sentimentality about preparing them for supper.

The process begins when a chicken is caught by the feet. A quiet prayer is said and the chicken’s head comes off with a swift cut of a knife. The body is dropped briefly into a pot of hot water which allows the feathers to be easily plucked. The organs are carefully removed and threaded onto a homemade bamboo skewer for later preparation. The whole chicken, feet included, is then lathered with a creamy coconut curry sauce. Ten minutes after the knife, the chicken is becoming food cooked over a fire of sweet-smelling coconut husks.

I am not being flippant about this process. It is a meaningful experience for me to watch an animal killed to feed me. The meal is delicious, but it is more than that. There is a life force that accompanies my grilled chicken supper tonight.

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For upcoming passages when I have no cell or WiFi signal, I have activated a satellite tracking link that shows the daily position, current weather, and includes a few personal thoughts from the daily log of Flying Fish. I will not be able to respond to messages via satellite but I love the idea that you are sailing along with me. If you would like to follow the daily progress of Flying Fish into Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean via satellite you can click this link: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Flyingfish

Please subscribe at the bottom of this page so that you don’t miss a new update, and consider sharing this post with others who might enjoy following the voyage of Flying Fish.

To see where Flying Fish has sailed in the past year click here: https://cruisersat.net/track/Flying%20Fish

Instagram: FlyingFishSail

Text and Photography © Jeffrey Cardenas 2019

This exotic Indonesian bell jellyfish first made its presence known to me this morning as a splash of fire against the side of my neck. The microscopic nematocysts—spring-loaded darts of toxin—got my attention as I snorkeled over a coral wall near Pulau Gililayar. The pain was not as intense as that of a Portuguese man-o-war, and nothing like the box jellyfish that can and has been fatal to some swimmers.

Once the sting subsided I took a few moments to observe my antagonist, and then later read up on it.

According to Dr. Lisa-Ann Gershwin, a jellyfish researcher based in Tasmania, when some species of medusa die they sink to the ocean floor and, amazingly, their cells then regenerate into polyps. From these polyps a new jellyfish will emerge. This means that when certain jellyfish become weakened either by age or illness they can call up this incredible survival mechanism and transform into an entirely new being.

Jellyfish have evolved to learn the secret of eternal life.

“This was a real mind blower for all of us,” said Dr. Gershwin in a recent BBC interview. “It’s one of the most amazing discoveries of our time.”

I’ll take a little shot of pain anytime to learn about something as fascinating as the life, death, and rebirth of jellyfish.

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For upcoming passages when I have no cell or WiFi signal, I have activated a satellite tracking link that shows the daily position, current weather, and includes a few personal thoughts from the daily log of Flying Fish. I will not be able to respond to messages via satellite but I love the idea that you are sailing along with me. If you would like to follow the daily progress of Flying Fish into Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean via satellite you can click this link: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Flyingfish

Please subscribe at the bottom of this page so that you don’t miss a new update, and consider sharing this post with others who might enjoy following the voyage of Flying Fish.

To see where Flying Fish has sailed in the past year click here: https://cruisersat.net/track/Flying%20Fish

Instagram: FlyingFishSail

Text and Photography © Jeffrey Cardenas 2019

In the Kei Islands of Dullah and Kecil a narrow wooden bridge seperates the cities of Tual and Langgur. One side is Muslim, the other side is Christian. Together they are one Indonesia.

Centuries ago, the islands were located on a key maritime route of the spice trade which extended from the Moluccas southwards towards the Lesser Sunda Islands and Java. By 1610, the Dutch East India Company had become the dominant power and Indonesian elders were replaced by Europeans.

During the Second World War, Japanese soldiers landed in the islands. The Dutch were unable–some say unwilling–to defend Indonesia, and two days after Hirohito surrendered in 1945, Indonesia began a bloody war of Independence with the Netherlands to gain their sovereignty.

Tomorrow marks Indonesia’s Day of Independence.

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For upcoming passages when I have no cell or WiFi signal, I have activated a satellite tracking link that shows the daily position, current weather, and includes a few personal thoughts from the daily log of Flying Fish. I will not be able to respond to messages via satellite but I love the idea that you are sailing along with me. If you would like to follow the daily progress of Flying Fish into Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean via satellite you can click this link: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Flyingfish 

Please subscribe at the bottom of this page so that you don’t miss a new post, and consider sharing this post with others who might enjoy following the voyage of Flying Fish.

To see where Flying Fish has sailed in the past year click here: https://cruisersat.net/track/Flying%20Fish

Text and Photography © Jeffrey Cardenas 2019

I remember with vivid clarity the moment 20 months ago when Panama’s Miraflores Locks opened and Flying Fish was floating for the first time in the Pacific Ocean.

Tomorrow I begin my departure from this beautiful ocean–with so many memories–and sail onward toward the new and strange world of the Indian Ocean.

There is no mechanical demarkation between these two oceans as there was at the Panama Canal. Still, I sense the mingling of these ocean waters. I am leaving the Coral Sea to the east, transiting the Torres Strait, and crossing west into the Arafura and Timor Sea–from Oceania to Asia. I will linger for some time in Malaysia and Indonesia before deciding how, when, or if Flying Fish will make the nearly 5,000-mile passage across the Indian Ocean to South Africa.

It was suggested that better routing might be across the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and into the eastern Mediterranean via the Suez Canal. If that happens, Flying Fish would be hitching a ride on the deck of a freighter in an armed convoy past Yemen, Somalia, and the Gulf of Aden. I’m no Rambo.

But those are thoughts for another day… Now, the focus is on tomorrow.

There are 18,307 islands in the Indonesian archipelago and I don’t want to touch any of them with the keel of Flying Fish. I am prepared and well-rested. My various body parts have healed completely from previous onboard dramas. The sailboat is tuned and ready for new water. Onward!

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Today’s log entry and position of Flying Fish. 

As I mentioned in the last post I have activated a satellite tracking link that shows the daily position, current weather, and includes a few personal thoughts from my daily log. I will not be able to respond to messages via satellite but I love the idea that you are sailing along with me.  If you would like to follow the daily progress of Flying Fish into Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean you can click this link: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Flyingfish 

Please subscribe at the bottom of this page so that you don’t miss a new post, and consider sharing this post with others who might enjoy following the voyage of Flying Fish.

To see where Flying Fish has sailed in the past year click here: https://cruisersat.net/track/Flying%20Fish

Text and Photography © Jeffrey Cardenas 2019

 

Off the edge of the earth, or so it seems…

Flying Fish continues onward into the Torres Strait and then to SE Asia. WiFi and cell signals are rare to non-existent (now being an exception).

If you are following the passage of Flying Fish, I have set up a new satellite link—Passage Post Notes—at https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Flyingfish. These notes are only a line or two from the daily log of Flying Fish but they show where I am, the current weather, they give a sense of the passage–and I can post without WiFi or cell.

I will continue to upload full-length posts here at FlyingFishSail.com when / if I have the bandwidth. Unfortunately, I cannot respond to your comments via satellite. Sailing singlehanded, I value communication with readers (it’s so much better than talking to myself). For now, however, the post notes are the best I can do.

Thanks for sailing with me as I navigate through this amazing world.

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Please subscribe at the bottom of this page so that you don’t miss a new post, and consider sharing this post with others who might enjoy following the voyage of Flying Fish

To see where Flying Fish has sailed in the past year click here: https://cruisersat.net/track/Flying%20Fish

For current weather along the route click here: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Flyingfish

Text and Photography © Jeffrey Cardenas 2019