Uwada Dasami, Rinca
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Fri 22 Oct 2010 00:26
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08:46.505S 119:39.365E
Friday 22nd October
We arrived here at Uwada Dasami, Rinca,
at 08:00 this morning and dropped the anchor in the beautiful remote bay.
Although we've had two glorious days sailing, the first in particular, it is
still nice to have a rest for a while.
  We passed Sol Maria close enough to share
sundowners on the first night
 Laroobaa and Talismano weren't far away
either. We could see 9 boats for the whole 2 days!
Having boats in view was comforting as
we had a few repair's to do whilst at sea all to do with the mainsail and
the batons. We have an in-mast furler so the sail tucks away neatly inside the
mast, this means that we have vertical batons to keep the sail shape. But these
vertical batons have a tendency to fall down! When they have fallen down before
Paul had snapped the ends off but this resulted in the top part of the sail
flopping around and also causing the sail to jam as we hauled it out. So, the
first job was to go up the mast and clear the jammed sail. Not too difficult!
Next job, aluminum rods which used to be a part of the shower curtain were
attached to the end of the batons, increasing the length of the batons and
removing the floppy sail. A bit fiddly and another trip up the mast as the baton
went too far once and ended up poking out the top but all in all not too bad!
Then at 02:00 we came to haul the mainsail out to find that an aluminum rod had
fallen out inside the mast and wrapped around and around with each turn of the
furler. So, at this silly hour and in the pitch black Paul decided to get the
grinder out to cut through the pole to release the sail. All in a days
work!
 Mid passage up the mast
   Approaching the
anchorage.............Spectacular scenery
 We had been promised lots of wildlife on the
beaches, big Komodo dragons, deer, monkeys and birds. But so far nothing,
although we have only been looking through the binoculars, we'll venture ashore
with big sticks later. I say big sticks as you're advised to carry them
because the dragons can be dangerous and whacking them with a stick if they try
to attack is said to work. Other advice if you do come across a scaly beast is
to keep a safe distance and move slowly and calmly. Getting a little nervous
about venturing ashore without a guide now!
The Komodo dragon is actually a monitor
lizard. Their legs allow them to sprint short distances, lifting their tails as
they run. They are dangerous if driven into a corner and will then attack even a
much larger opponent. They often rise up on their hind legs just before
attacking, and the tail can deliver well aimed blows that will knock down the
weaker adversary. Their best weapons are their sharp teeth and dagger sharp
claws, which can inflict severe wounds. Ora (the local name for the dragon) can
expand their jaws considerably, enabling them to swallow prey as large as
goat's.To tackle even bigger prey, they ambush the victim, bite it and wait for
the potent bacteria their mouths contain to take effect, waiting around for up
to two weeks for a buffalo to die, before tucking in. Remind me why we're going
ashore!
We'd decided to head to Rinca instead of Komodo itself
because over the years Komodo has been spoilt by tourism. There would be set
times to view the dragons and witness them being fed and this was not what we
wanted at all. We just wanted to see them in their natural environment. We could
have visited a ranger station on Rinca where you could walk with a guide and
find the dragons in their natural environment but we wanted to do it
ourselves.
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