The Tall Ship Dewaruci Visits Kwaj

   This past Friday and Saturday have been great for reminding me why we live here.  Besides the fact that it's a tropical island in a foreign country, there are so many opportunities to do neat things here that would be a lot tougher to do if we lived in the states.  The Indonesian Navy's Tall Ship Dewaruci pulled into our harbor around lunch time on Friday:

 Why yes, that is the view out of my building's doorway!

 Our first view of the Tall Ship Dewaruci.  She was really impressive and it was amazing to think that a ship like that would have come here to trade about 200 years ago.

 There was a soccer match between the Dewaruci crew and the USAKA team.  There was also a parade that afternoon but I missed it.  D and Sky watched it on their way home from the daycare and Sky talked about it all night.

 There was also a pot luck at the beach for the crew- yum, mountians of hot dish and plates of desert!  Here the captian of the Dewaruci is thanking Colonel Gaines for his welcome.
 

 Some of the crew from the ship performed a traditional Indonesian Dance for us:

 A veiw of the Dewaruci in our harbor

D and I took some time off of work on Saturday to tour the ship and we got there just as Sky's class was starting their ship tour.  We did a little chaperoning and got to spend some fun time with our baby girl and her friends
 

Saturday afternoon I got an email saying that the Dewaruci would be pulling out that their farewell was something to see, so I left work early and headed to the harbor to check it out.

 Colonel Gaines and the captian say their goodbyes

 The crew in the dress uniforms as they finish casting off

 And then... Three blasts of the whistle and the men head aloft!

 Yup, that's them on the yard arms as the motored out of the harbor.  They waved and shouted as they pulled way.  It was really neat and I'm really glad I got to see it.

Goodbye Dewaruci!  Smooth sailing to Honolulu!