Wonderful Indonesia

Selamat Pagi Boatbloggers®,

The more astute of you may have guessed from the title that we have at last arrived in Indonesia. It was a fairly uneventful five day crossing, and mostly downwind (that’s with the wind behind you for the landlubbers out there). So we were able to get out the two foresails in what we call The Butterfly.

It’s more being blown across the sea than actual sailing, but it gets you there just the same.

Our fishing skills are definitely improving, and we managed to catch a squid.

Half way across it was Lyn’s Birthday – so we celebrated in style,

…just as she came up to start her 3 hour night watch. Happy Birthday Lyn! Not many people going get to celebrate their birthday in the middle of the night on the deck of a boat somewhere in the Torres Strait hundreds of miles from land.

The only problems came as we approached the Indonesian coast at night. There were literally hundreds of fishing boats, some completely unlit and with nets up to twenty five miles long. The other hazards are called FADs, which stand for Fish Attracting Devices, and basically they are small bungalows anchored to the seabed, often in depths of hundreds of metres so you can find them far out from the land.

The fish like the shade, so they all swim about underneath, until the fishermen come along and try and catch them. They’re not too bad in daylight, but in the dark they are pretty much invisible, and it would certainly spoil your night to run into one of these.

Our first stop in Indonesia was at a town called Debut in the Kei Islands.

Where we had the most fantastic welcome. The whole village turned out to say hello.

And walking along the street is like being a movie star. Everyone wants to shake your hand or take a selfie with you, and if you stop to ask directions the chances are you will be invited to back to that person’s house for dinner.

They arranged traditional music and dances for us, like this Boat Dance.

It was all a lot of fun.

And we attended official functions put on by the local dignitaries, who gave welcoming speeches in Indonesian.

Possibly not as much fun as the music and dancing, but it was nice of them all the same.

There was so much to do at Debut it’s hard to compress it all into a single blog. And there’s two more islands to go yet!

We drank fresh coconut on the beach,

We went to the fish market. Ju, not particularly a fish fan at the best of times, was still not tempted.

We could have given them our squid if we’d known.

The fruit and veg market was fresher than Waitrose.

There is a seaweed farm.

A few interesting facts about Indonesian seaweed. It is used in over 1,500 products including fertiliser, medicines, paint, toothpaste, textiles, make up and animal feed, and their biggest exports are to Belgium. It sells for about US $1.50 a kilo. There’s lot’s more interesting facts about seaweed that I could mention, but you’ll just have to do the tour.

And we can’t not mention the beach.

Now we have done a lot of beaches over the past few years, in some of the most paradisiacal (is that a real word? – Ed) parts of the world. From the Caribbean to the silver sands of the South Pacific so we consider ourselves to be leading beach experts with very high standards. And it is fair to say that this beach has the softest sand ever! It is like walking on flour. Put it on your bucket list.

These ladies insisted we tried the synchronised dancing,

…which was a lot less synchronised after Ju joined in.

The freshwater cave is stunning, and a great way to cool off in the tropical heat. Actually, this was the first swim we’ve had since New Caledonia. We were too frightened to get in the crocodile/shark/jellyfish infested waters in Oz! So it was particularly fab.

Our next stop was at Banda, a little island a day’s sail away. (Don’t worry Boatblog® Fans – only another two islands to go).

The snorkelling here is superb.

Once again, the people were unbelievably welcoming. They put on music and dancing in the nutmeg forest.

And showed us how they harvested and dried the cinnamon,

…and the fish.

You’ll be glad that Apple hasn’t yet developed the iSmell app yet.

This is the volcano that erupted in 1988. The volcanic dust destroyed lots of the nearby islands, and you can still see the lava flow down the side of the mountain.

And after another 24 hour sail, we arrived in Ambon. Again the welcome given to people arriving on small boats couldn’t be more different from the one that we offer back home.

Ju got invited to jam with the local musicians.

You may have noticed the radical haircut.

It seems they only do one style in Indonesia which they learnt from the US Marines, but they make up for it with a fabulous head and shoulder massage.

And then it was round the corner to another little anchorage called Lai. The kids were especially keen to see us,

…and even more keen to see the boat.

So this brings our first Indonesian Boatblog® to a close, but don’t worry Boatbloggers® there’s at least another 15 stops on the Wonderful Sail 2 Indonesia Rally, so we’re not going to be short of material.

Just time for the Arty Farty Competition, and this edition has several entries. First up is Lyn’s Boat on a Beach.