04 35.6 S 129 59.8 E

Wednesday 29 July 09

Last night, and yesterday Harmonica sailed across the Banda Sea, and now The Banda Islands are ahead in the first morning sunlight. We are in the Mollucas province of Indonesia. The moon set about midnight, and there was lots of phosphorescence in the water, but none of the constant glow that we have heard about. The 25-30 knot SE Trade Wind dropped to 15 knots over night and the waves flattened. These are The Spice Islands which were once worth a fortune as the only place in the world where nutmeg and cloves grew before the British smuggled out seeds about 150 years ago.

Darwin, the capital of Northern Territories of Australia, is a lovely city. It has its parks, concrete buildings, and government offices, but keeps atmosphere of a frontier town with a helpful attitude and lots of activity. It is also close to the famous Catherine Gorge and Kakadu National Park so we rented a car one week end and did some sight-seeing (as if we had not seen enough crocodiles already). The Manta catamaran championships were held while we were anchored off the sailing club so we got some good views of how the faster boats sail! Whenever we needed anything people rallied to help us. We provisioned so well that not all the frozen meat we bought would fit in our very small freezer, so we have two large pork tenderloins hanging in the rigging that have been marinaded and sun dried. Our bicycles were well used for getting around Darwin which has many cycle paths.

We have now been in Indonesia 1 week. The Sailindonesia Rally was supposed to have about 150 cruising boats leaving Darwin together across a starting line 1 mile long at 11.00am Saturday morning (they call it "competitive cruising" for the sake of those boats with insurance policies which typically exclude racing). This congestion sounded dangerous enough that we spent one last Friday evening watching the sun set outside the Darwin Sailing Club, then slipped out early on Saturday before the start. We left in time to get the tidal currents East round Melville Island and north into the Arafura Sea, which worked splendidly, and after 12 hours we were through The Dundas Strait and 90 miles into our trip north with a bouncy beam reach to Saumlaki. However, those boats starting at 11.00 went west of Melville and were left with a longer passage and a close reach or beat for the next 2 days. We had been warned about unlit canoes, fishing traps, and floating bamboo shelters off the Indonesian Islands, so we slowed down on Sunday in order to arrive in daylight on Monday morning. We entered into Saumlaki at dawn on Monday.

Each boat announced its arrival by radio and was welcomed by a sleepy reply from a charming, almost decipherable voice that called itself Victor and was clearly welcoming. When Frank from the Dutch boat Noorderzon addressed him in Dutch, Victor become animated and they had a lengthy chat which the rest of us could not understand. We dropped anchor and began following instructions to wait for the Quarantine inspectors to visit us.

We spent 3 1/2 days in Saumlaki. A busy little market town with dusty stalls and streets clogged with motor bikes, Saumlaki will probably be the closest thing we shall see to a city for some time. Ambon is an official rally stop not far away, and we are still considering going there, but it sounds to be a crowded, dirty place. With 3,000 miles still to sail across Indonesia, we shall not try to stop everywhere.

Effort from all involved in welcoming us was impressive. The lack of coordination has sometimes balanced out the wonderful effort. When it was realized that it would be difficult for 100 plus dinghies to come into shore a fine set of wooden steps were built at an hour or two notice. The fact they were not deep enough to allow for the tide did not matter, they had done there best for us. The rally organizers did their job and all our papers were ready and staff from Indonesian Customs, & Quarantine had flown in from Ambon & Jakarta to process the influx of 150 boats. Radio instructions came that we would not go through Immigration until 10 days later in Ambon, but then they realized that many boats were not going to Ambon and next day immigration flew to meet us.

However, there were a lot of mutterings of discontent in our fleet. We were really glad that we gave up waiting & ignored first morning's instructions. We dropped our dinghy and went ashore on Monday afternoon, having watched Quarantine's launch dash haphazardly around the harbour visiting perhaps 10% of the waiting boats, and then not return after lunch. At the town pier, we were welcomed profusely, then given lots of forms to fill out, and given many completed documents in return, then told that we had completed all the necessary formalities. Similar processes seemed to be repeated each day! On the final day, the Port Captain made his presence known and told everybody that they needed departure clearance and another document before leaving his port. Everything was done tediously slowly but with the greatest politeness. Instructions flowed thick and fast, and often contradicted previous instruction.

Those boat crews who did not get cleared the first day were told that they could still come ashore for the "Gala Reception Ceremony" but several missed that. I am sorry for them since we were treated to some beautifully prepared food served by exquisitely dressed Indonesian women. The second day there were to have been 3 alternative tours leaving the pier at 10.00am and 8 local busses gathered their to take us. By 11.00am No. 1 bus (which looked the smartest) was apparently not able to move, so No 2 bus (on which we had sat) started out first with police motorcycle escort followed by a truck with its siren sounding to clear the road in front. Instead of splitting into 3, we all went to the same places and in three different villages we were treated to dances, songs, and food from local underground ovens. Two villages also proffered some locally distilled brandy, and one conducted a formal welcoming ceremony while we sat in a dimly lit hut. Our final stop at a long sandy beach, where fish had been cooked in a ground oven, a group of teenage school children were there to practise their English with us. It was a fascinating, but a long and tiring day. We spent one day recuperating, then headed off without really knowing where to.

A few hours out from "The City" of Saumlaki we anchored off a little village where the only break in the reef had been almost entirely blocked by fishing floats. In 40 miles we had changed into a different world. With about 3,000 miles to go before checking out for Singapore & Malaysia in October. Indonesia is going to be a big country.

A few miles more in the company of Cookie Cutter (also from Vancouver Island) and Morning Star from New Zealand, we found a reef for swimming & snorkeling and then another bay for the next 2 nights. A few local families lived on the shore of this bay. These people lived in family units, much smaller than the villages, and more isolated. When I asked one man "Kristen or Islam" he replied "Islam". They live in huts and use dug-out sailing canoes for fishing. Several paddled or motored out to visit us and one mother with 3 little children spent an hour hanging onto the side of our boat peering in through the windows watching us. We gave out some second hand clothes and got coconut in exchange.

Indonesia is a vast country. About 242 million mainly Islamic people. We are in the Mollucas. 150 years ago wars were fought between Britain & Holland over control of trade in valuable spices, before the British smuggled out seeds of cloves & nutmeg and broke the monopoly causing economic decline. Now this is a mainly Christian corner of a vast Islamic country (Portuguese Catholic or Dutch Protestant) with significant Animist populations from Papua too. In the last 2 decades, mostly under the previous Indonesian administration, there was enormous ethnic and cultural violence just around here. European Church leaders would not use the same ceremonies as the pastor in the village who welcomed us by calling on a blessing from Mary in recognizable Latin before gulping half a glass of brandy and passing the rest round. So far it looks as if it will be very welcoming, but uncoordinated. Many of the Rally participants agree that they are happy to have had the official paper-work taken care of, but have now broken off as individuals, or small groups of boats.

The Rally organizers have been under pressure from the Indonesian Government to arrange for us all to participate in the Sail Bunaken event at Bitung in NE Sulawesi, but it sounds like a dirty city and a lot of extra miles to travel through the doldrums to get there. They are even bribing us to go there with promises of prize money & cash refunds of our Rally entry fees. But most crews are deciding it would be too far, and we have met few who are attracted by the promise of a "sail-past" behind the US aircraft carrier George Washington while saluting the president & other dignitaries on shore. We feel sorry for the organizers, but really don't want to do it unless we can read of anything more interesting to visit.

We look forward to some interesting villages, clear water, and some swimming & relaxing. We have made some new friends and expect to meet many more.

Love from Janet, David & Harmonica