We were anchored for three days in Bula Harbour, waiting out some calm weather, waiting for some winds to carry us north to Misool, the most southern part of the Regency of Raja Ampat. On each of the afternoons we were anchored at Bula, we were overwhelmed by the large number of children that came to SeeBeeZee to swim and relax.

On the first afternoon, a couple of brothers swam out to us, and asked in broken English whether they could come on board. Once they came up into the cockpit, we had children come from everywhere.

Most came in canoes, little narrow boats with up to 7 children and almost no freeboard. They easily slipped over the sides of these canoes, getting in and out with hardly a ripple or disturbance to the balance of the unstable little boats. They were happy just to sit and look, and talk to each other about the things that they observed about our yacht.

One boy took a particular liking to us, and came each day with a bag of food; papaya, mango, guava, local tropical fruits he called “water apple”, cabbage and bokchoy. While only 14 years old, he rode out to the village from his house in town, a distance of over 10kms, with one or two other children riding pillion. There appear to be no road rules.

Something that has been particularly interesting to every Indonesian who has been on board SeeBeeZee is the photo book that we produced about the building of our yacht. The book contains photos from the beginnings of the skeleton frame through to the completion and launch, and they are amazed to find the photos with me and BIrgit working on the construction. Indonesia is an island country, and the people are boat people. They can relate to the work that went in to completing our boat.