South from Tual

After staying in Tual see Eid at the end of Ramadan, it was time to start heading south again.

We had less than two weeks left on our Indonesian visas as we left Tual, and the intention was to get to Saumlaki on the island of Tanimbar to clear out of Indonesia. Conditions were light, with a gentle breeze from the north, so we had the spinnaker out for most of the day. With no destination in mind, we just cruised down the west coast of Kai Kecil, ducking in an out of the little channels between the islands laying off the west of Kai Kecil.

Something that we had not been warned about was the invasion of buoys in all the bays close to the big island. Areas of sea have been turned over to aquaculture. What we believe to be nets holding oyster for pearl production extend for kilometres across entire channels, with the only passage through being to follow the line of buoys and pick a gap between them. We were fairly sure that the lines of buoys and net ran north-south, as that was the direction of the current. The spinnaker was furled back into its sock as we snuck slowly though under just mainsail, before being able to sail on to a anchorage before the storms picked up in the afternoon.

The storms are becoming a problem, and we have a time constraint now to get to Saumlaki, more than 100 mile away.