Towards Seram

From Kai Kecil to P Walir was only a 20nm hop, and so too on to P Kur the next day. But from there, the chain of islands that runs NW up to the big Seram, (or Ceram) that sits across the top of the Banda Sea, provide no viable anchorages.

We decided to make that crossing as one big hop; 110nms from Kur all the way to P Seram Laut which lies off the east tip of Seram.

The forecast was for light SE winds, less than 10 knots, and with this directly behind us, it was going to be a slow passage, but we could plan for it. It seemed most sensible to get away from Kur in daylight, as it was likely that we would find fishing equipment offshore. This fishing equipment might be the large bamboo platforms that seem to support whole families, like a little man made island, or as simple as drums and buoys secured to the bottom in hundreds of metres of depth. Our arrival at Seram Laut had to be timed for dayliight too, for the same reason, and with light weather there was no way we could cover the distance in one day. So we planned to travel overnight.

It was a very relaxed passage, taking us 32 hours to cover the 108nms. We flew our symmetrical spinnaker all day, only taking it down for the dark hours of the night. The symmetrical spinnaker is easily controlled and perfect for dead downwind sailing. However, it requires someone to go on deck to retrieve it, so we never risk using it at night, in case the wind were to strengthen and require the sail to be doused. And as it was going to be a dark night, we planned to use just our big jib headsail, the genoa, which is furled up like a roller blind when it is not needed, as this would allow us total control from the cockpit, without risking going on deck, and it would allow us to keep our speed down so we could better keep watch for any offshore fishing requipment.

The weather eventuated as forecast, and the passage was calmer than most anchorages we sleep in. The night was lit up with a huge trail of bio-luminescence that seems to be everywhere in Indonesia, and by the flickering of lightning in the band of clouds that run along the islands to our east. It was a relaxing passage and we arrived rested.