The town of Bula is a large regional town covering an extensive area along the north coast of Seram. We anchored in the mouth of a little estuary in the Bula Harbour, which also seems to be a popular location for the local fisherman to moor their boats. These long dory style boats may be around 35′ and open, with a couple of small outboards, or larger up to 50′ longboats with small diesel motors. Even the little outboards travel extensive distances, as one fisherman told us he travels to Misool (over 50nms) to fish in his little boat with two 15hp outboards. This configuration seems to provide him with the reliability of a second motor, the economy for running one little motor (the empty boat easily does 20 knots with one 15hp running) plus the extra power required when loaded up.

On the spit that runs along the mouth of the estuary is a little village that supports these fisherman. While part of the larger Bula town, this is a distinct village too. Once ashore, the children that have been swimming off SeeBeeZee rushed us, following Birgit everywhere as though she was a “pied piper”.

The wife of one of the fisherman took us in, and showed us through her house, and showed us the waterfront infants school (that was built by Ali from the floating restaurant) and mosque built over the water on piers, before helping us to barter with some of the other wives for fruit and vegetables from their garden. It seems that every thing in the village is built over water, as the village gets inundated with extremely high tides. Our time ashore was cut sort by the approach of another of the heavy tropical downpours that cooled off the afternoon heat and filled our water tanks.