After travelling up the Queensland coast to Cape York, we sailed across the Gulf of Carpentaria to Gove and Nhulunbuy in the NT, from where we cleared out of Australia to head to Indonesia for six months. Our objective was to spend time in Raja Ampat which holds what is regarded as the best coral reefs in the world. Combined with the Karst rock landforms, Raja Ampat is a special place.
Once legally in Indonesia, we were able to use the last of the trade winds to get Misool under sail, before the summer doldrums forced us to motor more than sail in the calm conditions. As the months rolled on, we stayed north as long as possible before back-tracking south, finding new destinations and revisiting the best.
Intending to clear out from Saumlaki in mid-April, the weather forced us to remain in the Kai islands, and we had to back track to officially clear the country again. This forced us into a longer journey for the return to Australia. We cleared at Darwin in early May 2025, and were ideally situated to cruise the Kimberly coast during the southern winter 2025.
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The trip to Indonesia is covered on these pages:
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Planning for Indonesia
We are looking to travel a bit further this year. Necessary items have been bought and otherwise obtained, and contact has been made with the bureaucrats. We’re planning to head for Raja Ampat in Indonesia. Significant locations have been circled in the map below. We will leave Australia from either Thursday Island or Nhulunbuy where…
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Departure to Indonesia Imminent
This is the route we plan to take from Australia across to Indonesia. Our documents are ready. Border Force have all of our Australian documents completed. Our Indonesian visas have been obtained. We clear out from Gove on Friday morning, October 4 2024. Beforehand, we will fill our water tanks here in the harbour, and…
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Passage to Indonesia – Day 1 – Cape Wilberforce
We were up early this morning. Our appointment with Australian Border Force was for 0800, for our clearance to depart the country. The weather is the same today as it has been for the last weeks, light SE trade winds of around 10-15 knots, with a heavy haze. Around the peninsular at Nhulunbuy and Cape…
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Passage to Indonesia – Day 2 – Gugari Rip
From our overnight anchorage at Cotton Island to the Gugari Rip was only about 20 nautical miles, but the timing of the Rip is critical, as it must be passed at high tide slack water, the period when the incoming flood tide stops and the tide begins to ebb out again. There are a number…
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Passage to Indonesia – Day 3 – Lagoon Bay
This is day 3 of our passage to Indonesia, but several days have passed since we came through Gugari Rip. It’s already a week since we left Nhulunbuy and Gove. Birgit had an infected ear lobe, and after a similar infection became very serious last year, we thought it best to halt our journey until…
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Passage to Indonesia – Day 4- Jensen Bay
We are going to wait till tomorrow to make the big jump across to Indonesia. Today, we moved just 15nms further up the Wessels to Jensen Bay, anchoring at the northern end of the bay inside the most scenic little enclosure at the top of the bay. We were able to stay much closer to…
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Passage to Indonesia – Day 5 – Arafura Sea
Twelve hours into the big jump across to Indonesia, and we’ve come over 85nms so far today. That average of over 7 knots has been pretty high, with bursts to 12 knots at times in the morning. We now have about 190nms to our first land fall and another 350nms on our course to Tual…
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Passage to Indonesia – Day 6 – Anchorage Missed
We’ve now been going non-stop for 35 hours, since leaving the Wessel Islands yesterday morning and setting off north to Indonesia across the Arafura Sea. Since posting yesterday afternoon, we’ve covered another 140 or so nms, for a total of 228nms since yesterday morning at an average of 6.5 knots. Overnight our speed was down…
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Passage to Indonesia – Trangan Fishing Fleet
On the second day of our crossing of the Arafura Sea on way to Indonesia, we were looking forward to anchoring up for the night at Pulau Enu, at the southern end of the Aru Islands in eastern Indonesia. The Aru Islands are geologically part of the Australian plate, and are surrounded by shallow waters.…
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Passage to Indonesia – Day 7 – Kai Landfall
Day 7 of our passage was the third day of our continuous sail after leaving Jensen Bay in the Wessels. After leaving the fishing fleet off Trangan in the morning, we headed NW towards the Kai Islands. Conditions were perfect, broad reaching across a flat sea with a 12 knot breeze. Trangan, as part of…
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Passage to Indonesia – Arrival at Tual
Our arrival at Tual on the island of Pulau Kau Dulah was on the morning of our 8th day of travels after clearing out of Australia at Gove. The non-stop passage from Jensen Bay in the Wessels to Tual took 77 hours for the 440nm that we travelled, an average of 5.7 knots. It was…
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Entry to Indonesia Completed
This morning we moved right down into Tual harbour and arranged for our entry into the country. We had quarantine and then customs officials on board SeeBeeZee for inspections, and our agent handled the immigration bureaucracy on our behalf. It was so smooth. Thank you to our agent, Fitri. Now we are free to go…
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Tual Markets
This morning we went ashore and walked around the market district of Tual. We were constantly harassed by locals wanting to provide services to us, such as translate and advise or take us for a ride on their motor scooters, but we declined and walked around until a heavy shower of rain chased us back…
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Rationing 1…
We were told that dairy products would be hard to obtain in Indonesia. Yoghurt is a breakfast staple, and we make our own with powdered milk, so we left Cairns with thirty something one kilo bags of powdered milk. By the time we were at Gove, it was time to top up again, with another…
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Tual Departure
It was becoming a chore by the start of the week. We were both feeling unwell. I had a fever, and the start of a respiratory illness. The heat and humidity was getting to us. So we gathered the remnants of our energy on Monday, and bought n as much fruit and veg as we…
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Serendipity CZ382
The route flown by Southern China Airlines flight CZ382 took us over the Wessel Islands that we visited in 2019, and directly over the parts of Indonesia that we visited in 2024. When we flew out of Brisbane on a China Southern Airbus A350 back in March, there were so many things that lined up.…
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Pulau Walir
It was a short 20nm sail over from Kai Kecil to Pulau Walir today. The breeze never went over 10 knots, and it was so calm. We are trying get further north to the island of Misool, and are having to pick the days to travel as the SE trade winds die away for the…
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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…
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Desa Maar, Seram Laut
We arrived at Seram Laut in the early afternoon, and had to navigate down a narrow curved channel to find an anchorage in 10m depth off the village of Maar. Laut is the Indonesian word for “sea” and this small island of Seram Laut is the seaward extension of the large island of Seram. As…
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Pulau Akat
We woke to a glass out with not breath of wind, but were keen to continue travelling north towards Raja Ampat. The destination of Pulau Akat was selected, at a distance of 22nms. We agreed that we would motor the entire distance if required, so set off after breakfast. We found a favourable current assisting…
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Ashore on P Akat
After a quiet night at Pulau Akat, we woke to a calm morning, with glassy seas and not a breath of wind. The forecast for the day, across all of the available models, was for continued calm, so we decided to stay another night and spend the day doing maintenance jobs and cooking. In the…
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Bula Harbour
The weather followed the same pattern as the last few days, with an early morning land breeze turning into an afternoon sea breeze. The breeze was only very light, and required the spinnaker to make progress, but we were stalked by another line of trough and thunderstorms all morning. As the storm headed over the…
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Bula Floating Restaurant Pardidu
Nearby to where we anchored in Bula was a floating restaurant specialising in seafood. While staying at Bula, we had three meals on board; two grilled fish dinners and an afternoon supper of banana fritters and coffee. Whatever is fresh and available is what is served. On our first night, we were both very hungry,…
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Bula Boardwalk
Bula Harbour is protected by a spit of sand on the northern shore of a creek that runs into the sea on the north coast of Seram. A boardwalk was built along the shore of this creek, providing a nice location for a stroll. We had to ignore the piles of plastic litter piled up…
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Gumumae Beach Village
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…
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Bula Waterbabies
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…
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Arrival to Raja Ampat
Our arrival in Indonesia in October was late in the season of SE trade winds. After arrival, we have been moving each day that there was suitable wind, with the objective of getting north to Raja Ampat before the calms of the doldrums crept south with the sun. All the way from Tual and the…
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P Wayilbatan Lagoon
This is our first anchorage in Raja Ampat, and like nothing we have ever experienced before. The island is a series of 200m high cliffs that drop straight down into seas that are 100m deep in places. To anchor, we must find places that are shallow, With 100m of anchor chain spliced onto 100m of…
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Rose Water Apples
While travelling Indonesia, we were on the lookout for local foods. At Bula, on the island of Seram, we made friends with some of the local boys, who later returned with bags of fruit for us. One of the local fruits in season was the Rose Water Apple, syzygium aqueum, which is beautiful little mauve…
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Wayilbatan Snorkelling
With stunning coral so close to the boat, we have spent a lot of time in the water. When the tide is high, we can traverse the coral lip that surrounds the lagoon, and swim over the sandy bridge between two small islands behind the boat. When the tide is low, the drop off of…
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Spring Low Tide at Wayilbatan
We’ve been in the same place now for two weeks, just because it is so spectacular. We arrived on the new moon, and there has just been a full moon two nights ago. With the full moon, the tides have increased in range, and have been extreme over the last few days, with coral exposed…
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Karawapop Lagoon
The heart shaped Karawapop Lagoon is a world famous landmark here at Misool, attracting the tourists travelling in the traditional Indonesia tourist ships known as Phinisi. Our anchorage at Wayilbatan is about three miles west of the Karawapop lagoon, but is the safest place that we can leave the yacht in order to visit Karawapop.…
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Harfat Peak
We’re in the western end of the chain of islands that run out from the eastern corner of Misool in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. The attraction to here is the walking track to a lookout on the top of the highest peak in the area. Harfat Peak is about 200m high, and is part of this…
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Harfat Rockart
I have been again surprised by Indonesia. I did not know that ancient rock art was so common. We have found a number of locations close to our anchorage near Harfat Peak where panels of rock art have been painted on cliffs facing the ocean. Against the cliffs and overhangs amongst the labyrinth of islands…
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Harfat Caves
We’re still in the anchorage near Harfat Peak, spending our time exploring the labyrinth of islands and rocks; lagoons and sand patches. From the air, the entire area is a grid of waterways and ponds intersecting the high karst rock platforms through steep gorges and cliffs. These waterways are created by rain percolating down through…
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Pulau Lenkafal
On Sunday, we left from the Harfat region and started moving east towards Babulol, which is the last of the anchorages along this northern chain of islands off Misool. With no wind, we motored for a couple of hours, and anchored in a little bay on the northern side of Pulau Lenkafal. The bay was…
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Balbulol
Balbulol is an island group at the eastern end of a chain of islands that run out to the east from Misool. It is one of the jewels of Raja Ampat. We have had the last few days tied up in the lagoon here, enjoying exploring the area. While we were here, the tides have…
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Selmat Sele
We have now travelled up from Misool to Sorong, the gateway city to the Raja Ampat provence on the western tip of the big island of Papua. From Misool, we came up through the Selmat Sele. Selmat is the bahasan word for “Straight”, so this is the Straight of Sele, which is the name of…
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Tampagaram Marina, Sorong
From Balbulol in the Misool group of islands, we made our way through Selat Sele to Sorong. Sorong is the major city in Papua Barat (West Papua) and is the gateway city to Raja Ampat. We needed to be in Sorong for a number of reasons; we had to reprovision our supplies (both fresh food…
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Sorong Harbour
The Tampagaram Beach marina provided safe haven while we completed tasks in Sorong, but it is a considerable distance north of the main business district of this large regional city. We travelled from Tampa Garam down to Sorong by various means; hiring a car and driver, hailing one of the multi use taxi minivans, or…
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Pasar Remu, Sorong
The big local market in Sorong is named Pasar Remu. Typical of Indonesian markets we have seen elsewhere, they consist of little alley ways lined with rooves of iron or plastic under which locals sell anything. The choice ranges from local fruit and vegetables to plastic footwear and mobile phone accessories. The local markets are…
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Transport in Sorong
While in Sorong for almost two weeks, we had opportunity to try out a number of different transport methods. The easiest, but most expensive, was to just hire a driver to take you where you want to go in their car. This is convenient, especially if you need something special. In my case, it was…
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Batanta Waterfall
After leaving the harbour at Sorong, light northerly winds encouraged us to head west to the island of Batanta, about 20 miles away. We anchored the first night near a pearl farm, and motored along the north shore of Batanta using the tide to assist us, as it was another day of calms, so typical…
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Christmas in Raja Ampat
We’ve been travelling with two other Australian yachts now for well over a month, and they had been travelling with another Australian yacht. We were all in Raja Ampat and near to each other, so decided to meet up together for a Christmas lunch. After selecting a location for us to anchor and meet, we…
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Kabui Channel
On our way north into Raja Ampat, we took a shortcut through a narrow channel near the village of Kabui. These are the photos from that passage through that channel. This channel is the waterway that separates the two islands of Pulau Waigeo and Pulau Gam. It is a little over a mile long, and…
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Pearl Farm on P. Gam
A huge pearl farm extends well into in the waters off the north-west coast of Pulau Gam in Raja Ampat. I had seen other yachties on YouTube mentioning this maze of black buoys that they had to negotiate a long detour around. We found instead a nice passage along the beach, between the shore line…
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Tanjung Ombrab Creek
After passing through the Kabui Passage, we anchored for the night. This morning, using our satellite images to guide us to this find, we explored a labyrinth of karst rock islands surrounded by pools of deep water that fill the entire interior of this western end of the island of Pulau Gam in Raja Ampat.…
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Equator Crossing
As 2024 comes to a close, we are approaching the Equator. After looking around parts of Pulau Gam for a few days in calm conditions, we had a little bit of NE breeze, that dropped and came back as southerly as the morning heat built. Intending to move only 15nm to Wofoh, the breeze was…
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NYE 2025
We left Kawe early morning on New Years Eve, heading for the party that was planned on Wayag. When leaving Australia months ago, Wayag was the destination we were heading for, with no real plans for where we would go next. The guide book had suggested that the anchorage at Wayag could fit 4 or…
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Birgit turns 70
January 4 2024 is a significant date for Bibbi, as it her 70th birthday. We were lucky to be together with a significant family of yachties for the special day. They arranged a surprise party for Birgit, and I was able to keep it a secret until moments before she set foot on the beach.
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Wayag Interior Lookout
On the islands of Wayag, there are two walking “tracks” to lookouts. Yesterday we took a trek to the top of the “interior” lookout. Wayag is a group of islands in the north of Indonesia, in the northern hemisphere, composed of the soluble Karst rocks as we’ve been seeing elsewhere in Raja Ampat. The Karst…
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Wayag Plastic
While we continue to be stunned by the scenery of the islands of Indonesia, we continue to shudder at the amount of plastic waste that is disposed of into the oceans. Here at Wayag in Raja Ampat, we are in a remote area of Indonesia and thought we may have escaped the volume of rubbish…
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Wayag Manta Rays
Wayag is famous for the friendly manta rays that approach human swimmers in the water, and then put on a display of gymnastic movements. With my ear infection, BIrgit has been forced to snorkel with other boats when possible. Yesterday, while snorkelling with the crew off Wanda, Birgit had her first experience of swimming with…
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Wayag Sharks
A well known attraction on Wayag are the tame reef sharks at the ranger station. This morning, we travelled around to the beach with a couple of other yachty couples in our dinghies, and spent the next four hours snorkelling and wading with the sharks. At first, we had the place to ourselves, and were…
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Mount Pindito Lookout
It is just a short steep climb up bare karst rock to the lookout on Mount Pindito in the Wayag archipelago, but the view is stunning. The track to the summit begins in rainforest jungle at the edge of the beach, but soon becomes a scramble up an almost vertical wall of rock. The karst…
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Wayag Lagoon
Our time in the northern hemisphere is drawing to a close for this trip. We have enjoyed a month in this anchorage now, having moved around a few times to get a different view. Tomorrow we plan to leave, doubling back and beginning to head south again. One of the highlights of Wayag is the…
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Heading South
After a month in the lagoon on Wayag, it is now time for us to start heading south again. There has been only moments of wind during our time in Raja Ampat, and today was no different. Intending to anchor inside the reef at the abandoned homestay at Way Tuna, we motored all day, as…
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Wayag Mangroves
Back in Australia, we are familiar with mangroves growing on sandbanks and mudflats. It took us by surprise when we found that the mangroves grow in coral here at Wayag, in Raja Ampat.
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Yangello
Taking our time heading south again from Wayag, we stopped in at Yangello on our way towards the big town of Waisai where we will be able to reprovision at the local markets. Yangello is the location of a “homestay” that was being constructed when Covid closed down international travel. A homestay is an Indonesian…
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Birds of Gam
Alfred Russel Wallace, the naturalist, visited Gam in 1860 in his quest to find the Bird of Paradise. This morning we set off in the dark to try to see one ourselves, or if not, one of the critically endangered Hornbills that we have seen flying around the jungle near our anchorages on Gam. A…
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Dampier Strait
After a couple of months out at the northern islands of Raja Ampat, we are now heading back to the south east to find more food and to reprovision SeeBeeZee. We’ve come around the west of Gam, and keeping Gam to the north turned into Dampier Selat (Dampier Strait) to head for Waisai on the…
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Waisai Cafe
One of the highlights of visiting Waisai to re-provision SeeBeeZee was our opportunity to try the local foods at the cafes and stalls along the road. The RM S’Kumbang Timur is a nicely presented cafe with very friendly and helpful staff, who recommended our plates last night. We enjoyed them so much that we postponed…
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Waisai Streets
After cruising the northern islands of Raja Ampat for the last two months, it was time for us to head to town to buy some more food. The town of Waisai on the island of Waigeo is a major port, and the administrative base for the marine park authority that issues the permits to vessels…
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Waisai Markets
After months away around the islands of northern Raja Ampat, the local markets at Waisai provided an excellent opportunity to refill the cupboards and fridge on board SeeBeeZee. The markets back onto the little creek that runs out in the eastern end of Waisai town, and this a major point for provisioning for all the…
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Waisai Waterfront
The Waisai waterfront park would have once been a tourist attraction, with playgrounds and eating places amongst the garden setting. But for some reason, it has been left to rot, and while popular with locals partying into the evening, it is unused during the day. We suspect that maybe it the shutdown of international tourism…
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Kaliburi Anchorage
Leaving Waisai full of food, we had a nice sail with westerly breeze for about 30 minutes while we headed towards the tidal race at Kaliburi. Typically for the doldrums, the little wind soon died, and we had to motor on for the rest of the way, as the time was right to let the…
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Teluk Mayalibit – Part 3
After the dolphin find, we looped around out into the bay (video on right), passing a couple of islands, before exploring some more bays closer to the tidal race. Here again we are stunned by the jungle encroaching onto the sea, with mangroves colonising on coral beds, and trees that fall over the cliffs becoming…
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Teluk Mayalibit – Part 2
After exploring the first freshwater creek, we then followed the coast further north to a little white gravel beach. As the shoreline of the bay is generally composed of undercut limestone cliffs draped in overhanging jungle, it is rare to find a beach, let alone anywhere to get off the water. The beach is backed…
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Teluk Mayalibit – Part 1
Upstream from the tidal race at Kaliburi, the narrow river opens into a huge bay, more than 20 nautical miles (around 40km) to the other side. This area of water is the reason why the tide runs so strongly through the narrow gorge back at Kaliburi, and that restriction reduces the tidal range inside the…
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Boats of Indonesia
This photo album contains just some the photos of the vast range of interesting boats that we are taking while travelling through Indonesia. Boats are a significant thing in the life of a typical Indonesian villager. It serves as their primary means of transport, and is important for collecting food for the family. Those boats…
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Kali Biru – Blue River
From our anchorage at Kalibiru, we took the dinghy up the big river valley to the east, in search of the Kali Biru – “the Blue River”. From our anchorage, we dinghied through the whirlpools of the tidal race, running through deep gorges that cut through the huge limestone mountains along the shoreline. The jungles…
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Kolum Air Ajelly
After our visit to the Blue River, we ventured further upstream above the tidal race, where the river opens into a huge bay that is the source of the strong tidal current. This bay, Teluk Malayabit, extends for about 20 nautical miles (around 40km) into the interior of the island of Waigeo, and almost splits…
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Sorong Benzine
The harbour at Sorong in West Papua is a popular place for replenishing food and fuel on the local boats, whether these are the local fisherman or the phinisi that carry tourists around the islands of Raja Ampat. West Papua is a little troubled with civil unrest, as there appears to be much discrimination between…
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Kalibiru Canyon
Adjacent to our anchorage in the river at Kali Biru was a narrow canyon, so well hidden that it could not be seen until almost inside it. The water within the canyon is really deep, right up to the cliffs, and can be approached without any concern of running aground until deep within where there…
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Scooter on the Sorong Streets
Back in Sorong to pick up the parts of our old dinghy outboard, we intended to stay only a couple of nights. The Tampa Garam pond is the preferred location to tie up, as it is safer than anchoring in the harbour, where there is a constant risk of thieves boarding, but it is well…
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Sorong Food
While in Sorong last week, we rented a scooter to provide better access to the facilities of the city, and one of the highlights this freedom provided was access to food. We ate out every meal but breakfast, while we were in Sorong. This ranged from a western style pizzeria to roadside stalls, where one…
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Kasauri Beach Sorong
The use of the scooter while we were at Tampa Garam gave us the freedom to explore other places that are a bit out of the way. One such place was Kasauri Beach, to the north of Tampa Garam. Kasauri is on the western tip of Western Papua. Coming out of the security gate at…
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Passage to Misool
After months in the Raja Ampat regencies to the north of Sorong, we must start moving south again. It’s only a bit over a month until we have to clear out of Indonesia with our six month visas due to expire. The obvious first destination is Misool, as we still remember the islands and reefs…
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Harfat Peak, again
After the run down from Sorong, our arrival at Misool was at Harfat, which we visited back in November last year on our way north to Wayag. We were uncertain of the exact location in the chain of islands that runs out from Misool, and we let the conditions dictate the area we would revisit.…
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Harfat Logging
Hafat, on the northern chain of islands off Misool, has far more villages in the area than I had realised on our way north. Some of the villagers pass through the anchorage on their way to their daily activities as fishermen. Others are harvesting timber from the jungle. In a bay not far from our…
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Misool
After a few days at Harfat in the northern chain of Misool islands, the limited time left on our visas has forced us to keep heading south. The northerly monsoons seem to be steered away by the high mountains on the islands of eastern Indonesia. Forecasts show a deep wind shadow to the south of…
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Kianlaut on Seram
After we were battered by a strong storm on our overnight trip down from Misool, the anchorage off the SE tip of Seram provided a welcome rest. We were lucky that the sky was lit by a full moon, and in the bright conditions the approaching rain that brings wind was clearly seen, and we…
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Pulau Gofa
From Kianlaut at the eastern tip of Seram, we headed around the corner into the Banda Sea to get a shorter run across to Banda Neira. The passage from the Seram Sea to the Banda Sea was a short gap between islands, and the current ran against us here at a couple of knots. On…
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Banda Neira
From the island anchorage at Pulau Gofa, it is about 50nm south to the Spice Islands of Banda, where we head next. In the wind shadow of the large Maluku island of Seram, it seems we will have to motor the entire way, so decide this should be another overnight trip so that we arrive…
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Corals over Lava
The big island to the west of the anchorage in Zonnegat Bay is the volcano Gunung Api. While it was quite active over the last 500 years during the period of the European invasion, it’s last eruption was in 1988, when 13 people died as at spewed out a flow that reached the ocean on…
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Fort Belgica
In the 17th century, Banda Neira was the only place in the world where nutmeg was grown. European power fought wars over the spices that were only available from the Spice Islands of Banda. Fort Nassua, lower and closer to the water, was originally built by the Portuguese before they run out by the Dutch.…
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Banda Cooking Class
Our arrival at Banda Niera was noted by many of the local tour operators, some of whom came by boat to welcome us and invite us on tours to local attractions. One operator, Mr Man, invited us to a cooking class at house. We had heard about this from other yachts, and were keen for…
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Banda Besar
Pulau Banda Besar the big island at the south of the Banda group. Not surprisingly, “besar” translates as big. Banda Besar was covered in a lrge number of nutmeg plantations at the height of the spice trade, hundreds of years ago. The Dutch company VOC controlled the trade and operated the plantations with Dutch overseers…
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Climbing Gunung Api
Climbing Gunung Api was our last activity on Banda. As soon as we returned, we left. The climb is a long hot difficult one, so we left the boat in the dark before sunrise. We filled up with litres of water before leaving, and carried a couple of bottles of water to replenish on the…
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Return to Tual
Tual in the Kai islands was our port of arrival back in October last year. After leaving Banda, we sailed for two days to reach the Kai Islands, passing through a severe storm the first night and being becalmed the second night. The storm was the worst we have seen in Indonesia. The other two…
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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,…
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Goodbye Indonesia
A few days after leaving Tual, we had only progressed as far as the southern end of Kai Kecil, where we anchored in the safe harbour at Uf to avoid the constant stream of storms and squalls that were passing through. Our visas were going to expire, and the trip across to the offices in…
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Chris turns 66
We’re anchored in the deep bay at Uf, on the bottom end of Kai Kecil, and the days have been rolling by as we wait for weather suitable for the journey across the Arafura Sea to Darwin. And the days rolled by to my birthday. We are here with three other yachts that we have…
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Crossing to Australia – The WAIT
We’ve cleared out of Indonesia, and now our customs agent is saying that immigration will be looking to fine us if we don’t actually go. But we are staying put on the south of of the island Kai Kecil, waiting for the right weather to head across the Arafura Sea to Australia. The cyclone season…