Indonesia
Monday, August 19, 2013 – Wangi Wangi Island, Wakatobi, Indonesia
We pulled anchor and left Bandaneria in the afternoon on Saturday (8/10) planning for an earlmorning arrival in Wakatobi on Tuesday (8/13). We were not exactly sure where to anchor in Wakatobi so we wanted to have plenty of daylight to get it sorted out. It was a beautiful afternoon as we sailed along with our friends on the sailboat Kite watching Banda’s volcano disappear over the horizon and passing the small island of Run just before dark. Interestingly enough, Run was actually traded by the British to the Dutch during the Spice Wars in exchange for Manhattan Island…as in New York . What a bargain that turned out to be.
The next morning we heard from some friends on another boat ahead of us that they had encountered a large area of floating debris and that during the night they hit a big tree that caused quite a bit of damage to the bow of their boat. Fortunately they were not taking on water. Fortunately for us, we were able to weave our way through the debris field during the day and yet we still managed to hit a small log that was mostly submerged.
By sunset on Thursday night Hokule’a was about 70 miles from Wakatobi and looking good for a mid-morning arrival on Friday. At some point during Jackie’s midnight to 3 am watch she heard a garbled male voice come over the vhf radio saying “Sail Indonesia, Sail Indonesia, this is Wakatobi Information Center WIC. WIC is located at 5 degrees 20 minutes and 123 degrees 32 minutes. Please call WIC. We give you special hospitality.” The message was in English, but with a heavy Indonesian accent. At our 3am watch change the voice came on again with the same message. We were excited about “special hospitality” so Jackie responded “WIC this is the sailing vessel Hokule’a. Do you copy?” An excited voice came back asking us where we were, how long before we arrived in Wakatobi, how many other boats were around us and then told us that his name was Gino. Jackie responded to the questions and Gino asked us to hail him when we got closer to Wakatobi. Just after 6am we hear Gino on the radio hailing Hokule’a. Jackie responded and told him that we were about 2 hours away to which he replied “Oh…. so slow, so slow. Can you make fast your boat?” Jackie and I both laughed out loud and then she proceeded to explain to Gino that we were going as fast as we could. At this point we weren’t sure if he was concerned about some tidal issue at the anchorage or if he was just really excited for us to get there. Shortly after 8am we arrived outside of a very narrow entrance into a lagoon off the island of Wangi Wangi where 4 men in a small boat came out to greet us. We waived and expected that we would simply follow the small boat through the entrance, but instead one of the men climbed aboard Hokule’a. It was Gino. Once aboard, Gino nudged me away from the wheel and he started driving Hokule’a towards the narrow entrance. Needless to say, Jackie and I were a bit nervous but Gino got us safely into the lagoon and onto a mooring. (Later we would end up getting off of the mooring and anchoring because I dove on the mooring and found that it was simply a line connected to a net bag that had been filled with rocks, but that’s another story). As Gino was hopping off of Hokule’a and back into the small boat, he told us that we needed to be ashore at 11am. We tried asking him why we needed to be ashore so soon, but the only part of his response that we could understand was “we give you special hospitality”. The 4 men then sped off to meet Kite at the entrance to the lagoon.
We were pretty tired from the trip but we managed to get ourselves cleaned up and ashore at the WIC by 11am. The government of Wakatobi (Wakatobi consists of 39 islands with Wangi Wangi being the largest) had set up the WIC in a small building at the base of a pier. Most of people from the other 9 boats in our group were already there as were a group of Indonesian students who would be our translators while we were in Wangi Wangi. Before too long we all hopped in a few mini-vans and were taken to a nearby Bajo village. Bajo people are known as sea people and everything they do is related to the sea including what they do for a living, what they eat and especially where they live as all of their homes are built on stilts out in the water. We had been brought here to see a traditional Bajo ceremony where they pay their respects to the sea with the hopes of a bountiful harvest during the following year.
Mid-August is great time to visit Wangi Wangi as it is the end of Ramadan and this is the time when Indonesians hold many of their traditional ceremonies. In the past week we have been to 10 different ceremonies or events. The only downside is that we didn’t really understand many of the ceremonies as our guides struggled to translate what was going on into English. It would take way too many pages to tell you about all of them, so I will tell you about the two that I found most interesting.
The first was the Posepaa which is held in the village of Liya. Basically this is a mass karate fight between villagers from north Liya vesus villagers from south Liya. Villagers on each side pair up, hold hands, and start kicking their opponents in an attempt to drive them backwards across an imaginary line. In addition to bragging rights for the winning side, the ceremony symbolizes an ancient competition where villagers from Liya fought before the Sultan (king/chief) who then chose the best fighters to be his body guards.
The other ceremony was called Bangka Mbule Mbule which took place in the village of Mandati. Here we approached an open sided shack that was surrounded by dozens of people. As we entered the shack we were given a handful of rice to place in a traditional canoe that was in the center of the shack. After placing the rice, we sat down beside the canoe and watched as villagers came in and filled the canoe with rice and other offerings. The canoe was decorated with palm fronds and flowers and also had a replica of a man and a woman in it. One of the village leaders blessed the canoe and then we were all given little horns made out of palm fronds to blow. We are still not sure if the horns were to scare away the demons or to attract them into the boat, but after the horn blowing about 20 guys came in, picked up the boat and carried it out into the street. Several hundred people followed as the canoe was paraded up and down the streets and out to the beach where even more people were waiting to see it launched out into the sea. It didn’t make it more than about 200 yards offshore before it started sinking, but no one in the crowd seemed concerned. The best explanation that our guides could give us about the ceremony was that it celebrates the past harvest season.
Friday was Indonesia’s Independence Day where they celebrated 68 years of freedom from Dutch control. Our little group of 10 boats were honored special guests at the Independence Day festivities and parade and that night were invited to a dinner party at the home of the Wakatobi Regent (somewhere between a governor and a mayor).
After a week of some amazing cultural events, a few of us went off yesterday to see the underwater side of Wakatobi. After all Wakatobi boasts that they have 759 of the 850 coral species found in the world. We had a great day of diving and saw some gorgeous walls of coral and even a few black tip reef sharks.
Our 10 days in Wakatobi have been incredible and we can’t thank enough the people of Wakatobi, our guides, and especially Hugua, the Wakatobi Regent for their generosity, kindness, and making us feel like we were a part of their community. They really did give us “special hospitality”….
Friday, August 9, 2013 –Pulau Neira, Banda Islands, Indonesia
The chance to visit the Banda Islands (also known as the Spice Islands) was one of the main draws for us deciding to take this route through Central Indonesia. It was not just for Banda’s historical relevance but also for its incredible scuba diving. It’s hard to believe that such a tiny group of islands, literally in the middle of nowhere, could generate such interest throughout history over a tree, specifically the nutmeg tree. But until the mid-19th century the Banda Islands were the world's only source of the spices, nutmeg and mace, both of which are produced from the nutmeg tree. The Banda Islands have a fascinating and yet tragic history, so here is the cliff notes version of what we learned during our visit.
Portuguese sailors claimed to be the first to discover the Banda Islands in the early 1500’s, although Javanese and Arab traders had been selling nutmeg to the Europeans and Chinese for many years before. At the time it was believed that nutmeg could prevent Bubonic Plague and as such it was a very expensive spice. In 1529, the Portuguese took over Pulau Neira and began building a fort in an attempt to control the nutmeg trade, but the Bandanese people revolted and drove out the Portuguese. After learning of the Portuguese failed attempt, the Dutch came in to Banda with a different approach…at least initially. The Dutch tried negotiating an exclusive trade agreement with the Bandanese that basically gave the Dutch a monopoly over the nutmeg trade. It worked for a while and the Dutch (doing business as the Dutch East Indies Company) were able to sell nutmeg to the world for 300 times what they paid the Bandanese. The Dutch slowly began to bring in troops to “protect” their monopoly and in 1609 built a large fort on Pulau Neira in the town of Bandaneira. This did not sit well with the Bandanese village leaders who called a meeting with the Dutch Admiral to complain about the troop presence and the low price that they were being paid for nutmeg due to the Dutch monopoly. The meeting didn’t go so well and it ended with the Bandanese killing the Admiral and 40 of his highest ranking soldiers. Over the next several years, the Dutch responded with a massacre of the Bandanese population. Some Bandanese were able to flee to neighboring islands, but by 1621 the Bandanese population had been reduced from roughly 15,000 (prior to Dutch occupation) to about 1000. On and off for the next 200 years the Dutch and the British fought to control the Banda Islands in a series of wars known as the Spice Wars. During one of the final British occupations, the British removed a large number of nutmeg trees and transplanted them to several other British colonies. This move created competition in the nutmeg market and effectively destroyed the value of the Banda Islands to the Dutch. Today the Banda Islands still produce and export nutmeg, as well as cloves, almonds, bananas and fish.
Hokulea’a arrived at the island of Pulau Neira in the pouring rain after a 2 day sail from Saumlaki. We then spent over an hour (still in the pouring rain) trying to get anchored up stern to a seawall off of the main the town of Bandaneira. The water is pretty deep (over 100’) in the natural harbor here that is formed by the islands of Pulau Neira, Pulau Banda Besar, and the volcano Gunuung Api . The ocean around the Banda’s is also very deep (about 20,000 feet deep) but it’s the deep water and ocean currents that make Banda such a spectacular diving location. Every other day since we have been here, a group of us have piled in to a local wooden boat called a “pok-pok” to go out diving for the day. It’s called a “pok-pok” because that is the sound that the un-mufflered single cylinder diesel engine makes. The diving here has been amazing and I have actually dove more in the past 6 days than I have in the past 6 months. We also took a pok-pok over to Pulau Banda Besar for a “Spice Tour” to see where the spices are grown and to see how nutmeg is produced. Yesterday we took our dingy across the harbor to Gunuung Api and climbed to the top of the “semi-active” volcano. Its last eruption was in 1988 and resulted in mass evacuations of Pulau Neira and Pulau Banda Besar. We finished off the evening celebrating the end of Ramadan on the streets of Bandaneira with the local Muslim population.
Banda has certainly lived up to all of the hype and our only regret in coming here is that we can’t stay longer. If we leave Banda tomorrow, it looks like we have a good weather window to make the 3 day sail to our next destination … Wakatobi.
Thursday, August 1, 2013 – Saumlaki, Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia
Shortly after dropping anchor in Saumlaki we were approached by a small boat carrying 8 officials from Immigration, Customs, Quarantine. They all boarded Hokule’a and immediately started taking photos of each other sitting at the main saloon table, standing behind the wheel, and pretending to be cooking in the galley. Eventually we got to the paperwork and boy do they like paperwork. They needed 5 copies of this form, 8 copies of that form, 3 copies of the other form, etc… All of the copies had to be rubber stamped by the official and by us with our “official” Hokule’a stamp. It was all quite amusing and after about 30 minutes we were cleared in to the country.
We were exhausted from the trip but couldn’t wait to go ashore to experience some of Indonesia. The town had set up a welcome center in the harbor area for the 14 boats which was staffed by two wonderful ladies, Grace and Desy. They both spoke good English and during our stay they helped us out as translators, tour guides, problem solvers and an invaluable source of local information.
As we walked from the welcome center down the narrow main street there were very few cars, but lots and lots of motor cycles zipping around and honking their horns. This particular street was lined with different vendors selling everything from fruits and vegetables, clothing, diesel, fish, and even live pigs. Saumlaki does not get visited by tourists and as such we were a novelty. Indonesians of all ages would come up to us and say “photo-photo” and want to have their pictures taken with us. Most people and especially children had never seen white people in person, but of course they had seen them on television and in the movies. We now had an appreciation for what celebrities must go through and it was a bit overwhelming.
We wanted to have lunch in town before we went back to the boat for a nap, so Grace escorted us to a hotel restaurant that overlooked the anchorage. The only problem was that the menu was completely in Indonesian. Grace successfully steered us away from the fishhead soup, grubworms, urchins, etc… and we settled on an Indonesian staple called nasi goreng or fried rice. We also tried something called swamp cabbage which was kinda like spinach.
After a big lunch and a few Bintangs (local beer) we headed back to the welcome center, weaving our way through the paparazzi and eventually made it back to the boat. We promptly fell asleep, but were quickly awoken by very loud chanting coming from crackly speakers attached to side of a mosque on shore. This was our first time experiencing the Muslim call to prayer which happens 5 times a day. Unfortunately one of those times is at 4 o’clock in the morning.
For me one of the most interesting things about Saumlaki was that there were Muslim mosques and Christian churches right next door to each other. Chalk it up to my ignorance and the US media, but I was really surprised to see Muslims and Christians co-existing in a very small town. And it was much more that co-existing or mere acceptance, they were friends, neighbors, co-workers, and above all Indonesians. I think I am really going to like this country….
Tuesday, July 30, 2013 – Somewhere in the Arafura Sea (Latitude 8d 30m S and Longitude 131d 17m E)
So it’s a few minutes after 3 am and we have about 40 miles to go to our first port in Indonesia. I just came on watch and Jackie is settling into one of our sea berths trying to get some sleep in the somewhat boisterous conditions. We have 20-25 knots of wind with large and confused seas hitting us on right on the beam. We knew that this would be the case and was one of the downsides to choosing this particular route through Indonesia.
As I mentioned before, we did as most cruisers do when visiting Indonesia, we joined the Sail Indonesia rally. For this year’s rally over 90 boats signed up. The rally helps with all of the bureaucratic requirements, works with the local towns and villages along the way to organize various events, and serves as a source of information and support for the participants. The rally also hosted a number of information sessions in Darwin that provided us with tons of information about Indonesia, including the various sailing routes, what sights to see, formalities, and cultural insights to the Indonesian people. One of my favorite quotes from the information sessions was from the Indonesian organizer of the rally, a guy we all call Sam. He was talking about the need for patience when dealing with Indonesian people because they are never in a hurry to do much of anything. One of the cruisers asked Sam if he was familiar with the Spanish word manana and if there was a similar word in Indonesia. Sam replied that he knew manana, but that there wasn’t a word in the Indonesia language that expressed such urgency.
The rally this year offered two main routes through Indonesia and we really struggled with a decision on which one to do. The first is called the Western Route and it follows the traditional cruising route going from Darwin to Kupang, then on to Alor, Flores, and Komodo. The other route is called the Eastern Route and tracks through Central Indonesia visiting places such as Saumlaki, Banda, Wakatobi, and Takabonerate before meeting up with the Western route in Komodo. I don’t think you could go wrong with either route, but in the end we decided on the more off the beaten path Eastern route. The Eastern Route will require that we travel longer distances often in less than favorable conditions (such as we have right now) but the reward is that most places we will be going do not typically get visited by tourists or cruisers. The other advantage is that of the 90 boats signed up for the rally, only 10 are doing the Eastern Route.
I am really not sure what to expect in Indonesia. Culturally it is going to be very different from anything we have experienced before. Obviously there will be a huge language barrier, but I am also wondering how we as Americans will be received in a country that is over 90% Muslim. I guess later this morning we will start to find out when we arrive in the Tanimbar Islands and the town of Saumlaki.