Banda Islands
We made it to Banda Naira in 4 days and 22 hours or 5.6 kt average for the trip.
Before leaving Gove we met a lovely couple who we generous and looked after us doing our laundry and allowed us to use their internet, Beth and Sid Downes we thank you again, please stay in touch.
We came in while the Darwin / Indonesia Rally was in port, so the small laid back village was full of yachties.
This is indeed an exotic landfall, and wish we could stay longer, but we need to keep moving toward KK in Malaysia to meet my back to work deadline.
On the way to Banda we had a pump fail and had to do a bucket brigade for several hours as we replaced the pump, the water is from a unique system that diverts water from the main engine exhaust that backs up into a grey water tank, as the tank fills over time it gets pumped overboard. The water only enters the exhaust when we have rough weather, we had a 3-5 meter sea all the way from Gove Australia.
Note bucketFish report…3 Spanish Mackerel, 1 Yellow Fin Tuna
The internet is slow so we will only post a few pics and update when possible.
We are at the Mutiara Guest house, and is a lovely setting and very hospitable, if you come here to visit please stay here and spoil yourself. banda_mutiara@yahoo.com (Mr. Abba). We are staying on board Crusoe, but tempted to stay a night here, however we are off for Bitung, Sulawesi tomorrow AM, about 5 days sail.
Maybe no more reports until we reach KK in Malaysia, as we have no on board internet We do have Sailmail for very short emails with no attachments and NO JOKES please, we check this daily but restricted to size and comes from HF radio, a short hello is fine 9MPF6@sailmail.com
Your updates are so interesting, Raewyn and Brent! The fish looks lovely. Do you have a grill on board?
– Nancy