We made it into Bitung this morning at first light after 4 days sailing from Banda Islands.
This was a look at the 1988 eruption at Banda Besar, a few people lost their lives and some property lost.
These Islands are best decribed as volcanos and spice, they are known as the Spice Islands. We were here in 1987, in Manado, and now we are just the other side of the mountain from there in Bitung. We crossed the equator at 1600 yesterday, it was my 5th crossing and Raewyn’s 4th.
We are now at the Kungkungan Resort having dinner and doing this at the same time, as we have only this one chance to do an update until we make it to Malaysia, we leave again tomorrow.
I took this picture from Crusoe at anchor. The water is crystal clear and is a world class dive destination. The resort caters to allmost 100% divers. We are a rare oddity as we are not plannig to dive due to our time resraints.
We are off for the Banga Strait tomorrow and will overnight one night before the 400NM passage to Sandakan, Malaysia where we will clear customs into Malaysia, at that time we become locals as we have permanent residency in Malaysia and the boat is registered in Malaysia.
Draggonfly 3
We awoke this morning in Garry’s Anchorage to fog - this is “Dragonfly 3″ owned by Jim and Anna from Brisbane, they are about 100 meters off our stern in this picture. We plan to leave for Tin Can Bay on the tide this morning.
Here in the Sandy Straits we have caught fish & crabs, seen dugongs, dolphin and turtles. Once the fog lifts we will retrieve the crab pot (hopefully with crabs) and weigh anchor for Tin Can Bay, with an overnight along the way at Pelican Bay so we can go into Tin Can Bay Marina on the high tide the next afternoon.
Sheridan Flats Bounty
Fishing the banks
Sunset
We’re off to pull up the crab pot, fog is lifting now, we have about 3 hours before the tide is favourable for our departure today Monday 19th September 2011.
Although I have seen numerous pictures of sailing boats with people sitting on one side that looked higher out of the water than the other side, I never gave it a thought why that was and how that would feel and I thought only in races that would happen.
So my first experience of heeling was quite a shock. More »
If you haven’t experienced it your self, you may well have observed the phenomenon.
While watching the boats come home from a beautiful day’s sailing you hear the skipper yelling agitatedly as he docks his beloved boat.
One of my most important lessons when first sailing as a couple was when my partner quietly shared with me after a frustrating anchoring exercise; “It doesn’t help to shout.” More »
The 1980 edition of the Governor’s State university magazine Creative Women is dedicated to sailing women and I quote from an article ‘First Time Skipper’ by Joan Shipley .
“Men it seems to me, are brought up to feel that they can and should; women that they can’t and shouldn’t.
It took me 9 years’ sailing to realize that I am a competent sailor and last winter I began to wonder whether I could break out of my allotted role. More »
In one of his posts John talks about the life cycle of a boat and he says this about the interior:
“What lasts even less well is the interior as it gets used by people or gets to be old fashioned, dirty and tired looking.
Interestingly the interiors of airplanes and buses wear out and are replaced several times before the structure or chassis wears out.” More »
This was a look at the 1988 eruption at Banda Besar, a few people lost their lives and some property lost.
I took this picture from Crusoe at anchor. The water is crystal clear and is a world class dive destination. The resort caters to allmost 100% divers. We are a rare oddity as we are not plannig to dive due to our time resraints.