Ken and I woke early and I made a good breakie to start the day in case it was rolly once we were out of the islands, I didn't get to finish mine and Ken says hurry up let's go! I think he was just a little bit excited to get going. We were moving by 7.30am and put up the sails but by 1.00pm we had the motor on and turned it off 12 hours later. We had a radio schedule at 8am & 8 pm with SW (Southern Wing) and gave our positions every 12 hours.
Day 2 was 15 SE winds but confused seas so I felt queasy and it continued through out the night. We saw two Indonesian fishing boats in the afternoon and that night ran over two lots of nets strung out between two buoys one lit but not the other one, lucky no damage to us but SW with has a chunk missing out of his rudder.
Day 3 - 4 were much better long rolling seas behind us with 10 - 15 knts. Ken caught and released his first Indonesian fish a bonito, there are lots and lots of flying fish continually keeping me entertained and one afternoon a pod of about 20 dolphins swimming and playing in the bow wave and jumping out of the water they were really active and great to watch.
Day 5 started out choppy but that night we motored as the wind dropped out, we slowed the boat down so that we arrived in daylight exactly five days and nights and 660 nautical miles from Thursday Island.
Saumlaki is a small town of 15,000 people in the Tanimba Islands we noticed the churches amongst the houses on the hill side and low market shantys around the harbor. The anchorage is very calm next to reef and the water was much clearier that i thought it would be, the locals come and stand in up to their waist and fishing the reef at low tide. We can hear the Muslim music every morning bout 5 o'clock even though there is a higher population of Christians on these islands.
I feel a great sense of achievement arriving here after all the planning and hard work getting the boat ready for the trip.
Ken went in to pick up the customs, quarantine and immigration guys in two trips, five all up, it all went smoothly especially after Ken gave them two bottles of bourbon.
We went ashore later in the day to experience Saumlaki.
Very friendly people always giving you a smile, the only tourists they get is from cruising boats that pass through the islands. After a couple of bintangs at the local pub on the water we met the other crews that sailed over from Darwin, Saltheart and Jepeda.
Dinner was at the local warung for $2.00 each we had a mixed plate of chicken rice and veges.
The next day we took a mini bus north of the town and saw traditional villages and the beaches.
The island is hilly with tropical vegetation, the beaches have white sand coral reefs clear water and the occasional limestone out crop.
After buying some veges and bananas at the markets we sailed around the southern part of the island and anchored close to a village, no sooner did we have the anchor down and we got a call on VHF to come and visit the village school tomorow morning.
The anchorage was on the edge of the reef in about 7m and clearly see the bottom, it was calm and we had the local boats going past us and waving the rest of the afternoon and early evening so we looked forward to going ashore next day.
We picked up Sandy and Phil from SW, when we got closer to the village lots of kids came to meet us on the beach, then we met the teacher Harold he spoke good English we went to see the village chief and we gave him books, pencils, fishing lines etc. The village was very clean, we visited the school, the waterfall spring with rain forest all around it, there is a ladies area and men's area, the woman do their washing there also and the clarity of the water was excellent.
Some of the older ladies weave cotton sashes and table cloths we were able to see one working the looms and their workmanship was perfect.
Everyone in the village was happy and it was a fabulous experience to be able to walk through and also understand how it all works.
They have so many natural features from the clear waters of the reef and waterfall,the beach and unusual limestone outcrops and rainforest they have a wonderful place to live even though they are very poor they are happy.
The name of the village is Latdelam on the island of Yamdena 300 nm from Darwin so close yet so far away from our Aussie way of life.
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