Its always tricky, and often quite dangerous coming into a new place on a boat - whether its dropping the anchor, parking up in a marina, or picking up a mooring buoy. Each option has its potential hazard and sometimes we dont really know what we are getting until we arrive.
The brief we had for Banda Neira was that there was availability for around 5 boats backed onto the town wall (So called Med Style moorings - drop the anchor a few boat lengths away from the wall, then reverse back onto it, someone catches your lines from behind, secures you on, and thats it -easy right??) and then there were a few mooring buoys, with some anchoring spots available.
So we arrive - from the Kei Islands, after a 24 hour overnight sail, quite bumpy, quite wet, quite fraught with hazards (more fishing devices and floating doors) and essentially, my husband, the Skipper hasnt really had any sleep. Sometimes this happens, mostly, he sleeps really well on passage, but for one reason and another he hadnt slept.
Cruising around the harbour, probably looking shifty, we are quite desparate to find a spot to get the boat settled and sleep.
It looked like all the Med style Moorings were full of boats, the anchorage spots looked really really deep - 40m+ - and then some little helpful guy comes to welcome us - apparently he is helping ABBA (the rally organiser for Banda Neira) getting boats moored.
He directed us to a mooring buoy and we were relieved.
My husband is soooper cautious, and kind of has this disease where he doesnt really trust anyone. (🤣)
I think it is a pilot thing maybe??
Anyway - normally, when we pick up a mooring buoy he is looking at it with very suspicious eyes - how much line is on it? What is it attached to? What is securing it to the seabed.
Lets face it, when you are attaching your 20 tonne boat to a small plastic buoy on the top of the sea, you really want to know its going to hold (particularly when you are expecting some high wind, or big sea where the boat will be chucked about....
So I was quite surprised when he, without question, took the mooring buoy from our new friend (trying to moor us, sell us pineapples, sell us fuel, sell us a bus trip all at the same time....) and hooked us on. To me, the buoy looked like one of those polystyrene balls people use for flower decorating and I was suspicious.
I asked the guy really carefully in my best Indonesian (eg speaking in a loud English voice) - "how strong is this mooring buoy?" "We are 20 tonnes - is it strong enough?" He reassured me it was good, and what else can you do except believe him. TBH we didnt have much other choice at the time, so we got hooked on, put the boat to bed, then my husband went to bed for a 12 hour power nap......
Next day, fresh and perky, joyfully, the boat hadnt moved, and I persuaded him to come on the walking tour of Banda Neira - he loved it (I think) but we did leave slightly early to miss the lunch because, by then, he realised he wanted to check the mooring.
When we got back to the boat, it had moved, almost into the middle of the channel - woops!! Simultaneously, my phone started going crazy, with phone calls, messages, announcements on the Sail2Indonesia app "NAUPLIOS IS DRIFTING" The other rally participants who werent on the tour, and noticed Nauplios "Not under command" - eg drifting randomly...
Hmmm, not the very best plan.....
Here is a lesson for would be sailors who sail overnight, get hardly any sleep, then pick up a mooring buoy which looks like a polystyrene flower arranging ball by some slightly dodgy guy ------ Dont do it!
Anyway, after that, we remoored, and got a lovely lovely spot next to our gorgeous new Rally friends on the wall, which, unbelievably, backed onto a great Dive school/bar.
Payment for the free mooring involved drinking 10 bottles of Bintang (Indonesian lager) each night. Obviously that bit was easy, they made us very welcome with some beautiful Indonesian food.
Thankyou ALAN and CESAR from the nutmeg tree dive school.
I think, but Im not sure/I hope anyay - Alan liked us singing the living next door to Alice song "Alan, Alan, who the xxxx is Alan?"
If you go to Banda Neira, stay here and do some diving/hiking/ do the spice tour, and get some beautiful Indonesian hospitality - the people are so gorgeous and the beer is ALWAYS cold!
We arrive in Banda Neira - what a very beautiful place!
Doing some snorkelling along the reef, climbing the volcano, finding some great food, meeting more gorgeous Indonesians and checking out the stories on these beautiful islands, stacked with history.
Another very humbling, and fantastic celebration of the local Spice Islands culture
It seemed like the whole island was out to welcome us all.
And what a welcome - Music and Dance displays by the local schools/dancing schools etc/ amazing traditional Indonesian food and then later a live band playing all of our favourites! What a great night, and fantastic welcome to Banda Neira
Thankyou ABBA from https://cilubintang.com/
for co-ordinating our welcome and stay in beautiful Banda Neira ❤️
Apparently the most valuable piece of real estate in the world, the Banda Islands or Spice Islands were once the sole producers of nutmeg and mace.
These two highly prized spices fueled global trade and sparked fierce colonial competition
Walking around the islands, it is still possible to pick nutmegs off the trees
The battles started in the 1500's with the arrival of the Portugese. Later, England and Dutch explorers arrived which triggered intense battles, massacres and enslavement of the local population.
From 1621 there was Dutch control of the islands and this was the case until 1949 with the conclusion of the Indonesian National Revolution, when the islands became independent and the Republic of Indonesia was formed.
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