We discovered a paradise of sapphire blue seas, palm fringed islands and white sands as well as coral gardens over run by Nemo and his mates. It was amazing and it quickly went to number one on our list of favourite places in Indonesia. This tiny archipelago of little islands is a conservation area and although its hard to say exactly what that means in Indonesia the area has certainly benefited from it. The snorkelling was amazing; by far the best we have done in Indonesia so far. Hardly any dead coral, no rubbish to swim through and clownfish by the hundreds.
A little jewel in the Java Sea! We spent six days exploring this beautiful area. White sandy beaches, uninhabited islands, coral reefs, monkeys and friendly local people. After the big city chaos of Surabaya, Bawean was just what we needed! We left Surabaya and motor-sailed, the Java sea, into head winds as we crossed to Pulau Bawean. The crossing took 13 hours…
… we started the arduous saga of extending our visas. We looked up the address for Kantor Immigrasi (the office of Immigration), caught a ferry to Surabaya and then a taxi a long way out of town (out near the airport) to the Immigration Office. Once there, we waited for about an hour until we were called to the desk, where we were told that we needed to go to another office. A couple of minutes later we were walking in the rain trying to catch another taxi. Wet, and a bit disappointed, we caught a cab to another immigration office…
…Hope Island we sailed on and spent a night anchored off the mainland at Cape Bedford. We had an afternoon of relaxation before moving on the next day to Lizard Island. Fantastic sail in 25 knots and we arrived at lunch time. After a yummy lunch of teriyaki marlin sushi (check it out on ‘cooking our catch’!) we went for a snorkel in the bay. Fantastic! Saw clown fish, titan trigger fish (Dwayne has a strong bond with these fish lol), huge bat fish, trevally, parrot fish, coral trout….. too many to name them all…
We chose to stay at the Marlin Marina in Cairns, as it was central to everything and, once again, we needed to get a heap of work done. Cairns is our last stop in a large town until we get to Darwin so we needed to do our final chores to become self-sufficient .i.e. get the water-maker installed.We stayed for nine nights and our first job was to find someone to patch the dinghy and fix the outboard motor…
We left Cape Gloucester after Rendezvous 2014, with several other boats all going north. Our first stop was Cape Upstart where we all anchored and went ashore and cooked dinner over the fire with the crews from The Tardis and Irish Mist.
We moved on the next day to Cape Bowling Green where we had dinner aboard The Tardis with Helen and Graham. From there we went to Townsville. We got a good sail, catching and overtaking all the boats that left the bay before us! We eventually had to put a reef in the main sail as we were over powered and it was getting a bit uncomfortable.
Thorfinn, an Adams 45, has proven herself with extensive cruising time, including a circumnavigation of the globe. Come inside for a look at our tiny home.
The rendezvous is a four day party better expressed with photos. Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club was a concept created as a “network for cruising yachties and individuals who enjoy boating”. Their yearly rendezvous raises money for prostate cancer. Over $80,000 was raised this year! To learn more visit the the SICYC website.
We had a good sail to Hunter Island. Once there, we went for a walk and discovered deer when we accidently frightened them from where they were sleeping in the long grass. I’m not sure who got more of a fright me or the deer! That night we had a few drinks around a fire on the beach with John and Mara from SV Chikita and also Irwin and George from SV Walt-zee.