Sulawesi

It took us 2 nights and 3 days from  Sabah to reach the northern shore of Sulawesi.  Arrived at midnight, found an anchorage with the help of a waning new moon, radar and forward looking depth sounder.  The charts have very little details of the coastline, any depth under 200m is not marked! 

Our route

Telok Pinjan, a  deep bay surrounded by mountains.  Our first stop in Sulawesi and my favourite spot.  The villagers were friendly, inviting us into their houses.  This small village, about 800 Km from Manado (the capital of the northern province ) has only just been supplied with electrical power.  It takes 2 ½ days to drive to Manado, along the main coastal road.  Visitors are rare.  Two years ago a couple of  German cyclists stopped for 1 night.  They were cycling around Sulawesi.  Walking along the lanes in the village, one can smell the aroma of cloves drying.  Cloves trees are grown on the hill slopes around the village.  A mature clove tree will yield 400+ kgs of cloves, giving the villagers a princely sum of NZ $ 4800+.  Harvesting the cloves is extremely tedious and if the trees are tall quite hazardous.  Most of these cloves are for home consumption.  The Indonesian crush the cloves together with tobacco leaves and smoke these aromatic cigarettes.

Cloves drying along the footpath

 Anchorages along this northern coastline are difficult to find.  Deep waters  ( 50 +m ) at the entrance of most bays. We hope to find some depths under 25m  inside the bay as we can only anchor at those depths. Many times we have to leave and try to find another  suitable bay before night falls.  Occasionally we have to tie a stern line to a tree on the beach if we are anchoring on a steep bank.

The locals are very friendly and helpful.  Often we buy fruits and vegetables from the locals.  We just ask and take what is offered.  We can end up with 2 bunches of green bananas (giving us 14 combs) and 16 coconuts! 

The fishermen will motor close to our boat to have a good look at us. We felt like monkeys in the zoo.  The more daring ones will climb on board to have a long chat with us.  As it was the month of fasting, we didn’t have to offer them any refreshments.  The shopkeepers are another  breed.  We have been short -changed and over charged many times over goods we bought.  For example a basic labourer’s wage is 40,000 rupiahs /day ( NZ $ 6.00 ).  I have been charged 50,000 rupiahs for a tray of 30 eggs that were well past their used by date.   Normal price for an egg is 1000 rupiah.

Another beautiful sunset

Telok Pinjan

We took a month cruising the northern arm of Sulawesi. At this time of year, the winds are predominantly from the  south, making anywhere on the North coast a sheltered spot, we found many lovely offshore islands, where the reefs were still healthy although everywhere it is now over fished. Gone are the days when you jump overboard and you are surrounded by schools of table size fish and the odd large predator.  Sulawesi has such a long and interesting coastline that we  ran out of time to visit the other 2 arms.  Took another month of solid sailing to return to Malaysia.  From Miri, Sarawak to the top end of Borneo, down to the western end of the northern arm, across the northern arm down the length of Sulawesi to Makassar ( capital of Sulawesi ) to clear out of Indonesia, across the bottom end of Borneo, across the Java sea, South China Sea to Johore, Malaysia, a journey of 2500+ nautical miles.  It was very ambitious of us to attempt this given the amount of time we had.   We needed 6 months to fully explore Sulawesi.

  Coming down the eastern end of the northern arm was very taxing on both the body and soul.  We had 400 miles of journey when the wind was from the bow, the most arduous angle of sailing.  Encountered a particularly bad patch, sailing south from the eastern end of the northern arm.  We took 5 nights, sailing 14 hours each night to cover some 66 miles, barely making  10 miles per night.  At times we seem to be sliding backwards.  Along this part of the coast, the current was 2-3 knots against us and with strong winds and rough seas we could hardly make any headway.  The winds were extremely strong during the day as the day breeze accentuated the SE trades.  From 9 am to 4 pm the winds were gusting over 20 knots.  We found that if we only started sailing after 4 pm, the winds were only 15 –17 knots.  We  would leave the anchorage at about 5 pm and initially the seas were still rough from the blow during the day, but  the waves eventually calmed down by midnight. In the morning we had to find an anchorage  ( before 9 am ).  Anchoring during the day gave us a chance to sleep before the night ordeal.  We were most glad to get away from this part of the coastline into the open seas for then the effect of the current was negligible .  Once we sailed down the  eastern  side of Sulawesi, it was easy  sailing with the wind behind us.  Cleared out if Indonesia in Makassar.  From Makassar to Malaysia a journey of 1100 miles, was easily covered in less that 10 days.  It was lovely to dock at Puteri Harbour , Johor and have a super long shower.

                                           A passenger for a night passage.

Our journey