Then that squall hit, along with the water spout. So we were down to two and a half knots,
worried and panicking, basically about what the hell this chattering noise is...
Far away from anywhere in the middle of the Gulf of Tomini lies the Togian archipelago protected
by Sulawesi's spindly arms in a deep basin, these pristine volcanic islands have some of
the clearest water we've encountered in 16 years of world cruising and the spectacular marine
life is mirrored by the rare and unique animal world found in its pristine lowland rainforests
Well that's the end of our one day and one night in one of the most beautiful
anchorages we've ever been to. What a great night's sleep I had last night,
how can you not have a great night's sleep in this location? It's like a cross between
the Kinabatangan with the rainforest all the way around us. I said to Liz it's probably
the closest you could get to actually camping in the rainforest. And I should think pretty
much unspoiled rainforest there's a little bit of a tiny coconut plantation going on,
which seems to be just run by the locals and apart from the odd fishermen going past put-put-put...
all you can hear is the sound of the jungle. Mangrove which is really mature and amazing trees
covered in vines, hornbills flying around all over the place. If we had no problems with time,
this is the kind of place I could quite happily stay at anchor for some days I think. Oh gosh,
and the sound this morning of the dawn chorus was something to behold. Sadly time is against us,
so we're gonna look to go around the corner. We're gonna miss this place, but I'm so pleased
we managed to see it. Perhaps there might be more as we continue our way around the Togean
islands. Gonna go off now, about 20-25 miles to the next anchorage, tosee what we've got there.
But yeah it's been great, I'm gonna miss it. Just taking the anchor up and normally when I take the
anchor up these days there's a few little sergeant major fish. And they are here. These are the same
guys that were with us the last time I put the anchor up which is what 140 miles away. Well,
we did an overnighter to come to this incredible anchorage and we watched
them on the back of the boat at the stern, swimming, and they were here when we arrived
after a night. I can't believe it! And they're still here now. They normally hang around the
chain and we've got to do about 20 miles today we'll see if they're there at the other end.
So our portable aquarium is with us. Just taken some shots looking out the back. It's
very difficult to catch it here on the camera, but I can see with my polarized
glasses you can see lots of little fish swimming along behind us underneath the
swimming platform in the slipstream of the boat. So we're going to take them to the next place.
so as we left our beautiful little Anchorage the rain cloud in front of us darkened and loads of
rain poured out of it and a water spout which was directly in front of us nothing really we
could do except I closed the hatches just in case we got too close and we turned left
and managed to avoid it and you really don't want to be sailing into water spouts if you can help it
we're not doing too well at the moment the chattering is back so I've had to drop the revs
meanwhile we've got this school coming in and we've just seen a water spout I just saw it cross
our path so we've put the sails away and just hope that we don't get any more but there's a
lot of rain coming so we're just going to back down the hatches and plod along at three knots
all just about getting everything in as much fattening down everything
school coming Bring the line in [ __ ] fish on the end for the first time oh God it looked like
a nice beautiful Big Tuna pulling like crazy to get the thing in but honestly I was going
so fast it's starting to really rain and you were panicking with your thing let it gone up
I think actually that was a blessing
well this trip so far has been a real mixed bag it was only supposed to be 25 miles around to
a secluded little Anchorage and I hope that perhaps we can get internet just to get some
weather but turn the chattering started and we had to literally drop it down to tick over then
that Squall hit along with the water spout so we were down to two and a half knots worried and
panicking basically about uh what the hell this chattering noise is and been trying to work out
well it sounds like it comes from the inside of the boat so it's got something to do with
that universal joint and then we thought well maybe it's actually something to do
with the prop and the sound is traveling up the shaft and uh just couldn't work it out
meanwhile we're passing this is a an old Resort and it's certainly seen better days
roof's falling apart some of the walkway the elevated walkway above the reef has fallen down
uh yeah that's very sad but back to the chattering so um at the moment I'm being a bit of a
catastrophist and I'm seeing things through to the negative conclusion and that is that if there is
anything wrong with anything to do with the shaft be it inside the boat or outside there's nothing
we can do because we can't pull that shaft while we're in the water so because of course we've got
a Feathering prop we have a dripless seal not a stuffing box so it's going to be a big deal
while I was down below trying to work with this out I lent against the vertical bar that holds
up our cockpit now our cockpit is held up at the end by two stainless steel hollow pillars
and they go down into the engine well as I lent against it the knocking noise stopped
so I pulled it and the knocking noise started and it seems as if that chattering knocking noise is
actually that vertical pillar vibrating and knocking against the engine cover
if that is the problem and indeed now that I've moved it there's no more knocking
that's a bloody godsend because that is easy to fix and has nothing to do with
the whole transition transmission system so uh just keeping my fingers crossed
Meanwhile we're coming through a typical Indonesian Channel between two islands with
loads of [ __ ] in the water I had to get Liz just just a spot for me as we went through the channel
because of course you know we're looking for things that are under the water not on top
and I've said this before for every one object that's floating on the water there's another
five underneath so anyway we're just cut we're just going through this channel now and uh then
we've got another Bay to jump across before we get to our next Anchorage so at the moment
despite the squalls and the Cloudy atmosphere and the drizzling rain things are looking pretty
positive so yeah fingers crossed all right it's my turn to spot for crapping the water
so we've got another band of rubbish he's obviously uh some kind of current line but
we're basically just looking down in the water to see if we can see anything floating underneath
I think what we'll do is I'll get Liz to put it into neutral just as we cross over this line
neutral
beautiful scenery as you can see behind me sadly tempered by the fact that that
chattering knocking sound is I don't think it is that post that I found it's still there
still can't work out what it is well that was one afternoon and one night in hulao pengun pencan
sorry about my poorly pronunciation really different to the previous one so the previous
one was a rainforest Mangrove silent Extravaganza of wildlife this place is a narrow channel with a
little village on one side and a larger Island and a tiny Resort on the opposite side of the channel
just very small nobody in the resort it didn't look very open although there were some lights
on we think there were some local people there we didn't go ashore about a bit Knack I don't
know why but it does look utterly beautiful cross between the Maldives and um the anambus islands
the clarity of the water is unreal as I was bringing the anchor up I could see way way
way down it was in 17 meters and I swear I saw the bottom anyway you'll all be relieved
to hear that we've still got our traveling aquarium with us they're hanging off the back
as we go to our next destination which we're not quite sure where that's going to be yet
we'll make our decision on the way but it's not very far either way foreign
Islands which we first sailed to in 2017 the torquian archipelago is another of those
remarkable parts of Indonesia that have remained obscured from much of the world's international
travel community and like the anambus this is because they're so difficult to get to a
combination of planes ferries and cars means it takes determination and plenty of time to
Vacation here the reasons Intrepid Travelers make the journey are varied mainly though it's
required relaxation and an opportunity to get away from unnecessary fripperies like
the internet and ringing phones it's a place to immerse yourself in the Tranquility of
untouched nature with nothing but the sound smells and colors of remote island life
the highest diversity of coral species in the world is in the coral triangle and the togian
archipelago is 56 islands and islets are right in the center of that triangle within the coral reefs
mangroves rainforest and seagrass beds are dugong hawkesville and green turtle breeding grounds
nearly 600 fish species the idiosyncratic sulawesi red-nobbed hornbill fruit bat and bear couscous as
well as the endemic togyan macaque babarusa hawk owl white eye monitor lizard and nimitzi tazier
in 2004 the islands became a national park and in 2019 UNESCO designated them biosphere
Reserve status but the togian islands are not only home to Unique creatures above and below
the water there are around 60 000 people living here the majority of whom are fishermen these
local people come from six main ethnic groups including the bajao togian and babonko communities
they use Mangrove forests to hunt for fish shrimp crabs and all manner of shellfish and can often
be seen in the shallows When the tide goes out gathering in the traditional way just as we've
seen all over Southeast Asia in addition to food the mangroves provide timber for building stilted
houses as well as traditional Dugout canoes and small boats less useful pieces of Timber provide
firewood and for some locals they're a source of medicine in the form of ancient herbal remedies
for most visitors though it's all about doing nothing swinging in a hammock and getting away
from the rat race those white sand beaches and ginglier shallows looked pretty inviting to us
and we wondered if we could spare some time on our journey South to enjoy a few days off here we are
we're going to see if we can find a resort that's open it looks like there is because there's a man
waving at us when we went past and see if we can get a drink or even lunch you know we've
got to get over this Reef though to get there falling time good morning guys let's hurry up
the fact that we had to fight so much anchor
so the boat is anchored and we've taken the thingy around the back to be met by Adrian
who's a french guy living here with his Indonesian wife and he was the guy that
was waving to us as we went past on the boat and he was sort of indicating where to Anchor and uh
so anyway we've anchored and we thought we'd come and check it out and water oh beautiful
place this is look at it isn't it gorgeous I said to Liz that at the very least if we
could just sit down and have a cup of coffee in a resort looking out onto the sea before it starts
raining that would just be perfect but of course what we really want to do is to do some diving
so uh we'll have a chat with Adrian see if they are doing diving we anchored up by a dive boat so
fingers crossed in the meantime we just want to relax because since we've been
to the uh got to the togians it's every morning we've kind of moved on
um to get to this destination right let's see what we've got here yeah
this is where I see you come from say that to camera again welcome
to goody the five days guys talking Islands
now that's what I call a welcome Not only was Adrian standing on the beach as we sailed up
and down here we were going to go into the one town and as we turned the corner we suddenly
got loads of notifications on our phones as we got connection for the first time in a few days
I really all I was after was just a weather update and then I said to Liz well look since
we're here and since this guy on the beach is beckoning us over why not just turn around and
go and anchor where we had originally planned to Anchor which is just around the corner there
uh so we did and uh we've come around the back parked up the dinghy where they keep
their dive boats and he was there to take our line I mean what a nice guy and uh we've just
met his wife Alice who's uh local and he their two daughters and uh they've got guests here and
look at this I mean this is this actually takes me back to Thousand Islands close to bellaton
another Indonesian location very very similar sort of setup here and uh yeah I think I could
get quite comfortable here can't spend too long I mean not like weeks but uh I think I could
happily spend a few days here and if we if we can get some diving in even better first a coffee
are you glad I dragged you ashore because I was one of the camera show I just needed
five minutes because I was so hot on the boat but it's lovely here
got a lovely Breeze and we're seeing it from the other side I was just thinking
it's so funny was always looking at this but now looking out I love it
foreign