"Morning! We're going for a hike up the volcano!" "Volcano hike today"
"Yeah!"
"We're ready! We're gonna do a sub 2 hours"
We were still in Banda Neira, exploring our first stop in the Spice Islands.
And Brady was still playing his princess card
not even willing to get his feet wet anymore.
Poor Josje-Rama.
Our friend Abba told us about a trail that goes up the side of Banda Api
with a sweet view of the surrounding islands so we packed a lunch and started climbing.
We were only a quarter of the way up and already had a pretty sweet view of Delos across the bay.
Our legs were definitely feeling it after so many days at sea!
"How you feeling Bri?" "It's a good walk!"
"Sweaty one!"
Karin took a break to watch an ant colony brutally dismantling a stick bug.
"How you feeling Josje-Rama?"
"Light-headed.. not too good"
"Almost there though" "I'm struggling" "Look at this"
"F *cking cool!" "It's pretty cool, you can see the vegetation
just change though, like a few metres down there."
"Yeah it goes from like, jungle to bush to schrubbery"
"Now it's just rock and burnt, so.."
Even though the last eruption was in 1988 there are still smoking piles venting sulfur gases.
There's no safety ropes, no guard rails.
If you fall into the crater it's your own fault!
After lunch we took a few minutes to just enjoy the view and watch the clouds roll by.
"Such a beautiful, peaceful, tranquil setting"
When you gotta go, you gotta go!
A few pounds lighter Brady thought it would be a good idea to run down.
So good in fact he talked Josje into his shannigans.
I don't know what it is about my brother,
but he ALWAYS tears his shorts exactly in the same place.
Myself, Karin, and Nina made it to the bottom in one piece.
There was no sign of Brady and Josje so we sat on the shore and enjoyed the afternoon prayer blaring from a Mosque across the bay.
"We took the wrong trial!" "What!"
(laughing)
"you know how there's no dogs on the island?"
"We found where they keep em all!" "Oh really?" "300 dogs up there in a cage!"
"What happened to you? Look at your face!"
"Let's just say there was some sliding and some falling" "How did you guys take a wrong turn?"
"You know how sometimes the trial was split like, into two?" "Yeah...?"
"Yeah.. I don't know..
we just went up the wrong one I guess" "Well I'm glad you guys made it safe!"
With our time in Banda Neira coming to an end,
we untied from the village quay and shoved off.
It had been an awesome week here and we wanted to stay longer
but we were technically in a grey area regarding our status in the country
and needed to reach the larger city of Ambon to clear Delos and her crew formally into Indonesia.
There wasn't a lick of breeze,
so we motored into the Banda Sea in mirror-like sea conditions,
leaving the volcano we'd just summited in our wake.
It wasn't long before the girls spotted dolphins at the bow
and our new crew and translator for the trip, Abba, got his first taste of the cruising life.
A rain squall blocked our sun but brought a puff of breeze so we were quick to hoist the forward downwind sails.
"What are you two doing back there? Nothing!?
Smoking ciggarettes? Indonesian style?"
"Yes mate!"
"Seeing as we're just speeding along here!"
"There's about another.. we left 8 hours ago"
"Gone about 2 miles"
"What are you doing Josje-Rama?" "Putting a line on our little frieeeend"
"Abba One" "Abba piece"
"Abba PEACE!"
"It was a good for us today!"
"Brain is gonna get into his air chair..
while we are sailing"
"9 hours out of Banda now" "yeah" "Oh, is it only 9 hours?"
"Yeah" "Last video log was 8 hours out"
"It's 9 hours.. we've gotten bored"
"We're gonna swing this out, and Brains gonna jump..
from the bow and swim to it, and have a good seat!"
"I know what you're doing! It's a surprise!"
"A special surprise" "GO!"
"Sweet!"
"Do you think we should turn the engine off, so we're not going so fast?" "Yeah, definitely!"
"Last thing we want is loose the air chair!" (laughs) "OR BRIAN!"
"Do you mind explaining what you're doing over here?" "Oh, well I figured when I get out,
I'm probably gonna get thirsty.. so I'm trying rig a
a beer delivery system" (laughs)
"Very smart"
"I think this idea is..
probably one of the best idea's we've had!" "How are you feeling?"
"Um, I'm good, a little nervous" (laughs)
"Like I can make the jump, I can make the swim"
"The rest ahhh..." "NUETRAL!"
It may seem like I'm being a wimp,
but the thought of jumping off my boat into the middle of the ocean while sailing terrifies me.
(laughing)
"Yeah, nice!"
(laughing) "PICK IT UP!"
(laughing)
"You looked so scared just then!"
"We got it! We got it!" "GO GO!" (laughing)
(laughing)
"That's it, no?"
"He's about to feed a duck and dusky"
"with home-made rum, from the boat still"
"To Brain.."
"In the swing chair"
"So Josje, what was our perfect day?"
"WOAH!" "You got done!" (laughing)
"Oh-uh" (laughs)
"It's coming! It's coming!"
"We could feed you grapes off there too" "You have catch them in your mouth"
"Oh no! Oh no!" (laughs)
"There ya go!" "Thank you!"
"Oh yeah!"
"Is it good?" "Cheers!" "CHEERS!"
"It is midnight, August 15th..
we're about half way between Banda..
and Ambon. No wind
We've been motoring since we left for the last 60 miles
about 10 hours.. but ahh..
calm conditions.. not much going on
except the creaking of the main.
And it's pretty boring!
When running at night near land,
we always run our Radar and AIS in combination with the GPS.
It's not uncommon to encounter unlit boats in these waters so it's just an extra precation.
Running the radar also allows us to perfectly
align the chart offsets by overlaying radar data on top of the chart itself.
Radar is always spot on when it comes to land!
The early morning hours had us dodging
moored fishing huts as we pulled in the bay.
Surprisingly they were in water over 600 feet deep!
We found a nice, shallow spot in front of the hotel reported to be cruiser friendly and dropped the hook.
It was time to explore our first big Indonesian city!
Up Next!
We buy some blackmarket diesel,
and explore the crazy Ambon markets!
"EW"
"Did you brush your teeth today?"
(laughing)
"Brady Trautman!"
"Welcome to Banda Aceh! We are about to climb the Volcano!" (laughing)