Seram and back to Tual
Blue Hound
Phil Marks & Rosy Jensen
Mon 12 Dec 2022 03:47
We left West Papua, heading west in the hopes of reaching Ambon, the largest town in the Maluku province, to renew our visas by the end of December.
After clearing Selat Adi and a few days at sea with little positive progress, Phil had some ideas about the engine problem. The heat exchanger was losing fresh water at the rate of about 2 litres an hour. It was manageable and so when the wind was light we used the engine, which was consuming our precious drinking water. We managed to catch 20litres at a time as squalls came through – and we had bottled water reserves anyway.
Seram is a narrow island 185 nm long to the east of Ambon, and we had a peaceful night anchored in the SE corner off a village with good communications! The next night we were not so lucky, anchoring off a beach was so rolly we used the lee cloths. I was keen to land another tuna but the sea along this coast was full of plastic and after several attempts I had a bucket full of plastic!
After our rolly night we headed out to sea, away from the coast. Just in time. A westerly gale came through, and the next day we decided our only option was to return to Tual, as time was running out for our Visa renewals and the winds were settling to the expected squally north west monsoon as the season changed, We had no option but to sail back to Tual, 170 miles downwind.
Photos:
Fishing fleet out of Kaimana. (spotter on bow)
Terns and another getting a free ride
My fishing!
The island of Seram & villages
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