The Banda Islands
Casamara
John & Susan Simpson
Sat 10 Aug 2024 07:52
| We discovered on our sail through Raja Ampat that the seas in this area can contain some nasty surprises in the form of large floating objects that you wouldn’t want to hit with your boat! We’ve seen huge tree trunks, some complete with branches and root systems, and pieces of broken up buildings or fishing structures. Close to the islands are numerous anchored fishing platforms and FADs, 'fish attraction devices' made of bamboo that sit creating shade where fish will gather underneath. Some of these are lit at night but some are not. For this reason we decided to try to plan a route from Raja Ampat to our next rally stop point in the Banda islands by day sail only. This meant a week of setting off first thing in the morning to arrive at an anchorage before sunset. In theory it worked out beautifully and we had a six day route through recommended anchorages before reaching Tifu on the island of Buru. The recommendations for anchorages come from a number of sources. We have a published pilot book with charts and descriptions of hundreds of anchorages throughout Indonesia, and we also have social media sources in the form of posts on apps and websites from cruisers who have gone before us, a bit like a review on Google or TripAdvisor. We scour these for clues before deciding on the best options given the forecast weather and sea conditions. Our WhatsApp group for the Sail 2 Indonesia Rally is also a great help as people send messages about the anchorages they’ve tried and found to be good, or not. All of this research is needed because none of the anchorages can be entered after dark, there are just too many hazards, and we were trying to avoid getting to a place and finding it was unsuitable for an overnight stay. Our only option in that situation would be to continue on overnight, which we were trying to avoid! On the whole our route plan worked well and we spent the nights anchored in some stunning locations, many completely deserted, where it was just us and our buddy boat ‘Mary Doll’. Occasionally we might see local fishermen go by in their narrow high fronted boats or be aware of lights flickering through the jungle ashore indicating where a small settlement might be. Some of the places we would like to have visited for longer had we not been heading to meet up with the other rally boats, but two of the anchorages will go down on our list of worst nights ever spent at anchor. We lived to tell the tale but not much sleep was had and the details are probably best forgotten!  Greetings from a local fisherman Our arrival into Tifu was a pleasant surprise. We’d heard tales of there being insufficient anchorage space for all of the rally boats and we were arriving later than many so were prepared for a bit of a search to find a tenable spot. This proved not to be the case and we anchored in an ideal spot close to the village. After a month in the remoteness of Raja Ampat it felt very strange to be back amongst people again. The village of Tifu hosts the rally every year and makes an event of it - the Tifu Festival - which includes the whole community as well as the sailors. It’s a small place, population about 300, but it has a big heart. The children were enthralled to have so many visitors at once and would run to greet each dinghy going ashore with shouts of ‘hey meesterrr, hey mees’. Once they knew our names it would be a personal service, making sure we got safely ashore up the slippery steps to the dock and then back again to our respective dinghies at the end of our visit. A young man called Dion appointed himself my guardian and would guide me around saying ’no, no, no’ when it looked as though I might go somewhere or do something he didn’t think was right, or ‘yes, yes, yes’ if it was going to be OK.  With some of the children in Tifu village, Dion is on the right. We were made to feel very welcome and we did our best to support their community in return. We frequented the two small village shops for freshly baked bread, vegetables eggs and many cans of Bintang beer; we visited the school and gave gifts of paper, pencils, balls, frisbees, games, etc; and on Sunday a group of us went to Church for the morning service. Surprisingly, the village was well equipped with audio visual equipment and the words of the church service were projected onto the wall behind the pulpit. Everything was in Indonesian but it did at least mean that we were able to sing along to the hymns and songs. The music was very easy to pick up and there were even two with familiar hymn tunes. At the beginning and end of the service a band of drums and flutes played, and during the service the children played ukeleles and sang. The children’s ukulele orchestra was a highlight of the whole festival and it was clear how much the children enjoyed being part of it. Most of them could play the ukulele but there weren’t enough instruments to go round so they would play for a while and then seamlessly hand the instrument to their neighbour without missing a beat. The village secretary (like a parish clerk), a young man called Dany, was also the ukulele teacher who had formed the band and taught them to play.  The Tifu Ukulele Orchestra play for the birthday party of one of the visitors, led by Dany The Tifu Festival began with a traditional welcome for the visiting sailors and we all gathered on the dock for the greeting. Men playing drums and flutes escorted the local King (Indonesia has a lot of kings!) to present us with garlands and shake our hands. The King didn’t look particularly welcoming when he shook John’s hand but later some of the men from the yachts joined the King in his garden for a tot or two of Sopi, a local spirit distilled from beetroot. After that they all got on very well and the King was all smiles!   The King welcomes us to the village Dany the secretary/ukelele teacher had taught a few of us a local song ‘Nusaniwe’ to sing at the opening ceremony for the village festival. He was delighted to find that John played guitar and trumpet so Dany and John played whilst I led the sailors in singing the words. The enthusiastic singing and dancing of the villagers would indicate that they enjoyed it! Our stay in Tifu ended all too quickly and we said farewell to all our new friends. Our next stop would be 200 miles further west in the archipelago of Wakatobi and the magnificently named island of Wangi-Wangi. |