{"id":4017,"date":"2018-08-14T00:32:31","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T00:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svslowflight.com\/?p=4017"},"modified":"2018-12-24T09:29:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T09:29:32","slug":"banda-neira-the-spice-islands-the-history-the-diving-and-a-culinary-journey-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/14\/banda-neira-the-spice-islands-the-history-the-diving-and-a-culinary-journey-check\/","title":{"rendered":"Banda Neira: The Spice Islands…. The history, the diving, and a culinary journey…. check!"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we left Debut in the Kei Islands, Indonesia…. we decided to do a daysail (40 miles away) and headed for a small island named Walir on our way to Banda Islands to cut the passage to just 1 overnight. We left the Debut anchorage at about 6:30 am….by 6:38 I hit a reef…HARD….Now we are awake!  We literally had to reverse back over the reef to get back to our chartplotter track, the way we got into the anchorage. To add….at about 7:30 am we also ran into about 20-30 nets all with black buoys while we were rounding another small island….It was so nerve-racking that by the time we got out into open water at 9 am…I was ready for a drink.<\/p>\n

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A photo of our tracks in and out of Debut anchorage:  To my defense….lol…driving while asian…. I was trying to give the little island you see there plenty of room as generally there are surrounding reefs around the islands…this time the reefs was closer to the main land. Nothing on the charts or Google images helped us to see the reef. The only thing that could have helped us was the sunlight but leaving so early, that was not in the cards for us. Additionally, we were not the only ones to hit this reef… we heard over the VHF radio another boat needed dinghies to help pull them off the same reef. Not happy they ran aground but relieved that I wasn’t the only one : )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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When we got to Walir Island, there were lots of other rally boats there (14). We jumped in the water to take a look at the possible damage to our hull. Trevor said it is minimal and the scratches can be re-painted when we get hauled out again…whenever that will be?!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next morning we headed out for Banda, a 140 mile passage.  The passage was uneventful (thank goodness) and we flew wing on wing in 15 knots almost directly downwind sailing.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of SV Escape Velocity who screamed by us in their 42 foot catamaran.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sailing downwind means the swell comes from behind us and we surf up and down waves. We had 1-2 meter swell for this passage. Here is a view of a wave that just came from behind…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When we arrived to Banda we decided to try to anchor inside the deep bay in front of the village first before we would try to anchor where the rally waypoint said to anchor around coral reefs.  When we were rounding the corner to the bay we sighted Craig from SV Il Sogno racing to us in his dinghy.<\/p>\n

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He said there was plenty of room on the “dock” just in front of town, but we would have to med moor.  We have never done this before and we were unprepared and had no idea what to expect.  With the help of Craig in the dinghy to help us reverse semi-straight and folks on land to help us tie our boat up to trees from aft…we successfully med moored in Banda island.<\/p>\n

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Craig in the dinghy handing our 200 foot aft line to a guy on shore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Guy on shore running to get the line tied around a tree while Trevor runs up to manage the chain and make sure we had enough scope to get us to the wharf wall. We had to drop our anchor about 150 feet from the dock and let out a “bleep” ton of chain in about 140 feet of water. We then had to reverse back to the wharf, a concrete wall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Successfully tied to 1 tree Trevor had to manage the line to make sure it would not get wrapped in our prop as I am still in reverse trying to get as close to the wharf wall as we could.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Then we had to do it all over again to get the other side tied to a tree…..repeat. Finally got the lines tight and chain snug and the boat straighten out so others could come alongside us at the wharf.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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There is a first for everything…we did it…with help….Time for an anchor beer!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Our first round of neighbors…all really big catamarans. We joked that Slow Flight was in the “ghetto” parked at the end being the only monohull at the wharf wall. But we had great access to the dinghy dock (really just concrete stairs) and we were parked right in front of another hotel which serves cold beer and food…. SCORE! Footage from Trevor’s drone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All settled at about mid afternoon we cleaned up and headed to a dinner at Abba’s hotel.  He is the main guy here who can arrange for anything you want: laundry, tours, diving, cooking classes, dinner, shopping…etc.  We kept him close : )<\/p>\n

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Here we all are arriving at Abba’s hotel, after walking through town.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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As we all arrived…Abba himself is singing and welcoming us all to his place and the island.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Shoes off : )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The foyer at the hotel…Magnificent!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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One of Abba’s hotel rooms…. it is about $30 usd to stay here for a night.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The dinner table. We had about 30 people from the rally. They served us soup as our frist course, main dish buffet style of kinds of local fare and fresh fish, then a dessert…. all for about $15 usd. Cold Bintang (local beer) and great atmosphere….what a wonderful welcome to this island. No photos of the food… we were all too busy chatting it up and eating.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

THE BACK STORY of the Spice islands –<\/strong><\/span>There is so much history here and I can barely remember it all myself and I am still learning it as well…. so I took titbits from Wikipedia<\/strong> to explain the basic history of these Spice Islands.<\/p>\n

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The red dot is on the main island of Banda Neira where Slow Fight is and at present is where Fort Belgica stands, one of the largest remaining Dutch forts that are still intact. The green dot to the left of Slow Flight is the island of Gunung Api which is an active volcano that last erupted in 1988. The Yellow dot (far left) is the island of Run and in the 17th century, this island was involved in an exchange between the British and the Dutch; it was exchanged for the island of Manhattan in New York.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Banda was the world’s only source of nutmeg<\/a> and mace<\/a>, spices used as flavourings, medicines, and preserving agents that were at the time highly valued in European markets. The allure of such profits saw an increasing number of Dutch expeditions; it was soon seen that in trade with the East Indies, competition from each would eat into all their profits. Thus the competitors united to form the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) (the \u2018Dutch East Indies Company<\/a>) in 1602.  The English had built fortified trading posts on tiny Ai and Run<\/a> islands, ten to twenty kilometres from the main Banda Islands. With the English paying higher prices, they were significantly undermining Dutch aims for a monopoly. As Anglo-Dutch tensions increased in 1611 the Dutch built the larger and more strategic Fort Belgica<\/a> above Fort Nassau.  <\/em><\/div>\n
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In 1621 well-armed soldiers were landed on Bandaneira Island and within a few days The orang kaya (local leaders of Banda) were forced at gunpoint to sign an unfeasibly arduous treaty,one that was in fact impossible to keep, thus providing an excuse to use superior Dutch force against the Bandanese.The Dutch quickly noted a number of alleged violations of the new treaty, in response to which the Dutch launched a punitive massacre. Japanese mercenaries were hired to deal with the orang kaya, forty of whom were beheaded with their heads impaled and displayed on bamboo spears (aka Bandanese Massacre).  <\/em><\/div>\n
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On July 31, 1667, an extraordinary deal was struck: England officially swapped two of the small islands for a swampy Dutch colony once known as New Amsterdam \u2014 now Manhattan, New York.<\/em><\/div>\n
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With the Napoleonic wars raging across Europe, the English returned to the Bandas in the early 19th century, temporarily taking over control from the Dutch.  On 9 August 1810, the British appeared at Banda Neira<\/a>. They quickly stormed the island and attacked Belgica Castle<\/a> at sunrise. The battle was over within hours, with the Dutch surrendering Fort Nassau<\/a> \u2013 after some subterfuge \u2013 and within days the remainder of the Banda Islands.  This gave the English an opportunity to uproot hundreds of valuable nutmeg seedlings and transport them to their own colonies in Ceylon and Singapore, breaking forever the Dutch monopoly and consigning the Bandas to economic decline and irrelevance.<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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We took a photo of a painting in the local museum here in Banda depicting the Bandanese massacre. One of our rally boats took their kids to the museum and the eldest son said to his mom, “I think this is a little inappropriate for us.”…well said.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The next few weeks are truly a blur…filled with fun tours, visit to a school, diving and hanging out with the other cruisers and locals.  There is no way for me to post all the photos I would like so this is just a snap shot of new and cool observations and over all “The Best of Banda”…. for us!<\/p>\n

The town, wharf, and the market –  <\/strong><\/span> It was a busy wharf with many supply ships and cruise ships coming and going.  Additionally, all the fishing vessels and the boats from neighboring islands would wiz by us.  Town was a short walk around but most of where the locals live is a 10 minute scooter ride away.<\/p>\n

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These are the nets we try to avoid out in the seas of Indonesia : )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This large, for this bay, cruise ship comes in about once a week. It’s so large that where we are med moored the harbour master sometimes has to ask boats tied here to move if the cruise ship wants to come in bow in. We got lucky and the cruise ship decided to turn around in the bay…but another boat had to move anchor…eeekkkkss…not fun when you are anchoring in 100+ feet of water!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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These supply ships carry mostly supplies and some passengers…we were told that this is the way people  “traffic” possibly drugs and other illegal substances as it’s a fast and cheap way to travel among the islands.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The market…. pretty much everyone sell the same things so you just have to look around and see what looks good and what is the best price you can get. We believe that prices could be a bit higher for us as we are not local…but hard to tell.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Spices, rice, beans are readily available but we haven’t found regular flour yet…. they have bread here but it’s super sweet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We went to the museum and this is a traditional nutmeg picking basket…still used today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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For nutmeg that has fallen to the ground…they use these baskets and long stick made from bamboo to pick them up (like chopsticks) so they don’t have to bend down.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The dinghy landing….there were about 30 boats here at one point..this spot got pretty congested…Traffic jam!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spices and new foods:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n