sv evi

Our first stop back in Indonesia was Pulau Kawio. We rested for a few days and snorkeled to the beach to play Kubb with rocks. We saw dolphins pass by while at anchor.

We checked in to Indonesia at Bitung, Sulawesi. It was an all day affair, from 9 am to 7:30 pm.

While in Bitung, we visited Tangkoko National Park and saw a troop of about 50 Crested Black Macaques and a family of Tarsiers in a tree. The Macaques didn’t seem bothered by our presence, and came quite close to us. It was so cool to see them grooming each other, lifting up leaves to look for food, yawning … they seemed very human-like. We got stuck in a downpour, and our guide Ateng gave the girls leaf umbrellas. Here are some pictures and a video from that day.

The Lembeh Strait is arguably the best place in the world to do muck diving, a kind of scuba diving where you are going along the ocean floor looking for small and unusual creatures. It is home to the Mimic Octopus and the Wanderpus Octopus, and especially draws underwater photographers. We didn’t take any photos, or see any octopi, but we did go on 2 scuba dives with NCK Dive Resort. They were actually closed to guests, but took us anyways. We had our own dive boat, and guide, Opo. He was amazing. We saw 3 pygmy seahorses, tons of nudibranchs, 2 cuttle fish, scorpion fish, several lionfish, bubble coral, fire urchins, … so many amazing creatures. Afterwards, we had a delicious lunch at the resort with the kids and swam in the pool. I felt like a queen on this day!

While in Bitung, I made friends with Adam, a Grab driver. He taught me lots of Indonesian as we conversed en route to the National Park and back, and on a provisioning trip to Manado. We ate nasi padang, one of my favorite Indonesian foods, together. He and his partner and 3 kids came out to the boat to have a look-see. They were terrified in the dinghy ride.

I needed to make a dermatologist appointment for Tomu and Luz, for different rashes. Tomu’s hadn’t gone away despite antibiotic cream and steroid cream applied for 2 weeks. Adam made the appointment for me, took us all to the appointment and waited (with his whole family) from 7-8 pm with us, and drove us home again. So kind! I don’t think I could have navigated that on my own. Luckily the doctor spoke English, and I went home relieved with oral antibiotics for Tomu, and creams for both of them.

Next stop after Bitung was the Togean islands, listed as #5 place to visit in my Indonesian Lonely Planet. We caught up to our friend Igna at a bay there — he had beached his boat to replace his cutlass bearing, and needed our help to get it floating again. We arrived at his boat just before 6 am, and helped by filling a giant heavy-duty bag attached to his halyard and anchored with a dinghy anchor to his port side with seawater. At one point Riki was hanging on to the bag using a bucket to fill it, and I was in Igna’s dinghy using a hand-held bilge pump to add water to the bucket. It worked! and White Wings 3 was floating again.

We sailed next to the town of Katupat in the Togean Islands. While at anchor, a boat came up to us and gave us 4 drinking coconuts, compliments of the owner of a new resort called Uma. Later, the boat came back and said the owners wanted to invite us to a free dinner in their resort! Wow, free dinner! It was a delicious meal, and interesting to talk with the owners, who ate with us, along with the village chief.

The following day we took a super long dinghy ride out to Reef #1 to go snorkeling. The water was crystal clear and the reef healthy with tons of fish. After snorkeling about 90 minutes, I told Riki, “I want to stay in Indonesia forever”. 🙂 It is so vast, the people so friendly, the wildlife on land and in the sea incredible, and the food delicious and affordable.

I visited the village of Katupat alone one morning, and had a sweet time at the local school. The kids mobbed me (I arrived at recess) and held my hands as they showed me their classrooms.

While I visited the school, Riki was in the cockpit locker replacing broken (brittle) water pipes from the water maker to the tank.

We traveled further west to the town of Wakai where I bought some apples and veggies.

We went to the Kadidiri Paradise Resort for dinner one night. It was super yummy and had a very relaxed feel. A torrential downpour started just as we were loading into the dinghy in the dark. It made the 1.5 mile dinghy ride back to our boat through reef-riddled water quite hair-raising! Our kids took it in stride and didn’t complain. 🙂

The following day we took a tour in a local boat with Tyeb to a Bajau (the Sea Gypsy, or Sea Nomad people who live in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia) village. The Bajau are known for their incredible free diving skills. We also went snorkeling with Tyeb at Taipi Reef while the kids went back to Paradise resort for french fries.

We left the Togean islands on an overnight and stopped in a calm anchorage for the weekend to celebrate Luz’s birthday. It was our first kid birthday on sv evi with no other kids around to celebrate with. Luckily Jade had been planning for weeks on how to make Luz’s birthday special. The kiddos left on the paddle board the morning prior so I could secretly make cupcakes.

They got to do video games AND watch a movie on Luz’s birthday. I made pisang goreng, fried banana fritters, for breakfast because that is one of Luz’s favorites.

Igna and Kili, his partner, came over for cupcakes and games in the afternoon. They brought balloons and a fifth of Tanguay rum — Igna said 7 is not too early for a sailor to start drinking, haha. We had a chess tournament, Riki, Igna, Tomu and I — speed chess with 8 minutes each — and Tomu won with 3 wins.

Next stop was Luwuk, a town where we could re-provision on the mainland of Sulawesi. Luz came with me to the fresh market because she was excited to spend her birthday money.

Riki did several runs schlepping diesel and water b/c we need a new impeller for the water maker, but can’t find it in these remote parts of Indonesia.

We had a lovely dinner at the night market a block from the dinghy dock: chicken satay grilled over charcoal in delicious peanut sauce, with rice and a noodle soup on the side (cost: $2).

We went to visit Piala Waterfall, a 20 minute drive from Luwuk. It was a short walk to a stunning waterfall! It had a great swimming hole, very deep with easy access. There were limestone rocks forming natural bridges.

We left Luwuk and the autopilot suddenly wouldn’t work. That meant me hand-steering most of the way while Riki worked on trying to repair it. “It won’t fix itself” is his motto, and he just gets right on it.

We just completed an overnight with the autopilot still on the fritz … I was hand steering for about 6 hours while Riki was finishing the head (ie. toilet on a boat) repair. That’s a pretty yucky job, involving disconnecting all the hoses and cleaning the dried shit out of them. Riki gets a gold star!! Best fixer award!

I had a sweet moment with Jade while I was at the helm. She wanted to work on her reading books for home school, books that we take turns reading. When it was my turn to read, she would steer the boat, and when it was her turn, I would.

Then Riki did a long overnight watch until 4 am, and he figured out that if you tighten the wheel lock down, it will hold in light winds, and you just have to make small adjustments. That’s a heck of a lot easier than constant hand steering.

We are anchored in a gorgeous place! High forested hills around, clear turquoise water of the fringing reef around the edges, very protected and calm. We are feeling the itch to get south, as the southeast winds have already commenced. It’s been nice to have a down day here, with home school in the morning and blogging in the afternoon. The girls have been on the paddle board for hours. Riki and Tomu are playing chess. I’m feeling tired writing about all our adventures in the last month!