Wangi Wangi Island

Wangi Wangi Island is in the Regency of Wakatobi, a regency consisting of four major islands and a huge expanse of reefs lying some 300 nautical miles south west of Ambon.  Here on Wangi Wangi, in the town of Wanci, we fell in to the company of several ‘Sail Wakatobi’ cruisers (part of a larger sail rally organised out of Darwin every year) and free-loaded on some of the cultural activities organized for their benefit.  And we have had an absolutely fabulous time!

Women of the village of Waha displaying local foods

men display playing Separaga, a volley ball like game played with a rattan ball

Everybody wanted to be photographed with Zeke and Nina

Dancers and musicians from the village of Tindoi

The law keeps a close watch on us.

Bajao Village, Wangi Wangi.  The Bajo people are ‘water people’, folk lore suggests they were formerly sea nomads, now settled in villages but still intimately associated with the sea.

Bajo dancers and musicians perform a water-borne ceremony...

...boatman...

... and assorted Bajo boats.

Hauling bananas in a traditional clawfoot sailed boat.

Ambon, Indonesia

We arrived in Ambon on 9 August, after a passage of some 982 nautical miles.  For us it was a swift sail indeed after Kallisto, but was accomplished with a feeling of relative comfort, space and ease. The kid’s ability to retreat to their own cabins was wonderful.  We were beginning to feel all the effort had been worth it!

Ambon for us was complete culture shock. It is about as far from tropical paradise as it seems possible to get. Rather it’s a full on frontal assault of the senses: hot, noisy, smelly, ugly and totally chocked by humans and their shit and garbage - humans walking, driving, motorbiking, sleeping, talking, playing - everywhere humans - and almost all very poor.  We played 'spot the European' for days on end and failed to see another whitey.  Almost nobody spoke English.

Despite the crowding its citizens run there lives with patience, humour and zest.  We saw no obvious road rage, no anger, no rudeness.  Nobody tried to rip us off (not hard anyway) - rather most were, by Australian standards, zealously honest.  The few people we most interacted with went miles out of their way to help and assist us despite the sometimes excruciating language difficulties.

That humans, in such crowded impoverished circumstances, manage to conduct their lives with such grace and dignity is beyond me.  Oh that Australians in Australia could do half as well - certainly not I!

Housing clinging, not always successfully, to the steep slopes around town.

On the way to the downtown market...

market scenes

Sunset over a captured illegal Phillipino fishing boat.

A big feature of our visit to Ambon was the chance to visit the Ambon War Cemetery where the remains of Vicki’s great uncle Lawrence Scott were interred.  Lawrie, a Tasmanian from the town of Tunnack, entered WWII as part of Sparrow Force, dying at the age of 21 as a POW in a Japanese camp in Ambon in 1942.  Vicki’s much loved grandmother, Muriel Sherburd, was Lawrie’s older sister.  Muriel mourned her little brother’s early departure till the day she herself died, age 94, in 2009.

Vicki and her children were the first of Lawrie’s direct relatives to ever visit his grave – an important occasion for the extended family and a moving one for us –  Ambon is a hell of a long way from rural Tasmania.

The immaculately maintained Ambon War Cemetery.

Lawrie’s grave

And while in Ambon we all got sick!  Cold, flu type maladies that left us flat, tired and listless with dry, rasping coughs.  Finally, escaping Ambon on 25 August we headed off for the village of Wanci on Wangi Wangi Island.

Great Barrier Reef

Moving northwards behind the Great Barrier Reef we had little time for sightseeing - by the time we'd left Brisbane the sailing season was well advanced and we simply had to move smartly.  The good news though, we were soon back in shorts and tee-shirt country, and not long after that that even this attire seemed far too much!

The sailing was also splendid with strong winds, although strong currents and sharp chops were also part of the package, as were a great deal of shipping.

I continued to finish off work on the boat while we traveled, and by the time we arrived at Thursday Island on 26 July I was feeling confident that Mojombo was ready for our first major off-shore passage aboard her.

Great Keppel Island.  Architect and landscape architect Zeke designing a French villa complete with grand garden, statuary and waterfeature.

Amazing patterns made by the sand crabs on Great Keppel

Magnetic Island off Townsville.  On this walk we stumbled onto a 
nudist beach which Zeke found totally embarrassing

Bringing the bikes ashore, Cairns (a brilliantly bike friendly town).

Captain Cook’s monument, Cooktown.  A tiny crowded and shallow anchorage, but full of character. I wondered if Cook felt the same way?

Thursday Island is a fascinating outpost.  It celebrates its Melanesian heritage through a vibrant contemporary art scene, harvests and exports an astonishing number of crayfish and has an amazing amount of intact cultural heritage.  Heritage  highlights include traditional island culture, pearl divers, WWII soldiers and Japanese aerial attacks and of course Eddie Mabo’s famous fight through the courts.

didn’t see turtles but did see a wonderful art gallery, and real live crocs

"headhunter of the Torres Strait" says the caption
but isn't he wearing a singlet?

pearl diver aboard one of those famous luggers

I reckon the white soldier in the centre of the
photo looks like my Uncle Roy

Aircobra pilot TI

But we had to make tracks! So on the morning of 2 August we departed Thursday Island for Ambon, Indonesia.  We made some early startling progress!!!  Through the passage between Thursday Island Prince of Wales Island we did 11 and 12 knots with just a tiny headsail up.  The currents through the Torres Strait are fierce and the trade wind relentlessly strong.

Our Time in Brisbane

Brisbane was good to us.  All together we spent 5 months there, having entered the Brisbane River on 17 January 2011, the day the port reopened following its share of devastating New Year flooding.  Finding space at the pile moorings at the Botanic Gardens proved easy, as many folks had vacated and run down into Moreton Bay ahead of the flood. The day after our arrival Vicki started work at Griffith University.  Four days later the kids started full time school at Brisbane Central State School.

the pile moorings in the heart of Brisbane,
next to the Botanic Garden

With the boat being conveniently emptied of her human cargo each morning I got busy preparing Kallisto for sale – but never managed to finish the job!  Before I could do so some interfering folks got in the way and bought her off us!!!

So it was that we met our close neighbors on the pile moorings, David and Kate.  David knew about Wylos and liked them, at least in principle.  He had been looking for a replacement boat for his Kalitsa for some time, needing a bit more room now he had a live aboard partner.  They both liked Kallisto from the beginning and after only a very brief period of consideration decided she would do the job!

It all happened so quickly that we almost got cold feet – both from a reluctance to let go of our dear little boat, along with a fear that we might fail to find a suitable, affordable replacement.  But on 5 March we signed a Bill of Sale.

 Brisbane is bike friendly. We all got one and the kids used theirs each day to get to school – nice uniforms huh?

Now having sold Kallisto the pressure to find a replacement vessel, and quickly, was huge.  We needed a place to live!!!  Days, that quickly turned into weeks were spent pouring over the web, assessing the possibilities, drawing up short lists, and hitting the road to all points north and south, meeting brokers, owners and assorted waterfront rats, inspecting, discussing, considering....  During this time LWC really came into her own, doing hundreds, then thousands of kilometres.  But finding a suitable boat proved difficult.  We kept narrowing our wish list, which we finally pared down to: ‘cruise ready’, good sailing characteristics, three separate dedicated sleeping areas (preferably not cabins but definitely not settee berths), and personal storage assigned to each sleeping area.  Ideally we wanted an open plan boat with two pilot berths and a vee-berth. In the end, with a short list of three vessels that looked ok, I made an offer, subject to survey, on the one I thought best.   With the offer accepted my good mate and ship surveyor Mike flew up from Newcastle to run the fine-toothed comb over her – from which she mercifully emerged with a tick.  And with that the sale was quickly finalized and Mojombo became ours on 21 March 2011.

LWC, we couldn’t have done it with out her!

Mojombo (meaning ‘my friend’) is a 1988 Wauquiez built ‘Centurion 42’, a French built GRP fin keeler with an established high reputation in both Europe and North America, although little known in Australia.  She was cruised out to Australia from Canada by three young, adventurous mates, Mark, Cory and Chris – who having got her that far decided it was time to head back home and get serious about some further education – and so offered her up for sale.  While not open plan, Mojombo ticked all the other boxes in our pared down ‘wish list’ – and – despite the three separate cabins (and two separate heads) – still had a reasonably generous salon area.  While notionally ‘cruise ready’ I spent the rest of my time in Brisbane working on her – completing all the jobs identified between Mike and myself as being ‘essential’, most of those identified as ‘important’ and even quite a few identified as ‘a really good idea’.

Mum and Dad visited us just as we were taking ownership of Mojombo.  Dad helped me bring her up the Brisbane River which was great

 Our new boat, Mojombo, settling in on the Brisbane River

Our first major go at entertaining onboard.  Joining us were
Russell and Marilyn from Zulu and Paul, Katie, Harry and Fin
from Intrepid.  We had a great night with wonderful friends.

Niece Kellie and her family visited us from Sydney and 

together we did the sights.

Even my sister Sue and partner Jim paid us a visit!

On 17 June, having sadly waived goodbye to LWC a couple of weeks earlier, the kids finished up at Brisbane State Central School and Vicki at Griffith University. The next day we headed down the Brisbane River enroute to Indonesia via the inside passage through the Great Barrier Reef.  We had sold a boat, bought a replacement, made some money, spent lots, met many wonderful people including a surprising number of established and valued friends, and got ourselves more or less ready to head OS again. We were off on the next leg of our adventure.  Yes Brisbane had been really good to us!

 Vicki at the helm as we depart Brisbane.  It was mid winter and quite cool.

Flood!

Arriving back in Australia in Bundaberg towards the end of 2010, we firmly secured Kallisto to a fore and aft mooring in the Burnett River, bought Little White Car (LWC), and headed off to Adelaide for a proper Willmott family Christmas.  What fun!

The first week in Adelaide we stayed with niece Kerri and her bubbly daughter Leanie, having a ball working on puzzles and op-shopping for clothes.  But early on the morning of 19 December we got a call from Bundy’s Mid-Town Marina.  The river was in flood they informed us, and expected to continue rising.  They could no longer guarantee Kallisto’s security.

A decision was quickly reached.... I would fly back to Bundaberg and do what I could to protect our boat.  Arriving early that same afternoon just as the Mid-Town Marina shop was going under, staff ferried me out to Kallisto and assisted casting off. I was headed down-stream to Rocky Reach, a place locals advised that was good for riding out a Burnett River flood.

Arriving at Rocky Reach I anchored fore and aft close into the mangroves then, with several lines ashore, tucked in close to the bank well out of the river’s run.  Kallisto remained secure in this location right through the peak of the flood, while elsewhere chaos ensued.  What a Christmas and New Year. It wasn’t until Sunday 2 January that the river went down sufficiently for me to be able to make my way with relative safety out the river mouth and into Hervey Bay.

Kallisto anchored at Rocky Reach with lines into the mangroves.  Well out of the river’s run the boat felt safe and secure in this location..

... but midstream was a raging torrent running an estimated 12-14 knots.  Below Rocky Reach the river narrowed again, and was estimated to be running at 18 knots through the next bend.  Midstream a navigation mark, normally high up on a steel pile, can be just seen.

Debris swept past us continuously:  boats, sheds, tanks,
 refrigerators, trees, dead cows, very live snakes and pontoons.

There were 14 boats sheltering in Rocky Reach,
 we formed a little community.

After a week or so some of us ran short of food
and water and the police kindly participated in
supplying emergency provisions

. Opposite us was a successful cane farmers beautiful house and out buildings, complete with an immaculate schooner moored out front...

Between two out-buildings a large carport stored 
a Mercedes, a boat and various other things .

At the height of the flood the things under 
the carport went completely under.  

As the floods receded only the Mercedes re-emerged.  
As you can see, one outbuilding nearly didn’t make it as well.

The main house was well located on a rise, 
which at the height of the flood became an island surrounded by water. 

His neighbour’s houses were not so well located and many had to 
be winched to safety aboard this helicopter...

... but as the flood waters receded the schooner was less lucky, 

being caught and stranded on the bank

It was certainly not the only boat to come to grief

. The banks were littered with craft...

...perhaps these were the lucky ones, many were simply swept out to sea

Back in Bundy things were a real mess.  Midtown Marina was largely destroyed..

... boats were swept from their cradles in the town shipyard...

... boats, boardwalks and all manner of shoreside infrastructure  was damaged or destoyed...

... and the town dock looked like a write-off.

The river’s banks were swept bare of much of their vegetation and heavily eroded...

...and many of the waterfront buildings, while they looked fine, 
had suffered severe internal damage.  Water rose to the top
of the verandah of the right hand building.  What a flood!

Two weeks after flying out of Adelaide the river had receded sufficiently for me to make my way out through the Burnett River Heads and back out onto the open ocean.  I headed down to the Great Sandy Straits and Tin Can Bay.  On 5 January, I was reunited with the rest of the family who had by then driven LWC back from Adelaide.  Finally I could open my Christmas presents!!!