Sunday 1 August 2010

Banda - The Spice Islands

With a 5 day forecast of 25 knots ahead of us we departed Darwin into what was going to be an uncomfortable trip across the Arafura Sea.


We briefly stopped in the Taninbar Island group before continuing on for Banda. Enroute we had a forward watch looking evidence of a submerged obstacle that appeared on our CMAP charts. When the rain clouds parted we spotted our underwater obstacle in the form of a large volcano arising from the 6km depths of the Banda Sea.


After picking our way into Banda in the dark, tip toeing between the floating fishing huts, we awoke to find ourselves anchored beneath a Volcano. I knew this would spell trouble as Amanda would try to make me climb this.


After a few Bintang’s over lunch, we headed for the old dutch fort we met Ben, our new best friend. Much to Amanda’s delight he took us on a tour of his garden where she was able to open her first Nutmeg. As expected it appears we will climb the volcano…

1 comment:

Amanda said...

That's cool, I haven't seen nutmeg like that before.