Wicked Horizon

04/11/2023

As you are probably guessing, our family trip from Australia to Sorong will take more than just 4 posts. 😉 As I am sitting and writing I remember all the small stories that happened along the way. So I would like to invite you to take a breath and share those experiences in detail rather than pulling you along, rushing through a 1000 nautical mile-long journey through a beautiful and remote part of this planet!

01/11/2023

Darwin to Sorong - The Stone Boat of Sangliat Dol
We were finally cleared into Indonesia and free to explore the far east of the country.
The Islands in East Indonesia are also known as “The Forgotten Islands” since they have neither much tourism nor significant industry. But they do have history.
Since we first came to Indonesia in 2019 I was longing for authenticity. By this, I don’t mean that Indonesia is fake, but having been a marine trading hub for centuries Indonesia is a huge melting pot of Indian, Arabic, Chinese and European culture. Even today, having visited the country multiple times in the last four years I am struggling to point out, what’s genuinely Indonesian.
Before we left Saumlaki we were so lucky to find a place with a history that goes back to the very first settlers of the Island of Yamndena.
In a tiny village on the eastern coast, you can find a stone structure that dates back to the 4th century. It was used for rituals and resembles a boat since the first settlers were arriving by boats and boats have been playing a vital role in people’s lives until today.
Paul’s mom is greatly interested in everything archeologic so before we left Saumlaki we had to pay a visit. We easily found a driver and after a two-hour trip over roads, that were partly ripped apart by the most recent earthquake, we arrived in the little village of Sangliat Dol.
Our plan was to have a stroll around, get a good glance at the stone boat, maybe stretch our legs at the beach and turn back to the Nora after an hour or so. However, we completely underestimated the importance the structure had for the local community. Before we could get even close to the boat, we were stopped by a gentleman, who directed us to a house a little up the road. Here we had to meet the chief and had to pay him a visit and show him our respect.
From here on in this story might as well have happened some hundred years ago, apart from the plastic chairs we were seated on.
We were guided into a rather simple hut, with a tin roof a raw concrete floor and windows without any glass. A man was sitting at the only table in the room and he obviously enjoyed the respect of the community. Over the last few years, I learned quite some Indonesian but in this situation that didn’t help at all, since these people spoke a local language that had nothing to do with “Bahasa Indonesia”, which was derived from Malay and introduced as the country's main language at the end of the second world war.
Using the international language of smiling, nodding and gestures we finally found out, that we were supposed to buy a bottle of Arak, a strong local spirit made of rice or coconut water. Once somebody came in with the bottle, it was placed at the table on top of a 100.000,- rp note (roughly 6,- €), which was also paid by us. Then he was (at least in our interpretation of the situation) talking to the spirits of the ancestors in the room, asking them to allow us to visit and step on the stone boat. The Arak was obviously also popular amongst the ancestors as he poured a good amount of it on the ground, where it slowly soaked the porous concrete. Now it was time for everyone else to taste the Arak and it was, if not exactly tasty, definitely very authentic and very strong. We had Arak before and when we tried to set it on fire to see, if it was above 40% alc, it burst into flames with a satisfying “Wuff”. The ceremony was concluded by some Christian prayers, also led by the man at the table, and we were finally free to visit the stone boat.
The structure was impressive. Intricate patterns and figures were carved into the stone and as we were sitting on a stone bench on the very top, overlooking the stairs down to the beach and the Indian Ocean, we felt that we got a glimpse back some 1600 years ago when the first settlers arrived from Polynesia.
As I am writing this however, I first of all remember the hour in the house with those people, who were so proud of their ancestor’s stone boat and found us, with our white baby, so interesting. All of us were smiling and laughing together without understanding each other’s words.

01/10/2023

Vi gleder oss til nytt medlemsarrangement i morra! Da går turen Papua Ny-Guinea Rundt 🌊 🗿⛵🌴 🧭

Alltid like hyggelig å dele strabaser og milepeler fra de 7 hav med dere, ikke minst slå av en seilprat etter foredraget 😊
(Fotograf for anledningen var sist gang Jan Gossner)

I fall du ikke har fått det med deg ennå:
ℍ𝕧𝕒? "På skolebenken i Stillehavet" 𝘗𝘢𝘱𝘶𝘢 𝘙𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘢𝘶𝘭 𝘰𝘨 𝘣å𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮 𝘧𝘭𝘺𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵
https://www.facebook.com/events/875042860858017
ℕå𝕣? 02.10 kl. 19
ℍ𝕧𝕠𝕣? Dronningen, Bygdøy
ℍ𝕧𝕖𝕞? KNS-medlemmer

Øvrig bildekreditt:
Tropisk Seilas/Papua Rundt-sekskløveret

21/07/2023

Darwin to Sorong 2/4
After exploring the nature around Darwin for about a week we were ready to head north to Indonesia. It is quite spectacular that you after only a two days sail (or a two-hour flight) not only come to another country but to another continent, a different society and a totally different culture.
But first, there were the two days of sailing. For our weather routing on short trips, we rely mostly on windy.com, which gives you a lot of information about wind, current, likelihood of thunderstorms etc., and for our passage, Windy looked just great. The forecast showed a bit more than 20 knots of wind right on the beam and dry conditions. This means first of all speed! The reality was a bit harder and it would have been a dream for any racer but we have been on a family cruise. I have sailed Nora for two years and about 7.000 nautical miles now and can count the times we had (sea)water in the cockpit on one hand. Well, this crossing was one of them.
Having the wind right on the beam is a dream as it is the most efficient wind direction you could have. Having the waves right on the beam is a nightmare, as the boat gets hit on the whole length of the hull and gets tossed around rather violently once the waves get high and steep enough.
In reality, the wind was constantly at around 25 knots and we must have hit some current going against it. Not only did we get the occasional sea spray but Paul's mom, stretching out and relaxing in the cockpit, got hit by green water as we were so unlucky to meet a wave just before it was about to brake. This was the time, when we bed speed and early arrival farewell, retired to the jib and third reef in the main and set course 60 degrees into the wind.
Nora is capable of sailing sustained 10-11 knots in these conditions but that requires active sailing of an experienced crew. On our new course with reduced sail, we made constantly 6-7 knots but were able to let the autopilot do the job, have some food and coffee, read a book and the watches only task was the occasional lookout to prevent collisions.
We arrived in Saumlaki in the early afternoon, pretty tired but also pretty proud since this was the first time Paul's parents, who had joined us on Amanda-Trabanthea twice before, were partaking in a proper Ocean leg way offshore without land in sight.
The next task would be to clear into the country of Indonesia. This can be rather challenging since Indonesia's bureaucracy is among the most complicated we have experienced and Saumaki is just a small outpost where Immigration and Customs have little experience in how to handle the situation. However, we found the officials always very friendly and helpful and when they left their offices to inspect the boat they even put on their Uniforms. A little annoying was that every party had to inspect the boat separately. First quarantine, so migration and in the end customs. The whole process took over a day and the extremely shallow water at low tide made it even more difficult to row the officers back to shore.
The mood was however on top. The reason for this was Leander, who found all these strange people very entertaining and in return entertained the officers by just being a laughing white baby. Every single officer needed a selfy with Leander on his arm and later in Tual, we should find ourselves on the Immigrations Instagram page.
After nearly two days of bureaucracy, we were finally ready two explore a part of Indonesia that most travellers never will see. East Indonesia is very remote and we were the only “Bule” (Indonesian word for white foreigners) for most of the time. This however gave us the opportunity to get a much more authentic experience, far away from the well-known destinations like Bali, Borneo and Komodo.
These experiences you’ll get in the next report! 😊
If you would like to join us on one of our expeditions, send us a message or have a look at our website! We would love to welcome you onboard!

10/07/2023

10/07/2023

Expedition report: Darwin, Australia to Raja Ampat, Indonesia 1/4
After a necessary and quite refreshing refit in Darwin, Australia, Nora is sailing again.
From the end of May until mid-June, we spend over 3 weeks sailing from Darwin to Sorong where both Nora and Paul concluded a circumnavigation of Papua, that started in January together with six students from Kristiansand Folkehøgskole.
The crew for the latest leg are our skippers Charlotte and Paul and their 10-month-old son Morgan Leander. This was the first trip for them as a family so as additional crew Grandma and Grandpa from Germany, Paul's Parents Mareile and Torsten, made the crew complete.
Before we left Darwin we wanted to have a closer look at the Australian continent, or at least some of it.
Darwin has easy access to a couple of national parks so we rented a car and Paul took on the challenge of driving on the left side of the road at 120 km/h.
The first stop was a place called “Zebra Stones”. In the middle of the outback, people found billion-year-old stones with iron embedded in beautiful lines and structures. The effect still isn’t fully explained but most likely the iron aligned itself when the stone still was fluid magma and the area was on the magnetic south pole. However, the stones are beautiful and extremely rare
Another pretty cool sight was the termite mounts in the area. Two different kinds of termites are building two different types of “castles”, giving the savannah the look that makes you think: ” Wow, I have seen this on Discovery Channel, but now I am actually here!” The slightly less impressive-looking mounts are actually the more interesting ones. They are perfectly aligned from North to south so one half of the mount is always in the shadow, giving the termites a cool spot to hang out in at every given time of the day, even when the sun is burning and the savannah. Hard to imagine humans building skyscrapers to so only use half of it at the time.
We fought off the midday heat with a swim under one of the many waterfalls in the area. Even though the area doesn’t get rain for several months in the dry season, the ground is so porous that it stores water like a sponge, slowly releasing it and keeping creeks and waterfalls running until the next rainy season.
You don’t go swimming in Darwin as the ocean is sort of made to kill you. If you are not stung by a venomous jellyfish or bitten by a shark (yes, shark bites are extremely rare, humans are not on the shark's menu but we were warned against them anyways 😊 ) you might end up stuck under some mangroves by a saltwater crocodile.
We visited a park resembling something between a sanctuary and a prison, where crocodiles are kept, which came too close to human settlements, causing direct danger. The crocs in the park are kept well fed and they enjoy life in an artificial creek. Visitors can go on a boat tour on the creek, feeding the crocs with chicken pieces hanging from a long wooden pole.
Seeing these animals' raw power in action feels quite intimidating. However, we survived the visit unharmed, unlike the poor crocodile that lost its life some days before ending up as steak on our plates. How did it taste? Well, you are guessing it, tastes like chicken, it actually does!
We left Darwin after about a week, now aiming for Saumlaki, Indonesia, looking forward to perfect sailing conditions, at least in the weather report. Reality became slightly different, we’ll tell in the next post!
Are you dreaming of exploring the far corners of the world by sailing a boat? We love to have guests on board, check our next expeditions on our website!

29/05/2023

Charlotte had the great opportunity to give a short presentation at the Toronto (AUS) Rotary Club. Thank you very much for having us! :-)
For us, this means we have done presentations in six countries on four continents.

21/05/2023

Refit Part 2
Being alone on the boat didn't leave me much time to take pictures but we are finally ready!
New Primer and antifouling
Sails back from the Sailmaker
New wind sensor
New autopilot display
New toilet pump
New stove
Refurbished compass
New paint and antislip in the cockpit and on the platform
New Dinghy
All through hulls watertight
1 knot faster with polished propeller and new antifouling
Ready for new adventures!!! :-)

10/05/2023

Refit Part 1
After being stuck in the Indonesian rainforest during the pandemic Nora finally gets herself some well-deserved love. We are spending May on the boatyard in Darwin, giving her an overhaul, and getting her fit for new adventures!

08/05/2023

We have just completed our most beautiful sailing expeditions so far! For four months we sailed with six students onboard from Sorong, Indonesia to Darwin, Australia. The trip took us through Papua New Guinea where we visited places so remote that the cash in our pockets didn’t have any value. Fruits, meat and vegetables were exchanged for rice, sugar and coffee.
Currently, we are doing a refit in Darwin, Indonesia.
Our NEXT expedition starts in summer and leads us through the mystical waters of East Indonesia. We will indulge in local food, explore Southeast Asian culture and free dive with clown fish and turtles in the world's most pristine coral reefs. On top of that, we will take part in environmental work in the area. On Misool Island (Raja Ampat National Park) we will visit a ranger station and help the Misool Foundation repair coral reefs. Nevertheless, we will trawl ocean plastic and conduct a small survey on the origin of marine litter in the area. We still have some spots available in June and July. Send us a message or visit our homepage for more information!.

06/04/2023

We are sampling plastic pollution in Indonesia. Floating trash is collected with a net and analysed to determine its origin and composition. Sampling is completed and a report is being written. Check out how we are collecting our samples!

04/04/2023

Linn Charlotte Klund wrote the titel story in the latest edition of "Seilas", the member magazine of the Royal Norwegian Yachtclub. Seven pages about our sailing adventures in the beautiful country of Indonesia. (starts on page 52)
https://issuu.com/vbmedia/docs/seilas_2023-1_digpub

In case you feel inspired: We still have some open slots for guests this summer. Leave us a message if you are interested!

Read SEILAS 1-2023 by VB Media AS on Issuu and browse thousands of other publications on our platform. Start here!