WE ARE FREE!!! We have been dreaming of cruising around these islands for the last 18 months of being stuck. I honestly think that it was the thought of arriving to the Mentawai islands of Indonesia was what helped us get through our time in Malaysia! After a few little hurdles to navigate upon arrival, we made clearance and wasted no time to get out to the islands. This is the beauty of living on a boat, being able to change our backyard by going sailing! We are in the wet season though so our backyard is going to change often as we constantly have to seek shelter for the night. A task happily completed as after not moving for such a long time, we are happy to pick anchor multiple times a day to have fun!! Living on our small boat for sure has its challenges at times, but what we lack in house size, we try to make up for with adventure as we want to live life to the fullest and share this with our beautiful daughter.
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In this episode of Sailing Nandji, we depart Indonesia on a 220nm sail across the Malacca Strait to Thailand. After a scary start to the journey with problems with our AIS in the middle of the second busiest shipping lanes in the world... We are blessed with the most amazing conditions and make great tracks to Thailand. We have the best sunsets and sunrises we have seen in a long time! For some reason the best sunsets are at sea!
In this episode of Sailing Nandji, we spend our last days in Indonesia. We search the Banda Aceh area for one last surf before we clear out of the country in Sabang. Sabang is the most north western tip of Indonesia and the same port we cleared into Indonesia a long 5 months ago. We have enjoyed our time exploring West Sumatra and the island chains off the coast, but it is time to keep moving and prepare for the next big adventure in 2020! Sad to sail away from Indonesia, our spirits are raised when the biggest pod of Dolphins we have seen in Indonesia greet us for our departure. A glassy smooth sea and thousands of Dolphins, a great way to begin our passage to Thailand!
In this episode of Sailing Nandji, we depart the Turtle islands and head north up the west coast of Sumatra on our way back to Thailand. Our destination is the island of Sabang, the north western most point of Indonesia where we plan to clear out of the country. The trip up the coast had some bad wet weather to start but this only lead into some of the funniest smoothest and fastest sailing we have had for a while! Champagne sailing ladies & gentlemen. Nandji was gliding along at great speeds, fast enough to have the fishing line scream and we catch the BIGGEST Wahoo we have ever caught! It was that big the local fishing boats came from everywhere!
In this episode of Sailing Nandji, we depart the island of Simeulue and head 30nm out to sea to the remote tiny island group we refer to as Turtle island! On our sail down the coast from Thailand 5 months ago, we briefly stopped off at these islands and swam with the most amount of turtles we had ever seen. We never expected to be back here, but since we had the opportunity too, we had to return to see all the turtles again! The water is crystal clear and with a freezer needing to be replenished, Yosh does some spearing landing a couple of Coronation Trout. To go with the large Spanish Mackerel we caught the day before, we are back in business. Living from the Sea.
In this episode of Sailing Nandji, we are still at the island of Simeulue off the west coast of Sumatra. this sleepy laid back island is as close to a free range farm as you can get! With limited protected anchorages along this coast line, we explore the island by land. We hire a scooter and dodge all the farm animals and their land mines, as we take the hog down some jungle tracks looking for waves. It is pretty easy to make a stranger smile. We have an old surfboard we wish to give away and we head down the beach in search of some grommets to pass it on to. It was actually harder to do then it sounds! But we perceiver and one lucky lad is the proud new owner of a surfboard!!
In this episode of Sailing Nandji, we arrive to the island of Simeulue in Indonesia. The island is governed by Sharia law and as we know this is the law of the qaran, we do not know what it means for tourists. To be on the safe side Bonita is well covered on arrival not to offend anyone. This anchorage sucks. Even though the bay is long, skinny, shallow and with a sand bottom, it is open to the South West and the Indian Ocean. Meaning any swell goes directly into the bay. To combat the roll, we set a stern anchor... Yosh goes surfing up the point one afternoon and whilst in the waves, noticed Flubber drifting on pass. Whats all this about? The anchor had come off the rode... Losing one anchor, sure it happens. Losing 2 anchors in 2 days... Come On! Losing our anchor twice is un heard of!
In this episode of Sailing Nandji, some cold hard truth. Relationships ain't easy on a boat. Sailing to super remote places like the islands off of Indonesia requires a solid relationship. We live in a small area of space, are always on top of one another. There is no escape and we are together all the time! How does that affect your relationship? Where do you go if you need to get some space or have an argument. You can't exactly sleep on the couch 2m away from your partner... Or can you?
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