Spread across a chain of thousands of islands between Asia and Australia, Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population.Ethnically it is highly diverse, with more than 300 local languages. The people range from rural hunter-gatherers to a moder…
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Across the Top and into Darwin
We had a nice trip around the top of Australia and bypassed famous Thursday Island for the aboriginal town of Seisia. We went ashore and found a well-stocked grocery store and added a few fresh things for the galley. We had a calm crossing of the Gul…
Lizard Island and Moving North
We spent 2 days in the Lagoon at Lizard Island since we had north winds. The winds normally blow from the southeast, so this anchorage on the south of the island is rarely used. We arrived just ahead of the pack of about 20 boats that were coming aro…
Bundaberg to Cairns
Only hours from leaving the dock in Bundaberg, our inverter started acting up. The inverter changes the 12 volt battery voltage into 120 volt A/C power at our “household” outlets. Some A/C lights were flickering and the multimeter sho…
Emily Grace Makes Landfall in Oz
Bundaberg is a city in Queensland, Australia and is our first port in Oz. Bundaberg is dependent to a large extent on the local sugar industry. Extensive sugar cane fields are found throughout the area and operations such as the milling …
Chesterfield Reef
Chesterfield Reef is a big V-shaped reef, right in the middle of precisely nowhere. Being almost exactly half way between Vanuatu and Bundaberg, it made a convenient spot to break up the trip. It tapers out to about 8 miles across at the top, an…
Luganville, Espirito Santo
From Vao we headed a short hop up to the island of Espirito Santo and the town of Luganville. We powered through the Segond Channel and hit the tides and resultant currents just right. We normally cruise at about 6 knots but we were seeing speeds ove…
Vao Island, Malekula
Because we had extended our 1 month visa on the cruise ship in Wala Island, we did not need to hurry to Luganville to meet the Customs and Immigration folks. We had heard that the small island of Vao off the northeast side of Malekula was home to some…
Wala island, Malekula
The villages of Malekula are roughly broken into two groups, the Small Nambas and the Large Nambas, and are distinguished by the size of the nambas (penis sheaths) they wear. The degree of kastom tradition varies in each village. Some villages in Vanua…
The Maskelyne Islands, South Malekula
After about a week, Kim and I were feeling a little better and decided to press north to Malekula Island. The Maskelynes are a group of low lying islands with extensive reefs and mangroves off the southeast tip of Malekula. We had a calm trip and dec…
