On October 22nd at 13:16 Rainbow Safari crossed the equator, about 35 miles West of Pontianak, capital of West Kalimantan and our next destination and provisioning stop.

We had already had an eventful day. It started at 3 a.m. with a massive thunderstorm. All of us woke up and huddled in the salon, hoping that we would not be struck by lightning again. Flashes were almost continuous, rolling thunder and torrential rain provided the backdrop. We had arrived just after sunset and anchored close to Pulau Datu, a mountainous little island. I hoped that the higher, jungle-clad hill would provide better ground targets for the lightning than our mast. Just after 4 the thunderstorm moved on, and we went back to bed.

By the time we woke up and had the boat tidied up and ready to leave it was a little later than planned. But we could not raise the anchor just yet: a small fisher boat had been going back and forth in front of us for the last half hour or so, and Ute saw how he pulled a big fish out of the water just in front of us. We waved to him, but he continued to go back and forth. Must have not met many hungry yacht crews in his life. So I lowered the dinghy and went shopping with Niki and Hero: we pulled alongside, he did not even stop, handed a nice what-looked-like-a-barracuda into the boat, I handed a few rupiah back. Shopping done! (But the real work started for Ute to expertly gut, filet, and later cook the catch)

With the fish on board it was time to leave, and time for the next rain shower. We raised the anchor and headed due South, towards the equator. Reaching it was like a combination of new year’s countdown (quite literally counting down the seconds, but in this case the nautical distance) and carnival. After we counted down to 0 and congratulated each other, King Neptune appeared to welcome us and turn pre-equator pollywogs into seasoned shellback mariners.

The ceremony included a symbolic head shave, with each crew member offering a strand of hair to the sea. Then we all had to swim in the open ocean, to prove our worthiness for Neptune’s domain. Finally, a solemn oath to take care of the sea, and certificates for each of the new shellbacks, handed out by Neptune himself!

Of course no celebration is complete without a feast: so with the work duly completed, we earned a slice of chocolate tart (Blezy’s secret recipe, this time baked by Niki, Nyala and Ute) and special sodas for the kids, and bubbly for Ute, Celine and me. Cheers!

Early this morning we reached the Tambelan islands, after a 24 hour, 140 nautical mile passage from Pulau Akar in the Anambas. It’s a small archipelago of 30-40 islands, halfway between the Anambas and Borneo. Tambelan is a great stopover for us to recover and get some down time at anchor. Geographically as we approached Tambelan we returned to roughly the same longitude as Singapore, returning from our “Northern loop” to the Anambas.

The passage was quiet and peaceful. There was no wind, so we motored all the way through calm seas, under cloudy skies with an occasional rain shower. We had about two thirds of the moon left, which gave us a little bit of light. Around 4 in the morning we could discern the first islands in the dark. From 5 the first light announced the sunrise, and soon the sky was lit up in bright colors as a backdrop to the Tambelan island silhouettes. Soon after the air changed and we could smell the land: the jungle trees and flowers.

The first anchorage I had selected on the map was between two small islands, with a beautiful jungle backdrop and a small beach to explore. But as we approached we found the water was teaming with jellyfish. This was not going to be a great swimming spot. We continued on, and on the third attempt found a small, almost circular bay surrounded by coral reefs and mangroves. This would be our home for a day. We swam, paddled to the mangroves, slept and played. Early tomorrow morning we will move on towards Borneo.

The Anambas are a little known secret. Only about 250km from Singapore, this small archipelago of 200 or so islands has beautiful scenery, turquoise waters, pristine beaches, and a very friendly population.

The main town is Tarempa, and with a big port and a population of approx. 3000 it is obviously the market place for the islands. We checked into Indonesia here, with the required stops at immigration, quarantine, customs and port authority. Everyone was friendly and helpful, but the process took most of a day. When we arrived in Tarempa Agus was waiting for us, the restaurant shift manager from Nikoi who was spending his holidays in his home town. He took us from one office to the next, translated for us, took us to the fish market and showed us around. What a great way to get to know a new place!

After a few days in town we took of for the Penjalin islands, a small group on the Northeastern edge of the Anambas. The trip there leads through small channels between the islands, and we were running slalom around the reefs. Fortunately one of the other sailors we met in Tarempa shared that Navionics had just released a map update for the Anambas: so we downloaded state of the art electronic maps onto our chartplotter, with clear depths through some of these tricky channels. We still kept a lookout anyway to make sure we would stay clear of the reefs that are everywhere.

Penjalin is as beautiful as it looks on the satellite images. We anchored in about 8 meters on a sandy patch between coral reefs. We could see the coral and the fish from Rainbow Safari. We had the pristine white sand beach to ourselves, and spent our time between snorkeling, swimming, diving, and climbing on the big rock boulders that are strewn around the islands. The local fishermen used the bay for shelter and sleep, and stopped by to sell us fresh fish. It was a proper week of vacation.

Unfortunately my fun was dampened a bit by a fever and joint pains, which I think might have been a case of dengue or similar virus. While the fever only lasted a few days, I had no energy for almost two weeks and had to rest a lot. I went for a blood test at the Tarempa hospital, and at least they confirmed that it was not malaria. We probably won’t know, but I’ll be extra careful to avoid any mosquito bites going forward. This is another thing where living in Singapore for so long has probably made us a bit too careless.

After the hospital visit and stocking up on fruit and vegetables in Tarempa we sailed on to Pulau Durai and Pulau Pahat, two nearby islands that are famous for their turtle population. Durai has a few small huts on the beach that house a turtle conservation station, but we did not see anyone. We also did not see turtles, but Ute saw a small reef shark circling her while snorkeling. Pahat was better: here we all saw turtles, and there were many fish and beautiful hard coral patches.

Yesterday we came back to Tarempa for a pit stop. We topped up the Diesel for Rainbow Safari, petrol for the dinghy, fruit and vegetables and eggs, and today we cleared out of Tarempa. In the next few days we will visit a few more islands (moon rock bay, with a promising walk up to a large rock), and Pulau Akar. Then we will leave the Anambas and cross approx. 100 miles to the Tambelan islands, and from there cross to Pontianak, the central city of west Kalimantan province. This will be a major supply stop and we hope to replenish our groceries to last us from there to Bali (via Kumai and the famous Orang Utan reserve at Tanjung Puting National Park.