We were Spinning 360°, with water gushing at the boat from all sides. And this was just while we were anchored! Once we pulled up the hook, the Molucca Sea started to throw some of the oddest currents it could muster straight at us.
And so the real fun began.
The most fraught part of our journey south to Lombok commenced in a mixture of currents, overflows and eddies.
Of all the places we’ve sailed, Indonesia has been the craziest for unexpected changes in the water. The passage across to Pulau Weh from Phuket and our route north from Belitung to the Singapore Strait were both plagued by unplanned currents.
“It was like someone had opened the floodgates and we got whirlpools and gushes of water, masses of water coming all round the boat. So much so that the boat was actually spinning 360 degrees.” – Jamie Furlong
Despite the strange water movement, in stunning central Sulawesi, we sailed through azure seas surrounding jewel-like atolls with white-sand beaches. Small fishing boats chuggalugged past and friendly fishermen called out a greeting as they waved at us.
It was every hackneyed cliché in the book. And it was going to be exactly what we had hoped for in the long journey south across the remotest parts of Sulawesi.
But as we have learned over the years, when you’re a sailor, it never quite works out the way you expect…
For the full scoop, watch episode 330 on YouTube…
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