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| Day 86 |
01 July 2000 |
| Banda Sea |
| "Same Sea, Different C" |
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We kid ourselves that we are doing it tough. The ship is
lurching around making us seasick, water drips on our heads as
we try to sleep, the hold is hot and airless, and we have run
out of weetbix. We have to look on the bright side though. We
are under no great risk of scurvy, our water is not going rancid
in barrels and, unlike our early 17th century counterparts, we
have a chart of the area we are navigating in.
It is hard to imagine what it must have been like for Jansz and
his crew sailing east from Banda. The sea they sailed over would
have looked beguiling similar to any other patch of ocean:
bluish-grey and covered in waves. But what mysteries lay under
the surface? What reefs and rocks might the Duyfken come to
grief on in the middle of the night? Jansz would have been well
aware of the precipitous nature of the volcanic coastlines in
these parts that give no warning of their approach. One moment
the bottom is too deep for soundings, the next moment the ship
can run ashore. His must have been a stressful voyage with so
many unknown dangers.
Mid afternoon we sight the coast of Seram. The mountainous
outline is so familiar it is like deja-vu. We have made landfall
at exactly the same place as we did two days ago. Does that mean
we are re-enacting our own voyage already?
The wind has dropped off and the sea has flattened out so I make
the decision, welcome to some and disappointing to others, to
take in sail and start the engines. We start to make some
progress towards Kai, the rain clears and we even get some
sunshine for the first time in days. In the smoother waters near
the islands the motion of the ship is much more comfortable.
Appetites return with gusto. Cheerful conversations spring up
all over the ship.
This may be a re-enactment, but it is a very different voyage to
Jansz's. We not only know where we are going, we even have a
rough ETA. At this rate we will be in Tual, capital of the Kai
Islands, on Tuesday afternoon.
Our unknowns are of an altogether different nature to Jansz's.
Has Tual been inundated with refugees from Ambon? If so, how
safe will it be? How long before the violence spreads this far
east in Maluku? Will Wahid's measures to quell the fighting
work?
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Peter Manthorpe
Master
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