Why are you entering the Darwin to Ambon Yacht Race & Rally?
For several reasons. The Indonesia Rally is too big, too crowded, and we think in a smaller group or on your own there are more opportunities to get in contact with the local people. Second, we have a special bond with Ambon, since we know a lot of Ambonese people and have some Ambonese friends in the Netherlands. Third, we like to race in a friendly way. And last, it is easy to get the CAIT.
Have you been to Indonesia before?
No, we really look forward to it. Just the two of us crewing.
Have you sailed together before?
Yes, we are a married couple and have sailed together for many years. We are now sailing around the world (in a slow pace) and have done so far 37.000 NM.
Have you ever raced together before?
Yes, but usually with crew. This is only the 2th time we race together with no crew. Actually, we met each other sailing solo on our boats called Jonathan (Anita’s) and Smiler (Dick’s) during twilight sailing on a lake in the Netherlands. Dick had a male boat and Anita a woman-only crew. It was small boats, only 23 ft. But that is how we met and that is about 18 years ago…..
How would you describe your boat, racer, cruiser or live-aboard home?
It is our live-aboard home for the last 6 years, from when we left the Netherlands. It is a good and fast sailer though, although now, with all the alterations and all we have on board, it is way too heavy for racing. But, we try to make the best of it.
How are your watches structured?
We start after dinner in the evening, around 07.30, and do 3 hours on and off, until morning. If one of us gets sleepy during daytime, we take a turns in taking a nap.
What do you have in the pantry?
Everything you have in the kitchen except big things such as microwaves, mixers, bread making machines and so. We have a 2 burner stove, an oven, a pressure cooker, diverse baking en cooking pots and pans. And a full array of herbs, vegetables, fruits, cans, rice, pasta , flour, soups, ramen, etc.
What do you have for treats for when you become becalmed, or after a big squall?
We don’t have special food for becalmed or big squalls. We do have biscuits and (if affordable) banana’s for the first days so we don’t get seasick. But we have peanuts, chips, chocolate, liquorice, cookies and muesli bars so we can stay healthy and keep the hunger away:).
What is your next port of call after Ambon?
Probably Banda
Kind of Blue Skipper Dick and Anita van der Waaij won 1st on Handicap Racing Cruising Monohull Division. The award is sponsored by the DarwinYacht Shop, and presented by the Head of Tourism Office of the Maluku Province, Ibu Florence. The award includes $750 prize.
looking at the race result (mo. 25-07-2011 7:35) shure looks good !!!
“We had a good start at 11.00 h from Stokes Hill Wharf. It is the first time in our sailing history that we were shot away by a Naval vessel. There were lots of spectators, everyone was happy, no accidents between boats although the startline was a bit short. We started somewhere in the middle. The first day gave us very light winds. With all the spinnakers running it was a beautiful sight. Sometime in the afternoon all of a sudden the seabreeze came in, so we were hard on the (little) wind, but that was fine. During the night, the wind disappeared totally. And when the current turned against us, we almost drifted backwards. Normally, in cruising mode, we would have started the engine and motor on. But instead, now we hoisted our spinnaker again in the middle of the night. Gibed it 2 hours later. Took it down early this morning. During the day, the wind turned east en became a normal tradewindconditions. We have now around 18 knots of wind, are sailing with a double reefed main and our genoa. We have a net twice a day, and it is really good for us to know we are sailing in the tail of the raceboats and leading our division of racing cruisers. We push the boat a bit harder then we normally do when cruising, and that ads a knot to our normal average speed. So we are enjoying ourselves!
Greetings from Timor Sea, this is Kind of Blue in position 09.43 S / 129.28 E on Mondaymorning 25th July, 00.45 h.”
“It did not take long for us to take the 2 reefs out. The wind today was a bit fluky. One moment it was 20 knots and half an hour later is was 15. So it was reef in, reeff out a couple of time. The weather was cloudy with some squalls in the air, but during daytime nothing serious came out of it. Last evening though, there was serious wind in it, we measured around 30 knots. At that time, we were unreefed and we reefed as quick as we could. So you see, we were kept busy today.
We made good progress, we could make 8 knots of speed, and at one time, while surfing of a wave, we even had 10 knots on the meter. At this time of night, we are back to winds around 15 knots en doing only 6 to 7 kn. Maybe we should take the reefs out but it is very dark and we don’t trust the squalls anymore….. And offcourse we are also getting a bit tired, being only the two of us and getting not much sleep as it goes. But, everything is well on board, we are still enjoying ourselves.
Greetings from Timor Sea, this is Kind of Blue in position 06.48 S / 128.45 E on Tuesdaymorning 26th July, 01.00 h.”
“The last day of the race took us trough the Banda Sea. We kept around 18 to 22 knots of wind the whole day. Everytime we thought we should put a reef out because the wind dropped, it increased again. If we had a crew, we would have put reef in and out during the day, but now, being shorthanded and a bit tired, we just left it the way it was. We were still doing around 7.5 knots so good speed. During the night, the first thing we saw of Ambon was the light of the lighthouse on Tandung (Cape) Nusanive. The next couple of hours we saw more and more lights coming in the dark of the night. We kept wind all the way, but as we closed the coast the wind got fluky. We decided to sail as close to the coast as possible so we would not miss the finishline. The finishbuoy, a green flashing light, was clearly visible. We knew that the anchorage was south of the hotel, but we saw no yachts anchored untill we were very close. And then at least one of the boats had a light so they could shine a light on the anchored boats. We passed the finishline at 03.23 h.
It took us another hour before we were anchored satisfactory. It is not a easy anchorage, we anchored in about 20 m of water. And then, we finally could relax and drink a rum-and-coke on our safe arriving in Ambon.
The next morning, we were visited by Health (2 persons), Costums (2 persons) and Immigration (3 officials plus 1 student for translation). They were very welcoming to us Dutchies, they all have family in the Netherlands and typical dutch names as De Keizer and Abrahamse. In the afternoon we went to the shore and were welcomed by Stewart from the Race Committe. He had all kinds of presents for us from the sponsors, among which T-shirts from Bintang Beer and phonecards from XP. We had a very nice meal at the hotel Tirta Kencana. Then we went for a walk and a talk and we found out there are a lot of people still speak and understand Dutch, especially the older ones. All the children wanted us to write down our names, ages, where we come from in English so they could practice. And we were able to start learning Indonesian, we can allready say “my name is ….”. It is a wonderful place to be. Lush, tropical green, lots of good humoured people, lots of cars, minibusses and lots of scooters. It is a bit dangerous to walk on the road though….
The weather is very nice, not to hot and a bit cloudy. We even had a bit of rain last night which was very welcome because the boat is still very salt.
The next couple of days will be busy with all kinds of activities. Today we will visit the museum, for which visit we were invited by “tante Joyce”, and Ambon City. We are happy to be here, we will try do make a last report after this week, greetings from Dick and Anita on “Kind of Blue, in the anchorage in front of Amahusu on Ambon.”
We had a wonderful time in Ambon, the reception and all the activities were great. And that we won the first prize in our division made us very happy! We like to thank Dynah Beach Club and especially Robyn and Glen for all the help and support they gave us. A great bunch of people there in Darwin! We have put a lot of info on our website, in Dutch, but maybe you can Google translate. We love it here, except all the rain……
Well done on your race win ,have a great time in Indonesia .Remember us from Tonga last year and the races in Vavau .
We had 2 months in tonga this year and are now in Fiji
Safe sailing Grahame and Lynne