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Chronologically Challenged Couple Cruises the South Pacific

Welcome to our blog.

Here’s an explanation of all things TwoAtSea, including the reason behind our seemingly random posts.

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We’re thrilled to be working on a new project: a video series about cruising, specifically the way we do it on Legacy. Instead of focusing on technical aspects like sail changes or rigging designs, we’re zeroing in on how to sustainably cruise to exotic locations on a small boat over the long term.

So far, we’ve been referring to this course as “Cruising 101.” Keep an eye out for more updates as the course takes shape.

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chronologically-challenged-pics

Get this Mother-lovin Snake off this Mother-lovin Boat!

March 24, 2024

During the night, something touched my arm. “It must be a moth or a flying termite thing?” I thought. Back to sleep. Then I heard dishes rattling. “Must be something settling?” I thought. Back to sleep. Then more rattling. Nope. Something’s up. And it’s 2AM, naturally!

Thinking a bird had flown into the cabin, I grabbed the flashlight and cautiously crept toward the galley. I wasn’t prepared for what I found! Here’s a quick video for more slithery goodness…

Amethystine Python in our Galley
A Big Thankyou to Cyndi for her Courageous Camera Work!

In some of the images, it looks like there were two snakes. Nope, just one really long one curled around several times. I used the above photo as a reference to measure the length of this Amethystine Python and it came out to 10.9 feet or 3.3 meters. It was as big around as my wrist at its widest.

Cyndi is sleeping right now. She’s not going to be happy when she wakes up and sees this blog post as we were both hoping that we’d find it was just a bad, mutually shared dream.

Why does all the bad stuff happen at 2 AM?! The other day we heard a “knock, knock, knock” at 2 AM. It was the Ternate harbor pilot telling us we had to pull anchor and move further away from the big ship wharf. We came over here to Halmahara for peace and quiet. Look how that worked out!

We used a 2 meter long piece of angle aluminum to gently lift parts of Snakey McSnakeface and persuade it to move into the cockpit, then overboard, into the water. He swam away looking perturbed. (Not nearly as perturbed as we were!) It took us hours to get back to sleep.

We sealed all the hatches despite the warmth. I’d rather face a bit of stuffiness from limited airflow than risk compression asphyxia from an encounter with this snake’s even larger sibling. (Truthfully, this snake could probably do the job just fine and let his big brother sleep in.)

By the way, the music on this video is AI generated by Suno.ai. I can’t stop singing the song!

-Rich

Lindeman Island National Park: Shaw Island (Cumberland Islands, Queensland, Australia)

Posted March 22, 2024  about
September 21, 2022

Our next destination would now be Lindeman Islands National Park, consisting of two large islands, Lindeman and Shaw, surrounded by a few smaller islands. (Thomas Island, mentioned in my last post, sits outside the group to the south.) Below, a map of the area . . .

Shaw and Lindeman Islands are in close proximity to each other. Shaw Island’s long slim curve of land lies in a north-south direction, while Lindeman’s rounder form nestles just inside Shaw’s northern tip. The islands are less than a mile apart at their nearest point, creating a natural harbor-like space between them.

Our plan was to anchor between them, close to Shaw’s southern end. Below is a map of Shaw and Lindeman Islands.

As we approached Shaw Island, its south shore came clearly into view and didn’t look especially interesting.

But as we motored around the island, an amazing view unfolded to the north: a wonderland of peaky mountains, rolling hills, and scattered islands as far as the eye could see!

We were now very close to Whitsunday Island National Park, and it was exciting to get a glimpse of it. From here on, not only would the islands be more mountainous, they’d also be much closer to mainland Australia. All this land around gave the area a much different feeling.

For now, Shaw Island’s silhouette was impressive as its rounded hills were divided by low saddles and fringed by beaches. This was accented by a singular high mountain rising prominently in the middle of the island.

Shaw was forested by Australian bush made up of leafy trees, wispy pines, and dense underbrush. The tropical water’s hues ranged from bright royal blue to turquoise and green near the shore. It was actually quite beautiful for the easily impressed (apparently me). But even the less easily impressed (Rich) had to say it was nice.

We anchored off a large, wide beach, divided from a neighboring beach by a rocky shelf. It was still early enough that we could go ashore to explore.

And now let’s delve into another challenge of cruising. Well, not just cruising but travel and, for that matter, life:

Pop Quiz: You have the immediate opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, a moment you won’t encounter again. Yet you aren’t in a good place emotionally (upset, sad, or sulking) or maybe just simply tired. What do you do, what do you do?  Your body and soul are telling you that you don’t feel like partaking, but a small part of your brain is saying, “Hey, snap out of it, or you’ll miss this. And if you miss this, you’ll regret it later.”

The larger part of you doesn’t care, but hopefully that small voice can help you see the golden thread to something better. To follow this thread, you will have to stand up, get moving, and go through the motions of actually wanting to do this thing (whatever it may be). Going through the motions will actually give the happier part of you a chance to catch up to the moment. Before you know it, you’ve overcome the mood and reconnected with the world. At least this is usually my process.

Neither one of us was feeling motivated go ashore, but it was now or never; so I prodded us to get going. Soon, sunscreen was re-applied, cameras were in my backpack, sandals were dug out, and we were in the dinghy headed towards shore.

The area off the beach was quite shallow; so I jumped out of the dinghy and walked us in. The water was clear and quite pretty, looking like a great place to sit and bask while taking in the scenery. The beach was even bigger than it had looked from the boat. I was suddenly looking forward to this outing! –Cyndi

Jellyfish Lake

March 19, 2024

Cruising the Misool area was a life-highlight and snorkeling with millions of drifting, stingless jellyfish was one of the highlights of cruising Misool.

Here’s where this is:

We dropped our anchor at: 01° 58.9828′ S, 130° 30.8417′ E. There was enough swing room during the two nights we spent there. We were anchored in about 60 feet as I recall.

We had a local who said he represented the local chief ask us for 3 million rupiah. We told him we had Raja Ampat cards from the government but he said there were different rules at these islands. I showed him my almost empty wallet and he settled for 500,000 (about $30USD). He probably would have taken a lot less but he told us there were trying to raise money to build a ranger station. We thought that a worthy cause.

There was also a 75,000 Rupiah charge per person to go in the lake. (About 10 USD for the two of us.) The climb up and over the sharp rocks into the lake was hard. I wish I’d brought better shoes and not my sandals. While the climb is hard, it doesn’t take very long. Be careful of the very sharp rocks.

Many years ago I had a chance to swim with jellyfish in Palau. I’m not sure I’m remembering accurately, but I don’t think there were this many jellyfish there.

Note: The music on the video was AI generated by Suno. You give it a text prompt and it gives you music. I’m happy with it and can’t wait to see what it can do as it develops and some of the bugs are squished.

-Rich

Yep, We’re Still Alive

March 18, 2024

Apologies for the update hiatus—we’ve been off exploring the more wildernessy parts of Indonesia far from internet access. (Can you really call it being “alive” if you don’t have internet?)

This is the first we’ve had access since leaving Banda. Here’s what this part of our cruise has looked like…


The yellow line is what we’ve done and the blue is what we’re about to do.

Misool was absolutely amazing! Just wait ’till you see the photos and videos we hope to post soon.

Right now, we’re heading to Lembeh Island where we have to be by the end of March for our flight to Kuala Lumpur to renew our visas. We need to leave Indonesia to renew our Indonesian visas. That makes sense, right? We have to leave the county every six months. Aaargh!

Ambon Anchorages

February 20, 2024

We’ve been in Ambon harbor for over a month now. Here’s what we’ve learned about anchoring here…

Here’s an interactive Google map showing the places we’ve anchored…

Our favorite place was by the government boats. It isn’t perfect but it has a lot to offer.

Pros:

  • The holding is very good. We’re anchored in about 55 feet of what I’m sure is mud. We have had a little wind here and Legacy’s held firm.
  • It’s well protected from winds and completely protected from waves and swells.
  • There’s a great place to land our dinghy to go ashore. The crew of the government boats invited us to tie up to their swim steps.
  • It’s close to transportation. The main road is only a short walk up the driveway and there you can catch a Bemo or a rideshare with Grab or Maxim.
  • It’s kind of pretty.

Cons:

  • It’s a little noisy with at least three mosques within hearing range.
  • It’s close enough to the pier (Lipi Wharf or Dermaga Lipi) that the kids that swim and play there almost every afternoon can (and will) swim out to your boat. The first few times they did this, they climbed into our dinghy and brought quite a bit of salt water with them.
  • It’s not pristine. There is some trash in the water but usually less than most other places we’ve anchored in Indonesia.

Zulu Waterways can be found here: https://www.zuluwaterways.com/

And here’s the Wikipedia page for the bridge, including the clearance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merah_Putih_Bridge

Our favorite spot to anchor outside the government boats (Coast Guard? SAR?) is: 03° 38.445′ S, 128° 12.008′ E