We have just returned from another exciting sailing voyage around the Spice Islands on the Ombak Puitih with twenty one people on board from Australia, America, Canada, England and France. Once again the weather, the crew, and the food were perfect. The only hitch was some damage to the anchor winch, but after working through the night the crew were able to overcome this problem.
As always the highlight of the voyage was our visit to the Banda islands, including the old forts, the historic Dutch Church and the nutmeg plantations. Something different was our trek inland on Halmahera to visit a waterfall that must have been 100 meters high and then be entertained that evening with singing, music and dancing by the villagers who live nearby.
Finally on reaching the island of Tidore we learned that a new Sultan was to be crowned in a few days and one of our group has stayed on to view the ceremony.