Across the Middle Again

We arrived in Boalemo, the midpoint of the rally to find four other boats, the only ones of the fifteen starters who made is this far. The rest of the fleet took a different route to Raja Amput. We seemed to just miss the big festival in Boalemo, but the rally still had a great reception. Quite a large entourage of people from the Department of Tourism were there with the sole purpose of taking care of us and boy did they. We enjoyed nice albeit often rolly moorage. There were buoys to tie to and the dinghy dock was great. We hit the beach and were greeted like royalty, no one matches the unabashed open friendly spirit of the Indonesians, it is pure, unafraid and from the heart. i had a mechanical problem, the starboard stabilizer ram broke a seal and i needed help. the group there all tried to help and brought a good mechanic. They put in a four day effort to find the seals with several trips to a distant Manado. This was again a result of my poor planning. the stabs have over 7000 hours and the port ram broke a seal a while ago, i should have figured if one is shot the other one is short lived,, another lesson learned. While we waited we were royally entertained with side trips for the girls and a dive trip for me along with many meals. Like other parts of rural Indo, the people are amazingly friendly and they love to have their picture taken with us, “Picture with you Mr.?” is a common call. Makes me feel like a rock star, hahaha

a make shift repair and limited results we head south on a cloudy equatorial morning. We have about fifty miles to go for the Togian Islands and the equator lies right in our path. This is my seventh time across that mystical line in the middle of the earth. King Neptune always makes a visit at this time initiating all the pollywogs into full fledged Shellbacks. This is when one should celebrate the turtle, the symbol of the veteran Shellback and we did by getting all the girls stuffed terrapins. I prepared certificates for each noting this worthy equation.

i asked Chloe just how many of her college friends have crossed the equator on a boat, not many she guessed. This is one of those occasions when we must reflect on the very small percentage of people we know live such a life. As we travel in groups of likeminded and experienced folks, we sometimes loose awareness of how small a group we are. So the toilet flushed the other way now and we are off for great diving adventures.