The wilds of Kirmumjawa
With a yearning to get back to peace and quiet, a new crew member and the thrill of the unknown ahead we left sweet Bali. The Rally took a fork here, some headed north to Kumi in Burma to explore a jungle bordered river and get a once in a life time chance to see Urangatangs in their natural habitat. We took the western route with the promise of more world class diving and a chain of 27 remote islands, Kurimumjawa.
The 250 mile crossing was broken be a one night stay at Raas and then we did the rest in 40 hours with two overnight runs. The seas were calm most of the way and the stars were bright. The boat traffic was heavy so the watch keepers had to keep a close eye. We passed huge freighters and small poorly lit fishing boats all night. This was Lisa’s first solo night watch and Charli’s first time at the helm. Both girls did a great job, woke me when they needed me and tracked all sorts of traffic calmly and precisely.
The third morning we arrived at the anchorage at the main island and joined several rally boats who had already anchored. We went ashore to the small, I mean small, village and was happy to see Dewey, the rally organizer. We had to check in with the local port captain, who, as it turned out, was an expert on local diving. We received great information on the several wreck dives in the area. Of course there were kids and of course I made new friends with my balloons, it is the small things that bring out the huge smiles in this life style.
Armed with local knowledge we pulled anchor early the next morning and headed out for adventure. I love wreck diving, Troy had not done one and Charli was thrilled to go too. Charli had suffered the typical instructor’s ear problem that results from bouncing up and down in the first atmosphere—32ft- of the dive world. She was overjoyed to find the problem was healed on a test dive we had done earlier.
We arrived at the dive site and moored Furthur on one of the buoys provided by the local dive community. Down the chain we went and into the romance of what was a 300 ft freighter. We did two dives at this site and basked in the sunshine between dives.
It is great diving with Charli, she combines training, experience and yet a bit of a court jester under water—we have fun! Like he has done with every part of life on Furthur, Troy has immersed himself in diving and now is a real joy to dive with.
We left the site and returned to the secure anchorage filling the dive tanks along the way. The crew celebrated another amazing day in the Furthur tradition.
