Labuha

Labuha

Located on W. Halmahera, Labuha’s harbor was pretty open to the SE swell.    We opted to anchor about 2 miles away near a resort island along with 2 of the other boats, while everyone else anchored in front of town and then abandoned their boats PDQ due to the rolling and headed to the hotel being used as rally HQ.     

The town officially greeted us the next morning with, you guessed it, more kids, traditional dances and dignitaries.     We were told there was to be a parade but learned that we were the parade when they loaded us up in becaks (small pedicabs) and pedaled us around town and neighborhoods. 

 One of our group, Barry, totally won over the community when he switched places with the pedicab driver and pedaled him around town with the group.    We were taken one day to an elementary school where the kids just swarmed us wanting their pictures taken and getting our autographs in their little exercise books.     They sang for us and we sang a little ditty for them and everyone was thrilled. 

   

Iksan, our guide here, took us out to an abandoned rubber plantation and lunch again with the regent.    The last night here we had dinner at a seaside restaurant  and it wasn’t long before the dancing broke out again, a  little mix of rock and roll and traditional, all good fun.

I have to hand it to the Maluku tourist boards in the various towns we were in for doing their best to show us a good time and hopefully encourage other cruisers to come to this area.   Raymond Lesmana has been with Sail to Indonesia for over 10 years and has led many cruisers through Indonesia.   He's an expert at it and a great source of information and help.

 It was definitely a special time that we won’t forget and for us, a chance to be with other cruisers as we so often travel alone and this was a great group of people.   We have made some good friends in just the few weeks we were with them.   But, as cruising goes, everyone has their own plans and we spent one last evening in a small bay with a potluck on the beach to say our goodbyes. 

 Most of the group headed South for Darwin while we were going back North to Palau.  Another boat, Island Time, was with us for a few days before they headed east to PNG and we went to Sorong for check out.  On our way we passed two whales.

Cruiser Notes:   Anchorage at Labuha (0 37.795S; 127 25.892E).   We managed to get propane here which is kind of a rigamarole as it is regulated.   We had to get a large tank, decant it to our smaller ones and do it surreptitiously  as that is illegal.     Bank on the main street just behind the ferry docks.