Cruisers Forum
 


Reply
  This discussion is proudly sponsored by:
Please support our sponsors and let them know you heard about their products on Cruisers Forums. Advertise Here
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 27-03-2018, 11:23   #16
Registered User

Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: London
Boat: Peter Snell Easy catamaran, 38ft
Posts: 8
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

Thanks a lot everyone for the help and advise, definitely very helpful!

The consensus seems to be that 6 months is too short to do this. Although we don't count the buying part in the 6 months (we'd buy the boat around September this year), this is what we were worried about... We are not set on the 6 months but also won't necessarily be able to expand that much more...

Just to give you a bit more understanding, the original plan was to do just indonesia (with the amazing diving sites as some of you have pointed). However, we know a few people there and they made it quite clear that buying a sailing boat in Indonesia is just not possible. So our first fall back was indeed Malaysia but we were advised that buying in Australia would be a lot cheaper (which after research looks like it's true) - hence how we formed that new plan. But I have to say it does bring up a lot of challenges, time being one but optimal seasons being another!

Realistically, how long do you think we would need for such a trip?
TheDelRey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-03-2018, 11:36   #17
Marine Service Provider
 
Steadman Uhlich's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 6,103
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

Here is an alternative that would take three seasons, possibly split in three years. Do each section at the proper season. Take more time in each place. Don't rush.

1. Buy boat in Langkawi (search Langkawi Malaysia boats) (in proper season)
2. Dive around Thailand and Malaysia. Learn Boat and sailing.
3. Store boat in Langkawi or move further East.

4. Return to boat, sail it to Indonesia, Sulawesi, Borneo PNG etc. (in proper season)
5. Dive area.
6. Store boat in that area.

7. Return to boat. Sail it to Australia.(in proper season)
8. Dive Great Barrier Reef.
9. Sell boat at end of voyage to Brisbane.

More on Langkawi.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langkawi

Boats listed in Yachtworld, location Langkawi
http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listi...N&Ntt=Langkawi
Steadman Uhlich is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-03-2018, 12:12   #18
Marine Service Provider
 
Steadman Uhlich's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 6,103
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

TO Cecile:
If I were in your boat shoes (and especially if I were French) I would seriously look at this boat.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2605183
Steadman Uhlich is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-03-2018, 18:53   #19
Registered User

Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Tin Can Bay, Queensland, Australia
Boat: Cloud Catamaran, Cloud 9, 10.6M, Rainbow Dreaming
Posts: 38
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

There is a great relly from Australia to Indonesia which will help with the paper work and clearances .
The time fram is too short perhaps you should consider chartering in Australia and then Indonesia
mjcook is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-03-2018, 19:52   #20
Senior Cruiser
 
StuM's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Port Moresby,Papua New Guinea
Boat: FP Belize Maestro 43 and OPBs
Posts: 12,888
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDelRey View Post
Just to give you a bit more understanding, the original plan was to do just indonesia (with the amazing diving sites as some of you have pointed). However, we know a few people there and they made it quite clear that buying a sailing boat in Indonesia is just not possible. So our first fall back was indeed Malaysia but we were advised that buying in Australia would be a lot cheaper (which after research looks like it's true) - hence how we formed that new plan. But I have to say it does bring up a lot of challenges, time being one but optimal seasons being another!
You could look at what is available for sale in Darwin.
StuM is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-03-2018, 20:07   #21
Registered User

Join Date: May 2012
Location: Tweed Heads,N.S.W. Australia
Boat: Dinghies to Admirals Cup contender,the lot.
Posts: 141
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

I have sailed that I have sailed that route .......to abbreviate .......Sydney.......Darwin.....Ambon.......Davao and return......6 months is way too short.......and to hurry through one of the most pristine areas that the world can offer is just plain wrong.......lots of motoring .......finding fuel......clean fuel......can be a challenge........nil marinas............suggest look at the Darwin to Ambon yacht race / rally site and possibly join that event......also 'Gadfly the Ketch' blog.......lots of info there......I enjoyed the trip so much that I try to keep the area a secret..........
grahamb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-03-2018, 21:18   #22
Registered User
 
daletournier's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Australia
Boat: Catalina 470
Posts: 4,578
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

You mentioned you are divers, I'm assuming your plan is to dive alot during the trip?

Something to consider is the remoteness and difficulty of some of these dive areas such as Raja Ampat.

Komodo is fine, lots of dive shops, dive boats etc but the likes of Raja Ampat is different. You really need to have a compressor or travel with a boat that has, theres not many options regarding getting tanks filled or dive facilities. Also it's best to have more than two of you, the currents in that area are vicious and most places are deep therefore a third person is required in a live dinghy.

If you check out Ocelots blog (John & Sue) they have alot of experience in Indonesia and have detailed descriptions of the areas you wish to visit.

Navigation is another thing to consider, you really need programs like ovitalmap or Google earth overlayed on open cpn for some of the more of the grid places.
daletournier is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-03-2018, 00:17   #23
Registered User
 
Alan Mighty's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Moreton Bay
Boat: US$4,550 of lead under a GRP hull with cutter rig
Posts: 2,135
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

Cecile and Yann have identified top diving spots in Indonesia.

I'd put Manado, on Sulawesi, as the top priority. And aim to dive around Pulau Bunaken (Bunaken Island) and to dive the slope at Batu Hitam (Black Rock). And I'd do it fast.

Why Manado? Many reasons. One of which is that it is close to the centre of biodiversity of the Coral Triangle. And diving the slope at Batu Hitam gives you access to a range of depths and communities.

And if diving were my aim, I'd not bother buying a yacht. I'd use the money otherwise allocated for the boat and use it to hire the top local guides and to buy passage on inter-island ferries and accommodation.

For commercial links, see:

Diving in Bunaken Island, Manado - Sulawesi, Indonesia: Lekuan, Fukui Point and More

Dive North Sulawesi - Bunaken, Manado, Lembeh Strait, Gangga and Bangka

Tasik Divers Manado, North Sulawesi - Facilities and Diving Services

I would add Derawan on Kalimantan (aka Borneo) as the second site (and not that far way, across Selatan Makassar). Derawan also has a slope. And different communities (more sharks, at least some of the time).

Derawan Island - Derawan Dive Resort

Derawan Dive Lodge & Tasik Divers | Kalimantan | Indonesia
__________________
“Fools say that you can only gain experience at your own expense, but I have always contrived to gain my experience at the expense of others.” - Otto von Bismarck
Alan Mighty is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-03-2018, 14:34   #24
Registered User
 
grantmc's Avatar

Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: home town Wellington, NZ and Savusavu Fiji
Boat: Reinke S10 & Raven 26
Posts: 1,230
Send a message via Skype™ to grantmc
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

Would suggest that taking warnings of travelling in the cyclone season seriously. I'd advocate a google search 'Cyclone Debbie 2017' that hit the Whitsundays in late March 2017. The Whitsundays are roughly 900 kms north of Brisbane. A few pics taken at a Hamilton Island marina will perhaps give a clearer concept of the consequences.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	1.jpg
Views:	140
Size:	113.7 KB
ID:	167348   Click image for larger version

Name:	2.jpg
Views:	189
Size:	129.3 KB
ID:	167349  

Click image for larger version

Name:	3.jpg
Views:	139
Size:	50.8 KB
ID:	167350   Click image for larger version

Name:	4.jpg
Views:	165
Size:	69.4 KB
ID:	167351  

Click image for larger version

Name:	5.jpg
Views:	147
Size:	118.3 KB
ID:	167352   Click image for larger version

Name:	6.jpg
Views:	167
Size:	82.6 KB
ID:	167353  

Click image for larger version

Name:	7n.jpg
Views:	142
Size:	71.0 KB
ID:	167354  
__________________
Grant Mc
The cure for everything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea. Yeah right, I wish.
grantmc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-03-2018, 17:58   #25
Registered User

Join Date: Feb 2016
Posts: 74
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

If you need help looking at a yacht send me a message I know a bit about engines electrics rigging etc
cameron82 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-04-2018, 15:36   #26
Registered User
 
the dude abides's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2016
Boat: Slocum 43
Posts: 106
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

there are 2 rallies leaving Australia for Indo. One has a departing clearing point of Cairns and the other Darwin. Both have similar costs (approx $400) and they will clear your paper work and handle admin. Admin in Indo can be an exercise in frustration and back handers.
Cyclone season, as you are no doubt monitoring, is prolonged this year. Expect closer to May.
Spent 6 months based in Langkawi last year. Looked at a lot of boats for sale, probably all of them. There are some bargains to be had but all of these will required TLC and some work. You need to be prepared to get stuck in. Skilled workers in Langkawi, not great, same with parts, labour intensive works plenty of but they would need project managing. It all depends on budget and how time rich you are. For me it was better to buy in Australia and earn here, pay extra to get the skilled experienced work completed while earning as then you can schedule and project plan with more certainty, then to do it myself and take longer and eat away at budget; wait for parts to be delivered, or for a diesel mechanic to show up. But there is no hard and fast rule.
There will be boats looking for crew for the above mentioned rallies so you can keep an eye out for that as well.
Good luck
the dude abides is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-04-2018, 15:33   #27
Registered User

Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Mooloolaba
Boat: Herman Boro 50Ft
Posts: 27
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

Well firstly forget Brisbane you wont have enough time to get to Indonesia and back even if your boat was perfect and the weather is right. Plenty of boats in north Queensland and some in Darwin if your lucky.
How about sailing the whitsundays one year learning to be on your own with help if you needed it and relying on your own navigations
skils. May be search out the boats available and buy one and put it on the hard is Bowen or Cairns until the following year.
Getting North of Australia is damned dangerous with Cyclones that time of year. Check out Southern Hemisphere Tropical Cyclone Data Portal for 2013 to 2019. Getting Caught in a cyclone around the top of Australia is a definately death sentence. Shallow water fast moving tides and poor weather information.
From May onwards is the safest time for sailing in our region. but you can still get severe storms anytime.
Indonesia is great for diving but go to the way out places. Many sites are compromised by polution and fish bombing. Get the very latest information as many places are no longer viable as diving sites.
Probably plan to spend a year, 6 months is far to short.

Good Luck

So excited to tell you all about our plan and get some opinions!

First of all, we is myself Cecile and my husband Yann. We are French divers that recently got into sailing, although we are really newbies, just learning at the moment.

Our plan: we have decided to take a 6months sabbatical (currently saving for it), buy a boat in Brisbane and sail from Australia to Indonesia. As mentioned, we are currently learning how to sail, but without the experience, there are a lot of things that become very difficult in the planning part! First on the list, the itinerary. That’s why we’d like to ask for some opinions! This is our idea below:

https://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/cec/_rN2psHG4_

1. 2. 3. We would start from the gold coast area in January 2019 and sail to the North of the Great Barrier Reef.
4. From there, we would like to hire an experienced skipper to reach the South of Papua New Guinea, towards mid February
5. 6. 7. We would then head toward Kai Ketjil, followed by Raja Ampat in March (which is supposedly the best time to be there)
8. Then back South to the Banda Arc in April
9. 10. En route for Sulawesi to reach Manado in May
11. 12. 13. 14. would be all around Sulawesi
15. then we are planning to go to Komodo in June
16. 17. 18. we would then sail East up to the Timor Sea to then head back to Australia.

So mostly, would be good to get people’s opinion on this itinerary with seasons. We know it’s probably not the best time for the part in Australia but this allows us to reach Indonesia at the best time. Did anyone sailed around East Australia at this time?
Additionally, we know that sailing in Indonesia might be difficult as there are not many ports/marinas to get everything we could need. Again, did anyone do it and could talk about their experience?

Sorry for the very long post! I hope you managed to get through it!

Looking forward to hearing from people!

Thanks all [/QUOTE]
rosco4271 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-04-2018, 16:25   #28
Registered User
 
Saleen411's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Discovery Bay, CA
Posts: 1,183
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Mighty View Post
Cecile and Yann have identified top diving spots in Indonesia.

I'd put Manado, on Sulawesi, as the top priority. And aim to dive around Pulau Bunaken (Bunaken Island) and to dive the slope at Batu Hitam (Black Rock). And I'd do it fast.

Why Manado? Many reasons. One of which is that it is close to the centre of biodiversity of the Coral Triangle. And diving the slope at Batu Hitam gives you access to a range of depths and communities.

And if diving were my aim, I'd not bother buying a yacht. I'd use the money otherwise allocated for the boat and use it to hire the top local guides and to buy passage on inter-island ferries and accommodation.

For commercial links, see:

Diving in Bunaken Island, Manado - Sulawesi, Indonesia: Lekuan, Fukui Point and More

Dive North Sulawesi - Bunaken, Manado, Lembeh Strait, Gangga and Bangka

Tasik Divers Manado, North Sulawesi - Facilities and Diving Services

I would add Derawan on Kalimantan (aka Borneo) as the second site (and not that far way, across Selatan Makassar). Derawan also has a slope. And different communities (more sharks, at least some of the time).

Derawan Island - Derawan Dive Resort

Derawan Dive Lodge & Tasik Divers | Kalimantan | Indonesia
That's some great information.

I'm currently in Bali. My only lame diving suggestion is the USAT Liberty wreck at Tulamben. Nothing real exciting, but the water was warm and clear

Didn't see many sailboats around Bali for some reason....just HEAPS of Aussies behaving badly mostly.
__________________
"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore"- Andre' Gide
Saleen411 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24-04-2018, 13:47   #29
Registered User

Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: London
Boat: Peter Snell Easy catamaran, 38ft
Posts: 8
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

Thanks everyone for all the great advice! It's definitely helping mature the plan in our heads!

So, in the refining phase, we are thinking as follow:
- Leave Brisbane (or further North if we can) in April, and spend about 2 months on the Great Barrier Reef
- One month to do North Australia to Timor with crew members on board, which will get us to Timor around end of June
- July/August between Timor and Komodo
- Sep/Oct to Sulawesi
- Nov around Raja Ampat and Banda Arc followed by a return to Darwin between Dec/Jan

Essentially, we changed the seasons but also made the whole trip longer. We would also adjust based on what happens (if and when we encounter any issues)!

Would love your opinions on this!
TheDelRey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24-04-2018, 15:09   #30
Moderator
 
JPA Cate's Avatar

Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: aboard, cruising in Australia
Boat: Sayer 46' Solent rig sloop
Posts: 28,432
Re: Advise on Australia to Indonesia sailing plan

Bonjour Cecile, et Yann,

Yet another option, would be to spend the entire 6 months in New Caledonia, and focus on the diving in the Loyalty Is.

It is an easy trip from Brisbane to NC and return to sell the boat--with many to choose from; excellent provisioning in Noumea; possible to buy a compressor (but dear), and many sites. Caveats about that are: no boat, no matter what you are told, will be really ready to leave; keeping boats is expensive, but it's a good place to fit one out; if you buy in the middle of the market and don't damage the boat, you should be able to sell in the low end of the market, so the overall cost shouldn't be too bad. List prices in Oz are higher than boats sell for, sometimes as much as 10 -25%.

For sure it's not Indonesia, but if you want to learn sailing and navigating, and experience what cruisers do, then 6 months in NC should still leave you with sites unseen.

However, if your true focus is the diving, I think the suggestion above that you spend your boat buying money on going with groups to the sites you really want to see does make sense.

The thing of which you are unaware is that buying a boat and sailing somewhere is a different thing from buying a car and driving somewhere. It is that you may not have communication with other humans, and when something goes wrong, you can't survive on water like you can on land, and it is very common for something to go wrong. Lacking sailing and boat maintenance experience makes it both riskier, and take more of the allotted time for just fixing whatever it is that happens to need it at the moment. You might not even know what spares (for fixing stuff) you need to carry. In Noumea, there are services which can help you, but not so much in the Loyalties; however, there are daily( not hourly) ferries.

Your plan is a huge ask of both yourselves and your budget.

Ann
__________________
Who scorns the calm has forgotten the storm.
JPA Cate is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
Australia, Indonesia, sail, sailing

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Ideal Sailing time: Indonesia to Australia De Faoithe General Sailing Forum 1 19-05-2016 23:25
Endeavour 37.5 A plan vs B plan Cutter45 Monohull Sailboats 10 30-05-2015 04:25
Crew Wanted: couple wanted for sailing from australia to indonesia catamaransailin Crew Archives 8 17-01-2014 18:32
For Trade: couple wanted for sailing australia to indonesia catamaransailin Classifieds Archive 0 22-10-2013 18:16
Crew Available: SE Asia / Indonesia to Australia cyclingnomads Crew Archives 0 29-03-2010 01:04

Advertise Here


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 07:42.


Google+
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Social Knowledge Networks
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.

ShowCase vBulletin Plugins by Drive Thru Online, Inc.