THE SPICE ISLANDS VOYAGE
QUESTIONS & RESPONSES April 1996
QUESTIONS - DATE & NUMBER | SENDER (e-mail address) | TEXT OF QUESTION | TEXT OF TIM'S RESPONSE |
| APR/01/01 | cbsth@iol.ie | (1) Are the islands as clean and unspoilt now as they were when Alfred Wallace explored them? Have you come across much pollution while out at sea? | 1. So far we have been impressed by the unspoiled nature of most of the islands we have visited: Kei, Aru and Banda all remain extremely attractive with the exception of the two main towns, Tual & Dobbo. Villages are neat and picturesque, and while the vegetation is mostly shrubland or second growth woodland, there were considerable ares patches of untouched forest on Kei Besar (primary rainforest) and central Aru (mangrove forests). At sea, so far, we have seen no pollution whatsoever. The major change, we understand, is that there has been a great reduction in the fish stocks due to over fishing, and poor fishing techniques which destroy breeding grounds and young fish. |
| APR/01/02 | cbsth@iol.ie | (2) Did you visit the Japanese Bunker on Kai Dulah Island? | 2. No, the closest we got to Japanese bunkers were some caves on Kei Kecil where the occupation forces sheltered. |
| APR/01/03 | cbsth@iol.ie | (3) Are there any building left over from the Dutch occupation? | 3. Aru and Kei don't seem to have any Dutch colonial era buildings, but Banda many: the houses of the Dutch nutmeg plantation owners. They are quite grand bungalows with tall columns on the verandahs, and high ceilings. Banda also has a restored early Dutch colonial castle overlooking the harbour. |
| APR/01/04 | cbsth@iol.ie | (4) How do you manage for fresh water while out at sea? | 4. We pick up fresh water for drinking at every stopover, and carry enough to last us the next leg of the voyage (plus 50% spare capacity) calculated at half a gallon per man per day. |
| APR/01/05 | cbsth@iol.ie | (5) What is the Prahu held together with? | 5. The prahu is held together with wooden pins, no nails, and the pins are mostly used to connect the planks edge to edge, as dowels hidden within the planks, very skilful timberwork |
| APR/01/06 | cbsth@iol.ie | (6) How is Thondur, the Fisherman? What sort of exotic fish does he have you dining on this time?? What methods of fishing is he using?? (Remember his Sea-Gull stew on the St. Brendan?) | 6. Trondur hasn't joined us yet. He's due to arrive in early May. Without him we haven't had any fishing luck. Instead we buy fresh fish in the villages (tuna, mackerel, garopa) and at sea eat dried fish or (a luxury) dried shrimps with our rice and/or noodles. |
| APR/01/07 | cbsth@iol.ie | (7) Have you come across many spices for which these Islands were famous? Are the spice still being produced nowadays?? | 7. No spices, we observed, on Kei por Aru, but here on Banda they still grow nutmegs (about 200 tons a year) and are now also growing cloves and cinnamon. |
| APR/01/08 | cbsth@iol.ie | (8) What material are the Prahu sails made from? | 8. Our prahu sails are made from khaki cloth (the same material the local police shirts are made of, actually) but in Wallace's day were often made of matting woven from palm fronds. |
| APR/01/09 | cbsth@iol.ie | (9) You sailed across the WEBER BASIN (7,500 feet deep!!!!) on your voyage from the Aru Islands to Banda Islands. Could you tell us who Weber was? We can find no reference to him anywhere. | 9. Sorry, can't help about Weber and his Basin. Sailing across the surface (hopefully) of the sea, the depth never seems to make much difference to the conditions. |
| APR/01/10 | cbsth@iol.ie | (10) We have a big problem in Ireland and UK this week with Mad Cow Disease, and it's possible link with CJD (Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease.) in Humans. There is evidence that this CJD started in the Spice Islands among the Cannibal Tribes. The men ate the muscle tissue while the women were treated to the delicacy of the brain tissue? It turned out that only the women suffered from CJD.? Does cannabilism still exist today, and does the CJD still exist among the Islanders? | 10. It's not at all sure where, if anywhere, cannibalism once existed in the Spice Islands. I think that Seram is the only place where I have read it was practiced, and then only by a few tribes. Cannibalism certainly doesn't exist today with the possible exception of some very rare instances in New Guinea, and I doubt very much if Mad Cow Disease is a problem wherever we sail, because the diet is almost always fish or eggs or chicken! |
| APR/02/01 | sclbarra@iol.ie | 1)How do you organise the night watch? | 1)We start the night watch at six pm (it gets dark by about 6.45pm) and two people are on watch at the same time, one on standby who must be on deck but can relax, the other steering and looking after the vessel. When he needs help, he calls on the standby watch, or if it is a majpor task like hoisting sail, all the crew must get up and help. Each person is on watch for four hours, two of them on standby, two on full watch. Watchkeeping ends at 6 a.m. |
| APR/02/02 | sclbarra@iol.ie | 2)Will the boat be strong enough to last the voyage? | 2)The boat seems to be holding up very well. Hardly any leaking, and very firmly held together. |
| APR/02/03 | sclbarra@iol.ie | 3)Are there ancient temples? | 3)We haven't see any ancient temples, but as we coast along the shoreline we often see the domes of village mosques as many of the fishermen and sailors of Indonesia are Muslim. |
| APR/02/04 | sclbarra@iol.ie | 4)What is the most horrifying thing you saw? | 4)The most horrifying thing we seen is the amount of pollution swirling about in Ambon harbour - plastic bags, scum, oil, even a dead rat. |
| APR/02/05 | sclbarra@iol.ie | 5)What do you do if you have spare time on the boat? | 5)If we have spare time on the boat, we read (though we don't have many books) and listen to tapes or the radio, on headphones so as not to disturb the other crew. But in fact we have very little spare time after sleeping, cooking, eating, and doing the 1001 chores to keep the boat in good shape. |
| APR/02/06 | sclbarra@iol.ie | 6)Were you ever injured on the boat? | 6)Nobody has yet been injured on this boat, though Boby the Kai islander had malaria several times, and did not feel strong enough to continue, so had to go home from Ambon. |
| APR/02/07 | sclbarra@iol.ie | 7)What was the most dangerous part of your journey? | 7)The most dangerous part of the journey has been, at sea, when we were caught by some strong wind, and the boat began to heave and roll, and the deck became very slick. One crew member slipped overboard, but held on to the boat and managed to get back aboard. |
| APR/15/01 | gscoilod@iol.ie | 1. What is the average
temperature during the
day, and how do you
protect yourselves from the sun. | 1. The average day temperature is between 30 and 33 degrees, and at night the temperature drops very little, just a bit cooler. Also the humidity is very high, so that people arriving from Europe to join the crew usually need ten days to acclimatise to the conditions. Even then they can feel exhaustd afteronly tw or three hours hard work. To begin with, everyone has to use sunblock cream or their skins get painfully burned. On most days there is a very heavy rain shower, lasting 10-30 minutes, over land. Less rain at sea. |
| APR/15/02 | gscoilod@iol.ie | 2. Does anyone snore at night on the boat, and if so, how do you deal with it ? | 2. Yanis usd to snore very loudly, but is not quite so bad now, and he likes to sleep on deck under a piece of tarpaulin, unle it is raining so is a little distant. Otherwise when someone snores, we just have to ignore it. |
| APR/27/01 | batespd@iol.ie | What was the cleanest shore you went on so far? | Nearly every shore we have visited has been very, very clean - only near the population centres such as Ambon, Tual, Dobbo has there been any pollution see. But in every case, population=beach pollution, with one exception: The Banda islands where the people realise their hopes for future tourism depend on keeping their islands pollution free. |
| APR/27/02 | batespd@iol.ie | Did you see any animals that died from pollution in Indonesia? | We have not seen any animals that died from pollution in he areas we have visited. |
| APR/27/03 | batespd@iol.ie | Do many people recycle things in the Spice Islands? | Because the people on the islands have very few possessions, they recycle most items naturally - not by collecting up and re-making the basic materials but by re-using the items themselves, such as re-using plastic bags, keeping old bottles for storage, sewing torn umbrella covers together to a sail for a canoe. If they cannot see a use for the broken or worn out item they throw away. |
| APR/27/04 | batespd@iol.ie | What do you do with all the rubbish on the boat? | We actually have very little rubbish on the boat - just some food wrappings and a few empty tins. We sink the tins in deep water (they will rust away) we take the plastic bags ashore to dispose. |
| APR/27/05 | batespd@iol.ie | Are there many trees cut down in the Spice Islands? | Yes, many of the big trees on the Spice Islands have been cut down - on the small islands to make dugout canoes, on the big islands like Serm for lumber. But many large trees do still remain, and all the islands and very green with smaller trees like mangroves and coconut palms. |
| APR/27/06 | batespd@iol.ie | Do they have electricity on any of the islands? | Very few villages have electrity - the
villagers use paraffin lamps - but ll of the towns have electric light. |
| APR/27/07 | batespd@iol.ie | How has the ozone layer affected that part of the world? | Ozone layer - sorry, I don't know the answer but doubt there has been much effect from holes or thinning in the ozone layer which is mostly in high latitudes, while Indonesia is wholly tropical. |
| APR/27/08 | batespd@iol.ie | Is the sea polluted? | No, the sea is not at all polluted, but very clean. |
| APR/27/09 | batespd@iol.ie | Do they do anything to preserve the turtles nest? | Officially the beach of the turtles' nests is a marine reserve. But because there is no oe there to guard the beach, fishermen come to raid the nests for the eggs. |
| APR/27/10 | batespd@iol.ie | Have you seen a polluted lake so far? | No polluted lake so far. |
| APR/27/11 | batespd@iol.ie | Is there much litter in the villages and towns you have been in so far? | In Ambon there was a huge amount of litter and garbage by the shoreline, but streets were quite clean. The villages have lots of 'biodegradable' litter - coconut husks etc, but ou soon become accustomed to seeing it. |
| APR/27/12 | batespd@iol.ie | What are the towns like that you have passed through so far? | The towns are rather shabby and poor - badly made concrete office blocks and rickety bungalows with tin roofs. The villages are much more attactrive with palm thatch roofs on bamboo huts. |
| APR/27/13 | loanends@iol.ie | What is a Cous Cous? | A Cous Cous is a small, furry, chubby, slow moving animal which looks a it like a koala bear but with a flatter face, rounder eyes, and live in trees. We saw one in the forest in the Aru islands, but did not get a photo. We should see more cous cous in north Sulawesi and we will try to get a picture. |
| APR/27/14 | loanends@iol.ie | What does it feel like to be on an adventure? | This adventure is very enjoyable - lots of new things to see, and unusual problems to solve, sometimes the weather is hot and sticky, but you soon get used to it |
| APR/27/15 | loanends@iol.ie | Are you ever scared of catching a strange disease? | Yes, tropical disease is the main threat, but we all take anti-malaria pills each day, and take care to filter and sterilise all the water we drink. |
| APR/27/16 | loanends@iol.ie | Have you ever encounted any life threatening situations with tribes? | Everyone we have met has been friendly.Indeed the more remote the people, the friendlier they are. |
| APR/27/17 | loanends@iol.ie | What evidence, if any, do
you see of the rainforests
being destroyed by man? | On Seram we saw the export of massive logs cut from giant, hundred year old trees from the rainforest. They will probably never be replaced. Interestingy, the log were being shipped to timber mills in Kalimantan in western Indonesia where most of the rainfore has already been cut down. |
| APR/27/18 | loanends@iol.ie | Has the life of the local people changed much in Indonesia in the last 150 years? If it has in what way? | The life of the people has changed
enormously for Indonesians who live in the cities - they are like city dwellers anywhere in Asia, living in crammed and polluted cities. But in the rural areas of the Spice Islands little has changed except that education is now available everywhere, and people can travel occasionally by boat to visit the towns. |
| APR/27/19 | loanends@iol.ie | Is there any evidence that some of the animals,birds and insects Alfred Wallace saw are now extinct? | We have seen nearly all the animals and birds (I don't know enough about the insects to include them, but suppose they are there too) which Alfred Wallace saw. But most of them are far, far fewer in number nowadays. |
| APR/27/20 | loanends@iol.ie | We would love to see some drawings or photographs of unusual flowers or animals as we are hoping to turn our classroom into a rainforest. | Leonard has just made a painting of the Red Bird of Paradise which I will try to send over the InterNet with the help of IBM. |
| APR/27/21 | loanends@iol.ie | Have you discovered any new species of birds, animals or insects? | No, we have not discovered any new species of birds, animals or insects, but are very happy that such a variety of species, particularly birds, still survive in the Spice Islands. |
| APR/27/22 | gscoilsl@iol.ie | When did you get your first visa,what authorities permitted it and why did you need an extention? (Gemma agus Aoife) | I made six trips to Indonesia before the expedition, to prepare it, and each time got a tourist visa from the Indonesian Immigration Service at the airport on arrival. This is the simplest way to get a visa (other ways take months) but the visa only lasts 60 days, so if you need to stay longer, you have to leave Indonesia after 60 day, and come back in again ad get a new visa. |
| APR/27/23 | gscoilsl@iol.ie | What was the most beautiful island that you have encountered so far?(Sinead) | The most beautiful islands we have encountered so far are the Banda Islands with their volcano and lovely harbour. |
| APR/27/24 | gscoilsl@iol.ie | Are you all trained in first aid?(Riobeard) | Joe is a doctor, and Julia is trained in first aid. |
| APR/27/25 | gscoilsl@iol.ie | Where do you keep your supplies on the boat and do you ever get board on the boat?(Kate agus Roibeard) | We keep our supplies stowed under the deck (which leaks a bit). Keeping watch at the helm at night can be boring. |
| APR/27/26 | gscoilsl@iol.ie | Has anyone been injured on your trip? (Caroline) | No-one has been injured, but Boby one of the Kai islanders had to go home because he had a fever (he already had the fever whe he joined). |
| APR/27/27 | gscoilsl@iol.ie | Did you ever expierience any native ritual?(Bob) | The head boatbuilder on Kai had a simple but important ritual of painting on the 'eyes' of our boat. |
| APR/27/28 | gscoilsl@iol.ie | What was the most spectacular thing you saw in the Manusela National Park?(Darrell) | We never got into the Manusela Park because the only access road was closed by mud. |
| APR/27/29 | gscoilsl@iol.ie | Who is funding your trip and roughly how much has it cost you so far? (Caitriona) | The trip will mostly be paid for by the sales of my book about the expedition, and help has been given by companies like IBM, DHL, Garuda Airlines who have provided goods and services. |