One of my former sailing students bought a new Max Marine 48 cruising catamaran and asked me to help them bring it part way home, from near Singapore through Indonesia to West Papua New Guinea (Raja Ampat). We needed one other crew for the trip on s/v Taz so of course we asked our favorite crew member – Zach to join us too. Other crew were to continue and finish the trip to Palau and ultimately Guam. I flew ahead of Zach first into Singapore, took a ferry and met Paul and the boat in Batam island. The plan was just for me and Paul, the owner to sail the first leg to Bali and prick up Zach and re-provision there. The first leg, down the coasts of Sumatra and Java was to be pretty straightforward for only two crew. However the second leg from Bali to Sorong in West Papua New Guinea was going to be more challenging with a lot of reefs and islands to avoid so we need Zach to join is for that. Plus Zach always brings the laughs and good vibes!
s/v Taz is a very beautiful and well equipped brand new boat with every technical upgrade including twin hybrid diesel electric engines. I’m very impressed with the design of the Max Marine catamaran. The layout is very well thought out and they seem to have all the angles and ergonomics figured out. The staterooms even have USB C chargers. Paul the owner is very tidy and clean, which is my style too so this is a very comfortable ride. Paul is also a serious a sailor so he has all the sails and intends to use them: not just your standard main and jib/ genoa but an asymmetric spinnaker and a code zero head sail for when you can’t decide between a spinnaker and genoa.
The sail with Paul down the coast of Sumatra and Java took about 4 days as the boat sailed fast mostly down wind. Paul wanted to switch the sails every time the wind changed slightly, which kept me on my toes but it was an experience that I don’t usually get to practice on s/v Gemini or other simpler boats. Not as much boat traffic as I expected on this leg but as we approached Bali I was quite appalled to see so much trash in the water! It was a sea of trash and we were worried that some of it would get sucked into our engine, luckily it didn’t.
Sailing into north Bali, around Menjangan island in to Benyuwedang bay, we had the full sails up screaming along in good winds until the end. As we entered the bay, we had to navigate around some reefs that were well marked on the chart plotter but we still managed to bump something as we circled around looking for a good spot to drop the anchor. Diving in, we saw that we actually damaged the rudder- but luckily the Max Marine catamaran is so well designed that the rudder was easy to drop and remove in the water. After wee met Zach on shore, we were able to bring the rudder ashore and we found a local metal shop in Bali that was able to bend it back for us and do some minor fiberglass repair. The few days they took to do that gave Zach and I an opportunity to explore Bali a little bit and we took a day trip to Ubud and went free diving on Menjangan island- some of the best diving I’ve ever done!
Once the rudder was repaired, reinstalled and we topped up on fuel and provisions, we set off to the north east from Bali through the Banda Sea, south of Sulawesi and up towards West Papua New Guinea. The sail was nice and uneventful and once we got to Raja Ampat it became paradise. Jungly islands and a particularly pleasant pass through a narrow straight at daybreak before arriving in Sorong. Sorong, the capital of West Papua New Guinea, at first seemed very sketchy and poor. We learned a lot about the sad local politics that you don’t ever hear about but after spending a few days here the place warmed up and we could see it’s lovely character. A side trip by ferry to Waigeo to check out diving in Raja Ampat was a check off the bucket list. Too bad we couldn’t stay longer but Zach and I had to fly out from there and left with awesome memories!
