"Sea Safari" Cruises

Ten Days / 9 Nights The Threads of Life Leisure Expedition
Dive Cruise Schedule & Prices: TBA

The expedition is organized in collaboration with William Ingram and Jean Howe, the spiritual engines behind the Threads of Life Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to sustaining the textile arts of Indnesia. William and Jean will be on board to lecture on the ceremoial ikats and weaving traditions in the archipelago East of Bali.
Sumbawa - Banta - Rinca - Flores - Lembata - Sawu - Sumba - Sumbawa

Still in preparation stage!

Day One: Bali – Sumbawa – Banta
As the members of this unique expedition we will first board a morning flight from Bali to Bima, the capital of east Sumbawa and proceed by bus for the two hour transfer to the sleepy little harbor of Sape, where the Sea Safari will be awaiting us. Here we board the vessel that will be our comfortable home for the next ten days. The ship will set her sails on a northeasterly course and by the late afternoon we will reach Banta, an uninhabited island which lies at the entrance of the Sape Strait. Here we drop the anchor and go ashore to explore our first of many tropical beaches. If we are lucky we may spot some of the giant turtles that are known to congregate near Banta, but even if we are not, we are most likely to witness the first of many spectacular sunsets. After dinner William and Jean will present their first slideshow, while the ship continues on an Easterly heading and then turns south into the Linta Strait.

Day Two: Rinca
As the day breaks we realize that we are at anchor in a small bay lined by mangroves and looking on the chart we find out that our captain has moored the vessel near Rinca in the heart of the Komodo National Park. When we go ashore a park ranger will escort us across the island to some choice viewing spots where we can safely watch the "komodo dragons", the giant monitor lizards, at close range. This is the only place on earth where one can see these animals in their own habitat. After this encounter with the species from the Jurassic age, we board the Sea Safari again and proceed to the famous red beach off Komodo Island, site of some of the most spectacular coral gardens on our planet. We spend the afternoon snorkeling or diving but before the sun sets we will have to be underway again for a long overnight passage into the Savu Sea. After dinner William and Jean will lecture on the indigo dyeing and indigenous architecture of Western Flores.

Day Three: Flores – Bajawa
From where we are anchored on this third day of our expedition we can see the sun rise over the perfectly pointed peak of Mount Inerie on the southern coast of Flores. We go ashore at the small village of Aimere and from there William and Jean will take us by bus on a breathtaking journey up the volcano to the small town of Bajawa, the capital of the Ngada district, a land of megaliths and incredible cultural richness. We will be introduced to a group of traditional weavers and spend the day in a world of exquisite skills and creativity that is rarely visited by outsiders. We return to the vessel in the late afternoon and as the sun sets we lift the anchor to continue our journey eastwards.

Day Four: Flores – Ende – Kelimutu
At sunrise we are moored in the old port of Ende, the largest town on Flores. After a short early morning stop at the colorful market full of ikat&ndash wrapped women we start our three hour bus ride up to Mount Kelimutu and the multi colored lakes. We pass striking scenery and waterfalls cascading over limestone cliffs. At mid morning we reach the top of the ancient volcano with its three craters, each filled with water of a different, ever changing color. This spot offers one of the most stunning views on our planet and it is not difficult to understand that it was formerly an important ritual site. On the way back to Ende we stop at the village of Detusoko for a picnic lunch. We return to the Sea Safari in the late afternoon and take to sea again.

Day Five: Lembata – Lamalera
Our easternmost landfall during this expedition is near the village of Lamalera on the island of Lembata 123 degrees and 30 minutes east of Greenwich. Lembata is an island where weavers spin their own thread from home grown cotton and prepare their own dyes from herbal extracts. Here the women are weaving on basic back strap looms, an extremely labor-intensive process that yields incredibly beautiful and priceless cloth. Lamalera is also one of the very last traditional whaling communities on the planet. The open whaleboats are Pacific style outriggers, about nine to ten meters long, lateen rigged with sails woven from palm leaf. We are extremely unlikely to meet any other western visitors in this utterly remote part of Indonesia and spend the entire morning to take in the amazing realities of this island. Threads of Life formed and sponsors the Lamalera weavers cooperative to revive the near-extinct "kawetek nai telo" weaving tradition and we meet with groups of weavers who offer specimen textiles that cannot be found anywhere else. Around midday we set sail again to go back on a southwesterly course for a long crossing to the island that gave the Savu Sea its name.

Day Six: Savu
In the course of the morning we make our landfall on a small remote island halfway between Timur and Sumba. When Captain Cook sailed these waters in September 1770 it was not even on his charts. Today the island has a population of about 35000 people whose lives are mainly sustained by the amazing lontar palms, "the tree of life", a species that is immune to long periods of drought but produces a highly nutritious juice that has become the staple of the islanders. Savu is so remote that there are rarely any foreign visitors but it has enormously rich and unusual traditions. One of the peculiarities about Savunese society is the fact that the economic life is completely in the hands of its women. We go ashore at the village of Seba and visit one of the families at their home, where we witness the indigenous weaving techniques. Savu ikats are strikingly beautiful. In the afternoon we move the vessel to the smaller sister island of Raijua, which is considered by the Savunese to be the place where their old animistic beliefs originated. After dinner we set a course towards Sumba.

Day Seven: East Sumba
At the crack of dawn we anchor Sea Safari on the eastern side of Sumba near the village of Melolo. After going ashore we board a small bus that will take us to the village of Rende, where we will be able to admire some monumental stone tombs that date back to megalithic times. Our main reason to visit Rende is because it is the village of our Threads of Life associate Ms.Tamu Rambu Hamu Eti whose work is spectacular by any standards. After leaving Rende we make a stop at the village of Pau, the center of supplementary warp weaving. We then proceed by bus to Waingapu and in the early afternoon we stop for a picnic lunch on an idyllic beach just outside of the Eastern capital. After lunch we stop at the Royal village of Prailiu, another weaving center and when we reach Waingapu we find that Sea Safari is already moored there. After dinner on board we hoist the anchor and proceed to West Sumba.

Day Eight: West Sumba
As we wake up we find ourselves anchored off the harbor of Waikelo where we go ashore to explore the countryside and the traditional villages of West Sumba. This is the part of the island where the rituals of the Marapu religion, in which the worship of ancestral spirits is central, have been best preserved. We visit the megalithic tombs of Tarung, a small village near the western capital of Waikabubak. Although the weaving traditions are not as strong as they are in the East, we do encounter several women working on their back strap looms. In the evening the vessel will go on a Northerly course towards the Linta Strait.

Day Nine: Sumbawa
We spend the last day of our expedition anchored in a secluded bay on the extreme southwestern tip of Sumbawa, far from civilization for a last day of peace and quiet, beachcombing and snorkeling. During the day we have ample time to sit down together, bring out the charts and start planning the 2006 expedition. Late in the evening we hoist the anchor again and proceed to Bima.

Day Ten: Sumbawa Bima
After a last breakfast on board we say farewell to the crew and leave for the Bima airport for the morning flight to Bali.