01/10/09, Sibigo, Pulau Simeulue, Sumatera

Mainly because we are a fair way away from it and actually didn't know that it had happened until our satellite phone and mobiles started ringing in the early hours of this morning. For once Eddie was not the first with the scoop, in fact my Mum led the pack (god love her) with an early morning sat phone message demanding that I get in touch to let her know I was ok, while on the phone reassuring her that I was indeed fine and didn't even know about the earthquake Jay's sister Wendy followed a close second with a call to the sat phone, followed by Ed, our daily deliverer of news, with the details. The earthquake occurred approximately 300 nautical miles South of where we are that's about 546 kilometres which is about as close as I want to get to an earthquake! At the time that the earthquake occurred we were sitting in the Sharia jail on Simeulue visiting our friend Ranu, who is doing 10 months for bringing in some alcohol for some aid workers, and of course despite the TV being on we did not feel, hear or see a thing about it. But anyway we are safe in case you were worried about us.

We are currently sitting at anchor at a place called Sibigo which is at the top end of Simeulue. We have until the 10th of this month to check out of the country which means we are on the move again! Yay! I have enjoyed Sumatera despite some of my grumpy patches but I am glad to be moving back to places where I won't feel as boat bound AND I can safely say that Jay's plan worked and never again will I insist on accompanying him on a surf trip, guys he's all yours!! Although we feel like we could have left The Banyaks a month ago due to poor surf, Jay's final surf was a beauty and it was worth staying the extra month just to see the glow in his eyes as he talked to me about what he was claiming as one of the best surfs he's had in Sumatra.

JAY: The right at Bangkaru known as Treasures or Machine Gun Rights was absolutely smoking. Around the 4 to 5 foot range with the odd 6 footer which is about as big as it handles there before it starts breaking wide. I can safely claim the biggest wave of the day (for the guys that have seen it that means past the claw and around the corner on my way into the bay) nearly needed a bemo to get back to the line up! It was really doing its thing with 2 or 3 barrels per wave and I can honestly say I had some of the biggest, longest barrels I've had on the trip! Just as well because I've done the sums and my next surf will be in Bali in 5 months unless Thailand turns on a sneaky Christmas/New Years wave like it did last year.

We farewelled The Banyaks on the 29th of September after drinks with our new friends Marcus and Ayu aboard the Gaia, a charter boat that operates through The Banyaks from Simeulue, (see www.banyakislands.com) if anyone is thinking of heading over there we can definitely recommend taking a look at Gaia, Jay is definitely planning a trip back with them at some stage and we hope to catch up with them on the Gold Coast! Friendly crew, atmosphere and awesome food!! We can also recommend looking up Gus on Bohemian, a catamaran generally with a Thai chef, Gus was the man that delivered our passports back to us so that we could head out without having to do another stint in Sibolga and so to him we owe a debt of gratitude. Elation was mixed with regret as we left The Banyaks, excitement to be on the move and sadness at leaving a place I don't think I will return to in the near future.

Next stop, Sinabang Simeulue. Jay and I almost feel like locals in Sinabang having been back and forth so much picking up the troops. I really like Sinabang, for a town that's not quite a village and not quite a city, they strike a happy medium. The people are friendly and we have never been harassed there by officials. We have developed friendships with the people at the fruit and vegetable markets, supermarkets, restaurants and the becak drivers and it was strange to go to see them for the last time and say goodbye. With their limited English and our broken Bahasa we managed to say goodbye and thank you, we love the people of Simeulue. Once we had sourced all our supplies we went to see Ranu. It is sad to see him in jail especially as he is a good muslim, he doesn't drink or smoke and prays the appropriate amount of times at the mosque each day. But he is also a business man and when a customer requests a product he sources it for them. It's a shame that the aid workers didn't take responsibility, they merely left the island and didn't want to have anything to do with Ranu, they came there to help the people of Simeulue and ended up having one of them put in jail for something they shouldn't have been requesting in an alcohol free area. But he doesn't hold grudges and instead has been talking to the tourist bureau to get things changed so that alcohol is allowed for the tourists that visit the area. He hopes to open his own surf camp on Simeulue, he has the land and is already in the process of organising it. We wish him the very best of luck and will stay in touch to hear of his progress. He is making the best of a bad situation by teaching the other inmates English while he is there. He is a good man.

We left Simeulue this morning and arrived at Sibigo around 4pm. After searching for somewhere to anchor near Ian and Michelle, Jay and I moved to a more secluded area after seeing their boat overrun with locals in canoes they had paddled out from the shore, mainly kids but despite Ian asking them politely to move on, from where I sit I can still see about 6 canoes out the back of Raku as Ian and Michelle sit inside and try to ignore them. Having said that, Jay is having a stilted conversation in Bahasa at the back of the Makani Kai with a fisherman that just wants to chat but so far Jay has not let him on board. I suppose when we turn up in an anchorage in the middle of nowhere we look like a spaceship and everyone wants to come and just sit on board for a while.

Tomorrow we head for mainland Sumatera, an overnighter that we have not done for a while. By Saturday night we should be anchored up South of Banda Aceh.

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13/09/09, Bay of Plenty, The Banyaks, Sumatera

It was great to finally see Ed! He has been our contact with the outside world while we have been travelling and he has been a lifeline for us while we have been in the middle of nowhere. His emails to our sat phone are eagerly anticipated and without his messages we would be ignorant to the fact that Michael Jackson had died, the footy scores and who's going to be in the Grand Final and what exploits that joke of a mayor, Ron Clarke, has been up to. Although sometimes the ignorance has been bliss when we receive the messages of earthquakes and tsunami warnings in Indonesia. I suppose there is some consolation in the fact that by the time we receive the warning we would either have escaped or succumbed to the massive wave!

It was good to see that Ed hadn't changed a bit, he was standing outside the airport doors as if we had just seen him yesterday. Hugs and handshakes all round and we were on our way. First stop, the local pasar (market) in search of kelapa muda (young coconuts) for drinking. Jay has developed quite a taste for them while we have been travelling. It was a chance for Ed to get out his camera and take some shots of the colour and movement as the locals bustled around buying the goods. The ferry had just arrived with fresh vegetables and the market was busier than Jay and I had ever seen it. The fish market was in full swing being the morning, Jay and I had managed to avoid it so far on our trips there, the smell is almost unbearable in the heat and the seafood does not look appetising covered in masses of flies! Back to the boat and we were off! For the first time in our two months of visitors we had a decent breeze and were able to pull up both the headsail and mainsail and sail quite nicely. Ed pulled up the main and proved that he makes a very good deckie!

While I think that Patch was the definite winner in regard to waves, Ed did alright for himself (we won't mention Truman...), the highlight according to Jay was getting the left around at Cobra's. Got ok waves not classic and managed to surf every day except for 2. Jay was very happy to inherit Ed's old 6'4 as 10 days after Ed left he snapped his faithful 6'4 that's he's ridden all through Indo.

It's been about 2 weeks since Eddie left us and headed home. Our time in Sumatera is coming to an end and soon with passports in hand we will begin to make the trip out of the country and back to Langkawi. I personally am looking forward to making the move, a six month surf trip has been a little too much for me to handle and as the time gets closer to leaving the days seem to drag along slower than ever before. We have had some colour and movement with a few charter boats showing up from the Mentawai's in search of uncrowded waves, although when one of them launched a jet-ski and proceeded to race around our boat a little too close I almost felt like I was back on the Gold Coast. We had another visit from the police, this time with 3 machine guns which despite our protests they brought on board the boat. An hour later they left us empty handed, (they were after money), when they realised that we were the boats that were caught up in the dramas last time and that their boss had lost their job over it. We doubt we'll be bothered again while we're here but all the same it's as good a reason as any to leave. We're into the first couple of days of a big South West swell and Jay has made a pig of himself. Looks like the swell will be around for a week which will be a nice farewell present!

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15/08/09, Sinabang, Pulau Simeulue, Sumatera

We only had a couple of days to wait between dropping the Truman's off and picking up JLow and Mel, just enough time to make sure the boat was restocked and ready to go. As always the plane arrived on time with Mel almost kissing the ground in thanks that they had arrived safely (the plane is very small), we think she was very brave to even get on it. We quickly loaded into the back of our luxury transport (the ute) and we were off. We set sail (well, motor) for Pulau Bangkaru. Already the swell had picked up (sorry Paul) and Jay and JLow enjoyed some nice little 3 - 4 foot right handers to start off with.

We spent a couple of days over at Bangkaru, most of which Mel and I spent on the boat talking up a storm and flicking through the eagerly anticipated girlie magazines to find out the latest celebrity gossip. I realise how long we have been away from home and civilisation when I don't recognise the vast majority of celebrities featured in the magazines!! We made an obligatory trip to see if Snappy had been around but the tracks were old ones. We have since heard that a couple of guys ventured up one of the creeks in a dinghy and quickly turned around and left when a big splash was heard in front of them and the swirl on the surface left them in no doubt that they had almost come face to face with Snappy! We soon left for the Bay of Plenty where the beach is more accessible for the girls (and crocs have not been sighted).

At the Bay the boys enjoyed waves every day in the 3 - 5 foot range with the barrelly end section getting a good workout. They were enjoying at least a couple of surfs every day. Mel and I continued our days of sloth, thoroughly enjoying the chance to catch up, relax and read books (Mel managed to finish four in her time here). JLow took the opportunity to show off his newly acquired lifeguarding skills by paddling Mel into the beach 'Iron Man style' on our paddle board. While the surf was good the weather was average, it was still warm and occasionally the sun would peek its head out from under a cloud but there was a fair bit of rain putting a dampener (pardon the pun) on a lot of our activities. We did venture around the back of the Bay to a place Jay and I refer to as La La Land which is accessed through a creek opening out into a bigger waterway dotted with a series of Palm fringed islands. Unfortunately on our way back we were caught in a big storm and had misjudged the tides meaning that we had to drag the inflatable across shallow parts while the rain poured down on us.

The time flew by and it wasn't long before it was time to start heading back to Sinabang, the guys experienced firsthand a couple of Sumatrans, saw some sea snakes, spotted some water spouts near the bay and met some of the local fishermen. After a final get together with Ian and Michelle on board the Makani Kai we headed back to Sinabang.

Thanks for joining us guys we had a blast and thank you for the little pressie you hid under the towels in your room, we really appreciate it although it was not necessary it was truly a pleasure to have you on board.

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