After spending 5 months cruising in the Komodo National Park, Mantra left to her home harbor in Bira, South Sulawesi. Another month of performing scheduled maintenance and installing new equipment and we were ready to sail again.

The guests landed in Makassar airport on the morning of 24^th of November, and arrived in Bira that same afternoon. Just on time for a great sunset drink at Bira Beach and nice dinner on Mantra.

25th November

Morning, we visited the nearby town of Tanah Beru, where hundreds of wooden boats are built on the beach following few century old tradition. One of the big vessels was launched, and the guests could see how two dozen people, by mean of chain blocks and physical strength, manage to move a 150 ton boat, 40 meter long, 10 meter wide, and 4 meter high ...amazing!    Afternoon, we enjoyed snorkeling in the crystal clear waters surrounding Bira, although we could have gone diving, but we opted for a more relaxed snorkeling session.

26^th November

Morning, we sat sail toward Kabaena Island in east Sulawesi, spend the day relaxing and dreaming about our trip. Enjoying breeze and landscape, several times we even saw dolphins jumping in front of Mantra’s bow. Our First sunset at sea was celebrated by one of the best gin tonic I ever had.

27^th of November

Morning, we woke up in Kabaena, we went for a morning dive and we moved to a nearby small atoll, where all the kids of the local village welcomed us with big smiles. We had a wonderful time there, they were so happy to show us their village, to tell us about their lives, an island like thousands others in Indonesia, so close in terms of distance and so far in terms of lifestyle, people live their lives in a natural way in close contact with nature, it makes us think a lot...

Evening, after a nice dinner, we start our journey toward the Tukan Besi archipelago, also known as Wakatobi.

Wakatobi - The original name means Iron Smith, the main resource of income of the islands in the past. The modern name is an acronim given by the first two letters of the names of the four main islands Wangi, Kaledupa, Tomea, Binongko. For People that love the sea this is simply paradise. The reefs are pristine, thanks also to the effort of a local resort that worked decades together with local communities, to preserve this beauty.

28^th-30th of November

We spend 3 days hopping from one reef to another, I was personally in the area a few years previously, and I was so happy to see that the environment is still healthy and gorgeous. I was sure that our guests wouldn’t mind to spend one more week snorkeling and diving in this area. But, as we had a long journey to undertake, following the spice trade route, we were heading toward Maluku islands, Bandaneira...Ambon...All names that remind us a not so long ago of a struggle for the control of the spice trade, a time where the world powers, did not fight yet each other for oil, but for nutmegs!

1^st-2^nd of December

We sailed straight across the Banda Sea toward Ambon, two days and two nights of absolute flat sea, unreal… like a lake. We stopped on the way, to have a quick dip in the deep blue water, no land in sight, depth below us of four thousand meters, no wind, no current at all and we manage to play with an inflatable mattress ...just...Incredible.

After a long time without spotting any land, we could see on our radar screen the coast of Buru islands, confirming that we were on track.

3^rd of December

MORNING: With the first light in the morning we could spot by eye our destination, we were in Maluku. We just made a quick stop close to Ambon, as we wanted to buy some fresh vegetables, and we had a guest that joined us for the trip to Banda. By noon we were sailing again, this time a 12 hours journey would bring us directly in front of the village in Run Island in the Banda’s.

4^th – 6th of December

Run Island - This small volcanic islands in the middle of the deep Banda sea, where for centuries the main world producers of nut meg and clove, the Portuguese, the Duch, and the English armadas sailed the long way from Europe to get this precious spices. Not to mention Chines, Arabs and Indian traders, that ventured there centuries before the Europeans. Today the island economy still relay on the spice trade, but tourism income is slowly taking over. You can still find the original forts build at the time. On the streets there are still some old bronze cannon, everything looks like the time has stopped. The diving is world class, mainly walls that drop hundreds meters straight down. We spent a few days in this area, and even we hit some rain, our experience will be in our minds forever.

Time doesn’t stop just because we were having fun; it was the time to sail back to Ambon.

7^th of December

Weather was improving, so we started our final leg of the trip, knowing that the flat sea we had before was think of the past.

We had some rough sea along the way. Our heading was exactly against wind and current, and we were pounding a bit. The more we get close to our final destination, the more we get waves. At the time we entered the sheltered Bay of Ambon, we could understand the feeling of the sailors of the past - after months long journeys relying only on sails, compass and stars...

In total our trip lasted two weeks, an experience that no one of us will ever forget.

8^th of December

We left on a Lion Air flight to Bali via Makassar, in a few hours we where back to our lives, ready to think about our next trip on Mantra… She was gone to Sorong, where she is going to sail for the coming season and we can’t wait to be on board again.

I would like to thank all the crew of Mantra, for their wonderful job and their constant effort to make all guests feel at home, see you soon Mantra.