Eighth-century Indonesian replica ship docks in Cape Town
Eighth-century Indonesian replica ship docks in Cape Town
Stuart Graham, Agence France-Presse, Cape Town, South Africa
Fifteen unshaven, sunburnt crewmen docked a replica of an eighth- century Indonesian vessel in Cape Town on Monday morning to restock on a journey tracing an ancient trade route between Asia and Africa.
The crew of the 20-meter-long (66-foot-long) wooden Borobudur -- named after a famed Buddhist temple complex on the Indonesian island of Java -- set sail from Jakarta on August 15 and since then have been hammered by storms and gale-force winds.
"We were beaten up by a few storms, especially in the Mozambican channel, but this is a tough ship. She was built by Indonesian islanders and she handles very well," the expedition's leader, Philip Beale, of Britain, told AFP.
In an e-mail from the ship on Sunday, Beale wrote: "Mountainous walls of foaming water approach from astern and then proceed to lift the whole ship out of the water as the massive waves pass under the vessel.
"A whole bowl of 20 beaten eggs went flying across the deck just as they were about to be made into a beautiful omelette."
The ship, constructed mostly from natural Indonesian products, looks out of place docked outside the five-star Cape Grace hotel next to two state-of-the-art multi-million-dollar (euro) yachts.
But Beale said that despite her cumbersome appearance, the Borobudur was highly efficient at sea.
"She reached 11 knots (5.6 metres a second) off the South African coast. That was fast, but this ship is damned efficient most of the time. She can reach seven or eight knots, with no trouble at all," the unshaven expedition leader said.
Inside the Borobudur there is a smell of damp wood, gas and varnish. There is a small kitchen with a gas stove and a sleeping area with mattresses in the bow.
Her crew take turns pumping water from the bilges. At this moment, some are eating breakfast, others sitting inside the cabin and smoking.
"We've been eating fish for much of the time we've been at sea or we've only had canned food to eat, so we're pretty hungry right now," Beale said while sipping a beer and eating a cheese croissant.
"We caught another three-foot (one-meter) dorado this morning bringing our catch to five so far," said one e-mail from the schooner.
"Almost as many have been hooked but got away before we could get them on board. So our technique still has room for improvement!"
The Borobudur, which has a crew of seven Indonesians and eight people from other countries, first docked at Mahe in the Seychelles on Sept. 12.
It then stopped in Mahajanga in Madagascar on Oct. 14, and Richards Bay on the north coast of South Africa at the end of December.
Beale said he had always been fascinated by Indonesia's links with Africa.
"In the first millennium, Indonesia had the world's most successful maritime fleet. At that time they influenced and traded with East Africa and colonized large parts of Madagascar," he said.
"The fleet got around Cape Point and up to west Africa where today there are Indonesian products like rice and banana trees growing."
Mohammed Zultan, 43, who oversaw the building of the ship, looks sleepy.
He said the design of the vessel came from murals on the walls of the Borobudur temple.
"It took us four months and five days to build this ship," he said.
"We used teak for the inner part of the ship, bamboo for the outrigger and a local Indonesian ironwood for the hull. We used hardwood nails and sap from a local tree to hold her together."
Abdul Kadir, an official at the Indonesian consulate in Cape Town, said about one million South Africans had Indonesian ancestry, attesting to the historic link between the two far- flung nations.
"Most of these people's descendants were brought here as political prisoners and laborers by the Dutch, who occupied Indonesia from the early 1600s," he said.
The Borobudur will be docked in Cape Town for the next five days before setting sail for Ghana's capital, Accra, on the final leg of her adventure.