Tiger Blue our wonderful, traditional phinisi schooner, offers comfort, style and fun! Built by the renowned Haji Abdullah, master boat-builder, in Tanaberuh, near Bira, on the southern end of Sulawesi, Tiger Blue encompasses the age old tradition of phinisi boat-building without sacrificing any modern comforts. She is 112ft/34m long with a deck width(beam) of 25ft/7.6m.

Tiger Blue has completed sea trials and her maiden voyage. All the pictures you see of her here were taken on the very recent maiden voyage on April 6th from Bira to Makassar, as she makes her way to Makassar Harbour for all her finishing works. She is currently ready to be totally complete by mid June. We are happy to report that she sailed beautifully with Wouter, all ... more

April 6th 2008

We flew into Makassar from Jakarta on the Friday night and left by van on Saturday morning on the 4.5 hour drive to Bira. It was a great drive with so much to see. The rice fields were all ready to harvest and we went past absolutely idyllic scenes of villagers cutting, threshing and winnowing the rice. There were lots of buffalos at work and plenty of the jaunty horses common in Sulawesi, being used to carry baskets and people across the fields.

Driving past the sea salt pans we managed to stop and purchase 2 4 kilo bags of lovely organic Makassar sea salt, as well as the fantastic baskets woven by the women under their houses. I stopped a woman with 2 of these baskets. she had just rinsed the salt from them and they w... more