Out at Sea aboard the Arka Kinari

By Lintang Glockner, Class 12

Travelling more than halfway across the world by boat, the members of the “Arka Kinari” were kind enough to recall their adventures at sea and share some of the tools of the trade to the participants and members of the Dyatmika Science Fair.

Forming the multimedia musical duo Filastine & Nova, Grey and Nova’s aim with the Arka Kinari was to perform music aboard the boat when mooring and project it on its sail, to be seen by the people on land as they travelled around the world. The Arka Kinari departed Amsterdam before travelling across to the Canary Islands, then going up the Panama canal and eventually reaching Papua New Guinea. Their odyssey was all performed using wind power with sails like the portuguese merchants in 1603 while using their engine only in emergency situations during ferocious storms.

On Tuesday 23^rd March, we had so much fun during the sailing and sustainability workshop that the crew organised. We got to explore every nook and cranny of the ship and learned a large range of sailing knots including their variations. The Bowline knot was my favorite, since I got to do it with the ship’s rigging (rope’s), with its main application to secure a boat to a marina ring. We even applied the Prusik knot to climb the mast of a ship, which is very tough work. We made two Prusik knots, where one was to slip our feet in so we could stand on and one to hold our body as we moved the knots up along the rigging. It was crucial that the Prusik knot was done well as it would prevent us from falling.

Most of all, the Arka Kinari taught us how sustainable they were by using solar panels and a wind turbine as an electricity source. It was especially important that they kept the phrase in their daily life, ‘Just use what you need and not anymore’, something all of us can also do.