When I was staying on Bunaken Island, in North Sulawesi, I saw and photographed the launch of a new dive boat. The boat had been build using traditional methods, just above the beach just below Bunaken Island Resort where I was staying. The boat was to be launched using manpower alone, and so people (men!) had been invited from other resorts and locations around the island to help with the launch. Here are some of the men arriving on another dive boat.

Bunaken is a small (8 square km) island which lies off the northern tip of Sulawesi, a short crossing from the city of Manado, on the mainland.  It is popular with tourists who come to dive or snorkel on the reefs of the superb Bunaken Island National Marine Park.  Each resort has a number of dive boats, which are used to ferry divers and snorkellers around the island to different dive sites.  This boat had been constructed in situ just above the beach.

Logs were placed as rollers in the path of the boat, down the beach and sand bags were filled and placed next to them to stop the boat from rolling over.  The boat was attached to ropes and simply pulled down the sand, across the beach and into the sea.

Some people were at the other end, pushing the stern of the boat; it did not take long for them to get it moving.

With everyone (apart from me!) pulling hard, the boat started to move down the beach.

There was still a lot of effort required to get the boat off the last bit of beach and into the sea, afloat.

Finally, with a bit more shoving the boat ended up in the sea.

Finally the boat was floating in the sea.