Sebuku Island

Sebuku is located in Sunda Strait, exactly in between and Canti Sebesi. Its location is a small distance away from Sebesi in the northern direction. The island is also a volcanic island like Sebesi, which  is younger than Sebuku, being formed by breccia, lava and tuffaceous rocks ejected by a volcano of Holocene age, which is 12000 year old at the most. Sebuku island is formed of andesitic lava spurted out by a volcano that was active about 2-3 millions years ago in the Pliocene era before it went extinct. A fringing reef has since grown around the island, producing its idyllic white sandy beaches strewn with some volcanic rock boulders. It is smaller than its neighbour Sebesi, and uninhabited. The highest peak is 356m above sea level and is covered by vegetation which regrowing after the Krakatau explosion. 

The tranquil sandy beaches belies the islands' tumultuous geological history. Being born out of volcanoes they were witnesses to the force of nature in its extreme. Even its recent history, which was also witnessed by human beings, recorded a vicious event, when the huge Krakatau volcano complex (consisted of three volcanoes - Rakata, Danan and Perboewatan) exploded in 1883. This cataclysmic explosion sent forth up to 20 cubic kilometers of material as far as the western part of Java and the southern part of Sumatra. The little islands surrounding the Krakatau complex - Sertung (Verlaten) and Lang (Panjang), and the Sebesi and Sebuku islands were attacked by hurrican-force wind full of hot material. All vegetation in Sebesi and Sebuku were obliterated, burnt by the hot pyroclastic flow. Then afterwards when the mighty volcanoes collapsed, forming a huge submarine caldera, the little islands were stormed by a great tsunami waves. Nothing was left of life in there. And yet, life came back. A few year later grasses and small plants were found again in the islands. In 40 years the forest canopy has grown back. It's heartening to see that life is so strong and continues to win despite the setbacks caused by nature. Because of Krakatau exployion in 1883, Sebuku Island’ s nature beauty also known as “ Dangerous Beauty of Krakatau “.

Sebuku Island and Krakatau

Right now the two volcanic islands are ringed by fringing reefs producing the islands' spots of white sandy beaches.

Sebuku are located approximately 20kms north-east of the Krakatau volcano complex. Located only around 10kms south-west of Rajabasa volcano in Lampung, it is by far nearer to the shores of the southern tip of Sumatra, than to Java. From the small ports in the western part of Java, such as Carita or Paku, the islands can be reached in about 1.5 hours drive from Jakarta through the Jakarta-Merak toll road to Cilegon and from Carita, a tourist area in West Java, can be reached about 2 hours of speed boat ride, depending on the current in the Sunda Strait.

Transportation to the island and the island of Sebuku or Sebesi can use regular motor boat from Pier Canti with travel time about 1.5 hours. For those of you who want to know more closely Krakatau, the island Sebesi is the best place to observe the volcanic activity of Anak Krakatau. Sebesi island with an area of 1600 ha is the nearest island of Krakatau's child view. The island is also known as the Buru Tourism, with facilities already available.

The dive highlight of Sebuku is the wreck of a Dutch destroyer Evertsen, perished in the sea battle with Japanese destroyers on 1 March 1942, just days before the Netherlands Indies government (the Dutch colonial government in Indonesia) capitulated to the Japanese General Imamura. The destroyer was following the two Allied cruisers HMAS Perth and USS Houston which were attempting to escape through the Sunda Strait when they encountered a large Japanese fleet. Lagging way behind the larger battleships, Evertsen witnessed the sinking of HMAS Perth and USS Houston near Banten bay. While attempting to escape by sailing near the coasts of Sumatra Evertsen was spotted by Japanese destroyers and was torpedoed. The captain decided to beach the ship in the shores of Sebuku, and here she lies now, in the very shallow water of the Sebuku Island. 

A small part of the wreck protrudes above the water; the rest is underwater with the stern rests at a depth of 16 meters in the very gently sloping sandy-silty bottom.

The Sebuku shipwreck, laying peacefully on the sandy-silty shore at the bottom of the shallow water of the Sebuku island, had actually been part of a heroic sea battle. Who would have guessed that these pieces of metals, now overgrown by algaes and all sorts of other invertebrates, were once a mighty ship trying to conquer enemies? The wreck is already disintegrated. The stern rested at around 16m of depth, while some small part of the structure still exposed above water. In the murky visibility and with the ship disintegrating, we couldn't really determine the main structure of the ship, though we could see many different parts laying around and I seemed to be able to make out the long, narrow hull, also some pipes and chambers.

The unique in Sebuku Island are the clean beaches and ramps. Sebuku Island is perfect for swimming or just relaxing to enjoy the panorama of the sea. You also can go fishing and diving to enjoy its marine beauty.

The dive is easy since it is very shallow with almost no current and very minimal surge. However an inexperienced diver could cause disturbance in the sandy-silty bottom, making the already low visibility lower still. The marine life consists mostly of corals, small reef fish and dominated with lobster and moray eel. But, some moray eels and lobsters seldom have been sighted. The shallow part has a healthy growth of hard corals, soft corals and hydroids. The reef type are very gently sloping reef front, white sandy-silty bottom with reef mounds and reef overgrowth in the wreck. Coral Condition is healthy at shallow part (5m), patchy at bottom.

 

Sebuku Island is an interesting place, isn’t it? Are you interested to visit or enjoy your holiday in Sebuku Island?