Shootin Through

After spending a calm night at Taluk Bari, watching the millions of bats fly over at dusk, we had a late start but made it to what feels like real civilisation, Labuan Bajo. We had 20 knot winds on the nose and the seas were unfun, but it didn’t bother us, as we were too excited to make it to this destination. As we approached we began seeing building that resembled things from back home. A good sign we were going to be somewhere that was a little more civilised than the remote places prior. The bay is filled with boats and the shore line littered with modern looking structures. I think this may be home for a few days. Time to go explore.

Easy little potter along the Coast of Flores to our next anchorage, which will just be home for the night. Tomorrow we will officially hit Bajo, a fairly major township. A little bit excited to be honest. We had been very spoiled with the East Coast, and its beautiful remoteness. Everything in between has been amazing but definitely not as stunning as where we came from. Another day of minor boat maintenance and we will set sail again in the morning for a very short little passage. Stay tuned.

Oh my god we made it. That was the longest and most stressful passage we have ever done. We had tankers chasing us down, FADS all over the place, storms, upon storms, upon storms, and I mean storms. 40+ knot winds, massive swell, heaviest rain we have seen. Then as we near our destination we have 2 big fishing vessels cutting in front of us causing us to take a huge detour. All we wanted to do was get in and drop that anchor. However we made it, and unscathed. So now it will officially be time to slow down, explore and spend more time as a family. Here’s to the West Coast of Indonesia 🇮🇩

Just a quick overnight stop to rest before we continued our journey West. The anchorage was so calm and quiet. We try to keep our anchoring to under 20 metres but after a long day we didn’t have much motivation to search around so we dropped in 23m, which just meant a slow raising of it in the morning. We arrived at our new anchorage which is again another overnight stop and it is surrounded by cliffs and is basically in open ocean, so a little bumpy. Hopefully it calms down overnight.

After an amazing stay at my favourite Village so far, we decided it was time to get moving again. We left a little later than normal this morning and set off in the cloudy and bumpy conditions. After dodging FADS and other large vessels, we were finally out in the open ocean. Head sail up and single engine on in the hope the wind speed and direction would be in our favour as we rounded the headland. Instead we were met with a giant storm. Sails down, hatches shut as we braced for the worst. Only for the sky to literally part and the storms went all around us, we barely got a drop of water. I was secretly hoping for some rain so I could shower on the deck rather than use our water. Anchors down finally in about 23m in front of a cute little restaurant. Let’s see if I can convince everyone to go there instead of me cooking.

We started out at 3am with the seas a bit choppy, and enough wind to put a full main sail and head sail for the first time since being in Indonesia, we were pumped. Happy to take the bumpy seas for no motoring. This journey was actually longer than our journey from Australia to Saumlaki, so we knew what we were in for. About 8 hours in as we were beginning to discuss our plans for the night portion of this adventure when suddenly we hear a whizzing and massive bang. The main sail has come crashing down and thankfully most of which landed in the sail bag. So that was the end of our sailing in Indonesia. Back to motoring for about 28 hours. At least it happened in daylight and seems to be a fairly easy fix. Anchors down and needless to say we both need a good sleep.

Casual motor up to our next anchorage which is where we will rest, do some maintenance and prepare for our long passage across to Wakatobi National Park. We were greeted with a pod of dolphins upon entering this hidden a en very protected little anchorage. With green hills surround us and a cute little village tucked away in the far corner. I am pretty happy to call this place home for a few days.

After a long few days in Ambon battling the business of a fairly major city and a horrifying amount of rubbish, we set sail just before dusk for the first of several long passage’s to get us down to SW Indonesia. The wind was predicted to be none existent but as night fell it picked up to 18 knots, which would have been helpful if the angle was not on the nose. Hudson and Boo Boo had a lovely nights sleep with finally a cool breeze blowing in on them. Myself and Captain on the other hand not so much. I struggle to sleep when we are sailing as I have this constant thought of I should be helping. So my night consisted of making sure the captain was fed and content and lots of studying. Gotta use the time when I have it. We dodged too many FADS to count, which is never fun but especially not at night. We have dropped anchor in 6m of crystal clear water and time to clean up, do the regular maintenance checks and Captain will sleep while I entertain a toddler.

We made it to our half way point, Ambon. It was originally planned for a late arrival tomorrow, but after we pulled into our anchorage today, it didn’t give us great vibes. So the fact that the seas were very calm and we had time on our side we kept on motoring. We will stock up on some additional fuel and relax for a day or so then begin the next stretch of this Indonesian journey. Oh yeah and celebrate NYE.

Left a very rolly and exposed anchorage this morning and decided to head through the passage to an anchorage on the other side instead of our original plan. We were surrounded by storms all day and had very little wind, so it was all motoring again. The passage was pretty bumpy with the currents going in all directions, but as soon as you get through it is delightfully calm. We managed to find a 6m sandy patch just far enough away from the township and passage to anchor. Time for Hudson, Boo and I to stretch our legs around the deck and then in to cook some Katsu Curry.