Batumonco

Hi everyone,
Today we sailed from Pink Beach on the east coast of Komodo Island to Batumonco on the extreme NW corner of the island. Not the passage we were planning yesterday, but we decided on a shorter route on the day. We spent all morning reading The Weekend Australian newspaper(downloaded) and departed after lunch. The passage was 21.5nm over the ground but only 16.8nm through the water since we had help from the tide. We motor-sailed most of the way. We're now anchored at 08 27.05S 119 26.88E in 9m over sand and widely scattered rock/coral.

Zen Again Track

Significant chart offset at Batumonco!

The most exciting part of the passage was passing through the narrow channel between Komodo Island and Gililawa Darat. We went down the middle but the depth got down to 5m and we did a quick about-face before assertaining which side to favour. The south side appears to be deepest with about 8m over sand and coral. Don't try this channel unless the current is managable! We had 1.5-2.0 knots behind us.  The same against would be optimal, allowing one to "ferry glide" side to side to find the deepest water.  The GoogleEarth image is better than the chart in that it is accurately aligned to GPS positions, but doesn't have the resolution to show depth in such a narrow and shallow channel.

Batumonco is a nice bay with room for many yachts. It is listed as one of the best dive/snorkel sites in the Komodo area in the book "101 Anchorages in Indonesia". We're looking forward to exploring tomorrow, and hoping that Kakadu may catch up with us here. We passed them at anchor while approaching the channel described above and tried to contact them on VHF. Turns out they were out snorkelling and saw us going past. When back aboard they SMSed us but we didn't see the message until we were out of mobile coverage (as we are now). Hopefully they might read this, or the email we sent via HF, and understand why we didn't reply and where we are now! So many means of communicating and so little success! :)

Two other yachts in the bay

Zen Again at anchor

Kakadu arrived the following day, while we were still in the bay.  Seems they did receive our email!

Kakadu and others join us in the anchorage

Pink Beach

Hi everyone,
Today we sailed from the bay near Gililawa to Pink Beach, half way down the east coast of Komodo Island.  We had good breeze and only motored for the last mile when passing through a narrow channel with BIG current.  The passage was only 15nm but was great fun.  We're now on a mooring at 08 36.320S 119 31.485E, in 30m of water.  We're moored between Pulau Punya and the main island.

Zen Again Track

We hitched a big ride with the tide.  Despite the wind being on the nose we charged south, sometimes reaching 11 knots over the ground (i.e. at least 5 knots of tide with us).  Throughout the passage there were periods of overfalls, with patches of very smooth water mixed up with patches of very disturbed water.  Very spectacular.  We sailed between Tangung Torokuning and the offlying islets, where the water was very angry - we actually "sailed" directly to windward due to a nice lee-bow effect.  The only place I've sailed with similar conditions is the Channel Islands between the UK and France.

The passage through the channel north of Pulau Punya had a good current running too.  Only about 3 knots but lots of whirlpools and disturbed water.  We were slewed around a lot but the transit through the passage was no problem.  Once through we spotted a free mooring and grabbed it quick-smart.

Sailing with the tide

Whirlpools!

Overfalls

On the mooring

In the afternoon we took the dinghy over the the NW corner of Pulau Punya and from there snorkelled with the dinghy in tow.  The current took us NE back towards Zen Again.  The corals were very colourful, and we spotted several types we haven't seen before.

Despite the anchorage being called Pink Beach,  the beach is actually out of sight from where we are.  We decided to swim near the boat instead of taking the dinghy around the corner to the beach.

Tomorrow we plan to ride the current south in the morning, round the south coast of Komodo Island, and then ride the current north in the afternoon.  Hopefully we'll end up at Banta Island, NW of Komodo Island.  Banta is a convenient overnight stop before heading further west to Sumbawa Island.

Gililawa

Hi everyone,
Yesterday we sailed from Labuan Bajo to the bay south of the small island of Gililawa Darat, on the north east corner of Komodo Island.  We had planned to sail in company with Kakadu but they had alternator problems which stopped them leaving.  It had been great fun sailing with them since Tangil Island and we hope our paths will cross again soon.

The sail from Labuan Bajo was fun.  Initially we motored due to light winds and to recharge batteries, then when the wind filled in a little we killed the motor and had a nice sail.  We were hard on the wind and used Kazi, our Aires wind vane.  The wind twice backed about 30 degrees as we sailed, lifting us up almost to our destination.  We motored again as the wind lightened off and the tide started pushing us north.

On arrival in the bay we found an Indonesian yacht on one mooring but the other free.  So we are now on a mooring for the first time since Dili harbour.  There are quite a few moorings placed around Komodo National Park to reduce damage to coral.  We are moored at 08 29.627S 119 33.083E in 28m.

Zen Again Track

This morning we had a fairly lazy time.  Early on we did some laundry and gave the saloon a good clean.  Then we swam a couple of laps around the boat, trying out some new swimming goggles (vice the diving masks we use for snorkelling).  The water is very clear and we can see the mooring line for at least 10m down.  It is a mini-reef in its own right, complete with orbiting (small) fish.  We spent the rest of the morning reading and listening to ABC radio online.

By midday the Indonesian yacht had departed and a number of Sail Indonesia yachts arrived in the bay.   In the afternoon we explored in the dinghy and snorkelled over the reef in the NW corner of the bay.  Visibility was about 15m and the corals and fish were great.  Best of all we saw and filmed a turtle feeding and then swimming away "into the abyss".  Here are some of the photos...

And here's Zen Again on the mooring...

Zen Again

Tomorrow we expect to move on to another anchorage on Komodo Island.