Saturday 30th April 2022 – Labuan Bajo to Pulau Sabibi

We departed Labuan Bajo at 09:00 after finally getting my IRIDIUM tracking and Predict Wind subscription working again. The basteds had cancelled the automatic renewal on my subscription as they had changed their three plans to four plans (and no doubt the pricing) and expected everyone to renew their plan choice, WITHOUT TELLING US !!

Beautiful pinisi

It was VERY lucky we weren’t out at sea as we would have suddenly lost satellite tracking, messaging, phone calls and most importantly, weather prediction information. When I realized that my subscription had been cancelled, I called Predict Wind and they blamed it on PayPal, the lying basteds.

Anyway, it was good to be up and running once again. We headed off in hot glassy calm conditions, weaving our way through all the beautiful pinisi's in the harbour, making our way out through the northern passage on our way to Pulau Sabibi. It was only a 20 nm (3 hour) passage and for the first two hours there was no wind at all, but in the last hour the wind sprang up to 19 knots right on the nose and the sea got quite rough.

When we arrived at Pulau Sabibi around 12:25, the Navionics charts showed no information of the reef we were about to enter and all I had to go by was Offline maps that I had down loaded onto my phone before leaving Labuan Bajo this morning. It was hard to see the satellite imagery on my phone in the strong sunlight and the wind was howling and blowing us all over the place and the waves were tossing us about. I was terrified of hitting the reef in these conditions, but I had to remain calm and have faith in my instruments.

With full confidence in the satellite imagery on my phone, I slowly started to make my way into the small channel between the dangerous coral reefs while watching the sonar like a hawk. Without any drama we managed to find a small sandy patch in 5-6 meters and we dropped the anchor. I waited for maybe 20 minutes to ensure the anchor was holding in the 20+-knots of wind, before jumping over the side to check out the anchor and to make sure our swing radius was clear of any shallow bombies.

Pulau Sabibi

All was fine and I continued on with a lovely snorkel for about a kilometer, and then turned and snorkelled about the same distance into the Island. The coral was pretty good, but not too many fish about. I large remora swam up to me and I spent a minute or two looking around to see what it came off, but he rejected me and went back to sitting on the bottom.

I walked a long way along the beach on the Island looking at all the drift wood and rubbish while keeping an eye out for monkeys, but saw none, then snorkelled all the way back out to the boat. On the way back to the boat I picked up a giant clam to cook as an entree before tonight's dinner.

giant clam for tonight's entree

Back at the boat, I let out another 10 meters of anchor scope just to be sure. Later, after a lovely shower, I messed about trying to get OpenCPN and a USB GPS to work. This was my GPS fixed, satellite imagery program used for navigation. I haven’t used it for the past few years, so I have to teach myself how to use it all over again as it’s quite complicated, while Luke had another go at making Beef rendang. After dinner we prepared the boat for tomorrows night passage and as both of us were extremely tired, we went to be early.

Track Sirocco’s progress

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Sirocco

Friday 29th April 2022 –Gili Lawa Laut to Labuan Bajo

I got up at 6 am to go for a last dive here for the best chance to see manta rays, but I was disappointed once again. Maybe it's just not the season for them? I snorkeled the whole bay for about 2 km and must have been in the water for 2-3 hours. When I got back to the boat, I was exhausted and hungry, but had a fantastic dive as all the fish are hungry and active early morning.

After having breakfast & coffee, I got cleaned up and then we got the boat ready for the 19nm passage to Labuan Badjo. At 08:45 just as we were about to leave, a large panisi came around the corner wanting to hook-up to our mooring. It was perfect timing, we let go and right away he moved in to take the mooring as we set off on our way to Labuan Badjo.

The passage to Labuan Badjo was uneventful but I had to be on my toes as there is reef all over the place in this area. We arrived around 11:45, picked up a panisi mooring and then headed into town to buy some fuel. This place is fabulous with very old ramshackle buildings with lots of character. Everywhere you turn there is another photo opportunity.

I was amazed how much money has been spent on this place since I was here pre-COVID 2 1/2 years ago. The whole water front has been upgraded and the huge waterfront hotel has now been finished. I struggled to recognize any old land marks from my last visit, but eventually I recognized the fuel station and we filled 6 jerry cans.

The nice fuel attendant from Bali assisted us to carry the heavy jerry cans back to the dinghy, then we returned to the boat to fill the main fuel tank, then returned back to the fuel station once again to fill three more jerry cans, before returning back to the boat to secure them all in the forward cabin.

We were both keen to go back ashore for a look good around and the plan was to buy some stores, return them back to the boat, and then go back in again later for dinner.

We ended up having so much fun walking around taking photos, then later on we relaxed in a restaurant and ate salt & pepper squid and downed a few frothy's. We then did some more walking around the sea front where we found a very smelly fish market. After this, we went to a supermarket and bought all our shopping, then met up with my local friend Untung (a family friend and panisi owner) for dinner at the seafood wurung where I ordered a large coral trout, some squid and vegetables & rice.

It was a great meal and nice to catch up with Untung once again and around 9pm in the jet dark night, we loaded up the dinghy with all our stores and headed off into the dark night without a torch to try and find Sirocco. Luckily, we made it back ok and it wasn’t long before we were both sound asleep.

Once again we had a lovely sunset.

Track Sirocco’s progress

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Sirocco

Thursday 28th April 2022 – Komodo Island (Monco Bay) to Gili Lawa Laut - North

I slept in till about 07:30 this morning then cooked up some breakfast, before going for a long dive. Unfortunately, I was too late to see any manta rays. We did see some close to the boat when we first woke up, but by the time I got in the water a slight breeze had developed making the manta's dive down deep.

There were lots of very small squid hanging around the boat, but nothing big enough to bother getting the rod out. We pulled the anchor at 10:40 and headed for Lawa Lout. It was only 9nm (2 hours) to Lawa Lout and when we arrived at 12:40 we were very lucky to find the only mooring vacant, so we hooked on right away and then went for a snorkel.

I had high expectations for this place as they often get manta rays here. Last time I came through the mooring was taken, so I was looking forward to diving here this time.

The coral was either very good, patchy or smashed to bits. Overall, the snorkeling was good, but I think the coral was better at the last two locations. There was a lot of fish life here though, I saw a shark and some turtles as well as some bigger fish, but no manta rays. I was surprised to see goats on the Island, apart from a large osprey, there was no other signs of life here and it was as hot as hell.

Just on dusk I went ashore to burn off some rubbish. The beach here at the high tide mark was covered in garbage as far as the eye could see. I picked the most littered location and collected some drift wood, then burnt off as much of the rubbish as I could. It’s hard to believe this is a World Heritage National Park. It would have to be the most littered area I have been to in Indonesia so far and nobody seems to give a shit.

Once again we had a lovely sunset.

Track Sirocco’s progress

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Sirocco

Wednesday 27th April 2022 – Pulau Banta to Komodo Island - Monco Bay

I had a terrible sleep last night even though it was cool and a very calm anchorage as I kept thinking of how close we were to the shore and I slept with one eye open and got up regularly to check our position.

I need not bother as there was hardly a breath of wind all night and we hardly moved an inch. In the morning I woke up around 7am and I cooked some bacon to have with last night’s beef rendang. After a couple of coffee's, Luke and I went snorkeling around the boat. After about an hour I got bored with snorkeling this spot and so I took the dinghy for a long ride to where I saw good coral yesterday.

I had another nice lone snorkel before heading back to the boat and getting prepared to move to the next location, Monco Bay on the north west side of Komodo Island only 9 miles away. On the way to Komodo Island I did a few small boat jobs. I reinstalled my gas alarm that I repaired while at home and I also installed a GSM tracking device and I also put some biocide in the fuel tank.

There was hardly a breath of wind and we arrive at Monco Bay around 15:20 against a 4 - 5 knot current with lots of whirl pools and eddy currents. We anchored in 3.7m on a small sandy patch between the coral heads and it took a little bit of adjusting the anchor rode until I was happy with our location and we went for a long dive around the boat to make sure there are no bombies we could bump into in the night. Once I was happy with the anchor I took off in the dinghy and found a great spot to dive with really nice healthy coral and lots of fish.

I love to have a fresh baby coconut every day for breakfast

The water temperature here is close to 34 degrees and is often crystal clear. I dived until it started getting dark and then headed back to the boat. After a shower, I did some washing, had some of last night’s leftover rice for diner, took care of my painful cut hands and relaxed with a few beers. This place is so beautiful with the ever-towering Mt Sangeang volcano dominating the background.

Mt Sangeang volcano dominating the background

Once again both engines have operated flawlessly and reliably which has given my aching body a rest and allowed me to do more cleaning and to get a few boat jobs done. My hands have almost healed up now, but I have a very painful left tennis elbow, and very swollen and painful bone spur under my left knee and my right wrist is also very painful, all from working in awkward positions on the engines.

As I write this it is dead calm and all you can here is the gentle shore break and fish jumping and splashing around the boat.

Track Sirocco’s progress

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Sirocco