MADE IT TO FLORES

10 November 2023

A lovely anchorage and a calm, peaceful night at anchor at Teluk Sagu.  I weighed anchor before six in the morning and motored out of the bay, careful to backtrack my Navionics trail of the previous day, avoiding the reefs scattered about.

By 11:00 in the morning we were off Tg. Kopondai, the North East point of the island of Flores.  Such a romantic name, Flores.  Not so romantic at the moment, strong currents were pushing us back and making life difficult for Mr. Yanmar, clattering away beneath my feet. 

The strong currents seemed to attract a tremendous amount of floating rubbish, mainly plastic.  Much of the plastic seems to live in the first meter of water, suspended just below the surface and only visible as you pass close by over it.  A whale was breaching in the midst of all this floating garbage, so sad to see such a beautiful creature amongst the trash.  I have given up dragging a lure behind the boat, all I catch is plastic and have been constantly cleaning the garbage off the hook.  On one particular haul I caught five types of fishing gear.

Rounding Tg. Watupayung and once we had passed through a tide rip the currents eased and in calm water we motored the last couple of miles into North Hading Bay.  The anchorage is around an outlaying reef and between that and the coastal reef.  The coral bottom was very uneven.  I spent some time hunting around with the depth sounder and eventually found what I assumed to be a clear spot in 16m.  After anchoring we swung into 32m water depth.   I am still not comfortable anchoring in these coral type places.  Advice is to look at the bottom, fact is that I haven’t been anywhere in Indonesia yet where the bottom has been clearly visible, either because of light, wind, waves or murky water.  In Australia I was often able see the bottom clearly. 

Anyway, we had arrived on Flores.  I know it’s just another Island along the chain but for some reason Flores seems to be another milestone on the voyage.  In the morning I gently retrieved the anchor and up it came, clean as a whistle.  I backtracked around the reef and in calm weather set course for Seaworld near Maumere.  I had heard that a good feed could be had a Seaworld.  Motored all day on flat calm seas and anchored off Seaworld Resort mid afternoon.

A local guy came out in a boat and offered to provide services, I took him up on his offer and requested 40 litres of diesel.  With all this windless weather I am burning through the fuel at an alarming rate.  Bring it in the morning I said and headed ashore for a beer and some food.

It turned out the resort was dead, only two other residents present.  The beer turned out to be not quite cold enough and the food was hopeless.  The two residents, two gentlemen, a German and an Australian came over for a chat.  An odd couple but we had an interesting chat before I made my apologies and headed back to Truce.  Disappointing really but it had been a different evening.

The next morning the fuel arrived as promised and we were soon on our way again.  Today we are heading to a small bay just to the south of Tg. Sada.  Once again, no wind and flat calm.  After an easy motor we anchored in the picturesque bay, just outside the fringing reef in 20m of water. 

It didn’t take long for the local children to find something to hitch a ride on and come and visit.  A yacht arriving must be the equivalent of Mr Whippy arriving in the street for NZ kids.  Of course they want stuff and unfortunately I don’t have any kids stuff to give out.  But they are grateful for anything and drinks and food are always welcomed by kids.