Monday 9 March – going around Tambora volcano

We left at first late so we could make it around the big bulge of the island so that tomorrow we just have a straight run down to Sumbawa to pick up Grant and Judith. It was mainly a motor around in squally cloudy weather, we did have the sails up for about an hour, it was good to shake the main sail out and get all the water out of the sail bag, just a shame it did not last. We finally made it to the other side of the island where Rowan had found a resort where we could have supper. The Tambora volcano is 2700m high and has been permanently covered in cloud, it seems to attract the weather. this is what google has to say about this volcano………’Mount Tambora is an active stratovolcano on Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, known for the most powerful eruption in recorded history in April 1815. The eruption killed over 10,000 instantly and up to 90,000 total via famine/disease, ejecting 100 km³ of material, lowering global temperatures, and causing 1816’s “Year Without a Summer”.’

As we were a couple of miles from the anchorage Rowan suddenly spotted that we were trailing two long lines of floating rope from a fishing net. The netting part had obviously ripped off and the dagger boards had caught the rope holding up the little floaters. We used our boat horn to try and attract the attention of the nearest fishing boat that we thought it must belong to but they just ignored us. We stopped the engines and Rowan hopped in the dinghy to untangle us, luckily it was easy to get us free, nothing was caught anywhere but we had a very long nylon rope on board. We finally got the anchor down just before 4pm we were on the other side of the headland to the resort to get protection from the wind. There was a little fishing village on the black volcanic beach, the muezzin was very busy singing, we could not see the mosque the prayer just wafted from the trees behind the beach. The bay was full of fishing boats. On the way to the resort we dropped off the fishing rope at the village a lady took it from us and seemed very chuffed.

We got to the resort which was totally empty, the manager said we were free to swim in their lovely infinity pool, which we enjoyed. It felt a bit ghostly with no guests, the place was beautifully done with a lovely pool and loads of staff but no guests. They don’t serve alcohol so we were allowed to bring our own beers. It was a lovely evening. Sumudra arrived about an hour after us and the two girls had a whale of a time swimming in the pool, they are really competent swimmers. We had to have eaten before 7pm, the menu was very limited each item only had one or two portions left. It wasn’t the greatest meal but the swim and ambiance was very nice. Gemma the girls mum came for supper, it was interesting chatting to her. There were loads of monkeys about, maize was growing in fields right up to the resort which might have been attracting the monkeys.

It was a bit tricky getting back on the dinghy as the tide had gone down and the waves were quite big, Rowan picked me up from the end of the jetty which meant a big jump down in bouncing waves which was a bit hairy. Our early mornings are catching up with us, we were early to bed again.