Tuesday 20 January – we are off to Wakatobi

Rowan was up at first light, the wind was up, it was time to go. The tide and wind were roaring through, last night we had run through our departure plan of how we were going to release the stern line. More difficult than it sounds with the force of the current and wind tensioning the line, which was two very long ropes joined, we also had three fenders to get off that were marking the rope so the locals didn’t go over it in their boats. Thankfully the whole procedure went without a hitch, the anchor came up no problem too, within half an hour we were off. The wind was coming from the right direction the sails went up and we were off. So lovely and peaceful without the engines on, Rowan was so excited. It actually was not that peaceful as the swell was enormous which bounced us around, with a couple of big waves crashing on top of the deck.

We have not seen another yacht since leaving Sorong, and hardly any other boats to this point. Once we got out into the sea we must have crossed a tanker route, we had 5 tankers around us at some stage. A couple of big fishing boats and then one big local wooden boat that cut slowly right in front of us, no AIS and our radar did not pick it up at all which is a bit scary – maybe because it is made of solid wood, and the sea was so choppy.

The forecast had been for rain, but we didn’t see any until I was on the night shift. Late afternoon we took the main sail down, Rowan decided we would just sail with the jib, so we would be doing around 2 knots, this is so that if we hit anything, fingers crossed we will do little damage. Don’t forget we also have huge logs in the water which do not show up on radar and impossible to see at night. I was very happy with just the jib out, it made my watch until midnight that much easier. I just had squalls to easily skirt around with just the jib.

Everything went as planned, we will get to the 5 mile gap between the two islands at midday tomorrow so we will be able to navigate it in good light. There is an anchorage the other side where we will anchor over night, to have a good night’s sleep. Then it should be just a two night sail to Wakatobi.