Left this morning as soon as we could see! Close to spring tides making life very uncomfortable on a mooring that had us swirling around the place at Derawan Island. The 27NM passage to Maratua Island was quite comfortable with current helping us along but as usual the wind a bit light. Today and the next few days it has a bit of westerly which will be good on the crossing to Sulawesi.
The last one mile through a channel edged with reefs was a slow passage as we had arrived while the outgoing tide was still running. Our speed slowly dropped from 6 knots to 5, to 4 to 3 and finally to .8! We could have stood off for a while but decided to push in. The channel is quite wide but there were whirlpools and the turbulence associated with a fast flowing tide. It was quite difficult to calculate the slack water time as the nearest tide station is on the mainland in the delta area.
This anchorage is just beautiful with the iconic turquoise waters over sand, reefs very discernible, a few scattered islands, fishing boats and tiny villages. We are thinking of staying over tomorrow as well.
Position: 02* 14.791 N, 118* 37.877 E.
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