Left our calm anchorage in the lagoon on Tuesday just after 0600, safely crossed the reef in the dawn light and motored into the 10-15 knot breeze to Bacan Island. We entered the Strait Sambaki with current in our favour but wind up to 20 knots straight up the strait onto our nose. Quite turbulent in the narrower sections but quite easy.
In this section we found that our Navionics App was spot on while the Plan2Nav App was out the same as the CMap charts. The Google Earth overlays were spot on as well.
We sussed out one anchorage on the Nusara Island to the west of Labuha but ended up choosing the well-protected deep Belangbelang Bay, just to the north of it. Position: 00 36.617 S, 127 25.025 E
Wednesday we all motored across the 4 NM to anchor off Labuha. Fuel was quickly organised at a good price and then we set off down the main road along the shore to find the ATM, fish markets and traditional markets. It was a noisy walk with many becaks (trishaws) passing us with their car battery-powered boom boxes blaring out. The road was lined with small shops selling the usual bits and pieces and food items. The fish markets were surprisingly clean. We came back later and bought a nice sized tuna for Rup20,000 as we found the asking price of Rup450,000 was a bit over the top for a small frozen chicken from Java. That's A$2 compared to A$45!
Along another noisy street to find the traditional markets which had most things we needed (just no fresh chicken). By the time we had finished our business the onshore wind had sprung up so we hurried back to the jetty in a becak, loaded the jerry cans aboard the dinghy and went back to the boat. We quickly up-anchored and set off back to our nice protected bay.
Our view of Bacan Island was dominated by the massive 2,200-metre Mount Sibela. It was mostly covered in cloud but very impressive. We left this morning, Thursday, at 0600 with grey, overcast skies to continue southwards and arrived at Tanjung Anggai on Obimayor Island just on 1500. Best day's sailing we have had for a while. Once we cleared Bacan Island and the turbulence we had about 10-15 knots which was enough for us to switch off the engine.
A nice surprise was to pass through a pod of whales which we think from the pics may have been Humpbacks. They were not that close and as they surfaced we could only see their backs - couldn't see their heads or tails.
The wind increased up to 20 knots and we were getting along at high 6s and high 7s. We would have gone faster if we were not pushing 1.5-2 knots of current. It was quite gusty as we came behind the island to the north of us but no swell to deal with so pretty good sailing.
On anchoring we were met by several fishermen in their tiny dugout fishing boats. Very friendly though and they didn't ask for anything. We later gave them some fishing tackle - we still have a large number of weights which the tackle shop owner we met in Taiwan gave us in 2010 - plus hooks that we don't seem to use.
Position: S 01 21.223, E 127 45.101
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In this section we found that our Navionics App was spot on while the Plan2Nav App was out the same as the CMap charts. The Google Earth overlays were spot on as well.
We sussed out one anchorage on the Nusara Island to the west of Labuha but ended up choosing the well-protected deep Belangbelang Bay, just to the north of it. Position: 00 36.617 S, 127 25.025 E
Wednesday we all motored across the 4 NM to anchor off Labuha. Fuel was quickly organised at a good price and then we set off down the main road along the shore to find the ATM, fish markets and traditional markets. It was a noisy walk with many becaks (trishaws) passing us with their car battery-powered boom boxes blaring out. The road was lined with small shops selling the usual bits and pieces and food items. The fish markets were surprisingly clean. We came back later and bought a nice sized tuna for Rup20,000 as we found the asking price of Rup450,000 was a bit over the top for a small frozen chicken from Java. That's A$2 compared to A$45!
Along another noisy street to find the traditional markets which had most things we needed (just no fresh chicken). By the time we had finished our business the onshore wind had sprung up so we hurried back to the jetty in a becak, loaded the jerry cans aboard the dinghy and went back to the boat. We quickly up-anchored and set off back to our nice protected bay.
Our view of Bacan Island was dominated by the massive 2,200-metre Mount Sibela. It was mostly covered in cloud but very impressive. We left this morning, Thursday, at 0600 with grey, overcast skies to continue southwards and arrived at Tanjung Anggai on Obimayor Island just on 1500. Best day's sailing we have had for a while. Once we cleared Bacan Island and the turbulence we had about 10-15 knots which was enough for us to switch off the engine.
A nice surprise was to pass through a pod of whales which we think from the pics may have been Humpbacks. They were not that close and as they surfaced we could only see their backs - couldn't see their heads or tails.
The wind increased up to 20 knots and we were getting along at high 6s and high 7s. We would have gone faster if we were not pushing 1.5-2 knots of current. It was quite gusty as we came behind the island to the north of us but no swell to deal with so pretty good sailing.
On anchoring we were met by several fishermen in their tiny dugout fishing boats. Very friendly though and they didn't ask for anything. We later gave them some fishing tackle - we still have a large number of weights which the tackle shop owner we met in Taiwan gave us in 2010 - plus hooks that we don't seem to use.
Position: S 01 21.223, E 127 45.101
----------
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