Tanjung Gedong

Hi everyone,
We had a pleasant sail from Kroko Island to Cape Gedong today. We started off with a nice sailing breeze and even set the asymetric to help keep up with the bigger boats. We sailed the 30nm in company with the four French boats plus several catamarans from Australia and Austria. After about 3 hours of sailing we had to motor-sail to keep moving - the breeze was about 6 knots from astern. Happily we had the tide with us all the way.

Zen Again Track

Our hull cleaning activities certainly helped since we got 0.2 to 0.3 knot better boat speed at our usual cruising RPM. The engine seemed to be running more smoothly, perhaps due to the several barnacles removed from the propellor.

Tanjung (Cape) Gedong is a small promontory just west of Tanjung Kopondai at the eastern end of Flores Island. The little bay to its west has a nice little anchorage in 8-12m of water over coral rubble and some sand. We are anchored at 08 04.605S 122 50.722E. The vegetation ashore is more lush than the places we've visited previously, so presumably there's more rain here. Very dry and sunny at the moment though. A pretty anchorage.

Ananda and Shangri-La

Nice little anchorage

Zen Again

We went for a quick snorkle after arriving. A nice swim and quite a few colourful fish, but very little coral. After our swim the local village kids started arriving asking for handouts. We traded a couple of shirts for some coconuts but the others were apparently not interested in trade. Before leaving Kroko Island we bought some nice bananas from one of the local men. I think he made a killing over the last couple of weeks from Sail Indonesia yachts. Home delivered bananas are considerably more expensive than those in the market! :)

Tomorrow we plan to push on to Pulau Besar, another 30nm west.

Kroko Island (Day 3)

Hi everyone,
Today we stayed at Kroko Island. We spent much of the morning continuing to clean the hull, which is now looking pretty good. We could clearly see the bottom and at one stage saw the local manta ray snooping about on the bottom below us.

Cleaning the hull (with help from a few little friends)

Zen Again

Topsides!

Amazing coral "islands" amid the sea grasses

Clown fish

Just another bommie?

Scorpion fish (lower right)

In the afternoon about 6 more boats joined us in the anchorage, including our Tipperary Waters friends on Kokomo V and Nefertiti 1. The crews from all 11 boats met on the beach for sundowners in the late afternoon. Prior to that we did a little more snorkelling and found some very nice spots west of the sandy cay.

Tomorrow morning we will depart towards the anchorage near Teluk Gedong, just around the northmost point of Flores Island.

Kroko Island (day 2)

Hi everyone,
We had a wonderful day here at Kroko Island. We slept like the dead after all the swimming yesterday. When we woke a strong SE breeze was blowing up from Selat Boling and all the other yachts had departed. We had this lovely place all to ourselves all morning. Early in the afternoon four French yachts arrived from Lewoleba.  Ananda, Alibi, Charlene and Shangri-La.

Dirty hull, crystal clean water

Late in the morning and in the early afternoon we had two sessions cleaning the hull of Zen Again. This is the first place we've visited where visibility is really good, and that's a big help in cleaning. The visibility is so good you can see the chain arcing down to the bottom (16m down) and running along the bottom for a 10m before it becomes indistinct. The hull isn't terribly dirty, but getting rid of the growth while we have the opportunity is a "must do". Before, during and after the cleaning the boat is surrounded by hundreds of tiny fish plus a few of up to 10cm length. A school of black and white striped fish about 2.5cm long appear to like our prop shaft. All very colourful.

Spot the shy clown fish

An amazing experience

Fantastic corals

Lots of fish

Mid afternoon we dinghied ashore and went snorkelling around the sand cay. We found even better areas than yesterday. Spectacular. Many, many types of fish, several types of starfish and many types of coral. After the snorkelling we visited all the French boats to invite them to sundowners on the cay. Three of the crews came ashore and we had a fun time resurrecting our French and chatting with them in English and French. They (like us) were planning to move on tomorrow but have now decided to stay one more day.