Batumonco

Hi everyone,
Today we sailed from Pink Beach on the east coast of Komodo Island to Batumonco on the extreme NW corner of the island. Not the passage we were planning yesterday, but we decided on a shorter route on the day. We spent all morning reading The Weekend Australian newspaper(downloaded) and departed after lunch. The passage was 21.5nm over the ground but only 16.8nm through the water since we had help from the tide. We motor-sailed most of the way. We're now anchored at 08 27.05S 119 26.88E in 9m over sand and widely scattered rock/coral.

Zen Again Track

Significant chart offset at Batumonco!

The most exciting part of the passage was passing through the narrow channel between Komodo Island and Gililawa Darat. We went down the middle but the depth got down to 5m and we did a quick about-face before assertaining which side to favour. The south side appears to be deepest with about 8m over sand and coral. Don't try this channel unless the current is managable! We had 1.5-2.0 knots behind us.  The same against would be optimal, allowing one to "ferry glide" side to side to find the deepest water.  The GoogleEarth image is better than the chart in that it is accurately aligned to GPS positions, but doesn't have the resolution to show depth in such a narrow and shallow channel.

Batumonco is a nice bay with room for many yachts. It is listed as one of the best dive/snorkel sites in the Komodo area in the book "101 Anchorages in Indonesia". We're looking forward to exploring tomorrow, and hoping that Kakadu may catch up with us here. We passed them at anchor while approaching the channel described above and tried to contact them on VHF. Turns out they were out snorkelling and saw us going past. When back aboard they SMSed us but we didn't see the message until we were out of mobile coverage (as we are now). Hopefully they might read this, or the email we sent via HF, and understand why we didn't reply and where we are now! So many means of communicating and so little success! :)

Two other yachts in the bay

Zen Again at anchor

Kakadu arrived the following day, while we were still in the bay.  Seems they did receive our email!

Kakadu and others join us in the anchorage