Bawean Island

Hi everyone,
We arrived at Bawean Island at 1145 today after a 44 hour passage from Lovina Beach. We covered 198nm on the log and 219nm over the ground, so had current with us predominantly. We ran the engine for 13.5 hours, much less than most of our recent passages in percentage terms. Our average speed was about 4.5 knots and maximum speed on the log was 8.2 knots (surfing down waves on Monday night). We are anchored in 4.5m over sand at 05 43.93S 112 40.26E.

Zen Again Track

The sail last night was very pleasant with winds from 4-12 knots. The wind held in for most of the night, swinging back from E to SE as the night wore on. We only had to run the engine for two hours, when the wind was so light we couldn't do more than 2 knots boatspeed. We dodged a bunch of ships overnight, and also one yacht which shall remain nameless. The yacht didn't see us coming, didn't answer calls on VHF 16, was showing incorrect nav lights, and failed to give way to us. After closing to 100m we finally alerted them to our presence with a torch. They kept standing on so we gybed away.

This morning the wind held in well, from 6-12 knots from the SE. We gybed to and fro to make the best progress possible. A number of yachts appeared as we approached the island, all of them obviously motor-sailing or purely motoring.

Approaching Bawean

Yesterday evening Kakadu was 15nm east of us. By mid-morning today they had closed up to about 7nm behind. They anchored about 2 hours after us, having started about 3 hours after us. The two yachts are very well matched in light airs. Like us they sailed most of the passage. Some of the yachts here apparently motored all the way!

At anchor at Bawean Island

After arriving we spent 30 minutes swimming around the boat to cool off and to give the hull a bit of a clean. Remora fish found the boat very quickly and were most upset when we started wiping off the slime they were feasting on!

This evening we had dinner aboard Kakadu. We decided to depart together tomorrow afternoon for the mouth of the Kumai River. We hope to complete the 180nm passage on Saturday morning. The wind appears to be more consistent in this area, so hopefully we'll have a good sail.