Monday, 16 March 2026

 Good morning!

We’re going along really well. Not very fast during the night, but between the nice light wind and the favourable current we’re making 6 knots on average. The passage is 310 miles and we’ve covered 150 so far. I’d call that halfway. 

We had to motor a for a couple hours in the night when our speed dropped below 4 knots.   We could have just bobbed slowly along but we have to make sure we arrive at Bawaen in daylight. The closer you get to your destination the less time there is available make up the miles.

Right now we should arrive between 9 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon tomorrow, but we keep an eye on it.

Squid boats at night. They are mostly anchored far apart so we just navigate past them.

On the right hand screen, you can see we are trundling along in shipping lanes. Thanks to AIS (Automatic Information System) we can see them on the chart plotter long before we have a visual (eye balls) on them and they can see us.

We are also using Dangerous Target Alerts. An alarm sounds, an alert comes on the screen and the target flashes red if there is vessel that may or may or not be or become a danger. It is wonderfully over cautious so there is no chance of anyone being surprised. It does look closer in real life but it is very obvious it will pass behind us by about 5 miles.

You can just see the ship triggering the alert in the distance out our the port side window. 

At night we can also see the navigation lights of vessels around out - red and green port and starboard lights and a white light means you are looking at a vessels stern. An extra white light indicates a boat over a certain length, which I will refer to as ‘big’.

You also night see 3 vertical lights which indicate a vessel tug boat towing a barge.  The barge may or may not be lit so we always give them a wide berth.

That’s all for now!

Nancy and Tim

Sunday, 15 March, 2025

 Hello!

We’re on the move and going really well at the moment. 

The wind is from behind so the mainsail is out on the starboard side and the gib is poled out on the other side. We will be downwind sailing for the foreseeable future. 

We’re coming into a period of lighter winds and are expecting a wide variety of boat speeds. At this time of year the current is going our way, which is a help.

Yesterday was a day sail from Belitung to a sandbank near the island of a Geosite Pulau Baku Limau due to its uniqueness and cultural significance.  

The chart is dark as I took this photo before 6 in the morning before we left so I could start the new route.  This chart is on my iPad and isn’t the one the boat uses for navigation. It’s a different program with some different views and options.

Pulau Buku Limau is one of the group of islands and sandbanks that make up the area where we anchored. I have tried to find more information on it and Google Maps and TripAdviser had the best photos.  This a search for photos - https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffip&q=buku+limau+island&ia=web which had some good results.

The people squeezed onto this tiny island fishing for fish during the day and squid at night.

A typical fishing boat heading out in the morning after our arrival. They are very friendly and we get many waves, shouts and thumbs ups.

A typical squid boat heading out before dark; again very friendly. They made sure to pass close to us.  As night fell, we could see boats scattered across the horizon by their bright lights that lure the squid to the surface.

Pulau Baku Limau would have been wonderful place to visit and we will try to stop here on our way back up to Malaysia later in the year.

This is today’s route to Bawaen ( Ba Wee Ann) which is an island we visited on the rally up from Australia 2 years ago.

This leg looks short, but we will be two nights at sea. Winds are expected to be light but we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

Lots of love

Nancy 

Monday, 10 March 2026. Trying to post emails here. Testing 123

 Good Morning!

Oh, I slept well last night. :) The pizza I made for dinner might have helped as well.  :D

Yesterday we arrived in Belitung.

We went like a train for most of the passage, with over a knot of current and very favourable winds.  We are not used to doing over 7 knots in such good conditions.

Our wind instruments aren’t working but the red ribbon tell-tails on the shrouds do.

Tell-tails and shipping lanes before arriving in Indonesia.

The last quarter of the passage we had a side swell and light winds which means the sails slap around, are noisy and make the boat jerk every once in a while.  Tim can sleep in any thing pretty much, but I’m a precious flower and sometimes can’t. Luckily, I need much less sleep than Tim and my Spidy senses keep me awake and alert. lol.

We clear into Customs and Immigration today, although the process was started yesterday. Part of this was taking photos of all the ‘working’ areas of the boat - engine, tools, food storage, galley and main living area, which we emailed them as requested. We hope that this means we won’t have to dinghy officials out to the boat. I expect the officials are hoping that too. Our dinghy works well for us, but it’s a different type than most, is on the small size and takes a little getting used to.

Tim went ashore yesterday and handed over the paperwork he’s been working on for weeks (lots of technical details)and filled out more with the agent on the beach. At 10.00 today a driver will meet us to take us to Customs and Immigration and that will probably take all day despite the fact that we are the only yacht here.

The local people are desperate to earn money and are so helpful and eager.  We hadn’t been planning on topping up the diesel but will as our guy ashore has some. I rather hope he’s aware that the cost of diesel is likely to go up and he charges us accordingly. We’ll get our laundry done as well and eat in the restaurants as often as possible.

We were here on the rally last year and it’s a lovely place with welcoming people. We hope to be able to join this year’s Indonesia Rally when our paths cross later in the year.

Belitung is a pretty place and though the restaurant on the island is closed for the season, swimming around the wonderful rocks is free.

Lots of love,

Nancy and Tim