September 25th: Another restless night for me and I heard a voice shouting so got up. Oda had drifted and were trying to re-anchor. They were quite close to us at this stage. I woke Robbie and he got the huge spotlight going. This light has a range of about 500 metres, a long way anyway. It’s extremely powerful, the bulbs are $750.00 US dollars each (we made the mistake of ordering two spare bulbs without checking the price!). Oda was sorted and we had a cup of tea and went back to bed.
Departed Kananga at 6.30am for Moyo Island, we are all looking forward to this as there is a tented resort on the island, with 5 star restaurant facilities, it is also world class diving and snorkelling so we are all excited to get there. We noticed that our bananas have gone missing. Heidi had given us a hand (bunch) of bananas but they were quite green so we had hung them in the cockpit to ripen. Not exactly sure when they went missing or how they went missing but it is a mystery. We thought Per may have played a joke on us as he tends to do but he denied all knowledge. The last prank he did was hide Robbie’s good fishing rod in the spare bed and then very innocently started querying Robbie on the lures he uses etc so that Robbie discovered the missing rod!
We caught another Barracuda at 8:30am, arrrrrh we want a Wahu or a Dolphin Fish (Mahi Mahi) or a Yellow fin Tuna NOT Barracuda) this is a really big one and it has very large, ugly, sharp teeth. We will save it again to give to the locals.
The wind picked suddenly to over 30 knots and Oda suddenly went off on 90 degree turn to Port. He called us on the radio soon after and said they nearly breached, Elizabeth was scared and that is really very unusual – she is such a brave girl, sailed halfway round the world, has done a lot of hang gliding and over 1000+ scuba dives. I have never known her to be scared. Per told us that he spoke to another Yacht on the radio while we were bringing in the fish and that there is a new Regent and the restaurant has shut down and there is also nothing in the nearby town as the new Regent doesn’t allow alcohol. We sincerely hope he is joking!
As we were approaching Moyo Island anchorage, after we had set Oda right on where we were going as they were heading into Badas but thinking they were going into the Moyo Island resort, we got a call from Stormvogel to say their engine was playing up. Robbie suggested a fuel problem. Anyway the motor stopped as we passed the resort, a staff member had come out in a small boat to tell us to anchor on the Eastern side of the bay, outside the village (whom we gave the Barracuda to) and he was able to help us get the tow line to Stormvogel who was now drifting, and we towed them slowly toward the anchorage position. Peter was changing fuel filters while we did this and Oda anchored and Per went in his duck to check out and find the best anchorage position where we could tow Stormvogel to and let her anchor. Fortunately Peter got the engine going and we let her go and she anchored successfully. It’s always a bit risky in Indonesia as there is reef everywhere, and this bay had fringing reef right around the whole bay.
As it was only 12 when we got anchored we were all keen to go into the Island resort for lunch so we secured the boats and headed in. It’s a beautiful resort, named Amanwana Tent Resort. The accommodation is about 14 chalets solid structures but with a tent like roof. We had a walk through the chalets and wow, they are absolutely beautiful inside, but at $1,050 US dollars per night, they would want to be. There are a lot of tame deer wondering through the resort.
Anyway we had a fantastic lunch, spectacular surroundings, it was a set menu with two choices for each course. I had Prawn Cocktail, Seafood Pizza and tropical fruit crepes, and Robbie had the cocktail, Nazi Goreng with chicken and a Banana crispy pancake. The food was the best but the downside is that the beer which was only the small size Bintang, was 90,000 rupiah or $9 per bottle. A bottle of Wither Hills Sav Blanc was 1,380,000 rupiah or $138, and these prices didn’t include the tax which was another 20%. We had a couple of beers, the food was really good and we all decided as it was so expensive we would have a quick walk and head back to the boats. Peter and Heidi very generously paid the bill, which was absolutely astronomical, and we didn’t realise until later that the food was $75 per head!
Everyone was pretty tired and we went back and slept for a couple of hours. It was then time for the 500 challenge and unfortunately Robbie and Heidi flogged Peter and I, getting a bit sick of getting crap cards, our luck must change soon!
