Komodo Islands - Here Be Dragons

Current Date: 18th October 2025

Current Location: Waicicu Beach, Labuan Bajo, Flores, Indonesia

Today's blog is bought to you by daughter Emma who has been staying on board with us for the past two weeks. Her partner Chris joined us for the second week. We had a blast. Thanks guys.

The Holidaymakers.

EMMA'S BLOG

The first thing that hit me as I came out of the tiny Komodo airport at Labuan Bajo was the humidity and heat, the second was one very excited mother! After a year and a half without seeing family, we were well overdue a reunion. Their base in Labuan Bajo is the beautiful bay off the beachside Sylvia Hotel, where they are on first name terms with the waiting staff (pineapple smoothie for you Mr John, fish and chips for you Mrs Gill) and all the boats in the anchorage. One of these boats waved a huge Indonesian flag and honked their foghorn as I dinghied to the boat – what a welcome! It was also lovely to meet Kevin and Shawna from their buddy boat, Meraki 2, who joined us on many of our adventures.

The last two weeks have been spent sailing around the beautiful Komodo National Park, anchoring in tiny bays off arid islands inhabited only by goats or deer and snorkelling in world class reefs. We’ve swam with thousands of different fish, sometimes right off the boat, as well as turtles and eagle rays! My partner Chris came out for the second week – he has never snorkelled on a coral reef before and was amazed. The sea here is so many different shades of blue. We have spent a lot of our time exploring the aquamarine of the shallow reef streaked through by sunlight, which eerily drops off to deep blue nothingness. We have also had a dose of civilization in Labuan Bajo, where we did yoga on the beach, went to a 5-star hotel for breakfast and spent a day provisioning with mum, including a trip to an amazing (and quite intimidating) local market.

Emma's happy place. Mehalah in the background.

Gilly snorkelling the reef.

But we couldn’t leave the Komodo National Park without trying to see the dragons themselves. They live on only 5 islands, but the best chance of spotting them is on Rinca Island. So, we anchored offshore of Rinca, surrounded by mangroves, and booked the early morning tour when the dragons are most active. I was actually on the fence about going, as I was worried about overtourism and harassment of the dragons. I wasn’t reassured by seeing 3 dragons lying around just outside the ranger station for ‘selfies’. But I felt much better after setting off on our 3-hour hike, where the crew of Mehalah and Meraki 2 were the only people except 2 rangers with forked sticks to keep away the dragons (direct quote: if the stick breaks, we run!). We saw monkeys, wild boar and 2 huge Komodo dragons! You really did feel like they were sizing you up for their next meal! Chris’ favourite animal was in fact, not the dragons, but hundreds of crabs waving their single red claws in tandem to attract a mate.

Guides Yeoman and Dee with forked sticks 

On safari!

The Dragon 

I know many people who read this blog are well aware of the practicalities of boat life, as they are living that life themselves. But for people like me who don’t know their forestay from their mizzenmast, I thought it might be interesting to describe what I loved and found challenging about this lifestyle. One of my favourite things is that 90% of your time awake is spent outside. My favourite time of day is first thing in the morning, when the sea is flat calm and the sun is just rising and hasn’t yet made you run for shade!  This is the only time to do any form of exercise that doesn’t involve swimming – Dad and I had some great 6am walks up to the top of islands near our anchorages. 

Early morning climb.

The summit. Father and daughter.

But, most of our activities are water based as once the sun gets up, its very hot, so a lot of time is spent in the sea or in the shaded cockpit. This has been a change for me, as I run or walk on a daily basis at home. Also, sleeping in a cabin which is around 30 degrees at night is hard for people used to the English weather! On a boat, you are very dependant on the wind (or, in Indonesia, lack of wind), which dictates not only whether you can sail, but what you can do, where you can stay and generally how pleasant an experience you have. We had one very windy day huddled in the cockpit unable to leave the boat. Although I really like boat life, everything is just that little bit harder. Want any food? You have to move everything off the surface and unpack the whole fridge. Want to go to the loo? You have to pump your water in, then out again and then remember to switch everything off again! I’m always amazed at the sheer number of jobs there are on a boat and so much that can go wrong! But, Dad amazingly always manages to fix whatever needs fixing. I’m also in awe of Mum’s ability to provision for time spent at sea. She has dry food hidden all over the boat and we have managed to make some great dinners based on ingredients picked up all over the world, supplemented with fresh stuff from the local market (on one occasion, with a side of ants…).

A new helmsman.

The idyllic Komodo Islands 

We have had the most amazing holiday and feel lucky to have seen the Komodo National Park in a way that most tourists never do. But, most of all, it has been lovely to spend time with Mum and Dad after so long, live their life for a while and hear about all of their adventures. 

Mother and Daughter.

Another crazy sunset.

 *************************************************************************

And now they're gone. Off to Java for a week before heading home to England and the world of work. Soon The Komodo Islands will be just a distant memory. But what a great couple of weeks we all had together.

And for us? We've spent today turning the holiday home back into a cruising yacht. Diesel, local market, ATM, supermarket - all the usual pre passage making stuff. Tomorrow, early in the morning we set off on the year's final push, 1,500 miles up to Langkawi on the west coast of Malaysia. What are we expecting? Not much wind, dodging poorly lit fishing nets and a change in seasons from the dry SE winds to wet NW winds. Lets hope we can make most of the passage before those NW winds kick in as NW is the direction we need to travel as we make our way up to Singapore before traversing the notorious Malacca Straits, well known in the past as pirate alley.

Nets, Admin, a Forestay and Calf Roping

 Date: 10th September 2025

Location: North Coast Flores, Indonesia

"Stop! STOP!" I shouted. "Reverse, as fast as you can". There, two metres ahead of us was a row of tiny fishing floats. Luckily, even though we were sailing the engine was also on. Somehow we stopped just in time and backed away from the mile long net. The sails backed, the fishing line somehow avoided the spinning propellor and we managed to pass round the end of the net just avoiding the start of another one. There were a couple of small boats by a red flag but they hadn't seemed perturbed as we sailed towards their valuable net. Maybe they hoped we would get entangled and have to buy them another one.

We've been slowly working our way westward along the north coast of Flores. Great but deep anchorages, few if any other cruising boats and magnificent volcanic scenery. Here are a few highlights, and lowlights.

Dates: 28th August and 5th September

A Day Out and Gill and Kevin's birthdays.

We finally found a "resort". We anchored offshore of Sea World (wooden cabins with a beachfront restaurant) and were made welcome by the staff.

We arranged a day trip with a driver to see the famous Three Coloured Lakes. A long, long drive through very poor villages with shacks mainlymade of corrugated iron sheets and bamboo. Up and up we went with the road becoming reminiscent of an African track. Landslides, roadworks and near the top of this volcano, a thick mist. Just as we were bemoaning the lack of a view we suddenly popped out of the fog. The lakes are very impressive and change colour over the years. All three lie within the confines of a single semi dormant volcano. The locals believe your spirit will end up in one of the three lakes - depending on your age at death and whether or not you have lived a pure life. One lake was steaming white clouds - a very rare phenomenon. Thankfully there were signs telling us which way to run in the event of a major eruption!

Two of the lakes.

Another view.

Paddy fields near the volcano.

Complex irrigation systems.

Back at Sea World a couple of other boats had arrived so Gilly's birthday beach dinner was shared with a young French guy and his family. As usual acquaintances soon became friends and a great evening was had by all under the stars.

Gill's birthday T-shirt.

And birthday dinner - lobstered out!

Birthdays weren't over yet though. A few days later and we're in Ruing, a small fishing village also serving as the entry point to the 17 Islands National Park. A few basic travellers' cabins provided accommodation for hardy explorers. But for us there was a small dockside restaurant where we celebrated Kevin's 64th birthday. Well actually he was 67 but he claimed to have 'forgotten' three years?

Happy birthday Kevin.

This was another good evening with just the four of us and was very upmarket compared with the local, Moslem, no alcohol food shack of the more remote villages.

It was also a good place to stock up vegetables at the local pasar.

Chickens for sale at an earlier market.

Chicken purchased!

Date: 8th September 2025

We and Meraki were anchored in a dead flat, remote bay. Dusk approached and a solitary fisherman set his net with the characteristic slap of his hand against his wooden hull to drive the fish into his net. As the sun set a big full moon rose in the east. Stars came out and we lay in the cockpit watching. A magical evening. And then, around 11pm, in a completely clear sky, the moon began to disappear crescent segment by crescent segment. In an hour it had gone completely leaving just a hazy glow. Slowly it returned. And there it was. The red eclipse moon. 2am. Time for bed.

Waiting for the blood moon.

Not the blood moon - too hard to photograph! But a nice moon picture anyhow.

9th September

A bad day for Meraki

Meraki left us to try another anchorage a few miles away. Entry to our bay had been tricky. Leaving for them was trickier. In a low tide they went around on a coral reef. Not good. Not good at all. They radioed us and we sped round to see if we could help. They really were well aground. But as you see it was low water. We inspected and waited and inspected and waited as the tide rose. 30 minutes later the engine was started, reverse engaged and Meraki gently floated off. Phew! That was close.

But their woes weren't over for the day. They arrived at their chosen bay and decided to take a further look at the sticking foresail furler. With sail unfurled Kevin pulled the furling line and horror of horrors the metal stay snapped and the entire furling gear and sail hung loose from the top of the mast. The forestsay had broken. They then spent many hours sorting out the mess. Dropping the halyard, removing the sail and clearing the mess of wire and furling foils. Nightmare.

No forestay, just a couple of halyards holding up the mast.

The next few days we travelled with them slowly here to Labuan Bajo as they carefully motored along afraid to hoist a sail for fear of bringing the entire rig down.

On the way to Labuan Bajo.

Yet again just our two boats in the whole anchorage.

Date: 15th September 2025

Location: Waecicu Bay, Labuan Bajo, Flores, Indonesia.

The busy harbour of Labuan Bajo

We've finally made it to Labuan Bajo, the tourist mecca of Flores. This bay just north of the town has everything. It's where we will meet daughter Emma in a couple of week's time. Nice wide anchorage, very few boats, snorkelling and a taxi ride into town.

Our base waiting for Emma and for fixing Meraki.

A short paddle away to one of our yoga spots.

Yoga morning on the beach.

We are sharing the bay with squid boats - bright lights attract the squid.

So today was an admin day. We needed Harbour Master, Customs, Immigration, laundry, fresh market, supermarket, Dex and Pertamax (diesel and petrol). Admin days are always guaranteed stressful. You need a special sort of resilience and a sense of humour. And Indonesia is especially challenging both because our Indonesian is poor and the culture is very different to what we are used to. We dinghied ashore with 8 20 litre jerry cans, two big bags of laundry, various bags for purchases, boat papers, Kevin, Shawna, Gill and me. Sophea our driver waited for the four of us at the entrance to the Sophia Hotel. Meanwhile we were waiting in the carpark. There goes the first half hour. We pile into the Toyota people carrier and head for Labuan Bajo the first sizeable town for a month.

ATM first. We took out 4,000,000 rupiah! Laundry next. It's complicated. 50,000 rupiah for a 5 kilo load, 70,000 for a big sheet (50,000=£2.50). But that's if you don't want the express 2 hour service. Anyway we left it all with them with our WhatsApp numbers for a detailed price. "Terima kasih" (thank you).

Now the fun really began. Some rumours had it that we must have our 'green book' stamped at major ports or you could end up getting fined on final departure. We presented ours to the harbourmaster. Much consternation and discussion in very broken English. Have you just arrived in Indonesia? You must go to immigration, customs and quarantine too. No we haven't. How long you stay here? When you leave you must come again. Who knows. Anyway they gave us some sort of stamp in the green book and we escaped. Kevin tried to get the harbour master to allow him to tie up to his dock once he has his furler parts. Can't be done. I'll get my friend to contact you.

Next is fuel. There isn't any. Maybe tomorrow. Sophea the driver is hard to understand and is trying to get extra kickbacks wherever he can.

On to Customs for Kevin to get a letter to exempt him from paying duty when he gets back with his forestay parts from Australia. "Ah, that letter needs to come from Kupang where you checked in." But Kupang say he must take the boat back to Kupang (hundreds of miles) before they will give him the letter. In the end he decides to ask forgiveness on arrival rather than permission in advance. We'll see how that works!

And then it's Immigration to ask how we extend our visas. You only get 60 days initially and we need another 60. Amazingly the woman there understands perfectly and tells us how we need to fill in an online form and then return to see her to have our photos taken. She also knew what Kevin needed to do to renew his visa when he gets back from Australia. His current visa is single entry and he'll be coming in a second time. Well done Immigration. You were great!

Then it's supermarket and local market. The local market especially is just ace. Friendly, mostly Moslem, great choice, great quality. We buy some things that we recognise and a few we don't. The pineapples are the best ever.

The busy market.

On we go to pick up the laundry. A misunderstanding means it's not been folded and will be another hour. We say we'll take it unfolded. "What! Wait we'll fold it now." And what folding. Even my holey T-shirts were precisely sized using a small rectangle of plastic to ensure the folds were in exactly the correct places!

At the laundry.

That's some folding.

Then finally it's back to the boats. "Just ask for Alex" if you need me again says the driver. Yes, that's Sophea the driver. So we query him. "Ah, my name is Alex, 'Sophea' is Indonesian for driver!!"

Next day things get even more weird. Kevin gets a text from the harbourmaster to say they have his Crew List piece of paper. Well, turns out it is actually ours for Mehalah. This is a critical piece of paper. It must have the same names on it when you leave as when you arrived in the country. I stay on the boat. The girls go to sort out the Crew List and Kevin takes jerry cans for fuel with Alex. Gill sends me a message "They've lost the Crew List!" "Ah, they've found it in the bin." "No. That's not the Crew List it's the list of Ports form" (another critical one). They agree that a photo of Gill with Rivo the harbourmaster and a copy of his original WhatsApp message is the best that can be done. Fingers crossed at exit time.

Gill and Rivo the harbourmaster.

Meanwhile Kevin is with Alex at the Petromina petrol station. IT IS BEDLAM. In five years sailing it's the only time Kevin has feared for his safety. Alex bypasses the huge queue shouting at people as he drives on the kerb to get to a pump of Dex. K keeps his head down and starts to fill the diesel jerries with tempers fraying and much bad feeling. Meanwhile Alex is off trying to get the petrol cans filled. He's unsuccessful for some reason. As it turns out this is a good thing as he was trying to fill our red jerry can (labelled for diesel) with petrol.

They return to the boats with Kevin traumatised and upset.

Date: 22nd September 2025

Meraki Repair Update

So this is the biggy. The only way forward is a new forestay and furling system for Meraki. Luckily we're waiting for Emma here anyway so can afford to stay with Kevin and Shawna while they sort things out. Indonesia just does not have these sort of parts and as they are off to Japan, Russia and Alaska once they leave here it is imperative they install new parts. New parts must come from Australia and they ain't cheap. Two options..

1. Order and fly the parts in with a risk of them getting stuck in customs for weeks whilst incurring an additional import duty charge of 40% and bits missing when they arrive.

2. Fly to Australia to pick up the parts. But this means a new Australian visa, a new Indonesian visa, four flights and two nights away.

Kevin's gone for Option 2. At this moment he's in Sydney checking all the parts. If any are wrong or missing when he gets back here he'll have to repeat the entire trip. It's complex and the risks are high. Even when he gets to customs at Bali he might need to pay duty. To mitigate this risk he's buying a surfboard bag and hopes to bring the parts in as 'sports equipment'. We shall see!

Whilst waiting for the parts to arrive Gill and I make a short foray into the outer Komodo islands.

[PS: Kevin's back with no issues. On to the rebuild].

[PPS: There are some missing parts. We need a new plan].

Checking the inventory.

Interesting Indonesian facts...

- All the small one man fishing boats appear to be powered by strimmer engines - small engine on the end of a thin shaft with two strimmer blades in the end. They aren't though because they sound different approaching with a deep thud, thud, thud.

- Indonesia away from the biggest towns is very poor. But the people are happy and theft is almost unheard of.

- Scooters and motorbikes are ubiquitous. A typical scooter costs $21m rupiah (£950 UK). 80%are purchase by taking out a three year loan.

- And finally (and totally unrelated) I decided to Google myself. Seems I am famous in Texas! Click here.

Holiday in Indonesia - Kevin to the rescue!

Date: 19th August 2025

Location: Pulau Besar, Flores

Holiday time.

Mehalah's boat stamp which made checking in so much more fun.

Yesterday morning Kevin heard a big "wumpf" and then Shawna saw a big cloud of smoke appear behind our local volcano. Turns out it was Flores' big one called Lewotobi Laki-Laki with a very impressive eruption of its own that hit the international news sites, with ash being thrown 8km up in the air. Here's a picture taken at the time.

One big bang.

There are active volcanoes wherever you look here. Two nights ago we could see three of them and in the morning the decks are covered in black volcanic dust. All pretty surreal really.

One night's black volcanic dust on the deck.

Anyway, back to Kupang. It's big, busy and bustling. Mopeds everywhere bearing gas bottles, up to three children and long lengths of bamboo. Matthew organised for us to visit the veggie market where we as white folks caused quite a stir. Still not used to the massive bank notes I'm pretty sure we were ripped off but with a 50,000 rupiah note being worth only £2.50 it was a very worthwhile experience. Sweet corn, onions, tumeric, avos etc - we stocked up for the next leg of our journey to Flores.

Kupang - the fuel dock!

Kupang style transport.

The veggie market at Kupang.

Matthew, our Mr Fixit organised for us to take a car trip to some of the close by sights of Timor for a day. I have to say the sights were not that amazing but we saw a nice waterfall (they really don't know how to make the most of these places) and had lunch out at a famous pork(!) restaurant where they cook the meat over a fire.

The day started with pre-study dancing with some college students.

Attractive waterfall....

...but a lot of rubbish - no one seems to care.

Now that's what I call a real BBQ.

Ablutions, Timor style.

The following morning we were off at 10am for the 110 mile passage across the Timor Sea to the main island chain of Indonesia. It was blowing 20k behind us so we anticipated a fast sail. But after just a few miles Meraki radioed us to say they had problems with the furler, it wouldn't, and with the autopilot which was not working. They were going back to Kupang to fix them. What would we like to do? Although it meant bashing back to windward for a couple of hours we decided to follow them. After all we are buddy boats. Buddy boats don't stop buddying when the going gets tough. So we had another day in Kupang. Their autopilot was quickly fixed (something had knocked a switch and switched it off). But the furler was more of a problem. This is the thing that allows you to wind the front sail around the stay when you aren't using it. Several hours later they determined the top swivel had lost its bearing race leaving a couple of the remaining ball bearings on the deck. Amazingly they had bought some spares in Fiji(!) so they slotted them into the swivel, closed the little entry holes with tape and rehoisted the sail. Unfortunately our anchor windlass had also started jumping again and was getting pretty dangerous.

Kevin at the top of the mast fixing the furler.

So off we went again. And again a lively sail at 7k in 20+ knots of wind. We worried we might arrive at the pass between the next two islands before light and we knew there was likely to be a strong current up between the islands - best done in daylight. And then the wind stopped. Just like that. From 20+ knots to 5 knots in 10 metres. Weird or what? Engines on and with the wind now ahead of us and a nasty swell we motored uncomfortably through the night to the beginning of the Lamakera Strait. We approached the southern end at 5.5 knots. And then Meraki who were ahead of us suddenly slowed to 1.1 knots and were only travelling sideways. We had hit the famous 6 knot adverse current wall. Water swirled around us, big eddying pools, overfalls and all the time water rushing past us. We slowed even further and with 16 miles of this ahead of us we feared we would be forced to turn around and find shelter at the entry anchorage. But with no real idea of the tides maybe it would only get worse. We kept slowly inching north with the volcano to port barely moving. We cheered every five or ten minutes as another 0.1 of a mile was recorded even if half of that had been sideways. It wasn't the most stress free section of the route!

Sailing past another volcano.

After several hours we finally popped out the other end of the pass and into a narrow, reef fringed channel which led to Kroko Atol. What an anchorage! Possible the most spectacular anchorage ever and we arrived in perfect conditions. Deep at around 20m with a strong current flowing it was absolutely magnificent. We were the only boats there but a short distance away was "A" one of the biggest and most controversial private yachts ever built. It looks like a nuclear submarine and cost over US$300m to build for a Russian oligarch. It's since been seized by the west and we think is now owned by a Bulgarian guy. Anyway one of their lackeys came buzzing over in his giant tender and said they were coming up the channel to anchor and would we keep clear. Hmm. Not impressed. In they came, VERY close to us and dropped their anchor.

Mindblowingly amazing.

Slightly miffed but we were considerably mollified when the rib returned with two bottles of 2020 Châteauneuf du Pape to thank us for our inconvenience! We have decided one bottle for Gilly's upcoming birthday and one for Kevin's. The holiday starts here. Just 200 miles to do in 6 weeks before we meet daughter Emma and Chris.

The yacht "A" and its little dinghy. Now well past us.

Very nice indeed. Thank you "A".

We lazed around, swam, watched the sun go down and played games (anyone for Mollkë) on the little sand island. So so good after the slog up the east coast of Australia and long passages to get here.

Our very own volcano.

Playing Mollke as the sun sets.

The end of a fabulous day.

Next morning the wind was up and we had to move for "A" to leave anyhow so we decided to push on to the village of Sagu just 7 miles away. Delightful. A rather muddy tricky bay but good holding. Small dugout canoes propelled by little children puttered out to see us. "Book?". "Pencil?" A few old guys came out too. I gave them some of the fishing hooks I had bought for the purpose back in Gladstone.

The following morning we braved the shallows and pulling up onto the black volcanic beach. Immediately we were surrounded by schoolchildren smiling and laughing. Indonesia is pretty poor but what a happy country it seems to be. Everyone wanted their photo taken - either with our cameras or with theirs. We walked on into the mainly Muslim village. Little groups of young children everywhere, all smiling and giggling.  Shawna had some pencils to give out and she was soon surrounded by more children. We met some of the school teachers and asked where was the market, the pasar. The other side of the village. We walked on. More smiles, more selfies. A truck with tuna and a motor cycle passing us and then returning for yet more selfies. Great fun. As we made our way back to the dinghy a young woman approached us. Her English was better. Did we want some fresh coconuts? We did. Five minutes later we were in a big coconut grove. At the top of one of the trees is a guy with a machete dropping coconuts down to the ground. We watched as he shinned up the near vertical trees to reach the coconuts at the top. When he came down the whole family prepped the coconuts for us and we first drank the fresh water before chewing the slimy flesh. How much for the coconuts? "These are not for sale". Before we left the young woman wanted Shawna's Instagram address so they could be friends! I'm not sure how everyone has a mobile phone and each family a moped when the people seem so poor.

Three little cuties.

Pencils for the Muslim girls.

Boatbuilding. Painted drink cups for the safety barrier.

Tuna en route from the market.

The girls school.

The boys school.

Up the tree we go with machete in one hand.

Watch out! Here it comes.

The coconut family.

A lot of the anchorages here are really deep with the seabed rapidly rising from several hundred metres to a coral reef lying just offshore leaving little room to drop an anchor. Our poor windlass even with its new gypsy was skipping badly threatening to jump off entirely taking 100m of chain hurtling to the sea bed. As we arrived at one of the deepest anchorages this came to a head and I needed to do something about it urgently. Kevin came over as we mulled over our options. The real issue is that the windlass is not high enough above the bow roller and it can't be raised because the furling drum is too low. We needed a way to hold the chain down as it came off the gypsy. I was pretty despondent and wondered how we could survive with it jumping so badly until we reached Malaysia. I suggested somehow holding the chain down and then Kevin went off to find some bits. He returned with an old anchor shackle, a stainless hook and a small stainless shackle. A few minutes later we had the solution that you can see in the photo. Really neat and the sort of thing you need to think about when your raw materials are limited and you have a problem. Fantastic Kevin. Rescue number one!

Kevin's Mk1 chain safety shackle.

We tied to Meraki that evening to allow the repair to be devised and implemented. It was calm so we were all comfortable to be sharing the Meraki's anchor even though we were in more than 20m of water.

Rafted up with Meraki 2.

16 miles from here to our next anchorage at Wodong so we upped anchors and motored most of the way weaving through the fads (fish attracting devices) and marvelling once again at the amazing so recent volcanic landscape all around us. 

A typical fad. That's why we don't want to sail at night.

Famous for its chilled out Happy Dive School we dropped anchor at Wodong and reversed back to make sure it was set hard. All good. Except. What's that fishing line doing! Oh no, it's wrapped around the prop shaft. I should have reeled it in before we anchored. Gill was not a happy bunny and I received several earfuls of justified abuse. You'll remember Gill's free diving skills are minimal (her bum comes up but her head won't go down) and mine are non existent. Not ideal but we are with Kevin and Shawna and there's a dive school here. After explainiing the situation to K&S they came over equipped with masks, snorkels and fins. With knives and pliers at the ready under they went. Gill had already seen there was a lot of line wound around the shaft. The question was had it worked its way into the cutless bearing? Soon they had my favourite lure free and then fistfuls of short lengths of blue line were passed from K&S to Gill and to me on the transom. Finally the remains of the metal trace were recovered and thankfully the line had not forced its way inside the cutless bearing. Thank you both. That could have been disastrous. And it's Kevin's second rescue in as many days.

You don't want that lot wrapped around your shaft.

We were still anchored off the dive school at Wodong along with the first two cruising boats we had seen since Kupang. Their occupants had gone into nearby Maumere for provisions when Kevin called me on the radio. "I think that beautiful Neel 45 is dragging its anchor." It was. I was making bread and water at the time and Gill was cleaning the hull. We quickly reallocated jobs and I sped off with Kevin and Shawna in their dinghy on the next rescue mission. The yacht was still drifting and before long it would be on the unforgiving coral reef. We tied on to the big trimaran and tested the anchor windlass. Nothing. Engine. Nothing. Boat locked. But what's this? Shawna had found a small hatch open. I made myself very small and squirmed in on my back. I let the others in through the patio door (this is a big boat) and we hunted for a main breaker switch. Kevin found the emergency switch in the engine room which did the trick. Engine on, anchor raised and we headed for the shore. Just then the French owner couple Bruno and Pascale arrived back on shore and raced towards us in their dinghy. We explained what we had done and left them to it. That evening they took us all out to dinner at the dive club to say thank you. Quelle excitation and Kevin's third rescue in three days and Shawna's second!

Bringing the rescued trimaran back to the anchorage.

And finally. We mostly use Navionics as our chart application but here in Indonesia their charts are not too accurate. Add that to the fact that Garmin who own Navionics have decided to withdraw their Indonesian charts for several months and we are using an open source app called OpenCPN which is excellent. It uses satellite images rather than traditional charts. The problem though is that the images are pretty dark in the glaring light of the tropics so we have to improvise.

Port 15 degrees please Gill.

Indonesia - never a dull moment.