Year 2- 15 September 2025 –Badas Town to Jambo Village - Sumbawa

The Adhan sounded at about 4.15am but the problem was that there were three mosques again competing and it therefore sounded like wailing cats!! It eventually finished and I must have drifted off again and woke about 6.30am. It was a pleasant morning and the fishermen were already out. We all gradually got up and I made banana pancakes for breakfast.

We then got ready to leave as we were going to Jambo Village about 36 nm as the crow flies. Mark gave Ruth and Janet a lesson in how to pull up the anchor and it came up successfully. We then motored out of Badas Bay and we had to go round a promontory and then we had to go through a narrow channel between Sumbawa and Pulau Moyo. There was some current against us. We saw a pod of dolphins who came to inspect us and played around the bow.  Once through we thought about sailing but the wind was on the nose. We motored on and the angle improved a little over time so we upped the genoa and were soon sailing along nicely albeit not exactly in the right direction. We headed over to the East side of the inlet and then tacked and on this tack we put up the staysail as well. We sailed on but really we were only going parallel to where we wanted to go. However, at least it gave Ruth and Janet a chance to see Stormbird sail.

There came a point where I was conscious of getting to our village in time so we downed the sails and motored unfortunately into the wind and swell. This slowed us down a little. We had lunch on the hoof and Ruth and Janet did the daily boat checks.      

We motored on and came down toward Jambo village and we did not arrive until about 5.30pm as it was getting dark. We anchored and then got the dinghy down. There was a welcome and opening ceremony for the rally this evening. We therefore quickly changed and headed ashore. There was a stage with a large Whale Shark with Sail To Indonesia in lights. There were chairs all set out and a stage. We met up with other rally members and chatted and caught up and I introduced Mark, Ruth and Janet to the other rally members. They had laid on a supper for us which was nice with local food and dishes. We were then asked to take our seats. We were welcome by the Head of Tourism for the Island welcomed us and also the Sumbawa Head Official did the same and shook our hands. There was then some local dancing and music which was interesting and once dance was about how the whale sharks used to be hunted and now they are protected and are very important for local tourism. We hope to see the whale sharks and swim with them in two days’ time.

After the speeches there was a group photograph and then they played some western music followed by Indonesian music. The locals were very happy to see us and wanted to take photographs with us. We enjoyed the evening and then decided to return to Stormbird. As we were coming back by torchlight we could see lots of fish jumping and they were being attracted by the light.

The picture of the day is the new crew of Stormbird having supper.  

Need/Opportunity Year Three

In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK.  I am looking for crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town and from Cape Town to the UK. If of any interest do email me.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com