Year 2- 16 August 2025 – Tifu Village -Island Buru -Indonesia to Hoga Island -Wakatobi

We sailed through the night and the wind was pretty steady and we soldiered on. There was little light and the moon did not come until the early hours of the morning and it gave us a little bit of light. We managed to stay on course and at a reasonable speed. Tony and I had the 1.00am to 2.00am watch and 5.00am to 8.00am.

During our watches we had little traffic to contend with and we enjoyed watching the stars and the phosphorescence in the water. We just checked the sail was trimmed and that we were making good progress. As there is little going on it is important to try and keep each other awake and we put the world to rights. The clocks had gone back an hour on our route and we decided not to affect this until we arrived. It therefore got light bin real time at about 5.30pm and the sea began to be illuminated. The waves were still rolling into our beam at about 2m and we roiled here and there.

Adam and Jon took over at 8.00am and I decided to make scrambled egg and toast which we eat of sailing bowls. This was just what we needed after a night of duty. Tony and I rested and then at about 9.30am I came up and we were beginning to close in on the Wakatobi Islands. As we approached them we could see some fads and buoys. As we got behind the reef the waves began to decline and we took down the sail (genoa). The main had been rolled away as far as I could and there was still some sticking out. I could not furl it in any further so left it for now. We motored in toward the island which has a coral reef around it. However, it has a narrow channel about 6m deep and about 25m wide. I had been given some waypoints which I followed and we had to go round the back of a large old motorboat which was anchored just before the channel. A lady sat in her own at the back and waved at us as we passed. We found the narrow channel and eased through slowly. We could see a number of rally boats moored inside the lagoon and anchored off another coral reef.

We motored around and found a spot and out our anchor out in 20nm of water-so 80m of chain. This held quickly and well and we then sorted ourselves out. We could not electronically foil the main but I put it in manual and we wound it in enough which was good.

We tidied up and some went for a rest and others chilled. The wind was strong and blowing about 25 kts in a form of howl. We were then contacted by Crawford and Elaine of Naupilos to say that in two hours they were going for a drink on the island and we were welcome to join them. The anchorage was surrounded on 3 sides with islands and we could see a coral reef around us and over the other side of the bay. The colours of the water was lovely with blues, yellows, browns and greens.

We got the dinghy down and then went off with Crawford and Elaine around the island across coral reefs (we just had enough depth) and the went on to a beach. We then had a beer as the sun came down and chatted with them and Sonny and Cecile from a boat called Platon. We had a great chat and then luckily the lady at this bar/resort made us supper which was nice.

We came back as it got dark and got back to Stormbird. We were all tired and decided to have an early night. We talked to a local about snorkelling and hope to snorkel on the reefs tomorrow.     

The picture of the day is all of us having a drink on the beach at Hoga Island.

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