Year 2- 20 August 2025 – Wangi Wangi Island -South Buton
It is my brother Jeremy’s birthday today so happy birthday J and have a good one.
I was woken at 3.22am by the phut phut of a fishing long boat engine. They get them from China and they are not quiet. I managed to get back to sleep and then at 4.15am the Adhan started and there were at least 3 mosques competing and it sounded like a whole load of cats making a lot of noise. As we were due to get up at 4.45am I decided to get up early as I could not sleep with that noise. I made some tea and others then got up and in the dark with the help of the deck lights we prepared to leave.
We put on the navigation lights and slipped our lines and eased out of the mooring whilst everyone slept. I had to be careful to stay in the channel so I did not hit the reef (which one boat did) and we managed to ease out without issue despite a small canoe in the way. Once out we motored toward the end of the bay and whilst we did this we put away fenders and lines. We looked back at Wangi Wangi and we had enjoyed it but it felt the right time to move on. We passed a number of Fads on our way out and there was little wind despite the forecast. We therefore continued to motor and the engine went well and ran at a good 60 degrees.
Our course was clearly on a cargo ship route as we saw a number of ships coming from behind and from the front. The sun came up and we continued to motor in nice warm weather albeit a little roll from the swell. We began to see Buton Island on our right side in the distance and apart from the odd ship we had to look out for Fads and the small, long boats which seemed to visit them. We had breakfast and then coffee on the hoof as it were and we rotated each hour taking one hour each.
The morning continued and we made good progress with the current helping us by a knot or so. The wind hovered between 5-9 kts and mostly at the lower end. This is not enough with the roll to keep the sail filled. We saw what we assumed was a number of dolphins but they had snub round fronts so we think they may have been pilot whales.
By about 12.00noon the wind had just strengthen a little so we put up the genoa and were able to sail about 4-4.5 kts although not exactly in the right direction. We stuck with it and after about an hour and a half we gybed and were able to head for the bay where we were to moor/anchor. The wind picked up more and were soon doing 5 plus kts and this time in the right direction.
As we entered the bay we could see the reef off the Eastern entrance and the sides of the bay looked pretty with beaches and reefs and palm trees and jungle. The colours of the water was attractive with blues and black and the green/yellow of coral. We continue deeper into the bay and came to a point where we put the genoa away and motored in. We had some lunch and admired the view. We could see a number of yachts ahead stationary opposite a large village which looked pretty with a lots of coloured roofed houses along the shoreline.
We had been told that the villagers had put some mooring buoys out for the yachts but they had a limit of 30 tons. I had queried this as we were 45 tons and had then been told they had doubled up some moorings for Stormbird and that it would have a white flag rather than an orange flag. We motored on and were met by two locals from the village who pointed us towards two small buoys with a white flag. We picked up the loop attached to them and put a line through. The line from the buoys looked a bit light. We stopped and settled for a bit and watched our transits. I had heard from the WhatsApp group that a few on the moorings last night dragged.
Tom Ogilvy from Dilemma came along and asked if we needed help. We invited him for a beer and I gave him the pump I had brought out from the UK. We decided to test our mooring and so we reversed slowly and it was quite clear we were dragging and our moorings disappeared under the water. We managed to recover our lines and that was not going to work. We therefore motored around and decided we would need to find an anchorage. There were about 5 yachts anchored close into the reef and there was not a lot of space and it was very deep. We looked at anchoring behind an Amel and did so but we were dropping back too close to the reef. We upped the anchor and the only other space was in front of Dilemma. We motored forward and all we could do was drop the anchor in about 27m of water. We therefore put out all of our chain – nearly 100m. This was better and we waited for things to settle. We then bedded in the anchor and it seemed to hold. We motored the situation and will continue to do so and hopefully we are safe.
We sat and watched the activity going on outside the village. There were lots of canoe type boats being paddled. Some had inboard engines and there were the usual long boat engines phut phutting away. There were lots of villagers and children walking on the reef waving at us. It seemed the reef was a lifeline for all. The village we think is Gerak Makmur which is on the South of Buton Island.
We watched the sun going down and then the Adhan started and there were 3 mosques competing with each other. The noise was terrible but it did stop after 30 minutes. We therefore chilled in the cockpit and put on our own music. Adam decided he would cook – the first since I have been on board!! He did a good job and so we had sausages with mash, onions and sweetcorn. It was actually very good so all credit to him.
We relaxed after and listened to music. It had been a good day and we look forward to exploring tomorrow.
The picture of the day is the village from our anchorage.
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