Year 2- 21st October 2025 – Belitung Island -South China Sea

I woke just before 5.00am as I was taking Janet to get her taxi to the airport as she was flying on to Singapore before flying home to Paris. All was quiet as we set off in the dinghy and it was just getting light. Everything was still and the locals were gradually waking. The taxi driver was on time which was good and off she went.

 I returned to Stormbird and had some tea and wrote the blog. I then made smoothies for breakfast which were most enjoyable. We then prepared for our boat island hopping tour which wehad arranged.

We returned to the beach and had a coffee and met the men taking us on the tour. It was one of the colourful long boats so when we were ready we clambered on board.

The boat took us through the gap between Pula Kelayang and Belitung and we passed over the reef and past a number of rally boats anchored in that part of the bay. We then headed Southwest. The sky was a bit grey and the forecast was for some rain. We motored for about 40 minutes passing a number of Islands and quite a lot of the large boulders which stuck out of the sea at various angles. There were some islands just made out of large boulders and others combined with land of an island.

After 40 minutes we came to a boulder round island with a diameter of about 70 metres. It was called Melang Ara or what the boatman said was Penis Island laughing as there was a rock which looked phallic. The island was unusual as there were various platforms on which you could sit at different positions so if you moved round them you could have a 360-degree view. It did not take us long to see this island and so we moved on to a bigger island called Bird Island – as one of the rock formations looked like a bird. It had a lovely white sandy beach around it and thick jungle inside. We saw various bit of rubbish on the beach unfortunately which we tried to clean up. As we returned to the boat it started to rain.

We were supposed to snorkel nearby but the boat man suggested we go to the next island and then we can come back to snorkel when the rain stops. The motor over to the next island became rough as the rain and wind increased as did the waves and as the boat rose up and down water sprayed into where we were sitting and we were soon soaked. We got off at Pulau Lengkuas and on to the beach and there was a lighthouse and luckily a small café. We managed to just about get under the small corrugated roof they had and the heavens opened in a big way. However, we were already soaking wet. This was a real tropical storm with torrential rain and thunder and lightning and with some quite large waves. I hoped Stormbird would be ok.

 The storm went on for a couple of hours so we had some hot drinks to warm us up and some banana fritters. The lighthouse had been built by the Dutch in 1882 and is still operational today apparently, although it looked closed up. It has 12 floors and has a window in each floor. There are also Tarsius monkeys on this island who were inevitably sheltering from the rain like us.

The rain eventually began to lessen so the boat men suggested we go to lunch at the pre-arranged place at Pulau Kelayang. The trip there was still wet and the rain continued to come down. We got on the beach and the lunch was ready. We had quite a variety of dishes, clams, prawns, crab, fish soup, fired fish and rice. We could see Stormbird safe and sound at anchor.

 As we were eating the rain increased and the tropical downpour continued so we sat there and enjoyed the lunch but then had to watch the rain. It was too rough really with the current for the boats to stay on the beach so they had to anchor off. The thing is that the sea was very warm and it was almost like getting into a warm bath as some of us had as swim whilst waiting.  

It became clear that it was not going to clear up so we could continue the programme and so mid late pm we asked them to take us back to the beach. We then got straight into the dinghy and returned to Stormbird rather bedraggled and wet. A warm shower and a cup of tea lifted our spirits and we had a large pile of clothes to dry – that is for tomorrow unless the rainy weather continues.

 We decided to have some comfort food so I made baked beans on toast with an egg on top. Very Indonesian!! We all loved it.  We then watched a film called Stranded which seemed very apt in the damp and wet weather. This was based in a true story of a trimaran called Rose Noelle which left New Zealand bound for Tonga and which overturned as a result of a rogue wave. The 4 men on board survived for 119 days before they were washed up on Great Barrier Island.

As we went to bed the rain had stopped. There is the welcome ceremony tomorrow and Andy Marshall arrives to replace Janet by about 2.00pm.

 The picture of the day is the view from the beach at Kelayang Beach looking out with an inclement sky which hit us with rain later.

 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