Year 2- 23 August 2025 – South Buton –Stop at Taka Lambeana on the way to Flores

There was no Adhan at sea which was a blessing!!. I had the 8-11.00-m shift and we continued to sail albeit at a leisurely pace. There was little traffic but looms of light from fishing boats over the horizon and we were seeing the reflections of their light. There was no moon and it was very pleasant to sit out at the back of the cockpit letting Stormbird sail herself and being fanned by the breeze. It is a good time to oneself and your thoughts.

I handed over to Tony about 11.00pm and went to be. He woke me about 01.20am as the wind had dropped and we were barely making 3 kts. We therefore took the genoa down, put the engine on at a low level and I went back to bed. Jon took over from Tony about 2.00am. I was woken by Jon about 04.20am to say the wind had increased again. I therefore got up and we put the genoa out again and turned off the engine. I was up so stayed up as I was taking over at 5.00am. Jon stayed until then and went to bed. It was still very dark and I saw on my left some red and green flashing lights. I think they must have been a net. Then a green strobe light came out and shone on Stormbird and the sail. I think this was to let us know they were there although we had spotted them before they spotted us.

We sailed on and the lights gradually disappeared. By about 05.20am a little light was showing and this gradually increased so about 5.35am it was sort of light and the day developed like a flower opening its petals on s Summers Day. We sailed on and by now I could see the two Islands we had been heading for. The largest one on the left was Kalaotoa Island and we planned to go round the smaller Island to its North called Karumpolombo -both of which are part of the Taka Bonerate National Park. Behind the smaller Island is an atoll -in other words a circular reef which had a pass to get into. This is not really in our books and also not shown on our plotter as Navionics is not good here. The only way of our being able to navigate this is to use Google Earth and Google Maps on the satellite function.

Tony and Jon got up and we had some breakfast of fruit and cereal and then coffee. The sail took a couple of hours to get up to the Islands.  

I had planned ahead and using google earth had put some waypoints where the passage was into the atoll. According to my plotter this was in the middle of the reef which it was not. We therefore sailed up between the two islands and we could see a jetty on Kalaotoa and some boats.  There was a village on the South side of Karumpolombo with lots of boats dragged up on the beach. We continued round the island and saw various fishing boats. We were now on google maps which gave us a satellite image and we could see where we were on my phone screen and motored toward the entrance. The best way of dealing with entrances into coral is to use your eyes and the colour of the water. We found the entrance and followed on the screen the direction we were going. Jon was on the bow with Tony relaying information. We slowed down and began to enter the pass. You could see the ring of blue of the edge of the reef and the deep blue of the pass which was about 40m deep.

We continue through the pass moving left and right where the satellite image suggested we should do so. We made it through and then we headed inside and there was a large shallow patch over to our left. We kept right and saw the odd bommie but came to a sandy sot in about 9m and decided to anchor. This went smoothly and we were soon settled.  

It was a lovely day and as we came through the entrance there was a long, little island which was surrounded by a range of blue water of different intensities depending on the depth of the water and it looked spectacular. There were also a range of blues across the atoll and it was a beautiful quiet location. I doubt whether many tourists come here at all and all we saw were fisherman going about their trade.

We had a rest and then we decided to swim around the boat and I thought this would be a good opportunity to check the log and make sure it was spinning. We therefore got the dinghy down and the swimming steps. We went in and I was a little surprised how dirty the bottom was. We found the log and I rubbed it with a brush and we got it spinning properly so I hope it works next time we get going.

We then decided to go out to the nearest large blue patch in the dinghy and we could see bits of coral here and there.  Jon got out and had a look and said it was ok and some of the coral was dead bus some was ok bit there was not a lot of fish life. We decided to move on and went toward the Island with the blue water and came across what looked like a good area. We snorkelled and it was not bad with some nice blue and green coral but some dead. There were some fish but it was not as good as Hoga Island. We tried another area with the same conclusion. It was good but not of the same quality.

We returned to Stormbird for showers and a cleanup. We then had lunch it was a lovely afternoon. Tony flew his drone and got some good pictures. Some then rested and others read and we had a relaxing afternoon. I read and enjoyed my book and the Tony and I had a cool beer.

Jon eventually got up and we enjoyed a fabulous sunset. The sky went through so many shades of yellow, orange and pinks to fill a colour palette. Tony then made a great supper of Wahoo with ginger, onions and soy sauce with red cabbage and couscous. Delicious.

We are sitting here on our own in the middle of nowhere listening to Jack Johnson – in a beautiful warm tropical location. It does not get much better than that. We have decided we will move on to Ruing tomorrow some 83 nm away. We will sleep well tonight. The picture of the day is us in the atoll – from google earth and you can see the pass entrance.

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