Year 2- 29 August 2025 –Bari Bay -Labuan Bajo - Flores

We were woken by the Adhan – all to prayer which droned on a bit. I thought I will not sleep after this so got up. I made some tea and the others got up as well. We put the solar panels down and prepared the boat. We upped the anchor and had a few difficulties with this as the chain seemed to catch round a coral bommie but after some toing and froing we managed to free it and were able to raise it.

We motored out the bay avoiding the reefs and then set a course West toward Labuan Bajo (LB). It was a lovely sunny day and it had been a good sunrise. Once we got out a bit the wind rose and so we decided to sail which we did for about an hour or so but then it declined again and we had to use the engine.

Labuan Bajo is a sub -district in Komodo District and is also the administrative centre of Komodo District and the capital of West Manggarai Regency . Labuan Bajo has been designated as a super priority tourist destination in Indonesia.  In Labuan Bajo there is also an artificial forest, namely Solohana Forest . Around Labuan Bajo, there are many island clusters, one of which is Rinca Island , which has a tourist attraction, one of which is Strawberry Rock Stone, or loosely translated as Strawberry Coral Stone. It is named as such because of the shape of the pink coral cluster in the Labuan Bajo waters. Located in Pasir Panjang village, Komodo District, West Manggarai Regency, NTT. The local language names the location Nisa Purung, which means burnt island, but many people call it strawberry coral because of the dominant pink colour in the coral.

To visit the area, the only way is by sea, using wooden boats, or Pinisi ships. Land access is currently unavailable. Visitors can use wooden boats and pinisi ships, which take approximately 30 minutes. Pinisi ships offer tours of the islands surrounding Labuan Bajo, with sailing durations ranging from 3 days and 2 nights, including a visit to Rinca Island. Upon arrival at Rinca Island, visitors are directed to walk to the entrance counter. Afterwards, they will be guided to take a boat to Strawberry Rock Stone, a 5-minute walk along the beach. To reach this area, visitors pass through a natural trekking area and can watch the sunset in one corner of the island. In short LB is a city with an International Airport and the place to go to do a tour of the Komodo Dragon Islands.

We had to motor round various Islands before we could come round and enter the LB bay. This was very busy with an almost Armada of tourist ships exhibiting the harbour. Many of them are the old traditional type of boat-old school. They looked foreign and sort of galleon shaped. There were lots at anchor as well. I had contacted ahead and one man was offering moorings at £7 a day. This seemed a good option. We decided to take a mooring near a rally boat called Platon and the mooring man would meet us there.

We came round the Islands and entered the main bay which looked like it had an Armada anchored there. We picked our way through the anchored boats and Platon- Sonny a Swede came out to greet us and showed us the buoy, that Yaghan had used. We picked it up and settled ourselves down. We spoke to the mooring guy and we asked him about an electrician and someone who could get us good diesel. He said he would come back.

Thirty minutes later he came back with two men. The first was an electrician who spoke no English and we hope understood what we wanted in terms of new connectors and new wires to replace some of the old in the water maker. He seemed to understand and will come back on Sunday about 11.00am. The other man spoke quite good English and he assured me he could get me Dex (the best quality) diesel and today. I asked him if he could get me some 800 lts. He said he could so we decided to go ahead and he said he could and would be back at 3.00pm.

I therefore decided to put the 100lts I had in jerry cans into the Starboard tank and I used a special funnel/filter to put it into the tank. We decided to have some lunch which was good. We then chilled and I prepared the fenders etc for the tanker man to come back. I had also bought a while ago a small electrical pump (which I could plug into the 12-volt system via a 12-v socket, which had a petrol filler nozzle which I could then fit into the special filter.  

The diesel man did not come until about 4.15am and he came in a dinghy with about 23 20 ltr jerry cans. We loaded them on to Stormbird and then we set about doing one by one and using my pump to pump out of the jerry can into the filter and into the tank. This was quite a process and took a long time. Once these were done the dinghy went off and got 17 more. In total we must have out 40 jerry cans worth into the port tank. This should have been about 800 lts. The tank did not show it was full. I just hope that the quality of what I have got is the right quality as I do not want engine problems.

This job was horrible and dirty and after we had to clear up a nasty oily deck and the mess it had created. Once the grand cleanup had been done we had a beer. We then showered and cleaned ourselves as we had booked an Italian restaurant shore called Made in Italy. When we were ready we headed ashore and pulled the dinghy up on the beach and secured it. We then walked out the back on the beach to the road and walked along the road to the restaurant. We had a fantastic Italian meal with real Italian ingredients and wine. It was great and we enjoyed ourselves. We met the owner who came here 15 years ago and has married an Indonesian.

The picture of the day is of the diesel filling. They have very few ashore or alongside filling here and it is always by jerry can. When you need large quantities this is an issue. However we have done it and hope the quality is good enough.

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