Year 2- 31 August 2025 - Labuan Bajo – Flores -Crew change
I woke early (6.40am) as I had to get Mark off to his tour -the same we had done the day previously. It was a beautiful morning and I dropped Mark off at the dinghy dock. When I returned we had breakfast and Tony set about trying to fix the toilet. He checked the joke value and cleaned it and that was not the problem. He took out the macerator and found coconut husk fibres on the blade and thought that might be the issue. It wasn’t so I got Tony to put in a new macerator but that did not do the trick. He then cleared the pipe up to the tank but that did not seem to be blocked either. Jon went overboard to check there was no blockage at the outlet which there was not. By this time it was 11.00am we could do no more.
Tony and Jon showered and we had our last tea and then we headed ashore with their bags to greet a waiting taxi to take them to the airport. They have been great crew and great fun and I will miss them. I had rung another local John and I met him with the mooring man and they took me off to find some electrical connectors. I had asked about filling my gas cylinders but they do not do it here so I thought I will have to get an Indonesian one and another regulator. I seem to be collecting tanks!!. I also wanted to get a load of laundry done so off we went. We dropped off the laundry which they will pick up later. We could not find electrical connectors but it was a Sunday. We did find a gas cylinder and a regulator which was good. They kindly dropped me back at the beach and I returned to Stormbird.
I had a little time to myself which was quite nice. I set about cleaning the broken heads and I took off the breather valve and tried the flush again. There was a sound and then it all started working. It must have been an air blockage or something like that. I flushed it through into the tank and closed it and then opened it and to cut a long dirty story short cleared and flushed it all through. I then could clean the shower room and double cabin. I did the same with Jon’s cabin and hoovered all over the boat. I put the generator on and then the washing machine and did all my dirty clothes. I cleaned the interior of the boat and noticed some marks on the carpets in the cabins so I then cleaned all the carpets. I had a snack for lunch. The boat was in quite good shape by the end.
I then had to finish the long blog of yesterday about our trip and then it was time to clean my bathroom and had a shave and a shower and change which was good. I then could reward myself with a cold beer and I sat enjoying the view in the cockpit listening to the rather loud Indonesian music coming from the nearby gullet boats. The sun went down over the boats and then disappeared leaving lovely colours behind. It had been a productive day.
I went in the dark back to the dinghy dock and to the restaurant that we had met Mark the night before, I had arranged to meet him there after his tour. He arrived and we had supper there. Mark had had a fantastic trip with the differences being he saw only 3 Komodo Dragons, no Manta but he saw a number of sharks and several turtles. He thought it was a great day and it is his first journey to this part of the world so quite an introduction.
We returned to Stormbird and went to sleep promptly. We are now just two until the 14 September when two ladies join us.
The picture of the day is Tony, Jon and I just before they departed- the Indos.