Year 2- I September 2025 - Labuan Bajo – Flores

I heard the Adhan quite early and managed to get to sleep after and got up about 7.15am. We had tea and enjoyed the beginning of the day. It was a lovely morning and the boats around us were waking up and you could the smoke emanating from the back of the gullets as they made breakfast.

I had agreed to have the hull cleaned and 3 guys turned up about 8.00am and started to clean the hull. They had no flippers or snorkels. They just had a mask and that was it. I wondered how they were going to het to clean 2.5m down. However, they said they could do it and so I trusted them to do it.

Mark and I after breakfast worked out a shopping list and headed to the harbour and moored the dinghy. We walked ashore and using google maps went to the large supermarket we had been told about. It was quite good for Indonesia and we managed to get a reasonable number of provisions. We asked the lady owner about a taxi and she organised for one of her drivers to take us to the beach and we dropped everything off. I then went back with the driver and collected the dinghy and returned to where Mark was and it started to rain. We waited for about 20 mins and then it had just about stopped so we decided to load up the dinghy and headed back to Stormbird. We started to unpack things and store them away. However, the guys wanted to be paid. I therefore needed to check to bottom so got my costume on and dived in and swam around the boat and they had done a good job and gone down to the hull bottom. A good job. I therefore paid them and they were happy. As they were there we seemed to be getting close to another boat which was anchored. Sudirman, the mooring guy who had cleaned the hull suggested we move to a different mooring so we slipped the lines from the mooring and moved further out to another mooring which I think was better as we were quite close to the reef.

Once settled Mark and I had lunch and then a snooze. We then went ashore again and walked along the main street which was interesting and we saw lots of dive shops and tourist destination stops. We walked right along and then came back and had a cocktail in happy hour at a bar and chatted away. I had looked into a day tour tomorrow and had booked one which means we need to be in the harbour at about 9.30am. We returned to Stormbird just before sunset and had a beer and watched the sun disappear whilst listening to music.

I decided to cook a simple but tasty supper of cheese and tomato omelettes. Not gourmet but comfort food which we both enjoyed. We look forward to our land tour tomorrow and then a number of the rally may get together for supper tomorrow.       

The picture of the day is Mark and I having a sundowner in LB.

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