Komodo National Park to Moyo Island Sumbawa

Gaviota
Sun 28 Aug 2016 04:32
008:16.50S 117:30.32E

We left Gilli Banta 10am on 22nd August and there was (for a change) some wind.  Mainsail went up and Genoas were poled out ‘a la Syd’s downwind sailing style’.  The Turin Shroud now has a very large rip in it (see photo!) but is stoically hanging in there.  We were doing a very respectable 7 knots then hit the first tide rip between Gilli Banta and the smouldering volcano on the nearby island.  These tide rips between the Islands can be fierce - sometimes running up to 12 knots and manifest themselves with short steep waves in every direction and even whirlpools.  With local knowledge they offer some exciting drift dives but in a yacht minus local knowledge they are pretty uncomfortable and provide a huge challenge to George (auto-helm).  We bumped along at a good speed but with 2 knots of current against us it felt like we were going nowhere.  Eventually we got out of the tide rips and started to go at a decent speed with the current.    We gybed and headed out to sea to get away from the menace of ‘fish traps’ and carried on into the night – still sailing!  Night brought everything from ‘no wind’ and motor on to ‘lots of wind’ and reefs in.  Also, it was a busy shipping channel with boats showing ‘high percentage of collision’ appearing on the AIS regularly along with a lot of boats not showing and boats with no lights so when a nearly full moon appeared it was an enormous help.  Aside from 3 hours of motor the whole journey was completed under sail and we headed into the deep bay at Moyo Island to have a rest.
 
A swell crept into the bay in the late afternoon and got worse as the evening wore on so a decision was made that we would do another 6.00am start and head over to Lombok

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