02:44S 107:37E

“Follow me” is what Simonne was told by the local cargo ship she called when questioning whether the dept in the channel was enough for Laroobaa’s 2m draft.  So we followed (there wasn’t much English spoken on the cargo ship).  After all, a local ship using this channel would surely know the waters and when the best time to go through would be right???  After the first minute the water passing our hull was muddy and swirling with sand.  “Has the ship stopped?” They were stuck on the sand only a small number of meters ahead of us.  The 20 odd crew who were now all standing at the stern of the ship began motioning for us to go to Port with large arm movements and loud calls in Indonesian!.  After a very slow and ginger passage we did make it into the fishing port of Belitung (Bell – eye – toong).  We stopped here because our friends on Talismano needed diesel. After a nice day with lots of local hospitality shown we had the required fuel. After an early night we were on our way the next morning.