Wangi Wangi

Lochmarin
Tue 15 Nov 2016 09:59
05:19.958S 123:31.684E

Well, we went to Wangi Wangi and came away again. We had been hoping to be able to stop and get some fuel there, what with all this motoring we've been having to do. We knew Wangi Wangi had a little harbour behind the reef but we didn't have much hope of getting in - the pilot guide says there's 2.1m of water in the pass at high tide and we've got about 2.2m under the waterline at any tide. It is rather too deep to anchor safely outside, however the guide said there are moorings outside the pass where one can wait so we thought it was worth a try. We couldn't see any moorings and although there has been extensive work done at the harbour, with a new mole having been built, the pass didn't look passable. Google and Bing's satellite images weren't up to date - no sign of the mole, so we couldn't plot reliable way points for where the passage was supposed to be and our depth sounder has been playing up. We didn't fancy playing 'find the gap in the nasty hard rocky coral reef' using a lead line today. It didn't look the sort of place where it would be easy to get diesel anyway.

So we're motor sailing (currently there's 3 knots of wind - whoop-de-do!) down the Selat Buton and I tell you I'm very glad we're doing it in the day time. Of course there are the ferries and fishing boats to dodge but here, out in nearly 2000m depth, every 10 minutes or so we pass a Strange Thing. Sometimes it's a mooring, a 6ft cuboid wrapped in chains with some palm branches stuck on the top for good measure. Sometimes it a little platform, I couldn't really call it a boat, with a small house built on it and a few poles attached, carrying fisher people, that seem to just drift around. Sometimes it's just a regular platform, maybe, 12 feet square, but with a (dead) tree propped up on it with bamboo poles, moored here in 2km of water. I think they are FADs (Fish Attraction Devices) that they are trying to make more visible by decorating with trees but perhaps they are just regular fishing platforms for people who get sea sick. You do know what the sure fire cure for sea sickness is, don't you? Yes, that's right, sitting under a tree.

Passage Food

Day 4 - Breakfast: cereal, canned peaches with watermelon and raspberry smoothie. Lunch: prawn thai curry with left over nasi goreng from yesterday.

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