08 37.436 S  119 28.762 E

First of all….how did we do with the currents?.....I guess I would say “Not Great”  but not bad.  We suffered current against here and there over half of the 20 nm but over the other half, we had positive currents that carried us well over 9 kts…sometimes, over a few miles, up to 10.5 kts.  We covered the 20 nm in under 3 hours so that was a lot better than our friends were able to do as they fought the current most of the way….particularly Imagine having taken the chance on leaving at 9 am.  Destiny, Imagine and Sea Mist are all anchored close by each other in a quiet, calm bay.

We had to divert from our planned destination at Pink Beach as one needs to use a mooring ball at that location due to depths and due to restrictions on anchoring to protect the coral. Our location is about 3 miles due west of Pink Beach …all tucked into an arm of the bay on the west side of the channel. There are no villages/communities at our location but that has not stopped the industrious Komodo entrepreneurs from coming by trying to sell their Komodo souvenirs. I felt really sorry for one young man called Deaf. He had paddled in his small dugout canoe some 3 miles from his community (Komodo Village) to see if he might be successful in getting a few Rupia from us…..but we are oversupplied with Komodo souvenirs/artifacts….so he left empty handed. He is 26 years old, can speak quite a bit of English (compared to most locals we encounter) and was so very friendly and offered no pressure whatsoever to buy his wares….he just wanted to chat….he totally understood and accepted that his fellow Komodo entrepreneurs had already sold us everything. His wife is from Labuanbojo and they have a 3 year old son.

Another man with his 4 year old daughter came by wanting to sell a lobster (if it was a Bay of Fundy lobster with claws, I would call it a two pounder…but of course, lobsters in the rest of the world don’t have claws…..but it was a good size). He had tried to sell to Destiny….starting at 500,000 Rupia ($50) and paddling away from them when they were locked at 100,000 Rupia and he was locked at 150,000; when he paddled over to Sea Mist, he started at 200,000 after giving the lobster a good dunking so that its tail was flapping vigorously to show how fresh it was. In the end, he gave up and agreed at 100,000 with me ($10)…and we were both “Happy”.  I took the lobster over to Destiny so that they had the lobster at their price…..that is called double-teaming for sure. And, Barb and Frank on Destiny, to show their appreciation, had me come by and pick up a healthy piece of the tail once they B’BQed the lobster so that I could see how great it was….I must say I have never tasted a more tender and flavourful lobster in my life….and that is quite a statement ….since I grew up on terrific Bay of Fundy (Maine) lobsters.

We must sign-off for some sleep time now…been on the go since before 5 am so shut eye comes early.

CYL….the Seamisters