Bau Bau, Sulawesi

Sea Topaz
Duncan Briggs
Fri 19 Oct 2012 13:40
05.27.141 S 122.36.357 E
 
The trip through the Buton Channel was interesting, steep sides and strong currents. Duncan had worked out the timing and we got it just right. We had 3+ kts with us through the narrowest part.
In Bau Bau we were met by Mukmun. Anchoring is interesting here as the currents go all over the place, but the holding is good. We are anchored amongst all the local boats,they must know what they are doing. That is what we thought, until last night we were woken up by a boat bumping into us. A local boat had but two anchors down close to us and the current pulled him straight into us. He had to abandon his anchors and go away. We tied the lines onto our boat. Much later their dugout canoe came to retrieve the anchors, so that they could anchor again. In the meantime three other boats were milling around quite close and when this was all over a big boat came and anchored too close to us. We had all our lights on and watched them closely; they got the message and moved somewhere else. By now it was 2 in the morning.
Apart from that we had a nice time here. One of Mukmun's assistants showed us the world famous fort, took us shopping in the market and the "supermarket". Today we got water, but alas no diesel.We also repaired the main sail.
This evening when we went ashore we had a pleasant surprise; the girl who was our guide in Wakatobi last year was there to meet us. We had supper together. Ullie is now an English student here in Bau Bau.
We'll set off early tomorrow and head west again. We hope to get some sailing in.
 
       
 
We had to iron the sail to get the folds out                       Ullie, our Wakatobi guide from last year.