08:22.140S 120:0.935E

Position at 1600 06/09/13

Basically a 10 hour trip (41nm) with 2/3 of it sailing. The only snag perhaps is the weather is not quite as sunny at the western end of Flores which can make reef spotting a little tricky and no, I didn’t!!!

A warning to those who might ‘follow in my footsteps’ though. Navionics charts are totally inaccurate in this anchorage. To the NE of the island there are shoal areas which extend perhaps 4nm offshore, but once abeam the NW tip of the island then you can turn south towards the anchorage. The alternative is to head towards the SW tip of the island and get inside the shoal areas then follow the coast round. Me? Well I saw 3.7 metres under the keels and had a mild panic. It seems to be rock and sandy areas, not reef. The trouble is arriving at about 1500 in cloudy weather the shoal areas only showed up AFTER you had passed over them…handy that.

Be that as it may, quite a sheltered anchorage although I wouldn’t go into total raptures about it. Quite deep in places although I found a 8.5 metre spot to drop the hook, then drifted back over a 17 metre area. Oh well, 35 metres out should do it. I feel a trip to Labuan Bajo coming on tomorrow. I think it’s about 20nm so perhaps not such a heart-stoppingly early start in the morning, I was away at 0550 this morning.

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