Blog 53. 31 August. Goodbye Bau Bau, Hello Selayar. 06.06.92S 120.27.18E
Alcedo
David Batten
Wed 4 Sep 2019 00:31
The lovely Salam organising cars for the market. Any attempt to organise rally members for any event is a bit like herding cats, but our guides are always polite and always smiling, although occasionally looking worried.
Market stalls in main market where we could buy excellent tomatoes, papaya, beans, potatoes, aubergine, cabbage, fab pineapple etc. etc. and the first mangoes
Back to the boat for the usual washing in Miltons and storing in what we hope will be the best area of the boat for each item. Then a trip to Kotomaro, no idea where that was, for a sunset because they have no idea how many we have seen from the boat and a farewell dinner, much enhanced by Carl from CV buying Venetia a bottle of gin.
Senang, senang with a bottle of gin to share with friends. Skipper, Stuart, Anne, V, Frances and Chris, with Carl on the edge of the picture
We were very sad to say goodbye to the truly wonderful guides at Bau Bau, the best so far and it was a sad parting that evening as we were all leaving the following morning for Selayar.
Final thank you speech from Norwegian, Helge, SY Morild. The guide on the right is Komang (not sure about the spelling), also delightful, who made a special trip tor our restaurant on the 28th August to ensure it was going to come as ordered.
So on to Selayar and a very exciting overnight sail. We had planned to sail slowly with a forecast of light airs by 2.00am so we could clear the land before dark and arrive off Selayar just after dawn so as not to reach all the likely FAD, net and local boat areas before daylight. Herd instinct won the day and with a good wind which increased rather than moderating, we were all bowling along at 7-8knots plus with a reefed mainsail and clearly going to arrive off Selayar in the early hours of the morning. We felt reasonably confident about nets and FADS because we had a little fleet of “minesweepers” ahead of us i.e. CV, Top Spot, Marie Claire and Sky Blue Eyes, warning us of any flashing lights. What made life more exciting was the amount of commercial shipping in both directions coming through the narrow gap between the northern tip of Selayar and the southern tip of Sulawesi. There was much conversing on the VHF between ships and yachts about who was what on which side, but at least there was no question of any nets or unlit fishing boats. We had all slowed down to a good 6-7knots by then, with just a main with 2 reefs and the wind did not die until we were sailing down the west coast of Selayar in the daylight.
Selayar anchorage from the sea, CV on the left, tower of very noisy mosque to the right with cell phone tower to the left of that. Internet here is the best so far!
The “dinghy dock” at Selayar. Quite a challenging climb up the ladder onto the local boat and then a wide step ashore onto concrete steps or the dock. Huge dock designed for the 3 times a week ferry which was sent somewhere else during our stay. How good is that!
Today we just explored and met the guides, all very anxious to please and very anxious that we should all be ashore for the welcome tomorrow. Supper ashore in a not very salubrious local restaurant and now for some much needed sleep.
Alcedo
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