Zero2Sixty

Banda Naria to Kenawel Indonesia

by Art on

Information

Distance (nm)
477.59
Hours
64.57
Average (kts)
7.40

It's hard to leave Banda Naira (The Nutmeg Island) as we've had such a wonderful time here but, it's time to carry on to the west and make progress toward our end-of-season goal of arriving in Langkawi, Malaysia. Indonesia is a huge country and the distances much greater than you think. The passage to our next stop-over is about 450nm and we'll take a couple of days to get there. Part of the reason to go from Tual to Banda was to take advantage of the wind angle (predominate winds are from the east) and so we now take advantage of the easterly winds once again to give us a nice wind angle on our way southwest.


by Art, 'Arrival'

We lost wind for quite a while then picked it up again about 50 nm from our destination. The winds were up to 14 kts and we enjoyed a wonderful sail (beating in slight seas) for the last 5 hours. We adjusted our course a bit to get closer to Pulau Komba volcano as we'd been told it was active however we saw no glow or indication at all that it was still active so, just a nice sail past another volcano for us!

The passage was a really nice one with a good combination of wind and no-wind to allow us to enjoy the sailing and rest in-between. Andrea's careful pre-planning brought us safely through the pass in the outer reef and to a great anchorage in front of two small islands. Tracy and I took a quick trip over to the reef to snorkel for a bit and found beautiful coral, tons of fish and incredible numbers of black spiny sea urchin. For now, we'll all rest a bit and then being to explore this new area more after we all catch up after the passage.


by Art, 'About 100 nm from arrival'

Indonesia lies close to the Equator and while that brings some big advantages in the temperature of the water (28.5c) and pleasant weather conditions in the winter months, it also comes with light winds. So, while we had some nice sailing conditions when we first left Banda Naira, we've run out of winds now in our second day. So, earlier today, the engine came on to assist us in motor-sailing and now is our sole means of moving forward in these flat seas.

We did come across a weird area of crossed seas and cresting waves(1.5m high) without any wind around and it turned out to be two currents meeting way out here in the middle of nowhere. From a distance, as we approached, we thought it might be a wind gust front blasting along but the once we reached the area, we realized what it was.

Later tonight (about midnight our time) we pass by Pulau Komba, an active volcano on a small island which should give us a good show of its eruption! Then we sail (probably motor!) onto Kenawel to begin exploring this new and wonderful location!


by Art, '120 nm southeast of the Banda Islands'

Fantastic weather for our sail to Kenawel. As planned, we are on a nice tack to the southwest in slight sea conditions with the wind varying from 6.5 to 11 kts. Our main is fully up and our Genoa is out (the wind angle is too tight for our A3). Our AWA is 45 and we’re getting about 7.5 to 10 kts SOG; it’s just really pleasant sailing conditions. At 06:00 this morning, we had a small pod of dolphins come visit but they didn’t stay long. With a supply of fresh tuna filets from the local fisherman in Banda, we’re not compelled to put out a fishing line yet but we see plenty of fish feeding on the surface with a horde of seagulls wheeling above them so we could most likely pick some up if we wanted to. Another day of sailing ahead of us, but time stops out here so our arrival will just signify the end of a wonderful passage. In the meantime we enjoy the privilege of being here.

Passage Track

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