We left Gili Lawang early with the plan of a relatively short trip to Medana Bay on Lombok to meet some of our cruising friends. The first "marina" of the trip was located in Medana Bay and had a combination of dock space and mooring balls with the option to anchor if needed. It sounded great! As is often the case the winds were light at 6 a.m. when we left so we initially motored up the East coast of Lombok. Later in the morning the winds picked up and we were able to sail. As the wind was directly behind us and a broken pole precluded wing on wing sailing, we sailed with only the genoa. By noon the winds had freshened further and the sea had started to pick up. As the wind persisted directly astern we gybed back and forth to stay on course. An hour later the wind was between 20 and 25 knots and we were making great time.

Then we got a text from our friends in Medana Bay. The swell from the great wind we were enjoying was running right into the bay and wreaking havoc. They were on a mooring ball and in their words they were "bucking like a bronco". One boat had broke loose of its mooring and was on the beach having hit another boat on the way there. As this point we were just about to enter the reef system around the bay.

It was time to reassess our plans. Lovina Beach, on the Island of Bali (our next rally stop) was 65 miles away The winds were good, the swell was tolerable, and Medana sounded awful. But to head to Lovina meant sailing over night. This is something we try to avoid due to a combination of FADs (large anchored rafts randomly placed throughout Indonesian waters) and fishing nets. Not an easy decision but the balance leaned towards carrying on to Lovina. The fact that we had a full moon and therefore much better night time visibility helped with the decision. Medana Bay will have to wait for another time. A quick calculation showed that at a speed of 4 knots we would arrive in Lovina just after sunrise. So we changed course by 50 degrees, left the reef system around Medana to port and headed West. Our only problem was to keep the boat at or below 4 knots of speed with 25-30 knots of wind! This was accomplished with the smallest patch of genoa we could put up!

As is often the case the wind moderated and the seas flattened as the night progressed. By morning we were again motoring in calm and flat conditions and arrived in Lovina about an hour after sunrise. We were led into the bay by a local spider boat, the owner of which would provide assistance with fuel over the next few days.

It had been an uneventful night with one exception. We were in 2000 feet of water at about two in the morning and thought we were well out of FAD territory. But no, we managed to pass what seemed to be a larger than average FAD by only a boat length! We didn't see it until it was just off the bow. Just close enough to keep our eyes peeled for the rest of the night.