We crept out of our anchorage this morning at 0600. We slid along the reef that we anchored just landward of. While the sun was not yet up, it was just barely light enough for us to see the reef when we were next to it. It was a bit nerve wracking but we made it out fine. We wanted to leave early so that we would have the sun directly over us when we negotiated the reefs that are around Gili Bodo Island, which was about 40 nm away.

It was a typical Indonesian sail it started with no wind, slowly worked its way to 8 to 9 knots of wind from the southwest, then quickly died only to slowly building a couple of hours later from the north west. We left the main up the whole time but did furl the headsail a few times went the wind died back.

We arrived at our anchorage (8 22.030'S/120 0.95'E) alongside the southwestern coast of Gili Bodo at around 1300. We have anchored in 65 feet of water. As we were approaching our anchorage, we heard John of S/V Sea Mist calling out waypoints to some anchorage to S/V Imagine and S/V Destiny, who were a bit behind him. The waypoints were significantly different than those that I was using so I just thought that they would be going to a different anchorage. We were all set to have this lovely spot to ourselves. However, about an hour later, we spied Sea Mist making their way into the same anchorage. They had just chosen to use a grossly different path to get here! By 1500 not only had Imagine and Destiny arrived but Mr. John and Sara II had also set anchors here. Thus, we have a fleet of five boats, all who we know, bobbing together in this lovely spot.

As the afternoon passed and the tide dropped the water sand beach in front of us became more exposed and part of the reef that lies just off the beach became dry. This enticed the wild monkeys that live on this island to walk down the beach to the reef and start feeding off of the sea shells. At one time there were a troop of about 15 monkeys picking up and breaking shells. If I get a chance tomorrow, I will dinghy ashore to see if I can get some good photos of this.

The reef is supposed to be very nice so Mary Margaret and I also hope to do some more snorkeling tomorrow.

Soon after we had dropped our hook, two fellows motored up to our boat in their ponga. They both were artists that stay on this island, making wooden carvings and pearl necklaces. Their work was just beautiful and very reasonable so we ending up buying a number of Komodo dragon carvings, bamboo carvings and a couple of necklaces. After all, how often can you get something as unique and beautiful as these were?

We will be staying here a day before moving on. We have discovered that the Sail Indonesia is starting to fall apart. The festivities in Lalabuhan Bajo have now been cancelled due to lack of funding. It is not a big deal to us since we were going to skip the festivities anyway but we feel sorry for all of the other cruisers that were looking forward to it. This is the second straight place that has now cancelled. We don't know what is in store for the rest of the rally but it sure seems like it is falling apart quickly.

We received an email from our friends in Malaysia, Rick and Robin, the other day. In their email we learned that the people who had organized the rally since its inception 12 years ago, were unceremoniously canned this year and replaced by the Indonesian Dept. of Fisheries. This may explain why the rally has been so confused with the constant changing of schedules, places, and cancellations. It is a real shame because of its past reputation, so many boats decided to sign up for it this year only to have their hopes dashed. Maybe it will improve next year .