It took us a couple of attempts to anchor, but finally found a spot near SV Saroca and A bit further out in about 20 m of water. The water looked quite clear and inviting. We were anchored outside the "Sea World resort” which looked pretty nice. We were approached immediately by a local guy, Paul, in a canoe. He handed us a card that introduced him and the services he could provide such as getting water, fuel, laundry, fruit etc. Grant did the price negotiations and organised water, fuel and laundry for the next couple of days.
We took the dinghy to shore to have a beach play date with Maya and her parents off Saroca. There was a little beach bar with tables, chairs and lounges. The restaurant was set further back but you could order food at the bar too. Little cabins lined the beach with a few European tourist sunbaking in front. We were about 10 km from town.
Our lonely planet called Maumere a dump, but so far this was looking pretty good! The girls had a great time playing and we let martin and Alex go back to have lunch on Board all alone! (They are helping his parents deliver their boat from Oz to Thailand so alone time is scarce!) The Bin tang beers were a bit pricier than in kupang, but they had happy hour here!
The next day, Alex and martin watched Ameliana for us whole we took Elora and made the trek into Maumere in search of phone / Internet credit top up and fresh food. I wasn't Keen on getting onto a motorbike taxi with Elora on me so we started walking along the road waiting for a Bemo. A guy pulled up in a pick up first and gave us a good price to drop us into town. I jumped into front and grant sat put back. He didn't have any English and grant had the phrase book so it was a quiet ride. The roads were in pretty good condition and we passed some larger houses, but mostly it was typical Indonesian urban. We passed through a closer area with markets but decided to go all the way into town. We negotiated a drop off point which looked to be fairly central. We were definately the only Caucasian people around and as a result attracted a lot of attention, especially with elora on me (asleep of course) almost everyone we walked by either stopped us or reached out to touch Elora's legs or arm (the only thing exposed) or try to look at her face! Once again it slows progress down! Our 1st objective was to get the phone credit sorted. After being “shuffled “to 5 different shops and 1/2 hr at the right shop ,we were told that we needed to bring the original paper with the Internet info stuff in it from Kupang, back the next day. .. What did we do? - smiled, said of course and thank you many times ... Off to the markets. It is handy that we always attract someone that has pretty good English, so between all the grabbing of Elora and trying to figure out what the produce is and the price, I am very grateful!
We were finally done and grant was laden down with bags, but we wanted to check a few shops for peanut butter, crackers, and flour and chocolate bars (Becky and Meetal got us a thank you gift of chocolate bars. They scoured Maumere to find the chocolatiest
Ones, they know grant well!) So we were trying to find more to stock up. We found a shop where a girl spoke some English and we got flour and a few other things. Elora was being very cheery and they threw in some cookies and a drunk for her! Now the challenge
To get home. It took a while to find a Bemo to take us to the resort, well almost.
Anyway, 1 hour and 2 very warm, cramped and loud Bemo rides later, we made the 10 km drive back (after a lot of stopping, dropping off, picking up, loading bags of
Rice, petrol filling, you name it we did it!) Elora had had enough and was very happy to get out. I just thank god Ameliana wasn't with us too! We decided that the next trip in, grant would do alone to get the credit and find the rumoured “big" westernised grocery store. We got home for lunch and nap time so I could put away the groceries and relax.
It was Becky and meetals last night aboard. We had discussed earlier that we needed our home back, it was nothing personal and we really appreciated their help, we were feeling the need for our space (and bed) back after about 10 weeks with crew! That fit with their plans as they could continue their trip plans from Maumere. They were
Later in town sorting their plans so I just made extra pasta then picked them up on shore. We had a nice chat together for our final evening and we all thanked and wished each other happy travels. We will keep in touch via the power of Face book and email of course! We dropped them off the next day laden down with their gear.
We spent the next few days just hanging out on the beach at the bar, meeting more family cruisers - I even went for a jog on the beach with an American yachtie, she looked really fit, so I had to ask what she did to keep fit (her boys are 6 &8yrs I think) she's a PE teacher and says that her family knows age needs that 1 hr a day to exercise! I am going to try to be better and do more exercise after the girls go to bed. It's too hard in the day while Elora is at the clingy stage and both girls climb all over me when I try to do exercise on deck on the floor inside! I don't want THAT much
Resistance training! Anyway it was great to meet a "like minded" exercise freak! It gave me motivation!
The bar also became the phone / Internet help area. There was free wifi and martin is pretty handy with that stuff so hours were spent deciphering / hacking the Indonesian system!
Finally, Saroca had to be on their way, we weren't sure if this was going to be our last meeting or not because they are on a tight schedule. So the girls said their farewells, we were planning on leaving the next day so hopefully we would catch up somewhere.
Grant did sort out the phone credit AND found one of the western grocery stores for the last few things on our list. we traded an old dive mask for a few cool shells one of the local canoe guys dives for on the reef next to us and sells We also got some great pineapples and a huge, very tasty Papaya.
We all kind of lost track of time, I though we had only been there 4-5 days max- apparently we were there 6 days!
Unfortunately we didn't go on the volcano day trip or the trip to the weaving village due to the long car rides and the lack of tolerance Elora has for extended car rides!
Hopefully there is more opportunity for child friendly site seeing on Lombok and Bali!
We set off on Friday Aug 17 heading towards Labuan bajo.




Maumere to Kaburia

We left Maumere with SV Scholarship. We both wanted to break up the trip to Labuan bajo.
Our 6 hr day turned into a 12 hr day thanks once again to inaccurate charts, lack of detail and crazy depths & reef. Thankfully Google earth saved the day and we pulled into Kaburia just before dark. It was a nice protected anchorage deeper in a bay with
what looked like a bigger village. SV utopia and Miss Behaving (family boats) were also there. It was a shame we couldn't explore more, instead we took off to Riung.
Saroca was there and said the anchorage was pretty decent, beautiful beaches and reef.

Kaburia to Riung
We had a shorter day and pulled into the anchorage next to Saroca and Scholarship in mid afternoon. It was very pretty. There are supposed to be about 17 + islands around here, clear water and lots of reef.
We were keen for a swim and Ameliana and Maya were itching to play so we loaded up and went to the beach. The water was beautiful and there were the best shells we have seen yet! Too bad we just traded the mask for some in Maumere! Alex and martin said they
Saw the big conch type shells while snorkelling too.
The next day we decided to tag along with Saroca and do an overnight to Labuan bajo. We hadn't done an overnight sans crew since the east coast of Oz so it would be a good test. We didn't plan on leaving until mid afternoon so we all went to the beach to tire
Out the kids! Elora is loving being at the beach lately - I almost have her trained out of eating sand - I don't mind if she eats shells and rocks cause I have trained her to spit them out - its much harder to spit out sand , yuck ! She also likes the water, although she does cling to me initially. Ameliana's confidence continues in the water and she has had great influence on Maya's confidence too. I can't wait to buy her a little snorkelling set! We got home for a rinse off, lunch and rest time. Saroca headed out about an hour before us to catch the wind. We left around 2pm. We ended up motor sailing of course. The wind died about an hour and a half after we left! Oh well. The night went fine. I did a 10:30-2:30 am watch (I got some exercise in while on watch at least!) of course
The girls were up at 4:30 am, so I didn't get too much sleep, but that's why coffee was invented right!? Grant got some sleep but we were looking forward to a few days at one anchorage. We got to Labuan bajo around 9:30am.

Labuan Bajo

Saroca had scouted the anchorage for us and we happily anchored in 7 m! No sooner had we dropped the pick, than a local boat was pulling up alongside offering his services (only water, fuel basically) then another came along peddling pearls and Komodo dragon carvings. There were many of these! We ended up telling the family that we did
get water and fuel from that they should offer to get fruit and veg and eggs, especially since there was going to be so many yachts coming in the next 2 weeks, it would be worth it.

Labuan bajo is a bigger town, the “gateway" to Komodo National Park. It is a beautiful area. The town is in a bay overlooking mountainous islands and big old fashioned style schooner and square rigged fishing boats are anchored there. They are all dive and tourist charter boats. Apparently it is an up and coming tourist area with the Komodo tours and fantastic dive areas. We were anchored about 3 km outside of town in front of the "Eco resort” and a restaurant and bar that was built out of a big old fishing boat. The beach shore was doted with some big, ugly hotels, the first I had seen since we arrived in Indonesia.
Unfortunately, there was a bit of rubbish floating in the water due to the proximity to town so we weren't keen on swimming. We were keen to check out the restaurant for breakfast so we headed over with Saroca's crew. There was a lovely lap pool amid bean bag chairs and lounges, a faux beach ,tables and chairs to dine at, free wifi and importantly - cold Bin tang!
Alex and I took the girls into the pool and eventually we negotiated ordering some bacon and eggs for everyone. We all headed home for an afternoon rest - although we are usually wired after a night sail and go on cleaning binges?!?
Grant organised a car through the eco resort to take us into town the next day. In the morning we went to shore and the staff told our driver where we wanted to go.
In the drive in we saw what looked like a floating inflatable water play area moored off the beach - we knew what our plans were for the next day!
Our driver first took us to get Komodo tour info. We decided that we would take the boat over to Rinca Island first and do a tour from there instead. Then he took us to a westernised grocery store. We could tell that this town was definitely catering to more
westerners. dive shop companies lined the main road and it looked like there were quite a few tourists around. The traditional markets were further away, but that gave us a bit of a tour. In the market we were once again great full to some English speaking local translators to speed up negotiations. I noticed that many people were interested in the girls, but not as many approached me to touch them. Probably because they are used to more westerners.
We made an attempt to buy a box of Bin tang beer, but after 3 laps of town (one way street) and 3 stops we discovered that no one had beer! Later we were told that the beer delivery to town didn't arrive until 4pm! We headed in for an afternoon beer and float in the pool ahhh life is hard!
The next day we took the dinghy to the inflatable water park with Maya, Alex and martin. We did have to pay about $2.50 pp but it was worth it! Ameliana had a blast with grant on the rocking seesaws, tramps, slides and hamster wheel while I sat with Elora and Alex on the shaded floating dock. Unfortunately, Maya wasn't having a great day and they ended up leaving earlier. Then I went and had a play
with Ameliana and it was SO much fun! Unfortunately I accidentally deleted all the video and photos I took there - soooo mad!
We had one last afternoon at the pool and met some more yachties on the rally.
In the morning we set off with saroca for what was supposed to be a quick trip to Rinca Island.

Labuan Bajo to Rinca

Once again it was a motor sail past beautiful islands and reef. We were leading the way this time and it took a while to figure out where the actual anchorage /national park office was. We saw lots of smaller tour boats going into a channel - the large sailing charters were moored outside. We decided to head in, it was a bit narrow and very deep and at the end was a small jetty where all the boats tied up. Saroca followed us in but we weren't comfortable anchoring there so we both headed out. It took another hour or so to find a suitable spot that wasn't crazy deep. By then it was mid afternoon so I just got dinner organised and we had a relaxed evening. We all decided to try the anchorage at Komodo and hopefully it would be good enough so we could have a quick tour. We had hoped to spend more time around this area, but once again the deep anchorages were deterring us and the currents between the islands here were also very strong.

Rinca to Komodo Island

We left first thing to get to Komodo Island, we attempted to anchor in one spot but quickly decided that we were much too close to the reef. Saroca pulled in ahead of us
to anchor off the new jetty being built to accommodate the tour boats. Another yachtie had told us on the radio earlier that the holding was good there. It was an on shore breeze which wasn't ideal, but we didn't plan on staying long!
Both crews went to shore to find some dragons! By that time it was 12 pm, hot and the kids wouldn't last long. So we pay the fee and decided to do the shortest walk, with the idea if we didn't see them, we could come back later or 1st thing in the morning.
We had 2 guides leading us along a flat bush path. We saw lots of deer and a pig and 5 minutes down the path, 2 Komodo dragons asleep under a tree! They looked like stone!
Quite big though. We started the photo session then the guide poked one of them so it would walk! We weren't too sure about that - how do you like being poked awake!!- It moved about 5 paces then lay back down to sleep. We then continued on through the arid bush. We eventually got back to the beach area where the souvenir hawkers were set up, there was also a “cafe" and a couple of new buildings and right near those buildings were 3 lounging dragons! So we sat down, took photos and gave the girls some snacks.
Mission accomplished! They are very interesting creatures, but if u want Komodo dragon excitement (like most large reptiles, they feed infrequently and it was not mating season so sleeping lizards it is!) watch a national geographic show!
We all went home to try to figure put the tides and currents for the journey in the morning.
Alex, martin and Maya came over in the morn to chat and have a play (we discovered that Ameliana isn't used to sharing her toys with kids her age- we'll work on that!) Then we all weighed anchor around 10:30am.

Komodo Island to Gili lawalaut

Ok so we didn't exactly time the tides right , but the currents are so strong and we were heading up AND around the island so we had 2 areas of current to deal with, which makes it very difficult. We discovered that the currents were opposite to what we thought. Nevertheless we got to the anchorage. Saroca got in earlier and there was a mooring available. One of the big traditional sailing charter dive boats were on the other mooring. There was also a no anchoring sign on the beach and we could see a fair bit of reef! But there was plenty of room and after martin dived in to check the bottom, they radioed to us that there was lots of sand to anchor in. Besides this is Indonesia and not many follow “the rules" so we figured as long as we weren't damaging reef we were ok. This was confirmed by the 6-7 other dive boats that came into anchor in the morning - one of which I noticed as I swam by was anchored close in and did have his anchor chain over coral :(
It had been a very hot and tedious trip and we were all hanging for a swim so we went to the beach. It was an idyllic setting - lovely beach , shallow area for the kids to play, close coral to see , lots of fish and crystal clear water ! We were very content to spend another day there! Saroca wanted to head off so after a play on the beach in the morning, they wrote off for an overnight trip to Medang. I was able to hope in for a swim around the anchorage while Elora mapped in the morning. I even got to see manta ray gracefully swimming on the surface while I swam. I couldn't believe how many dive boats came in that morning.
We actually wanted to see if we could have a look in one of the huge old style schooner charter boats, but didn't get a chance. Ameliana had a late sleep so we didn't go back to the beach. But, we saw 2 manta rays right near the boat feeding near the surface. I decided to get in with the underwater camera. It was so cool! I got some good photos. The closest I got was about 2 metres away. They look like on of the Star trek space ships! So graceful and effortless just flying through the water!
Unfortunately, schools of tiny jellyfish we also coming through and I got savaged! They are like Sandfly bites - very itchy when you get warm and take ages to go away, but on the upside, they can't kill or seriously injure me like many varieties in Oz!
Ameliana wanted to come in and I wanted her to try to see the ray under water but I made her get her full length swim suit on do she wouldn't get stung. She had he goggles on, but once we were out there, she chickened out and wouldn't put her face in. It
Was an amazing experience unfortunately, we decided to leave the next morning and tackle the 27 hrs to Medang. We left at 6:30am and had to motor sailing most of the way. We had the engine off for
About 4 hrs on and off. It got a bit rollie at night and the wind came from all directions that day. We pulled into Medang at around 10 am

Lawalaut to Medang

We had radioed ahead to Saroca and unfortunately they said that the anchorage was very rollie but it was secure. They had tried to get to shore but there was no break in the reef and they said that a lot of the coral had been blasted to bits. There was 2 towns on the island, apparently about 2000 people. As soon as we dropped the pick, a young local kid paddled over. He had very good English , said he was 20 yrs old , he asked if we had a dive mask to trade do a small lobster - I said we already traded it , so he asked for sunglasses , which I gave him. We also gave him a t shirt because he was shaking. But we didn't know if it's from cold or the bends from free diving. A few of his friends pulled up in canoes with motors and grant noticed that they were using just regular compressors to dive with. Apparently it's not very good at all to breathe that air, but I hazard a guess to say that any Indonesian's life expectancy is a lot shorter than ours given the circumstances of their lives! Saroca was going to head off at lunch so I rowed over with the girls so they could have a play. Grant stayed on board to do some laundry and fix the bilge pump that decided to stop working that morning. Thankfully it was just clogged. That afternoon we were visited by 5 guys dressed in camo in an inflatable. At first I thought they would want to see all our papers but it was just local navy. They were very friendly and this was just a routine visit. They ended up asking is they could take photos with us so they came aboard to take them. A container ship appeared in the distance so off they went. Grant was amazed - 5 guys in a 4 metre inflatable, about 1 gallon of water, 4 petrol tanks and no life jackets and the ship was about 4- 5nm off shore!
We had an early night and it ended up being pretty rollie when the tied changed, but we have had worse!
Plan was to leave for another overnighter around 8am to head to Lombok. We ended up leaving at 8:30am and we managed to sail a good portion of the day before the wind died. In fact we were going a bit too fast and consequently had to slow right down in the middle of the night or we would arrive in the dark.