Day 107, Year 3: Moving Westward @ Forty Miles Per Day
Date: Hari Minggu (Sunday), Bulan Agustus 24, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: ESE to ENE Winds 10-15 Knots; Temps in the 80’s
Latitude: 08 degrees 16.696 minutes S
Longitude: 120 Degrees 24.579 minutes E
Location: Inca Village, Flores Island, Nusa Tengarra Province, Indonesia
Little by little, we are making our way to the west. We seem to average about 40 miles per day. We could actually go a little further each day, but the anchorage possibilities are just not there. So we inch westward. Today was a fantastic sailing day. We only had 10-15 knots of wind and it was behind us, so we first sailed wing and wing, and then we put out our asymmetrical spinnaker. Conditions were just perfect and we sailed faster than most other boats heading our way today. Now that in
itself is unusual. We couldn’t keep up with Shirena, and their Batavia 40 weighs less than half of Windbird’s weight. But we were right behind them even passing Safina which is a Jeanneau.40. So the captain is feeling pretty good tonight.
Tonight’s anchorage is just a stopping place, so we didn’t venture into town. We had read that Inca (prounouced ‘incha’) Village is half Muslim and half Catholic and that is obvious from the location of the mosque and the church. We had one visitor come out in a wooden canoe to practice his English and he was able to have a good conversation with Mark. Tomorrow we are heading to Eco Lodge resort near Labuan Bajo. We will be able to do our final provisioning in town and might even arrange a ‘pre’
trip to see the Komodo dragons. We talked to Tim on Rendezvous Cay today via our cell phone. He is now in Bali, and he recommended taking the resort’s trip to Rinca Island to see the Komodos. We will still sail down to Rinca, but we won’t have to stop in the anchorage where the Park Rangers are located if we do the ‘pre’ trip. Besides, this little trip stops at one of the most pristine marine park islands in the Komodos for an afternoon snorkel and that sounds fantastic. The little island is
far out of the way that we will be traveling, so this will be our chance to snorkel there. So onward another 45 miles tomorrow.
