E48 – LINGEH TO BAJO
Sailing away from Lingeh.
Due to light, but suitable winds, we were able to get some motor sailing happening as we departed. That wind slowly filled to about 15kts giving us an easy 7-8kts over the ground and we turned the engine off to grab every chance we could to save fuel.
But as has often been the case in Indonesia, the wind dropped out and we went back to motor sailing again while dodging FAD’s and eventually the wind just dropped out completely leaving us in a glass out sea and motoring with the sails only able to provide shade !
10,000 Nautical Miles
One of the highlights of the day was clocking over 10,000 nautical miles in Starlight since we bought here in late 2018. We watched the ships log clock over the magical number and wondered where we would be when we clocked over 20,000 ?
When we arrived at Bajo, we anchored near two other yachts. The only yachts we had seen close up since leaving Australia!
Next day, we arranged for some diesel to be delivered to the boat and needed to get some cash to pay for it and also to hit up a supermarket for some much needed retail therapy. So, we headed ashore to the nearby resort and used their taxi to head into the township of Bajo. We successfully got cash, ice-cream, phone data and Bintang beer !
On return to the boat, the fuel was delivered as promised and we took on over 100 liters of PERTAMINA Dex which is the highest grade diesel in Indonesia and hard to get further east of Bajo. I have a filter/funnel onboard that separates any water and contaminants from the fuel we receive and have used it religiously in Indonesia and since. I also treat the fuel in the container before adding it to our tank a second time through the filter/funnel. I’ve had bad fuel once before in PNG and it destroyed the high pressure pump on my engine and required a flight all the way back to Australia with the part to get it fixed! So, now I am very careful about what goes in the tank.
