E36 – NAMTABUNG TO LATALOLA BESAR
Glass out conditions.
We hauled up the anchor from 20m at Namtabung and headed west in a flat calm sea into the incredibly deep waters typical of eastern Indonesia where depths often reach the hundreds and even thousands of meters not far from shore.
Out into open water, we had gorgeous sunshine and I feeling relaxed enough to drag the guitar out which had been rusting away down below!
It wasn’t long before we had a lesson in what we could expect with regards to the weather this far north…Sunshine and thunderstorms! The bonus of course is that rain bands and thunderstorms do bring wind, so we took advantage, turned the motor off and had some fast sailing till it passed and we waited patiently for the next one.
1000+ meters
Getting further offshore and into the 1000m+ depth range, we found the incredible water clarity and deep blues of the ocean mesmerizing.
Sailing most of the way to Latalola Besar, a tiny island east of Saumlaki surrounded by waters hundreds of meters deep, we found an anchorage that shelved rapidly towards the shore and jetty. We snuck in as far as we dared, finding 16m of water on sand and immediately fell back into 35m of water. In hindsight, we should have snuck in about 15m further inshore and anchored in 10m and had more space behind us for the chain to rest before dropping in to deep water…but that’s for the next episode to explain 🙂
