We are sailing towards Lombok, the next stop on our yacht delivery adventure. We have been on the water for a few days now and we have encountered a sea full of fishing boats. It was like a floating city, with what looked like hundreds of vessels of all shapes and sizes and of course it was nighttime. I'm not sure what the collective noun for fishing boats is, but I suspect I can't write it here without offending someone. Let's just say it was a very crowded scene. The funny thing is, you only see fishing boats at nighttime with all their lights on fishing. You never see them in the daytime or driving to or from the fishing ground. It's like birds - you only ever see fully grown ones, you never see young birds. Maybe they have some secret hiding place. Another thing that caught our attention was the huge FADs that dotted the sea. FADs are man-made structures that attract fish, but they can also be a nautical nightmare. They don't show up on radar until you are about 100 meters away, so it's useless to try to look for them. Luckily, these ones appeared to be made from polystyrene - not great for the environment, but better for us.
The wind has been fairly light, but unfortunately it has been blowing exactly from behind us, which means our apparent wind is about 7 knots, which isn't enough to push us along at a decent speed. So we have been using the trusty Yanmar engines, one at a time which have been working like a charm. We should be in Lombok in 36 hours, which is exciting. We are looking forward to finally being able to relax for a few days before beginning the 1800 nautical mile trip to Sabang.
There are a couple of quick projects I want to have a look at before we leave Lombok. One is to top up our fuel and water tanks, which have been running low. Nothing major, just some routine maintenance to make sure everything is in order, change the oil and filters on both the engines and some other minor projects.
We just dodged a bullet! We spotted an unlit FAD, one of those countless floating hazards scattered across the ocean. These things are a nightmare, with dangling ropes that could tangle our propellers and the added risk of unmanned fishing boats lurking nearby. It’s a constant game of cat and mouse out here.