The landscape in Eastern Indonesia has consisted of dry brown islands and clear blue skies.  Then it changed as we neared the equator to lush jungle covered islands and massive puffy cumulus clouds that tend to drop their load in the evening in the form of a cooling squall.  We haven’t set foot on land since leaving Gili Air/Lombok, although we have had swims at several of the anchorages along the way, including just on the northern side of the equator.

The sailing has been relentless. Here are some stats: we’ve covered a distance of 913nm from Gili Air to Nongsa Point Marina in Batam.

Some good sailing along the way, up to 25kts of breeze and down to almost nothing with the wind direction being SW and often straight up the clacker.

We did 5 overnight sails and stopped at 4 anchorages overnight  (after sailing up to 60nm in a day) before going into Nongsa Point Marina, Batam.

I saw 7,344 Indonesian fishing boats during the nights and adjusted course for every single one of them😳. I nearly had 7 heart attacks from near-misses due to the random behaviour of both commercial vessels and fishing boats. One ferry in particular who clearly didn’t know the give way and stand-on rules.

We only saw one other yacht in all those miles…they didn’t even say hello!

The water temperature is 32 degrees Celsius, and the air temperature is around 34 degrees Celsius.

We burnt around 100 litres of diesel (some motoring and an hour a day to charge the batteries and chill the freezer.)

We still have 3 frozen meals left in the freezer. The best dinner that I made was chicken burgers, which included baking the buns. It was a mean feed👌.

And here we are at Nongsa Point Resort Marina in order to clear customs with some efficiency. We’re both worn out by the Indonesian administration and have paid an agency fee for our frazzled nerve’s sake. I’m loving the swimming pool, the washing machine and the resort facilities.

On Sunday morning, we head out into the Singapore Strait (more heart attack-inducing sailing😵‍💫), bound for Langkawi, Malaysia. Indonesia….what a unique experience! Infuriating, dry, hot, wet, dirty, rubbish-filled, beautiful at times, the morning call to prayer, beautiful people and plastic, plastic, plastic!