Gili Banta

Anchored at Gili Banta
Anchorage #38 in "101 Anchorages Within The Indonesian Archipelago" by Geoff Wilson

Komodo Islands
East Nusa Tenggara
Indonesia
8'25.9S/119'18.1E

It is always the short trips that are the hardest...

We left Gili Lawa this morning, along with S/V Uterus, at 9am for a 'short' 15 mile hop west. We had a great sail for about one hour until we cleared Komodo Island. When we entered the strait that separates Komodo & Lombok Island we got hit by the strong currents flowing against us. We were going straight into the wind, waves, and current, slowing us to a half knot for some time. A trip that should have taken us 3 hours instead took 6 hours of Sandpiper burying her bow in waves that were going in 3 different directions at once.

S/V Uterus had stopped at an anchorage on the east end of Komodo island to do some diving. After they tried to leave, they gave up, turned around, and re anchored. They left us to battle the currents alone.

Team Sandpiper got the hook down at 3pm in a large bay on the southern end of Gili Banta. "Gili" means "Island" in Indonesia, and this island is in the strait between Komodo and Lombok islands. Sandpiper is the only boat here. This island is 3 miles across with high hills covered in dry grass.

After getting secured we fixed a few problems that have been popping up. The bolts that hold the boom to the mast had worked loose. So we took the boom off, after soaking the bolts with Loc-Tite, tightened then all up. Also, another motor mount nut had worked loose. We gave it a good soaking with Loc-Tite and tightened it right up.

Team Sandpiper's current plans are to leave at sunrise, hopefully with a following current , and sail along the north coast of Lombok Island for an overnight sail. We are not sure of our next stop since we want to make as many miles as we can in the next 24 hours. Then we will find the best place to stop at sunset the following afternoon.

More in 48 hours,
Tom and Amy