Gili Bodo, Palau Sababi

Anchored at Gili Bodo
Anchorage #23 in "101 Anchorages Within The Indonesian Archipelago" by Geoff Wilson

Palau Sababi
East Nusa Tenggara
Indonesia
8'22.1S/120'00.8E

Salam,

Team Sandpiper woke early this morning and left Telok Linggeh before any of the other Rally boats could get a head start on us. Yet again another day of motor sailing as there was very little wind, only enough to cause a small ripple on the surface of the water.

Today's run was 35 miles. We tried fishing with our new silver spoon. Not much luck, but we passed lots of locals in their wooden boats who were out fishing.

The one thing we see everywhere, no matter how far offshore we go, is garbage in the water. It is mostly plastic. I think that there are no landfills here and everything is thrown into the ocean. In the past this was the way they got rid of their garbage since everything they had was biodegradable. But with plastic, it is all over the place.

The water is still super clear, just full of plastic. One of the cruisers in a past anchorage paid a local in a canoe to take his garbage ashore to be disposed of. He watched to local row ashore and then dump all his garbage into the ocean. The boater then spent the rest of the afternoon snorkeling around retrieving his trash, that he had paid the local to dispose of, out of the water. The local guy must have thought that the man on the sailboat was crazy to pay him just to throw his trash in the ocean.

We also passed a pod of Pilot whales who were taking a break on the surface as we passed by.

We arrived at the anchorage here in Gili Bodo at 1pm and dropped the hook. It has really clear water and white sand beaches right behind us. As soon as we got Sandpiper secured we jumped in and snorkeled around the reefs and explored the beach for shells.

Our Norwegian friends on SV Uterus are stopping over for a few sundowners tonight. We are going to have crab cakes that Amy whipped up this afternoon. Then its off in the morning for another 25 mile run to anchor off a resort that will let us jump in their pool.

Sampai jumpa lagi,

Tom and Amy