Tk Sapu, Flores

Anchored Tk Sapu
Palau Flores
East Nusa Tenggara
Indonesia
8'32.3S/121'35.9E

Sandpiper left Maumere at sunrise for a 40 mile motor sail to where we are currently anchored in a small bay off the village of Tk Sapu. We had been hoping to spend more time in Indonesia sailing. But far we have had to motor everywhere due to lack of wind, or wind off our nose. The anchorage we are in is not in any of the guides we have. Looking on the charts it seemed like a good choice because it is very protected from swells. We did have to go through several reefs that were not marked. But they were not too much of an issue because you can clearly see the reefs and where the deep water is.

Our friends on SV Uterus (from Norway) followed us in and we both searched around the bay until we found a suitable place to drop the hook. Anchoring in Indonesia can be quite difficult because as soon as the water shoals up, it turns to reef.

Team Sandpiper had a very peaceful night in a place that very few, if any, boats stop at. We got to enjoy sundowners on SV Uterus.

We have not refueled since leaving Australia and we are now at half tanks. The one good thing about all this motoring is that we have had lots of electricity to run our water maker. It pumps out 1.5 gallons of good, clean, drinking water (from sea water) per hour. As yet we have not had to take on fresh water in Indonesia, which is a good thing. If you drink the water here then you will not want to stray to far from the toilet. We can purchase purified water, but then we have to ferry it the Sandpiper by dingy from shore.

One other issue is that of our motor's heat exchanger. It is having issues and now we have salt water pumping through the engine. This is not a huge issue for now and we are hoping to have to have this replaced when we arrive in Bali.

Tom and Amy