Nusa Lembongan, Bali

On mooring ball at Nusa Lembongan
Anchorage #63 in "101 Anchorages Within The Indonesian Archipelago" by Geoff Wilson

Nusa Lembongan
Bali
Indonesia
8'40.7S/115'26.3E

Greetings from Nusa Lembongan!

Team Sandpiper woke at the crack of dawn and left Lombok Island just as all the Indonesian fisherman were returning from a night's fishing in their small wooden outrigger canoes. These fisherman go out at night to hand line fish in the straight between Bali and Lombok islands. Then they return in the mornings. We had just raised our sails up and were flying along. Then every where we looked there were small sails coming right at us at a very high speed.

These little outrigger boats are quite cool. They have a small wooden hull in the middle where the fisherman sits in the back to steer. Then there are two bamboo poles on each side for outriggers which keep these small boats from flipping over when sailing. They all had a small sails attached to 2 bamboo poles. and each boat had a differently colored sail so they can identify each other where they are out on the water. These small outriggers sail very fast, and there was a strong wind pumping today. So for some time we had these little outriggers flying by us going the opposite direction, with all the fisherman waving at us as they flew by.

Sandpiper, believe it or not, finally had a following current and a beam reach today! It pushed us along at over 9 knots for the whole trip. I can get used to sailing at 9 knots since we made it to where we are presently moored in half the time we had expected. We managed to arriving at noon.

Lembongan Island is not what we expected. Our guide book makes this sound like a small remote bay where surfers come to hang out. Upon arrival we had to pass by two large barges with water slides that are anchored out in the bay. They have large powered catamaran's bring out loads of tourists from Bali. Then for the afternoon their passengers get to slide down the water slides into the ocean, kayak, jet ski, or just snorkel around.

We had to maneuver around speed boats dragging tourists around on inflatable bananas. There were glass bottom boat rides cruising around.

We were able to find an empty mooring buoy right next to our friends on SV Uterus. So we are hooked up! If you have been a 'Team Sandpiper' follower then you know how we like to use mooring buoys. It is really nice here to be on a buoy. Otherwise, we would have to drop our anchor in 15 feet of water right into a live reef.

After getting Sandpiper secured, SV Stormslaven arrived to moor right next to us. They are another boat from Norway that we had not seen since Kupang. They are a lot of fun to hang out with. Tonight, Team Sandpiper will be hanging out with the Norwegian Fleet of 2.

This part of Indonesia is a stark contrast to the Indonesia that we have been experienced previously. We are now in the land of tourists and only 12 miles from Bali. Tomorrow's plans are to sail the 12 miles to Bali where we hope to find a slip at the Bali Marina. If no slip is available, then we will find a secure spot to anchor and wait until one opens up.

We are planning on being there for the next 2 weeks or more, and Amy has many great things planned for us. Keep checking us as during the next 2 weeks we are hoping to have time to get all our photos updated since we have not had internet access since Australia. We also have some really great video files. We are going to post and some really great audio files for our podcast that should be posted soon.

Tom and Amy