Got Fuel and Waiting for Wind

We got fuel the next day at Carita. The young men sent an english-speaking friend to negotiate and help with the process. The picture here is of the interpreter and me in front of a little restaurant on the beach. The fuel guys insisted they had to sell us the unsubsidized fuel, so we were paying about twice the rate paid locally. I wasn’t entirely happy with that, but I rationalized that we would be paying a lot more in Cocos Keeling. The interpreter drove me on a motor bike to Labuhan a few km south to a bank ATM so I could pay them in local currency. Charita and Labuhan are not tourist towns. I didn’t see a single other foreigner, and it seemed a foreigner was quite unusual judging from reactions I got.

We had to wait several hours as the fuel guys supposedly had to go to a town on the northwest end of Java to get the unsubsidized fuel. But, they did show up with the fuel, and two of them helped me load the fuel into Tahina’s tanks. I paid them the rest of their money plus a tip for the helpers and interpreter. After taking them back to the shore with the jugs, I had to wash down the dinghy. It was a long day.

Carita is a resort beach for the locals. They have jet skis and banana boats in the bay. After the traffic to our boat, the operators decided Tahina must be an attraction. By the end of the day we had 10 or more visits – and they not only circled our boat, but stopped to take pictures. So, the next day we decided to leave.

We moved down south past Labuhan to a little island called Palau Liwungan (-6.495, 105.7243 – map below). The charts aren’t very accurate around this little island, but I took a chance with Google Earth’s imagery and eye-ball navigation. We negotiated a sandbar and a reef and managed to get behind this pretty little island. The photo above is a 200+ degree panorama that also shows a “little” thunderstorm behind us that, thankfully, passed by in the afternoon. This little island is surrounded by bamboo fishing platforms anchored in place. A large fishing village is located in the corner of the bay where this island is located. Below is a photo of one of the dozens of fishing platforms in the area.

The reason we are stopping again is that we are waiting for wind. There is currently little to no wind between Sunda Straight and Cocos Keeling. Next week, some southeast trades are forecasted to fill in at last. We are hoping to leave on Monday. Liwungan has 3G service, so we can get the best weather data available while we wait. Please note that our map has been updated with the passages from Belitung to here.