Extra Stop: Bawean Island, October 13, 2016. Over night stop only.

We sailed from Lovina, Bali directly to Bawean. It was an overnight run for us covering 210 nautical miles, over 37.5 hours. We anchored in North Bawean at 05 43.81S & 112 40.14E in 7 meters of water, in mud with very good holding. Arriving at 1815 Bali time, 1715 Bawean time. Remember your clocks need to go back one hour here and the sun is setting by 1745.

Our friends catamaran, coming into anchor with the glorious pinks of the sun setting with them.

We traveled between Pulau Raas and Pulau Sapudi in the Selat Raas with plenty of depth. It’s a good idea to try and travel this strait with some day light.

The small village at Bawean.

The sail was never dull. As we passed Madura Island and sailed toward Bawean we had nonstop vessels to dodge. There was never a moment when we didn’t have anything to watch out for. We had FAD’s, local fishermen in small vessels (close to shore), long liners, and squid boats, tuna fishermen, commercial vessels (including passenger ferries, cargo ships, and freighters) and tugs under tow. Note with the tugs, they carry no AIS and their tow is poorly lite, however they all had the correct international tug/tow lights on the tugs as per International Collision Regulations. All the tows where on very, very long tow ropes, so give these a very wide berth.

On the eve of the 12^th we had a very impressive lightening show and early morning on the 13^th in the we had incredible rain. It was torrential for quite a few hours reducing visibility to the bow only. We did make the most of the rain, filling our water tanks and enjoying longer than usual showers. We managed to sail during the down pour as the wind was constant. Other than that, its pretty much all motor sailing.

The anchor down and my Captain is looking forward to a home brew after 2 very long days.

We would not approach Bawean at night. It was littered with local fishermen, fads and semi commercial fisherman. The reef – Kar. Gosong is extensive and very safe to travel behind, but it would be impossible to judge its length at night. There is only one light on the reef at Kar. Gosong and is on the northern end, the rest of the reef runs a long way south of the light.

Once in the Northern Anchorage, it is heaven. Quiet, calm and good holding. Quiet as in little shipping traffic, however the call to Allah is constant and very, very loud – they must have enormous speakers here. The local town looked busy but we didn’t go ashore here.

Another spectacular sun rise.