Thursday 22 August Binongko Island

Binongko, the bi in Wakatobi is the least visited island and now we know why. It's far, far too deep to anchor. The fringing fringing reef wall drops vertically from less than 1m at low tide to over 100m. The only way you can stay is to raft alongside one of the local fishing boats which are attached to super deep moorings. So that is what we did, came alongside the low sided fishing boat and passed then our lines to tie Jackster on their port side. This was well received by our hosts who found a foreign yacht the most interesting thing to happen to them all year. If we hadn't (as politely as possibly in Anglo-Indonesian) declined we'd have had 20 visitors inspecting our decks and living quarters for our entire stay. Of course they were inquisitive so we showed them the decks and the captains were shown our electronic navigation system, we shared the last tins of Coke we have and chatted with the help of a phrase book and gestures.

checking out Jackster

1 big kid & lots of small kids

rafted alongside

With us tied to the fishing boat Geramar as the smaller boat, rafted on to us (after crashing into our guard rail). Dick and Tricia were far more polite and did the yachtie thing of asking before coming aboard.

In the afternoon Dick, David and I visited the village where we were met by 20 inquisitive children and one young man who was studying English. He was quickly appointed our village guide. As we went along the number of children increased, something like the Pied Piper, people came out to say hello to the strange white people and always smiles and waves. I would have bought fresh produce if any were for sale; all we found were aubergines, tomatoes and eggs. It was a delightful time in this small, tidy community. The only part I had difficulty accepting was the practice of keeping blue footed booby birds as pets – their legs were tied with twine to the fence and the poor things were dirty and looked distressed. I wish I could have set them free.

Back aboard Jackster our new neighbours were keeping a close eye on things from our deck. We did get lots of nods of approval on the strong rigging and they were practising the bowline knot we'd used for our lines...with our ropes of course!