It's
our plan to travel from komodo to Lombok sailing by day and stopping
each night in a protected anchorage. There are so many small fishing
craft and unlit fish aggravation devices (bamboo rafts) doing day
hops lessens the chance of running into one, or worse, colliding with
one of the small fishing canoes. We have time to spare and a wish to
see more of the country.
Tonight's
anchorage is 200m off the village of Kilo on north Sumbawa with good
holding in black sand 15m below us. We're the only yacht here and
curiously only two canoes come out to visit us. The first to arrive
is Ahmet, 16, and his younger brother in a dug out canoe with
outrigger which is continually taking on water. We give them a
plastic tub to bail while they talk. Ahmet's English is very good
but his brother is too shy to chat. Next to come over are three
younger boys, one has the paddle and the others a palm frond stem and
a flip flop as paddles. Their craft is more seaworthy and they know
what they want – pens and paper so we give each of them a pen and
paper from our give away store.
 |
| the canoe that didn't sink |
The
threesome paddle away OK but our two friends in the leaking canoe
start to sink. As they are get beyond the point of bailing they're
still paddling but now up to their waists in water. Fortunately
they are still close enough to us for us to throw them a line and we
pull them in and on board. David then got the 'gulper', or water
pump, for our dinghy (which was stowed on deck), turned their canoe
the right way up and emptied the water out. With some fast paddling
they did make it back to shore OK.
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