Leaving Lombok
Author: Shirlz
July 2022
Life had become just a little too comfortable in the wonderful Lombok anchorages of Gili Gede, Marina del Ray, Gili Asahan and Gili Goleng. The SE monsoon was in full swing and it was time to shake things up and get moving again. My visa had been extended for another 60 days which was hopefully enough time for me to sail comfortably up to Malaysia. I planned to enter at Kuching in Sarawak on Borneo, making as many anchoring stops in Indonesia as possible along the way. Not being much of a forward planner, I decided to take things one step at a time. First stop would be the touristy beach town of Lovina on the south coast of Bali.

In order to get there I had to cross the dreaded Lombok Strait with its fearsome currents. The easy way to do this is to head up to the Northern Gilis and maybe a bit further on to Medana Bay or Siri Beach, staying close enough to the west coast of Lombok to avoid the worst of the wicked southerly current.
I made my farewells at the marina and set off heading north. It was a perfect day and I had a lovely sail, hardly noticing any adverse current. I had thought of possibly stopping overnight at Sengigi on the west coast of Lombok, as I hadn’t yet tried that anchorage, but the wind was more South than East and it didn’t look too promising. I carried on to Siri and anchored in 14m in the protected bay, surrounded by white beaches and tall palm trees. An interesting mixture of traditional fishermen’s palm thatched houses with outrigger boats drawn up on the beach and some rather exclusive resort establishments.
I had a cooling swim and enjoyed the sunset.

Next morning I rowed ashore early and had a walk all the way along the beach. The resorts all looked rather empty but the workers and fishermen were about and I found myself being shown a collection of beautiful locally produced pearls. Black, cream and pink. The prices were quite reasonable and I was tempted but I settled for some delicate macramé bracelets with tiny odd-shaped pearls involved.

After a couple of relaxing days I decided to make the leap across the Lombok Strait to the north coast of Bali and anchor at Lovina which many people had recommended as a comfortable place to stop. It was a distance of about 73 nautical miles which would mean 24 sleepless hours for me. With strong currents and lots of traffic, both big ships and small fishing boats. I would have to keep a continuous, sharp lookout. To add to the problem, there are numerous FAD’s or Fish Attracting Devices scattered along the coast of Bali. These are strange constructions of bamboo and palm fronds with underwater nets. They are not lit and quite impossible to spot at night. So it was with some trepidation that I bravely set off.

The crossing of the strait was easy with a useful breeze moving us along at a comfortable 4 knots, the full sail up and looking beautiful. It was great to be out at sea again. About half way along the north coast of Bali, the sun was getting low and the wind died completely. I had been expecting this and was ready to get the engine going. We were forced to motor the rest of the way. I was keeping a careful watch, sitting in the cockpit all night. A small bit of moon helped for a while but it was a dark night. I was about 5 miles offshore, hoping to avoid the FADs and had a beautiful view of the sparkling lights of Bali lighting up the mountainous coastline. There were many groups of small fishing boats out with very bright lights shining to attract squid, and were easily avoided.
By sunrise next day I was approaching Lovina. Perfect timing. I had recently discovered a wonderful app for my phone called Offline Maps which allows you to download satellite images of your destination and with GPS ability shows your exact position with respect to the reefs. A tremendous help in a place like this, where the sheltering reefs were not easy to spot in the early morning light and the Navionics charts give very little detail.

As I neared the entrance I had to negotiate a flotilla of outrigger tourist boats loaded with hopeful dolphin watchers. They crowded around, chasing about towards any possible movement of the dolphins. I could see quite a lot of churning about in the water where there was obviously a group of the creatures. I turned to avoid the crowds and suddenly to my absolute amazement and wonder a perfectly choreographed group of four big gleaming dolphins broke the surface in an elegant arching leap, lined up with military precision, looking straight ahead. It was stupendous. It seemed as if they knew exactly what was expected of them and were happy enough to oblige. But, just the once, and then they were off, duty done.

Lovina has a black sand beach which makes it difficult to judge the depth of the water by sight, but it was easy to find a good spot in about 9m of water and close enough for a short row ashore. The tourist industry is making a slow recovery after the Covid lockdown and one has to run the gauntlet of people trying to sell trinkets or taxi rides or guided tours. Many trendy restaurants line the colourful streets and the ornate Hindu temples make for an exotic scene. A tall column supporting a dolphin statue is a gathering place on the beach for locals and visitors to sit and watch the sunset before continuing with their more strenuous evening entertainment.

I was very happy to get the opportunity to meet up with Ruth again. She was anchored in the bay on her boat, Tropicali, and we were able to do some catching up.

Unfortunately the anchorage is a bit rolly and after 2 or 3 days I had had enough and moved 32nm further along the coast to a much more protected anchorage at Banyu Wedang. Again Offline Maps made it easy to navigate the reefs on either side of the fairly narrow entrance, but this time they were also easy to spot by eye. The anchorage is rather deep (19m) but perfectly sheltered with flat water. The wind had picked up and I decided to wait a few days for slightly calmer weather before setting off across the Java Sea.