Nias, Telo, Batu, Tanabahla Islands and Siberut island ( 15th April to 24th April 2012)

On the 15^th of April we left Afulu on Nias Is  for Palau Asu with SV Leto. We anchored off a very picturesque beach next to this local boat with a very happy young lad singing away and pumping the bilges..

We kayaked ashore and took the children lollies much to their delight.

The next day we motorsailed to the bottom of Nias Island to Teluk Lagundri. This is an extremely popular surfing spot.

SV Serannity arrived (Lou and Ann) whom we'd met in Langkawi and we were all invited to a meal aboard. It was great catching up on their adventures.

The next morning we beat the others out of bed and headed for Palau Telo. They soon caught up and we had a day of shifting wind and rain followed by good winds....About time.. Eric caught a bonito which he filleted and we cooked some fillets straight away. It was delicious...

The next highlight was crossing the equator and to re enter the southern hemisphere. It was too rough to swim across the line so we celebrated with a rum instead.

We anchored off the island of Telo to the sound of pigs squealing. It appeared to be a predominantly christian island with more churches visible than mosques

Celebrations were held aboard Leto that night.

 After re provisioning with fruit and veges, we organised diesel and then enjoyed coffee at a seaside cafe, Indonesian style..

A ship had been in the day before so local boats were coming in to pick up supplies to take to the outer islands

That afternoon we motored between a narrow gut of reefs and land to the Batu islands. They are low lying and coral fringed with palm trees and few inhabitants. Cathy stood on the spreaders up the mast to spot reefs and to take photos along the way

Satellite dishes were quite common

 We went ashore the next day to stretch our legs and burn our rubbish and  discovered a surfers lodge and restaurant being built.

Another day of motoring took us to the island of Tanahbala. We had to keep a good lookout as there are reefs just above the surface and low lying islets all very wrongly charted. The entrance into the bay where we anchored was interesting as the reef on both sides was throwing up some spectacular crashing waves.

We have found the Indonesian people have a great sense of humour and very friendly

We anchored in calm water. The swell was dampened by the reefs.
The next day we were visited by dugout canoes full of school children and they were delighted to be given books, pens and pencils

Boys and birds competing for fish

After an overnight sail we arrived at Limo on the island of Siberut where there was a fishing village and busy trading post

This massive jellyfish  passed under the kayak. It's tentacles were huge

Squid boat

After an overnight voyage we arrived in the port of Teluk Bayur in Padang.

That will be another story

Cruisers Notes

ASU: 00'54.3891N 97'16.8040E We anchored in 20m. We gave reasonable scope from the shore as we were exposed to the East. The bottom is sand. This is a pretty place. The resorts were empty. We gave lollies to the children ashore and felt that the locals were friendly. We found a small patch of fresh good coral with lots of fish life just 20m to the north of the jetty.

LAGUDRI: 00'33.76N 97'44.31E This anchoring area seemed to be the most free of swell. At the time we were there it was almost flat. There were quite a few surfers on the break on the far side of the bay. We didn’t go ashore.

TELO: 00' 02.493S 98'16.96E We anchored several hundred meters to the north of the wharf. The town looked very interesting. As always one is never sure whether one is going to be challenged by a harbour master. We went ashore, landing on a small sandy patch right next to the wharf. There were official looking buildings with uniformed people lurking around them but I don’t think that they were keen to do any paper work. Just outside the wharf area we found good vegetables and solar at 6000 /L . But the young side car lad wanted 120000 to deliver it the 50m to the dinghy!

PALAU BATU: 08'1326S 98'20.67E We anchored in sand, 16m. Be aware that the fringing reef to the north projects out a moderate distance in some spots. The area and landing in front of the resort is sand and weed but with some bombies . We went ashore and looked around. Easy and interesting. A young builder from the work crew making a good job of the new building that was under construction was detailed to look after us. Unfortunately he had no English. We burnt our rubbish ashore.

TANAHBALA: Finger Bay: 00' 20.174S 98'2931E Approach the anchorage straight down the middle of the bay there will be large breaking swells on each side that may have surfers on them. At the time and weather state when we were there the swells at the top of the bay were almost completely gone. The top of the bay shallows to a large area of around 3m. The bottom is sand and a beard like weed. The bay is picturesque and we had a nice visit from school children. They appreciated lollies, pens and books. Unfortunately on our second day we were approached by two aggressive men waving a piece of paper hand written in Indonesian with an official stamp on it. They wanted mooring fees. We pretended not to understand but this didn’t work so we got angry and sent them away. We upped anchor and left.

LIMU: 01'04.8237S 98'57.3282E This little hideaway may show on electronic charts as the Tabekat river. We thought of the place as Tabby cat! Please note that we did not go ashore here. We sat for two days observing, keeping a low profile and relaxing. The anchorage is very sheltered although there is modest fetch to the north. The holding is exceptional in heavy sand mud mix. ( 10 to 14m)The access is good but there is a ridge extending across the entrance that gets down to 6 to 7m. This seems to be a busy little port with a small commercial wharf and a small supporting trading post (no mosque). There is a lot of river boats bringing goods to trade. The river may be fun to explore by dinghy. There is a large drying sand bar off the river mouth marked on the charts. We suspect you would find most basics here. We dare say there is a harbour master here but one could go straight to the trading post at high tide and avoid the wharf.