After a rest day in Smithers, I got back on the road, bracing myself for long stretches of solitude. Winter, which had been relatively...
January 7, 2018
The first couple of weeks in this adventure have been amazing. We had to adapt to the hot and humid weather again, in this climate we’re drinking more than 5 liters of water a day. As the wind and swells where getting bigger and in our favour it got more difficult to land on the beaches, we had to prepare our landings good. The breaking waves can easily capsize the boat but to my surprise it never did. Getting the boat on the beach was another hassle which caused once in a while some problems when the waves were hitting the land, luckily we always found people helping us to get the boat on land.
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After about a week a wave hits the boat and it bumps on Inge’s wrist. That day we row a full day and in the evening her wrist is swollen and painful. The next day it’s clear she has quite a bad tendinitis and she’s out for a couple of days. As we want to continue I decide to row alone as far as possible and she helps navigating. I feel strong and just before the more important crossings with strong currents she feels that rowing is an option. In the North-East of Sumbawa island we start the first crossing of many passages. We avoid the extreme currents by being here just in time with the right moon phase. We read horror stories about motorised vessels going backwards because of the huge currents. The first crossing took us from Sumbawa to Gili Banta, a small inhabited island and a perfect place to spend NYE with my love, just the 2 of us there on the beautiful island.
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The next day we realise that our water supplies are getting low and it would be good to get to a place where we can find water. So we set out for a 55 km rowing trip to Pulau Sebayur, a difficult day it was because of the heat. Because of good timing we got most of the currents right but only after 9 hours we reach the island, after taking the necessary stops on another island to escape the burning sun. The tracker showed a temperature of 53 degrees celcius that day in the sun! Quite exhausted we reach the island and find a resort there, we took advantage of it and took a 4 course meal and plenty of water before finding a nice beach to camp with the tent.
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The next day we start the last rowing trip for Inge and the burning sun (we left too late) killed us, every hour we put our shirts in the water for some cooling down and once we’re out of the strong currents we jump in the water. In Labuan Bajo we can finally rest and relax, Inge prepares here for her flights back to Belgium, while I’m preparing the next push with Steven to Maumere.
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