We arrived in Hoga safe and sound two days ago. Our passage from Ambon wound up being a gentle and safe passage after our initial squall coming out of Ambon.

As I mentioned in our last post, Jenna’s cousin Holly has joined us for the passage from Ambon to Flores Island, and we are giving her the complete Sophie Adventure Cruise experience during our stopover in Hoga.

We arranged for a dolphin show…

… and a sunset-lit thunder boomer …

… followed by a rainbow …

.. and capped of with an eggplant parmesan that Hazel and I prepared in Holly’s honor.

We are currently anchored in a passage between the islands of Hoga and Kepulauan. In reading the description of Hoga published in the book “101 Indonesian Anchorages,” we thought it would be a remote and wild nature reserve. It turns out that Hoga is indeed part of the the area’s Wakatobi Marine Reserve, but it has a village and a dive resort. Across the bay in Kepulauan are multiple large villages complete with stores and cell phone towers.

We’ve spent two nights here and have fully recovered from our trip from Ambon. Activities here have included swimming, snorkeling, poker (Leo has learned a new game!), and Settlers of Catan.

The weather looks pretty settled over the next 4 days, and we will depart in a few hours for the 280 mile passage southeast to Flores and Komodo Islands. I’ve been worried about this passage over the last month because I’ve seen nothing but 20-30 knot westerly winds in the Flores Sea weather reports since Christmas. Our current forecast is for 10-12 knot westerlies today, dying down to under 5 knots over the weekend. The local dive master says that in March, the wind transitions around from northwesterlies to the southeast monsoon. Based on the forecasts we are seeing, I believe that this transition period has begun. This is great news for us, because it means Sophie will soon begin sailing downwind as we continue on our journey to Bali, Kalimintan, and Singapore.

That’s about it for now. Holly and Hazel are making crepes. I assume they will be delicious.