Typical life at anchor next to a tropical island in the Java Sea: bit of boat work, bit of beach walking, bit of beer drinking.

Pulau Belitung was a surprise because it doesn’t get talked about too much in the cruising community over here in SE Asia.

It’s either on the route east to Australia or west to Thailand, just one of those places you might stop off for a night along the way.

But we think it deserves more attention than that; we’d say it’s a destination in itself. Fabulous beaches, gin-clear water and thriving coral surround this green and plentiful island.

And the welcome, like everywhere we’ve been in Indonesia, is second to none. As so often happens, we ended up staying far longer than we had intended, so took advantage of being at anchor for a while to get some jobs done.

Poor SY Esper‘s hull was in need of some TLC which meant Jamie got out the Powerdive hookah gear and set to work. It’s a useful tool for working underwater, especially if you don’t have the room for a compressor and dive tanks on board.