Two nights at anchor for 20: where the boat stops and how the group sleeps

The standard 3D2N has two nights aboard. On the first the boat is at Kalong. On the second it anchors again near the stops of day two. In each case it is at anchor from dinner until morning, and the group sleeps in its cabins.

Weather and sea decide the spot, and the captain chooses it. Wind, swell and current settle which bay is calm that evening, and the choice can change on the day. We do not name the second anchorage in advance, since it follows the weather and not the plan.

Weather decides the stops too. If a warning is out, or if sailing is closed, the captain and the harbour master decide what happens, and the date moves or the terms apply. Ask us about the terms before you sail.

Tell the group this early, in plain words, before the first bay, so that a change of anchorage reads as the captain doing the job and not as a plan gone wrong. A group that expects a fixed bay is disappointed by a change; a group that expects a good bay is pleased by any of them.

Take the headcount at dinner and again before bed. Twenty people, five cabins, and a leader with a sheet.

At dinner, check that everyone is aboard and fed. Before bed, check them by cabin: 3 and 3 in the Master Cabins if you use the extra beds, then 4, 6 and 4 in the Sharing Rooms. The sheet has names beside each room.

Some guests stay on deck after dinner. That is fine, and it is worth knowing who and how many. Ask them to tell the leader when they go below, so the count closes. A name that stays open is a name you look for.

Do the same count at first light. It takes two minutes, and it removes the one worry that keeps a leader awake.

Quiet hours are the leader's to set. Choose a time after dinner and say it aloud at the briefing. The captain's rules sit above yours.

Three sources of noise matter on a boat with five cabins. Bunk rooms are shared, so one late whisperer keeps 3 others awake. Every cabin has its own bathroom, which keeps night-time trips inside the room and out of a corridor queue. The deck above the cabins is the third, because voices and feet carry down.

So send the late talkers to the saloon or the far end of the deck, and move the card game away from the cabins. Early risers want the dark and the quiet; give them both.

Every cabin has air conditioning. Ask us the hours it runs, and pass our written answer to the group.

Printed equipment is a short list. It holds life jackets, a life raft, lifebuoys, a fire extinguisher, a first-aid kit, GPS and a radio. The tender speedboat is there for landings. We print nothing more, and we do not claim anything we cannot source.

Ask the captain at the briefing where each item lives. Tell the group, then forget about it. Knowing is enough.

Captain's rules apply at anchor as they do by day. Ask for them before dinner on the first night, and repeat them to the group. Our advice, and it is advice, is to keep swimming to daylight hours and to keep everyone off the rail after dark.

Tell the leader if anyone is unwell in the night. Tell the captain if the weather turns. The system has two names, and one of them is yours.

The first evening is the best of the two. The boat anchors at Kalong, and the group gathers on deck. In September the sun sets at 17:58. The flying foxes leave the roost around dusk in long streams over the water.

Let the group watch before it eats. The sky is the show, and dinner can wait twenty minutes. Photographers shoot from the deck; others stay quiet and look.

Dinner follows at anchor, in the covered, open-sided saloon. The chef cooks, and the diets you told us about are on the table.

After dinner, take the headcount. Then the quiet hours begin, and tomorrow has a sunrise to catch at Padar.