10.39.650S 119.34.787E  10^th October   We promised ourselves an extra day at the Reef and our ‘poddies’ agreed but when I poked my head out of the hatch at 06.00 hrs on the 8^th I could see our moment in time was over…….the beautiful flat lagoon and azure blue shallows were gone: the promised wind had picked up and turned our paradise into a lumpy sea with breaking crests of waves!  We radioed the others and they were in agreement we should catch the wind (very rare in these regions) and leave on the rising tide an hour before it highest point to avoid the corals. We exchanged music discs and books with Glendora before we all mucked in, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, to clean the boat inside and out, check the batteries, the engine oil and fuel filters, give the generator a service, change the water maker filters, stow, bring in the dinghy and pack up our new wonderful awning which is a godsend.  We hardly had fifteen minutes left at the end to have a cup of tea and a sandwich before pulling up the anchor and saying au revoir and a special thank you to the Ashmore Guardians (Customs boys).

The wind is perfect 10 – 14 knots from the East so we have sailed the majority of the way to Bali, however the seas have been a lot more swelly and I am not sure if everyone is as ‘happy clappy’ as they were…..pedalo number 5 is anxious to be called into shore I think!  I, on the other hand, with my new wrist bands have been totally unaffected and seasickness is a thing of the past!  Because we thought we were going to Kupang when I did the provisioning we are light on fresh fruit, meat and vegetables – it will be a ten day passage instead of three – but at least all the tins bought when we left Spain a year ago are gradually being eaten….  This is the only journey we have had so far which has not been dogged by rain squalls; the weather is glorious and Anahi is performing at her best…….