Position 03:26.74S 109:47.56E

0100 13^th November 2010

My night watch began at 11.00pm when I came up into the cockpit bleary eyed after a couple of hours sleep.

It is a very dark night but the horizon surrounding us is dotted with the bright white lights of fishing boats, I counted 35 around us.

They have no navigation lights so it is impossible to see which way they are travelling therefore the radar is on in order to track any boats that come close.

We are currently in the Java Sea and heading into the Karimata Selat (straight) between Kalimantan on the East and Belitung Island to the West and then into the South China Sea towards Batan and Bintan Islands, a short distance across the water from Singapore.

The depth out here in the middle of this sea is only 30 metres and there are numerous obstructions, reefs and wrecks to avoid with uncharted depths.

Quite a contrast to the Pacific where depths are rarely less than 1000 metres and can be up to 3000 metres !

The wind has just got up to 25 knots from virtually nothing and it is now dark ahead with lightening flashes, so it looks as if we are heading into a front of bad weather. I have just taken in the mainsail, as the wind is on the nose and the sail was flapping furiously, and put up the spray hood, taken in the cushions and closed the hatches.

Bring it on !