Before long we had a pod of about 40 dolphins homing in on Gryphon II. They were racing us and stayed with us for about 45 minutes dashing in front and swooping around the sides then holding back at the stern before leaping forward to dive within a couple of feet of the bows.

Fabulous creatures, they gave us a joyous morning that raised our spirits after the chore of the night watches.

However, they presaged a downturn in the weather, the skies continued to darken during their acrobatics. The rain can be seen on the horizon, the clouds thickened and blackened as they moved relentlessly across our path. Dolphins gone.

Ah well, we like a nice fresh shower which was about the last highlight of the day having given way to damp grey skies, lumpy seas and big swells. The night was better but the next day a new problem assailed us….floating rubbish.

 It is a real shame the way the people of south east Asia see the sea as a rubbish bin. Some of the waste is natural materials such as tree trunks and sea weed but much is polystyrene, plastic of all descriptions, rope and fishing nets. We have got used to odd thumps in the night as we hit lumps of floating rubbish but in the morning, fortunately in a flat calm, the engine came to a grinding halt stalled by a tangle of rubbish that completely filled the gap between rudder and propeller. Fortunately we have a small dive bottle for such eventualities and I was soon in the water to find a mass of rope, fishing line, weed ...…and a small turtle all wound around the prop.

I managed to release the small turtle but although he appeared to be intact and alive he sank away. I thought at first he might have drowned trapped by the rope underwater but turtles can hold their breath a very long time so he may have just been in shock as a result of having been trapped for a while and then had a resounding thump from our propeller on his back. We will never know but we hope he will live to swim again.

Twice again during the day we had to stop the engine as the prop gave a nasty shudder but on neither occasion did we get anything wrapped up. It is one of the joys of being able to sail that the propeller is folded and one worry is taken away. The winds, however, on this passage were very light and we motored the whole way except for about the first hour.

Our anchorage behind a small island proved less than perfect as a coral reef began to appear rather too close for comfort. We re-anchored in deeper water but we were then in a fast current so decided to move again. Now the anchor was fouled! Eventually with some pretty nasty tugs we managed to free it but the light was such that we dare not anchor close in so ended up with no protection to the south. We rolled a bit during the night as a consequence but in the morning a vicious squall came from the south and we ended up plunging up and down with up to 40 knots of wind and teeming rain. A bothersome couple of days!