We left Krakatoa on Friday morning and spent the first two days worrying that the wind might get stronger and the waves higher.  Since then we have had 36 hours of winds between 10 and 15 knots on the quarter and flattish seas.  We had been concerned that we were going too fast and would reach the anchorage just as the light failed.  Now we are worrying that we are making such slow progress we might not reach Cocos Keeling before nightfall tomorrow and so have to enter at night or spend a fifth night at sea.  There is always something.  It probably prevents us from becoming complacent.

 

Apart from that, all’s well.

 

As a postscript to our Krakatoa visit Sunflower reports that last night Anak Krakatoa blew her top.  Quite a big eruption with flames reaching twice the height of the mountain and lightning bolts connecting the flames to the ash cloud 20 thousand feet above.  A new larva flow passes close to where photographs were taken two days earlier.  Spectacular, but no doubt rather troubling.  The rangers have abandoned the island and scooted back to Java.