Still in Bali but are leaving tomorrow bound for Nongsa Point Marina in Batam, Indonesia.  The trip is approx. 1000 nautical miles and will take approx. 6-7 days all being well. Unfortunately there is little wind expected which means motor sailing most of the way.  It will be nice to be back on the water after being in the Bali Marina for the last few weeks.  We did manage to leave the boat last week for a few days in Canggu which was a terrific spot on the west coast of Bali.  To have a villa and pool was a delight after sweltering in 40 degree heat. We also drove to Ubud to have lunch with our Swiss friend Sam who we had met earlier in the year – we also caught up with him and Miriam for dinner near the marina. We have eaten at some great places in Bali and the food was fabulous – our favourites were Sardine, Mamasan and Metis.

We have met some lovely people in the Marina – a Norwegian family (parents and 2 children) who have sailed 17,500 miles since last August – they are heading to Thailand and we will catch up with them there. Another Swedish couple who have arrived in Bali (77 years old and 67 years old) – they are great people who have been sailing for decades and are really amazing.

We received the spare parts on Friday for the bilge pump and bow thruster and have been busy installing these today and getting ready for our departure. On our way to pick up the spare parts we were overtaken by a cavalcade of black government vehicles and then we saw the Australian flags on the back of each car and realised that it was Julia Gillard here for the Bali Democracy Forum.Greg cannot believe we had to stop for Julia(you can imagine what he really said!) You’ve gotta love the lack of security - on the back of each car they had a big sign that said who was travelling in it eg. SPOUSE, MEDIA – so I hope Tim wasn’t a target.

Nothing is easy here as we wanted to extend our visa for another 30 days and had planned with our agent to go to immigration on Friday – unfortunately on Thursday they advised that the approval process could take 1-2 weeks and we couldn’t leave Bali until then – so of course it was possible to get it processed in 1 day if we paid $80 per passport!!!  Greg was happy to pay it so he got out of having to queue at Immigration for hours! I will be off to the Harbour Master and Customs tomorrow before we are allowed to leave.