Still in Phuket, but if all goes to plan, we’ll be setting off in about a week for our long cruise towards South Africa. As ever, we’ll be doing it our own way, stopping where we can

and plenty of shore time. But the Indian Ocean crossing itself doesn’t have many stops!  We’ll start with six weeks in Sumatra.

The last couple of weeks, since we got back from Europe, have been hectic. Getting Simanderal prepared. A huge provisioning—we’ve spent days at it and I think we’re carrying more

provisions than Napoleon’s army when they invaded Russia!

Last weekend we spent a couple of days at sea, just to check that all systems were working. All seems ok—just a few jobs to do.

But we’ve also been socialising with a number of cruisers we have met over the last couple of years—starting to say our good-byes. Some plan like us to head for South Africa this year---

though we all seem to have different planned routes and timetables. Others are staying another year. And some are shipping their boats back.

With all this provisioning, I’ve seen far too much of shops over the last couple of weeks---but my spirits are buoyed by the expectation that I’ll see very few over the next six months!