Wed 25 - Fri 27th August

Wed 25 August 2010 - 8:30am local time


We made great time in the last 22hrs with almost constant winds throughout the day and night, only requiring the motor for a few hours this morning. Winds reached around 15 knots last night and we put 2 reefs in our sail with hardly any loss of speed, frequently reaching 8 knots speed over ground.

Sailing at night is a whole new ballgame, and even with radar requires constant attention, scanning the horizon for new ships. Although out of the shipping channels there were times when we had 6 freighters on the radar in a 12nm radius. We are lucky to have a full moon at present and fair weather with good visibility.

It's all adding up to some valuable experience and a new understanding of how to interpret the radar in different circumstances. After midnight Eky and I took turns taking naps every few hours until the morning. We are now just North of the Kepulauan Anambas Indonesian islands in the South China Sea. (03'25.657N - 106'15.718E).

Wed 25 August 2010 - Noon

We just baked some fresh bread which smells great but have decided the next batch needs more yeast and salt.

A little earlier a pod of dolphins dropped by, playing in our bow waves - about 8 or so, each around a metre long. They stayed with us for around 15 minutes allowing some good photos and video.

The rest of the day has been fairly calm with hardly any wind, we have been motoring at a steady 7.5 knots.


Thur 26 August 2010

Conditions remained the same last night, the sea is almost like glass, barely a ripple on it and no wind. We continued through the night on motor, covering 150nm in the last 24 hrs. Again a near full moon lit up the sea last night, with clear skies until we around midnight when a fog rolled in around the island of Bunguran. Very little shipping traffic and our radar ensured another safe passage. Before the fog, the skies were very clear and aside from spotting a number of satellites amongst the stars, I saw a meteorite much brighter than I've ever seen. It streaked in an arc towards the horizon in a wide orange fiery flash of light lasting about a second.

Once again Eky and I took shifts on watch, allowing me to sleep from around midnight to 02:30 and return to bed at daybreak. Shortly after I awoke at 08:30, the dolphins were back, this time around a dozen or so, with a few larger ones than yesterday.

We stopped around midday and took the opportunity to fill up our diesel tanks from our reserve canisters and take a swim. The water was beautiful and once again the dolphins were hanging around but didn't come in close whilst we were in the water.

Fri 27 August 2010 07:30

The last 24hrs, conditions have remained fairly much the same and had an uneventful night with minimal shipping traffic. We are now approximately 160NM from Miri, which should see us arrive around 09:00 tomorrow morning.

Tioman Island