From the last entry yes we did arrive at Palua Bawean and a wonderful anchorage it was. We arrived and went for a walk up to the village. It was quite a way and quite steep at places along a single lane road but what a quaint village. It was interesting that many of the houses were having work done to them, they were of a very high standard and many were fully tiled all around and tiled facades, stainless steel gates, immaculate and tidy. The usual number of small shops but of a very high standard. What a beautiful community. Then there was the rice paddies and farming land on very fertile ground, many kites were flying high in the air some very big ones, the people were well dressed and so friendly and nice. One chap stopped and told us about the Island, he and others "work offshore" this generally means the oil and gas rigs. He also had a house on another island but loves Bawean and always comes here! The population is about 40,000 and they are building an international airport at present for the future. The diving is great and the island a great place. And it is - is lush, steep, good farming. all the boats (and there are many many) are freshly and brightly painted. The fishing boats were stopping to give us fish. A fantastic anchorage and a great place.

Yes we did get Paul the autopilot back from leave of absence. On the more mundane side I pulled out the Autopilot controller and sure enough there was a fuse blown inside it. I replaced it with a spare I had and put it all back together and wired it back in! It worked ............for a minute. The problem is that if the fuse blows it requires all the wiring to be disconnected and the controller unit to be removed to get to the internal fuse. So this time I jockeyed up a wire to the fuse connections and put a blade fuse outside the unit that I can get to easily. Paul the autopilot has been working diligently since.

Now we are sailing in company with a family on Kassoumay, a Lagoon 47 cat, and delightful company they are. They are faster than us so we leave earlier and then end up chasing them to the next anchorage.

We enjoyed the stop over at Bawean, and morning tea on Dutch Touch, but left at about 2.00pm in the afternoon for Karrimanjuwa about 140 miles west. These island are located away from anything else in the middle of the Java Sea. There are few groups of relatively small islands. We set the MPS and Kassoumay a main and jib and for the whole trip we were only about 6 mile from each other until dawn. The Java Sea has been a pleasure to sail so far. We had a wind square behind at 12 - 15 knots during the mind it blew up to some gusts of 20, to 25 too much for the MPS but we were making good time at 8 - 9 knots in good conditions. Just before dawn at about 5.30 we picked up a rain squall on the radar about 12 miles in front on our course. We thought it prudent to take down the MPS which we did in the dark and put up the Genoa and continued on. The squall blew away but the wind had veered so we needed the Genoa anyway and just sailed under it with about 20 mile to go. The wind then started to die out and our speed dropped from 8++s to 4. Kassoumay in front reported the anchorage unsuitable so we both went another 12 miles to a further island and are anchored in a nice little bay.

Two fishing boats with three boys (about 20 y o) on and gave us some fish, that didn't want money just a gift, so they came on board, had a coke and chocolate and we gave them some small gifts. They stopped for about an hour communicating (they didn't speak English and we didn't speak Bahasi) but with the Lonely Planet guide we had some fun and then they left and went back to their village on their two traditional boats. It was great.

Nice coral here in the Bay and there is a lot of reef around these islands which are picture postcard style.

If we think we have the only reef in Australia we are going to be for a shock, there are fantastic reefs and corals here for snorkelling and diving, very cheap holidays, and a number of international airports currently under construction. It is going to be a holiday destination of the future there is no doubt.

Tomorrow we will head off on a long leg of about 280 miles probably over two nights.