Day 1

Last night I went to sleep in the Northern hemisphere and woke up in the Southern hemisphere. Jay got us moving this morning at 6am, I stayed in bed enjoying a couple more hours of precious sleep. We have decided to do 2 hour shifts during the day and 4 hour shifts at night. We are motor sailing which is better than just motoring but not as good as sailing alone. When Jay set off this morning we were averaging 7 knots we are now down to under 6. We have passed several fishermen who wave madly as we snap off a few photos. There is not as much rubbish in the water today but there are a lot of fish traps. Local fishermen use bits of Styrofoam as floats and some have been in the water so long they have turned a dark green making them very hard to see. They seem to be in clusters of three, I have set up a cushion in the shade of our mainsail where I keep watch and make a mad dash back to the helm to change course whenever I spot one.

A big fishing boat just went past, big smiles, waving and pointing at the Makani Kai, giving me the thumbs up. I remember our first time sailing through Indonesia and the slight feeling of panic when a local boat came near, but now we realise they just want to have a look. We have not seen any other yachts since we left Nongsa so we must be a novelty.

Almost 2pm and we still have 188nm to go. The wind is on the nose, we are still carrying the mainsail but our speed has dropped. At this speed we should arrive in just under 34 hours, we have dodged a couple of logs already. Fingers crossed we don't run into any tonight. We have our VHF monitoring Channel 16, the emergency channel. Local fishermen are chatting away, doing cat, dog and gecko impersonations, singing and broadcasting what sounds like scenes from movies. Last time we were in Indonesia they were broadcasting porn, we've had none of that...yet! We are out of sight of land, if we get into trouble I don't think Channel 16 will help us! The sea is finally flattening out a little, felt a bit seasick earlier but have just eaten some freshly baked bread and feel a bit better. Looks like some storm clouds off to our starboard side, I hope if it hits us it brings some wind with it and cools things down, it's really hot!

3pm - Just saw a waterspout starting to form on our starboard side, luckily it didn't. Don't want to be chased around by one of them!

Day 2

I have a wonderful husband! I went off shift at 8pm, our night shifts were about to start and I had already had about an hour in the dark. I hate night shifts, my night vision is not great and I have trouble working out how fast and in which direction a boat is travelling. Just prior to going off night shift, I had 2 boats to starboard and 2 to port and all of a sudden 6 lights came on in front of us as if someone had flicked a light switch. Jay came in while I was sleeping and took the alarm away. He did an 8 hour shift so I wouldn't stress. When he woke me at 4am he was really tired, I got up and got organised and joined him at the helm for a quick briefing on what was happening. We were just about to pass a fishing boat when they started flashing a spotlight at us. Jay said they were just trying to get a better look but when I looked closer I realised they were warning us about their nets. Luckily they had white buoys indicating where their nets were. We altered course and kept checking to our port side to see if we were clear so we could get back on course. The nets ran for over 2 kilometres, no wonder we can't catch a fish!

The promise of a spectacular sunrise has been thwarted by threatening looking dark clouds. The night has been cool but as the sun rises the unbearable heat hits again. Jay is sleeping soundly, local boats continue to appear, coming closer for a look and a wave. The ocean is calm, easy miles, would be nicer if we could turn the motors off though.

We can see Belitung and are racing to get there before dark. In the water surrounding Belitung is an army of what at first glance appear to be fishing platforms but on closer inspection turn out to be fishing boats with crudely attached outriggers. There are dozens of them. I wonder if they get many fish? They are positioned fairly close to each other, if there are any fish they won't escape!

The sun sets and we are in darkness, we haven't quite made it in the daylight. Darkness descends and we need to anchor. We motor around slowly looking for a good spot, there is some reef around here and we hope we have not anchored too close to it. Anchor down, a celebration dinner, a movie and a good night's sleep. We'll take the day off tomorrow.