It was great to finally see Ed! He has been our contact with the outside world while we have been travelling and he has been a lifeline for us while we have been in the middle of nowhere. His emails to our sat phone are eagerly anticipated and without his messages we would be ignorant to the fact that Michael Jackson had died, the footy scores and who's going to be in the Grand Final and what exploits that joke of a mayor, Ron Clarke, has been up to. Although sometimes the ignorance has been bliss when we receive the messages of earthquakes and tsunami warnings in Indonesia. I suppose there is some consolation in the fact that by the time we receive the warning we would either have escaped or succumbed to the massive wave!

It was good to see that Ed hadn't changed a bit, he was standing outside the airport doors as if we had just seen him yesterday. Hugs and handshakes all round and we were on our way. First stop, the local pasar (market) in search of kelapa muda (young coconuts) for drinking. Jay has developed quite a taste for them while we have been travelling. It was a chance for Ed to get out his camera and take some shots of the colour and movement as the locals bustled around buying the goods. The ferry had just arrived with fresh vegetables and the market was busier than Jay and I had ever seen it. The fish market was in full swing being the morning, Jay and I had managed to avoid it so far on our trips there, the smell is almost unbearable in the heat and the seafood does not look appetising covered in masses of flies! Back to the boat and we were off! For the first time in our two months of visitors we had a decent breeze and were able to pull up both the headsail and mainsail and sail quite nicely. Ed pulled up the main and proved that he makes a very good deckie!

While I think that Patch was the definite winner in regard to waves, Ed did alright for himself (we won't mention Truman...), the highlight according to Jay was getting the left around at Cobra's. Got ok waves not classic and managed to surf every day except for 2. Jay was very happy to inherit Ed's old 6'4 as 10 days after Ed left he snapped his faithful 6'4 that's he's ridden all through Indo.

It's been about 2 weeks since Eddie left us and headed home. Our time in Sumatera is coming to an end and soon with passports in hand we will begin to make the trip out of the country and back to Langkawi. I personally am looking forward to making the move, a six month surf trip has been a little too much for me to handle and as the time gets closer to leaving the days seem to drag along slower than ever before. We have had some colour and movement with a few charter boats showing up from the Mentawai's in search of uncrowded waves, although when one of them launched a jet-ski and proceeded to race around our boat a little too close I almost felt like I was back on the Gold Coast. We had another visit from the police, this time with 3 machine guns which despite our protests they brought on board the boat. An hour later they left us empty handed, (they were after money), when they realised that we were the boats that were caught up in the dramas last time and that their boss had lost their job over it. We doubt we'll be bothered again while we're here but all the same it's as good a reason as any to leave. We're into the first couple of days of a big South West swell and Jay has made a pig of himself. Looks like the swell will be around for a week which will be a nice farewell present!

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We only had a couple of days to wait between dropping the Truman's off and picking up JLow and Mel, just enough time to make sure the boat was restocked and ready to go. As always the plane arrived on time with Mel almost kissing the ground in thanks that they had arrived safely (the plane is very small), we think she was very brave to even get on it. We quickly loaded into the back of our luxury transport (the ute) and we were off. We set sail (well, motor) for Pulau Bangkaru. Already the swell had picked up (sorry Paul) and Jay and JLow enjoyed some nice little 3 - 4 foot right handers to start off with.

We spent a couple of days over at Bangkaru, most of which Mel and I spent on the boat talking up a storm and flicking through the eagerly anticipated girlie magazines to find out the latest celebrity gossip. I realise how long we have been away from home and civilisation when I don't recognise the vast majority of celebrities featured in the magazines!! We made an obligatory trip to see if Snappy had been around but the tracks were old ones. We have since heard that a couple of guys ventured up one of the creeks in a dinghy and quickly turned around and left when a big splash was heard in front of them and the swirl on the surface left them in no doubt that they had almost come face to face with Snappy! We soon left for the Bay of Plenty where the beach is more accessible for the girls (and crocs have not been sighted).

At the Bay the boys enjoyed waves every day in the 3 - 5 foot range with the barrelly end section getting a good workout. They were enjoying at least a couple of surfs every day. Mel and I continued our days of sloth, thoroughly enjoying the chance to catch up, relax and read books (Mel managed to finish four in her time here). JLow took the opportunity to show off his newly acquired lifeguarding skills by paddling Mel into the beach 'Iron Man style' on our paddle board. While the surf was good the weather was average, it was still warm and occasionally the sun would peek its head out from under a cloud but there was a fair bit of rain putting a dampener (pardon the pun) on a lot of our activities. We did venture around the back of the Bay to a place Jay and I refer to as La La Land which is accessed through a creek opening out into a bigger waterway dotted with a series of Palm fringed islands. Unfortunately on our way back we were caught in a big storm and had misjudged the tides meaning that we had to drag the inflatable across shallow parts while the rain poured down on us.

The time flew by and it wasn't long before it was time to start heading back to Sinabang, the guys experienced firsthand a couple of Sumatrans, saw some sea snakes, spotted some water spouts near the bay and met some of the local fishermen. After a final get together with Ian and Michelle on board the Makani Kai we headed back to Sinabang.

Thanks for joining us guys we had a blast and thank you for the little pressie you hid under the towels in your room, we really appreciate it although it was not necessary it was truly a pleasure to have you on board.

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For those of you that have been able to join us in Sumatra you will know that there are certain things (food mainly) that we are desperately missing. Topping the list is ice cream. We are unable to get it here, at least nothing that isn't a sugary pile of mush. The 'i' word is banned from the Makani Kai and those that are unfortunate enough to mention it are generally on the receiving end of a few harsh words from Jay. So when the Trumans left us and headed off to Kuala Lumpur did they send us a message of thanks, some flowers, a box of chockies? No, they sent a photo of Gemma eating an ice cream and a pen shaped like an ice cream via JLow and Mel. Thanks for the pic Gem, I've made some alterations that we feel does you justice. With friends like these who needs enemies!!!

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