Our first overnight passage for over a year. Very scary. After lots of preparations we left the Similan Islands, part of Thailand bound for the Andamans which are Indian territory.

We left at 5pm, anticipating a slow passage as the forecast was for light and variable winds. We want to arrive in good daylight. Storyteller and Kalypso were leaving the next morning, planning a faster passage. The wind was on our nose when we left, and remained that way until half-way through the night, but never produced enough to sail by.

We had some 'events', starting with the GPS going off on my first watch. The GPS is pretty crucial on a boat as it shows you where you are. Luckily the time-honoured cure of turning everything off and then on again had the desired effect. The next thing was an almighty crash as we obviously hit something in the water. We had a full moon, so visibility was quite good, but we never saw anything. A check on the bilges reassured us that we weren't obviously taking in water. During daylight the following morning we narrowly missed hitting a full-sized tree trunk, and also saw a very large log, so perhaps we hit something similar.

A slight increase in wind led us to put up the sails first thing in the morning. A mistake! The wind dropped and the mainsail flapped around due to the surprisingly choppy water before shedding a key bolt on the gooseneck (the bit that joins the boom to the mast). Luckily we retrieved the pieces, but getting the bolt through the hole again required over an hour of working out pulleys that moved one bit into line with the other. Eventually, success, and this was marked by a pod of dolphins swimming alongside us. We continued the day with the asymnetrical spinnaker up looking very spectacular but even that having to be assisted by engines.

Life is good again, if somewhat tiring.