Kosrae We finally dropped anchor in Lelu Harbour, Kosrae at 6.45am on 29th September. We were all so glad to get there as it was a long, difficult passage from Lukunoch with winds in all directions. We had to wait on board for instructions from Quarantine, Immigration & Customs with Quarantine wanting to come on board an hour or so later so Dave went ashore in the dinghy to pick him up. Quarantine fee was $US25 with .20c per pound to take our rubbish away. Shortly afterwards we met Immigration and Customs ashore with a Customs Officer requesting to be taken out to our yacht for inspection.

Everyone so friendly and the Immigration lady asked how long we were in Chuuk and when I said three days she said "2 days too long" and was horrified at the charges we had to pay. That afternoon we went for a walk as we needed the exercise after a week at sea then had an easy dinner and were in bed at 7.15pm!!

The next morning we walked the 5kms into the main part of town, ostensibly to go to the Post Office to pick up the linear drive for the autohelm and it was there waiting for us. Customs were going to try and charge duty of $71 but Dave managed to talk sweetly to them so they waved it. Locals picked us up on the way back, first one to a restaurant where we had a pizza lunch and then another guy picked us up and took us to where we were anchored. The locals are really friendly and all talk to us and when we say we have sailed from Chuuk they all say how ghastly the place is and we all agree whole heartedly.

We found a cafe which had cable TV and has ESPN so was hoping that we may have been able to see the AB's game against Canada but when the time came, after a long walk into the main town found the café closed, being a Sunday, although the staff there told us they were going to be open on the Sunday!! While there that morning having a coffee we did see a bit on CNN news about the World Cup. Also that morning Fran and I went to the local Protestant church for their Sunday service, not that we understood a word of it, other than when we plus another three white people were welcomed in English by the Minister.

We had a few meals at the Pacific Tree Resort which was a half hour dinghy ride from our anchorage and the owner, Mark was very helpful and organized our fuel for us which he bought down to the disused wharf in 200 litre drums which were then hand pumped into our tanks. We both took 400 litres each and we were full. The fuel cost $US300 per drum.

While in Kosrae a catamaran (Two Oceans) arrived in with three Israeli men on board and we had drinks with them a couple of nights and also learned a lot of Israeli history, after me asking a few curly questions? They were the first yacht we had seen since leaving Palau. They were only in Kosrae for a few days as they had to get to Pohnpei as one of the crew were flying home.

Our power supplies seemed to get worse while in Kosrae so to start with we bought a new starting battery but after a couple of days decided that our three big 240amp hour deep cycle house batteries were had it so ended up buying five 120amp hour cold cranking batteries and what a difference. We could not keep the fridge/freezer going at night with the old batteries so it is great to have everything all working again. Was quite a mission getting the old ones out as they were so heavy and it took the two Dave's a full day putting the new ones in, especially as we now had five batteries instead of three. Right by the anchorage was a great Hardware store, Ace and we got the batteries from Napa auto parts. Other than those two outfits there was not a lot in Kosrae. Supermarkets were pretty bare really and the resorts get all their supplies shipped in from either the US or Guam.