Well, There was little Internet access on the island this time round and thus the blog gallery did not get updated - all the photographs there are from my previous Tahiti trip so don't bother having a look.

The island was explored by Shaun, Shaheda and Terry after we did all the maintenance chores aboard, and they all seemed to be fascinated by it and the wonderful people there. We even met and had a chat to the new Governor, Mr Gurr, whilst there - an extremely pleasant gentleman.

For those who think we are paying too much for fuel (and I am one of them), how about R16-95 a litre for petrol and R11-75 a litre of diesel, the pump price on the island. Fortunately, the island is so small that a person does not need to spend too much money on fuel. Oh, and we did not have to buy any whilst there as we still have sufficient from Cape Town in drums.

We departed the island on Wednesday, just before noon, and had a stiff breeze for the first few hours from the island before the wind strength fell to between 8 and 12 knots from the east-southeast. It has remained so since and although we have done a lot of motor-sailing, we have also been sailing with the spinnaker on the jury rigged halyard. That appears to be working well with no chafe - lets hope that continues as we really need the spinnaker for the next two weeks and more!

We should reach our waypoint off the Brazilian coast around the 11th of December, where-after we should get a bit of assistance up the coast from the strong flowing current, which should be with us until just north of the equator. For those that do not know, the equator runs through the Amazon delta, so we have a long way to go before we are able to celebrate the crossing from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere - more on that in a few weeks time.

Well, as we potter along at a dismal speed, greetings to all from Shaheda, Shaun, Terry and myself, John.