Photo: 1,000 miles from land & 3,000 metres deep

We left Salalah in Oman heading for Sri Lanka late one evening, a little out of sorts, our good friends Peter and Dagmar were planning on making the 1700 mile crossing with us, but as we pulled up anchor and circled them it became evident that their anchor was fouled and they wouldn't be going anywhere that day, so with some reluctance and the promise of having a beer waiting for them in Sri Lanka we waved them goodbye to catch the back edge of a storm which we hoped would give us good winds for the crossing.

We did catch the storm, but more the middle than the edge and a few days of full on sailing followed, followed by days and days of sweet sailing with nothing in sight, where the biggest challenge was making sure the bunk in the rear cabin was level, for a restful sleep between watches, and deciding which bit needed tanning next.

Then in the middle of the night (it always is!) Dave was on watch and a thud hit the bottom of the boat, enough to wake me and send me up on deck, 'think we've hit a fishing net' said Dave. We'd heard tales of Iranian fisherman who cast nets miles long and then left them overnight to collect later, we were sailing and there was little we could do.

Next morning and the wind died and all was calm, "We need to check the keel and the rudder to make sure the net is free before we start the engine" were Dave's words of wisdom, after some intense negotiation - Dave "You go and I'll make you tea every day forever" Me - "I've got chocolate hidden" Dave "I'm skipper - you're going". It was decided that I should be the one to check, so I donned my cossie, snorkel and mask and tied a line on, before asking "By the way how deep is it here?", "Does it matter" were Dave's words of reassurance. I guess not - but out of interest it was 3000 metres!

It was fantastic, bath water warm and as clear as anything, there was no net but some fabulous fish swimming round the rudder, it was so good, Dave insisted on going in afterwards.
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