18th August 2008

Had a change of plans with regard to visiting the village in Gedong this morning as we heard on the VHF that two of the doctors in the fleet visited the village yesterday afternoon and were asked to look at some sick children, their prognosis was influenza which they reckon just about every child in the village has. As my resistance is obviously low and Garth has a cold now too we decided not to risk getting any more bugs so we up anchored at 8.15am to move further down the coast. There will be plenty more villages that we can visit. We had planned to visit yesterday afternoon but it was so hot and did not want to do the walk up there in the searing heat - was in the mid thirties.

We started off with no wind and once around the Scorpions hear of Flores we got the wind and ended up having 25 - 30 knots all the way to our next stop, Waimalung where we arrived just after 2pm. It was expected we would have a lot of yachts in here but in fact there are only seven of us. Went ashore and were greeted by lots of children who were delighted to see us. The locals had also set up a small market so we were able to get a few vegetables. It was nice to arrive at a bay and not be inundated with children coming out to the yachts in dugouts and asking for things, which were pretty constant in the last anchorage, TG Gedong. All of us in the Bay went to the catamaran, this Way Up, for sundowners as commonly called by the Aussies.

Tomorrow we do the 20 odd miles across to Maumere where the next rally event is and starts tomorrow. We will be anchored off "Sea World" - not to be confused with the Australian one!!