Pos 11/5/19, 1710hrs. 21 39'N, 116 23'E. Last night was a tough one, again. The wind was up but the sea, being the South China Sea and in this part, shallow, produced very sharp, short waves, many breaking and with no particular pattern. It wasn't pleasant and moving around the boat required playing monkey bars, that is almost swinging from place to place on whatever would support your weight. That kind of sailing we can do without. The upside was good progress, as there was no dodging the wind as it drove us along towards Hong Kong with great impatience. The result is that if the night is ok tonight we will arrive in Hong Kong tomorrow instead of Monday.The RHKYC cannot accommodate us until Monday so we will anchor off a nice little beach in Stanley Bay for the night and potter around to the RHKYC on Monday morning and then go and check-in at Immigration and Customs from there.

We have seen quite a lot of sea life on this part of the leg. We had Hunter's Dolphiin pack the other day, and today a large, leaping dolphin beside the boat, AND I have caught two Mahi Mahi (dolphin fish) I threw the second one back, as I have already go some nice fillets ii the fridge for tomorrow's arrival celebration. Coco has had success as well. He has had another small flying fish and a bird. We had two small birds landing on boat yesterday and they would not listen to my warnings re the pussy cat. Now, one of them is widowed.

The air temperature has cooled considerably and John was wondering where he had put his sweater. It's a long time since we have had to think about that. After the heat this is a relief. Hunter for once isn't panting. He will be happy in HK where there are lots of walks. We should keep fir there.

Time to make something to eat and to chill champagne in the fridge for tomorrow Supper will be very simple tonight. No more rolly polly cooking for a while. John and Ginni