Monday 1 December From Papua to Palau

This must be one of the slowest passages we've ever done – 530nm in 11 days. We left Kawe island in Raja Ampat, Papua almost two weeks ago and took 2 days to cover the first 200 miles until to reach an atoll in the middle of the ocean. There's a winding channel through the fringing reef which brings you from 4000 metres deep into a calm lagoon water no more than 50 metres deep. The atoll is about 4 miles wide and 10 miles from north to south with one small sand island in the north where three national park rangers live. We'd called the rangers on Ch16 when we arrived and they kindly came out in their boat to guide us through the channel into the lagoon and then through reefs to one of three mooring balls close to their island.

Island, or should I say islet because it is small, perhaps 80m by 400m at high water? The park rangers, leader Louis and assistants Matthew and James (plus James' pregnant wife Sam Rina, are on a three month tour of duty protecting the green and hawksbill turtles which nest on the island and protecting the reef and surrounding waters from illegal fishing. Only last week they caught a Vietnamese boat trying to dynamite fish the pass. Fortunately they were able to chase them off before any damage was done.

Louis, Matthew, James and Sam Rina each have small cabins on the beach and a larger communal office cum kitchen. They also share their small island with one cat, two large dogs and a million squawking terns who come here to roost in the 6 island trees and anywhere else they can perch. The colours are unreal with unbelievably blue seas, equally impressive blue skies and one small island standing out in relief.

This remote island receives very few visitors; the supply boat comes from Palau once a month, only 5 yachts have stopped this year ( we were numbers 4 and 5) and occasionally a research vessel will come to visit.

Together with our buddy boat, Zorana, we spent 5 days in the atoll. Head man, Louis, took us snorkelling, on another day we went exploring on our own and on our last day David and I dived the pass on an incoming current. We'd also walked both ways around the sand island which is covered with many, many washed up tree trunks and far too much man made jetsam with the birds' nest squeezed between and shared dinner with the rangers one evening.

It would have been easy to linger longer but we still had 300 nm to travel NE to Palau and wanted to do it before the north easterly trade winds developed. The first 250nm was a mix of gentle sailing when we had a breeze and motoring when the breeze died then just when you thought you were there there was a distinct change in weather. The wind steadily increased from the north east, right on the nose, and the current decided to turn against us. In the end the last 60 miles became 120nm as we tacked again and again across the shifting wind, reduced sail in squalls and bounced through short seas. By the time we were in through the western passage to the calm water, still with rain showers, we'd broken an egg in the fridge, the handle from a cup in the cupboard and dislodged a drawer. We haven't been slammed like this for a long time, and never had so many things break inside. Perhaps we were pushing harder than normal, Jackster was heeled over more than usual but she's made of tougher stuff than us and brought us through safely.

Clearing into Palau was quick, simple and costly. The Republic of Palau is a US overseas territory and have learnt how to extract the tourist dollar. The most frequent visitors are divers on vacation, not yachties with (generally) thinner wallets. We came here to do the famous diving so dive we will and pay our fees with a smile and a thank you.

*Internet connection is too slow and patchy to be able to upload photos. They will need to be added later.