Thursday 16 October Final leg

We've got 300 miles to go to the last point of Indonesian, seven days to do it in, a motor which now runs sweetly and no wind to sail. The first leg is 230 miles (about 2 days) to Kentar island. As we're getting closer to the equator the weather is changing. There are rain clouds all around. As dark falls we become a roost for half a dozen swifts. There are two sheltering under the dinghy on the rear coach roof and the rest on or around the main boom. By midnight it's raining hard and the wind ahs picked us blowing the birds down and along the deck. David is a soft touch for all creatures and goes out to collect them and bring them into the shelter of the cockpit. We have the perfect place for them under the helm seat, dry and secure.

sponsored by Norton Rose..

our guest for the night

David also felt the need for more shelter as our bimini has started to let water through when it rains. It needs some restitching. In the meantime using the golf umbrella our friend Neil left behind when he visited us in Sydney makes an excellent shelter.

When dawn breaks our feathered guests emerge from under the seat one by one and fly off except for a cheeky one which does a sortie of the salon and then sits with us for a while before departing. Later we talked to other boats and they also had the little swifts bedding down in their cockpits.