The T shirts are soggy

After 4 uneventful days and nights at sea we had Land Ahoy! Rinjani- the 3700 m volcano on Lombok- peeped out of its clouds just before sunset . But we also saw a Fish Attracting Device, a sturdy unlit construction of oildrums either floating on the current or moored in 2 km of water. We took it VERY slowly from there on in the moonless night. At dawn we entered the clifflined Lombok Strait under spinnaker. There were lots of little trimaran fishing boats around, with colourful lateen sails. By lunch we were in Lembar.

The friendly harbourmaster who was supposed to be aware of our arrival was not. And he was also adamant that there were no customs, immigration or quiarantine officials in Lembar. Something was very wrong. It was tropically hot and sticky in his office and between that & the worries I got soaked. But a couple of phonecalls later Abu, a representative of Ace's ( our lucky Lombok contact!) office apologised for not being there yesterday and arrived within an hour along with the relevant officials in his car. In Tribute's little duckie the dignitaries were ferried to the boat. Sheaves of paperwork, and I was short of at least two vital items. Thanks to Abu this was all smoothed over, rectified and mended on the spot. We almost got through it all by 9 at night but we were weary after our journey and I suggested we continue the next day.

Ashore in the harbour a group of men sat round a burning log. They offered me Arak and their guitar. So I sang the Carnarvon Blues and mixed a bottle of G&T for them in return.

By the next morning boat and crew were cleared for cruising in Indo waters and we set off to the Gili isles, about 20 nM North of Lembar. At Gili Air we anchored ( and dived, and tied ropes to unused moorings) and then went ashore. No motorised transport on the islands, just bicycles and horse buggies and there are 20 or more little restaurants dotted around the beaches.Palm trees, people building wooden boats, fishermen on the reefs. Nasi goreng for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The next morning I spied a breaking wave and a bit later Hutch, BUH and I were happily snorkelling, making pictures, or trying to surf. Especially the surf made us stay another day- the water is 28 degrees and the slow wave has a smooth 2 m face. We had the break to ourselves for hours. BUH got up properly a couple of times, I managed to escape the foamies to get on clean wave for a few happy seconds. And Hutch was happy as Larry with his underwater camera in the surfline or over the corals. Strange- the viz must be over 20 metres even with all sorts of rubbish floating in it.

Anyway- it is all very beautiful and exotic and whatnot. The weather has been kind, the water is warm and clear. We are making our way to Bali for a crew changeover.