I am really surrounded by reefs, most of which I can’t see… Guppy is now sailing very close to the wind and there are buckets of water washing over ‘Gup’ and me, and we will soon be heading further to the south… For the umpteenth time I have stitched the holes in the Genoa and I hope it will survive the 900 miles to Darwin… Last night we went past Sogno d’Oro and Henk is already 23 nautical miles behind me. Sadly it was dark when we passed him so we could only see each other’s mast top lights. Right now I just wish to sail away from here to have the open sea in front of me again and, what is much more important, more water below Guppy’s keel… In places the waterways were very narrow with large cargo ships sailing there too and some don’t even speak a single word of English! That meant we could not communicate our navigation and intentions clearly to each other… The Pacific Ocean is now behind me, this large Ocean with all its beautiful islands, but I will surely come back again… I am now curious to see what the Arafura Sea and the Indian Ocean will be like…

Laura