Twelve hours into the big jump across to Indonesia, and we’ve come over 85nms so far today. That average of over 7 knots has been pretty high, with bursts to 12 knots at times in the morning. We now have about 190nms to our first land fall and another 350nms on our course to Tual where we will clear with with customs and immigration.

The breeze started out quite fresh while we were on the flat water under the lee of the Wessels as we left, and was causing some steep seas in the middle of the day. There has been hundreds of litres of green water thrown over the decks many times today, as waves pitch up and break over us. But the breeze has been dropping throughout the day, and the initial reef in the genoa has been thrown out, and we’re discussing whether the reefs in the mainsail (to reduce sail area) should stay in until daylight tomorrow morning.

There’s nowhere to stop out here, so no matter how sick or tired we may be, on we go through the night. We’re lucky to have a second quarter waxing moon.

We’ve been staying high of our course to Tual, heading towards Aru with a possibility of anchoring at Pulau Enu tomorrow night.