Hi everyone,
We had a relatively windy night and are now at 04 47.0S 112 16.8E, heading 080 at 4.5knots. The wind got over 20 knots at times and with a single reefed main and the No 2 headsail we made great progress. The winds weren't forecast but were welcome. I think they were associated with thunderstorms which were all around us, albeit quite distant. Like last night we saw lots of white flashes, but this time we could see the flashes illuminating distant thunderclouds.
The cargo vessel traffic seems to have died out overnight. I suspect most of the big ships go south of Bawean but we're going north. There were more fishing vessels about, but still far less than we experienced in 2012. Back then we saw fleets numbering over 50 at a time, but this time half a dozen is more the norm.
We're starting to see a little more wildlife as we progress eastwards. Quite a few flying fish yesterday, which I hadn't need previously on this passage. This morning Robert saw a school of 0.5m fish jumping out of the water, so there were bigger fish chasing them. During a reefing maneouvre last night we had a black sea bird - a tern perhaps - flying around the rig and around us while we were reducing sail. He was within reach while I was busiy winching. Perhaps he wanted a rest/ride, but his timing was bad.
We have 345nm to run to Benoa, with our next waypoint 220nm away being the channel west of Kangean Island which takes us from the Java Sea to the Bali Sea. Sounds like progress!
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