Look, I know I’m not exactly an angel, but striking me down is just going a bit far don’t you think? Sailing from Maumere to Alor last night we bumped into a tropical storm; and it was quite awesome. I’ve never seen rain like it, a waterfall from the sky would be the most accurate description. The lightning was unbelievable delivering near daylight to 20 minutes of chaos. And surprise surprise, the boat got hit. All our navigation gear has been fried like an egg. So we spent the night limping slowly back to Maumere hoping not to hit anything hard.

Arriving here in the early hours now waiting for a technician to fly out from Bali to try and get things operational again. We found the top section of the mast lying on the deck this morning, I don’t think we need that bit! Let’s hope we aren’t stuck here for days… A few Hail Mary’s and a review of my most recent sins will fill in the time while we wait.

However, all is not bad. The trip so far has been great. We’ve primarily been getting miles under our belt having sailed from Moyo island near Sumbawa, travelling east through the Flores Sea past the active volcano of Sangeang and the Komodo National Park. Hopefully we’ll be underway within 24 hours and heading to the Banda Sea. We’ve had a couple of great dives, one at the base of the Sangeang volcano on black sand with sulphur bubbles rising from the ocean floor. The corals and sponges were abundant and amazing. Vivid colours highlighted by the dark sand made this dive the best of the trip so far. A wall dive on an atoll in the middle of nowhere rewarded us with sharks and great visibility.

We’ve also spent time onshore in some of the small villages. The Indonesian people are peaceful, welcoming and incredibly engaging. I’m looking forward to hitting the open sea and the middle of nowhere!