Wednesday 24 December – back to Ura island for Christmas

Rowan has managed to book us into the little resort Katembe where we had lunch with Phoebs last week, for Christmas lunch. We headed over there passing Friwen along the way which had 15 yachts anchored there. The most boats in an anchorage we have seen since New Zealand. There is a big gathering of Aussie and kids boats there, including Claudette, Gary and Kim for Christmas. We got to the little bay next to Katembe where we hoped to anchor only to find 3 yachts in there all stern tied up, as there is only swing room for one boat. We had found the boat Wadura there last time we went, so we had anchored around the corner which was very nice. However this time we found a huge 132m expensive carbon fibre monohull with crew sitting right in the middle of that bay so we had to move even further around the island. We landed up anchoring in 37m which is really deep for us, and of course as soon as we let our chain out, the chain counter packed up again. We could tell by the empty anchor chain locker that we had let most of the 100m chain out. We were lucky to hook tight and felt happy we were secure. In the afternoon Rowan managed to fix it, we luckily had 3 more spare magnets, they rust so quickly and that is what kills the counter. We were all so impressed with Rowan drilling out the old magnet and getting it fixed on Christmas Eve.

Dani went and swam a km to get some exercise, Phoebe and Milly paddled the kayak to the beached picking up loads of shells, having great fun beach combing. Luke has been savaged by bites and heat rash so he took it easy, reading loads. We had a very relaxing Christmas evening, Dani and Phoebs were on the rota for the meal so the rest of us could kick back and relax. We had a very tasty rack of pork chops, with aubergines in miso and an Indonesian style cabbage salad.